T.Balasaraswati - Profile

T.BALASARASWATI - ABHINAYA MAESTROR.....................................(May 13, 1918-Feb.9, 1984)

'She was like a fabulous flower. Her abhinaya floated in the music. Her expressions were arresting and soul-satisfying. Her hands were poetic like creepers. Dignity, suggestive restraint and synchronisation of melody, rhythm, expression, all were mastered.'
- Yamini Krishnamurti

T.Balasaraswati had the immense wealth of legacy of musical and artistic talents being the grand daughter of the legendary Veena Dhanammal and daughter of Jayammal and Govindarajulu. Had her training under Kandappa Pillai, Chinnayya Naidu and Vedantam Lakshminarasimha Sastri. Graceful in personality, endowed with a musical voice and blessed with a body that was specially moulded for abhinaya to bring out the eloquent bhavas and rasas of diverse emotions and compositions. Balasaraswati was on the stage in her teens and was the cynosure of the cognoscenti. At the All India Congress Exhibition held at Royapettah in 1935 or so, S.Satyamurti gave glowing tributes to her talents and she was then just seventeen. She was very cultured. She would sing well while dancing. 'The bhava or the attitude of Sringara was for Bala the soul of bharata natya.' Musician - Artist S.Rajam said that Bala should be included in this book as she was a good musician too.

Here are some excerpts of some of her learned dissertations:

'Sringara stands supreme in the range of emotions. No other emotion is capable of reflecting the mystic union of the human with the divine.'

'The feet keeping to time, hands expressing gesture, the eye following the hands with expression, the ear listening to the dance master's music and the dancer's own singing - by harmonising these five elements, the mind achieves concentration and attains clarity in the richness of participation. The inner feeling of the dancer is the sixth sense which harnesses these five mental and physical elements to create the experience and enjoyment of Beauty. It is the spark which gives the dancer her sense of spiritual freedom. The spectator, who is absorbed in intently watching this, has his mind freed of distractions and feels a great sense of clarity. In their shared involvement, the dancer and the spectator are both released from the burden of worldly life ad experience the divine joy of the Art with a sense of total freedom'.