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Accordingly I have planned out to study :
-
Pictorial representation of Nautch girls during the company rule. The innumerable sketches and paintings which are stored in various libraries, archives and museums(for instance the India Office Library, British Museum in London, National Gallery of Modern Arts).
- The comparative study of their costumes, ornaments and accompanying instruments on the basis of those sketches.
- A cross-examination and cross-checking of the written sources and oral testimonies of their predecessors now living in Benares, Muzzafarpur and Calcutta.
- This intense and detailed study will give me a filtered picture of their social condition(dancing girls were associated with prostitution) and their present existence as a part of the society and above all as a performing artists.
The Nautch tradition must have been an important part of the socio-cultural
life of the ruling class(patrons were the Europeans and the Indian aristocracies).
That is why it has found it's way into the sketches of their contemporary
lives. Yet it has been completely ignored as a classical dance-form.
I intend to preserve this tradition from the condescension
of history as well as make the cultural arena aware of the art that is still
present in their ancestry but looked down upon by society as well as
art-lovers.
References :
"Indian Classical Dance" by Kapila Vatsyayan
"Nabobs" by Percival Spear
"Encyclopaedia of Bihar" by Majid Hussain
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