Pune maestro on how daily actions are actually various mudra forms

The purpose of the book, which is Kapote’s third, also began with children. When he started teaching children a few years ago, he had to read up a lot on Natya Shashtra and Abhinay Darpan as relevant information was rarely found in one book. After going through several tomes, Kapote would extract the information that the children needed.

“It was always at the back of my mind to research the traditional hand gestures of the Natya Shashtra and Abhinay Darpan and place them alongside modern practices,” said Kapote. Two years ago, he received a fellowship from BORI to research his subject, “Elements of Dance in Natya Shashtra and Abhinay Darpan”.

“I started my work, studied a lot of books and became convinced that to this day, we use almost all mudras mentioned in the two great texts. The topic kept increasing in scope and interest and I soon had 22 chapters. Among these is a study into the personality of Bharat Muni, the sage who authored the Natya Shashtra. Nobody really knows what kind of a person he was. Some scholars have said that Bharat Muni was not one person but many. Others say there was nobody of that name. After searching a lot, I have presented many details about him in the book,” said Kapote. Other elements of the book are references to mudras one hardly hears of, such as Animal Hasta, Water Animal Hasta and Planet Hasta. “I have added all this in my book,” Kapote said.

Kapote got into dance at a time when Maharashtra society disapproved of boys dancing. But, Kapote had watched the legendary dancer Gopi Krishna perform Kathak at Bal Gandharva Rang Mandir in Pune and was drawn to the art form. “If he had been performing Bharatanatyam, I would have been a Bharatanatyam dancer today,” said Kapote.

“Bahut struggle se dance seekha hai,” he said of a journey that was marked by setbacks and breakthroughs. “Today, there are many boys who dance. Many of my male dancer students are very successful,” he said.