An interviewer once asked Professor V. Subramaniam why he chose to expound motifs of a 'near-dead' religion through a dead language. To this one may add the question of why he chose to do that in an anachronistic art form as well. T h e provocation for these questions is that Professor Subramaniam has chosen to compose dance dramas on Buddhist themes in Sanskrit. Subramaniam is unfazed by such verbal missiles; in fact, he appears to thrive on "conflict and confrontation", which he takes up as the pivotal points of his danceable dramatic works on Buddhist themes. Buddhism and Bharatanatyam seem odd couples. A political science professor — which Subramaniam is — attempting a union of these two is, by all means, a person worth attention too.

This quaint combination of art, religion and a profession unconnected with the two immediately recalls to one's mind, Albert Schweitzer, a missionary doctor in Africa, who also was an authority on theology and music. Subramaniam seems to be endowed with a magic touch that converts all the seemingly heterogeneous elements into one integrated whole. Dance dramas on Buddhist themes, composed by him in Sanskrit and set to Carnatic music, and utilising Bharatanatyam have won instant appeal whenever and wherever they have been performed. The y have been performed close to 200 times. It was all started by a casual question by his little son Gautam, to whom he often told stories of the Buddha.

Having heard his father sing Carnatic music, the boy asked one day: "You sing songs on Rama and Krishna but tell me stories of the Buddha. For a change now sing a classical song about the Buddha. " T h e father pleaded inability because there were no songs on the Buddha in Carnatic music, upon which, with characteristic naivete, the child suggested to his father that he should make up songs of his own on the Buddha. This was in 1965. Since then Professor Subramaniam has composed and published four books of dance dramas in Sanskrit on Buddhist themes. Panchakanya Tanngini, the first book, consisted of five dramas on five women in the Buddha's life.

This was followed by Veen Kanya Vahini (four dramas on women who spread Buddhism) and Kinkini Mala (on four great Buddhist women). T h e fourth book, Dima Panchakam, was released in 1984, at the Indian Fine Arts Society's annual music conference in Madras. Some of the dramas have been recreated in Tamil in the book Vazhi Vazhi Vandom Vazhi and Buddhah Pugazhisai. Born in a family of Dikshitars well versed in Sanskrit, Subramaniam's lessons in the language started at the age of three. His introduction to Carnatic music followed soon after when he started listening attentively to his sister's music lessons at home. "Music was taught to the girls. The boys sat with them and listened," he recalls and adds: "They [the boys] probably learnt more. You see, the girls had to learn it compulsorily as an accomplishment and didn't take much of an interest." Subsequently he took regular lessons for two years from Nataraja Bhagavatar, a disciple of Chittoor Subramania Pillai.

This served to stabilise his sense of laya in the exacting Chittoor style.. At Tuticorin, where he spent his early years, he learnt Tevaram-s in their traditional pann-s (or raga equivalents). He also got to hear great maestros like Rajaratnam Pillai who performed at the temple festivals. When his career took him to North India where he was posted, he used the opportunity to learn to play the sitar. This facilitated his understanding of the swarastana-s accurately. His acquaintance with Bharatanatyam was through the dance programmes he witnessed in childhood. The village morality demanded that the dancer should not come too close to young male spectators and so the front-rankers were little boys. Subramaniam thus had a ringside seat at most of the programmes. He remembers Balasaraswati as an up-and-coming dancer, whom he saw perform at 'Buticorin. Later in life, he supplemented his knowledge of the aft by reading lakshana texts. His preoccupation with literature and the arts did not detract him from a brilliant academic career.

He stood first in the SSLC examination of the then Madras Presidency. H e was upset when he secured only a second class in B.Sc. Chemistry. T h e memory of this setback was totally obliterated when he secured a first class and rank in M.A. Political Science. Th e Australian National University awarded him a fellowship for research and he obtained his doctoral degree there. Following that, he launched on a satisfying and successful teaching career. He has taught in universities on all five continents, held several distinguished appointments and published a number of books and articles. At present he is teaching political science at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. Subramaniam acquired an interest in sociology as a result of his studies in political science.

And he found aesthetics and sociology are closely inter-related, and that social consciousness and psychological influences cannot be dismissed in considering aesthetics. This underscores the link he forges between his profession and his creative work. It was in his mid-twenties when he was teaching in Sri Lanka that Subramaniam who was born a smartha advaitin, came under Buddhist influence. The tenets of compassion, tolerance and rationality preached by the religion converted him into a "prasanna" (professed) Buddhist as he chooses to call himself. His first dance-drama Ambapali was performed in 1966 by the Bharatanatyam exponent Rita Devi, grand-niece of Rabindranath Tagore. Spurred on by the immediate recognition of his maiden attempt, Subramaniam composed more plays in quick succession. These have been performed in the U.S., Canada, Europe and Asia. Dancers like the Dhananjayans, Narasimhachari and Vasanthalakshmi, Komala Varadan and others have performed several of them. "Abroad my art has definitely made an impact in oriental circles in America and Western Europe. But Southeast Asia is where I want to make a bigger hit than I have done in India or the United States," says he.

According to him, Aswagosfia - composed the only Buddhist musical drama extant, namely Soundarananda, in the third century during Kanishka's reign. Coming after a long gap of seventeen centuries, Subramaniam's compositions have proved that both the religion, and its message of Santi and Karuna are relevant to the modern-day characterised by tensions, animosities and absence of tolerance. Dramatising Buddhist legends was no easy task, Subramaniam admits. He explains: "Once you take a Buddhist theme, the Buddha himself does not come on stage. He is an influence in the background." The plots are therefore woven around the other characters of the Buddhist lore and legend so as to portray the nine rasa-s, as well as the dramatic conflict. "I take the original story, twist it, add and subtract and make it danceabie," says he, "because, unless you take liberties in technique, you cannot be fully creative."

Infact, he has taken liberties to such an extent that he introduces prayer to the Buddha beseeching his reincarnation. In the play Sujata, Devendra appears at the end to announce the good fortune of Sujata and the Buddha's coming victory. By emphasizing santa rasa, the hotly debated, controversial emotion against the tradition of according predominance of sringara, Subramaniam has struck a new path in the field of dance. Subramaniam carries on his pioneering work with a missionary zeal. Says he: "I'm not ashamed to say that I am a propagandist. I want to see in my lifetime, at least one composition on the Buddha featured in every music and dance recital in our country. Buddhism is an integral part of Hinduism which many of us do not sufficiently acknowledge. More importantly, the glory, greatness and prestige of India, in Asia and the world, lasting over a long period of time is based on the spread of the Buddhist religion. At least in gratitude, we should keep Buddha alive in our dance and music."

SUJATHA VIJAYARAGHAVAN