Shovana Narayan decodes dance through stone in new book on karanas

The next time you walk through a museum or pause before the weathered sculptures of an ancient temple, look closely at the dancers carved into pillars, ceilings, and walls. What appears to be an elegant pose could have been caught in the middle of a movement from a dance performed centuries ago.

That is the premise of Speaking Sculptures: Karanas in Kathak, veteran Kathak dancer Shovana Narayan’s new book. Rather than treating temple sculptures as merely decorative art, she views them as repositories of movement, probing whether the karanas described in Bharata’s Natyashastra still survive in contemporary Kathak.

The 108 Karanas have long been associated with temples such as Brihadeeswara in Thanjavur and Nataraja in Chidambaram, built in the Chola-era. “These temples largely depict the karanas as codified by Bharata Muni. But in northern and central India, the sculptures reflect a living dance tradition. They don’t illustrate the karanas literally; instead, they capture a variety of dance movements as they were actually performed on different occasions,” explains Shovana.

She consciously shifts the gaze towards the temples of the North by exmaining sculptures from the Indus Valley civilisation to the 17th century, spread across museums, temple complexes, and archaeological sites in northern and central India. Her journey moves from Mohenjo-daro and Harappa to Bharhut, Sanchi, Mathura, Khajuraho, Mount Abu and Vadnagar.

The book challenges a common misconception. A Karana, Shovana reminds us, is not a frozen pose. Quoting the Natyashastra, she explains that it is created through a coordinated movement of hands and feet. Dance historian Kapila Vatsyayan’s observation runs like a thread through the book: sculpture can only preserve an “arrested moment” within a continuous sequence of movement. The sculptor freezes one frame; the dancer brings the remaining frames back to life. The word karana comes from the Sanskrit root kri,’ meaning to do.

That introduces a new perspective or way of looking at an ancient sculpture. The iconic bronze ‘Dancing Girl’ of Mohenjo-daro, standing with one hand on her hip and a subtle shift in weight, is examined not merely as an archaeological artifact but as evidence of a movement. Shovana suggests that her stance echoes elements of the Vartita or Kunncita karana. Likewise, the celebrated 3rd century BCE ‘Didarganj Yakshi’ (chunar sandstone, Bihar Museum) from the Mauryan period, standing in an abhangaposture, embodies Ardhanikutta karana. Yakshis from Bharhut, Gandharan musicians, Mathura reliefs, Gupta sculptures, and Chandela apsaras become successive chapters in a visual history of movement rather than isolated masterpieces.

Narayan gives a peek into a gamut of karanas. There is Urdhvajanu where the knee rises towards the chest; Nikuncita, suggesting a leg stretched backwards; and the serpent-inspired Bhujangatrasita.

Shovana says her observations revealed a lot of patterns. “As I studied sculptures across different periods, I began noticing that certain movements kept recurring. A Karana that appears in a third-century BCE sculpture reappears in the first century CE, and then again in the fifth century. Whether it is the Apaaviddha,Swastika Recita or Gajakridita karana, some movements seem to echo across different eras. It suggests that despite historical change, certain dance vocabularies endured and were repeatedly represented through the centuries.”

Shovana pays close attention to musical instruments, jewellery and costumes, viewing them as cultural evidence alongside movement. A Mauryan dancer’s stitched angrakha-like garment, the early forms of the ghaghra, waistbands, ornaments, and even instruments help in reconstructing the performance traditions of their time. The sculptures reveal not just how dancers moved, but also how they dressed, the music they danced to and the society that witnessed the experience.

The book is technical and not a casual coffee-table read for a layman. At times, readers unfamiliar with classical dance terminology may find themselves navigating a dense vocabulary. Shovana’s desire to understand what ancient sculptors saw, what dancers performed, and how those memories survive in today’s Kathak is clearly visible.

Speaking Sculptures is about much more than identifying karanas. It is about continuity. It emphasises that dance is not preserved only through gurus and performers but also through stone, bronze and terracotta.