{"id":2624,"date":"2024-03-29T07:07:53","date_gmt":"2024-03-29T01:37:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=2624"},"modified":"2025-09-30T11:11:42","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T05:41:42","slug":"what-is-mohiniyattam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/what-is-mohiniyattam\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Mohiniyattam?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>About Mohiniyattam<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>It is an\u00a0Indian classical dance form that evolved in the\u00a0state of Kerala.<\/li>\n<li>History and Evolution\n<ul>\n<li>Its roots date back to the age-old\u00a0Sanskrit Hindu text on performing arts called \u2018Natya Shastra\u2019.<\/li>\n<li>It is used to be\u00a0performed by Devadasis (temple dancers) in temples during the rule of the\u00a0Chera kings from 9 to 12 C.E.<\/li>\n<li>Later on it developed further as a performing art during the 18th and 19th centuries due to the patronage of several\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/princely-states\/\" target=\"_blank\"><u>princely states<\/u><\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Features:\n<ul>\n<li>It is conventionally a\u00a0solo dance performed by\u00a0female artists.<\/li>\n<li>It adheres to\u00a0the Lasya type that showcases a more graceful, gentle and feminine form of dancing.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Theme: The dance form Mohiniyattam has\u00a0love and devotion to God as its major themes, with usually\u00a0Lord Vishnu or his incarnation Lord Krishna as the lead character.<\/li>\n<li>It emotes a play through\u00a0dancing and singing, where the song is customarily in Manipravala, which is a mix of Sanskrit and Malayalam language.<\/li>\n<li>The recitation may be performed by the dancer or a vocalist, with the music style being Carnatic.<\/li>\n<li>The dance is characterized by its graceful swaying body movements with no abrupt jerks or sudden leaps.<\/li>\n<li>More than the footwork,\u00a0emphasis is given to\u00a0hand gestures and Mukhabhinaya or subtle facial expressions.\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>The hand gestures, 24 in number, are mainly adopted from \u2018Hastha Lakshana Deepika\u2019, a text followed by Kathakali.<\/li>\n<li>Costumes in Mohiniyattam include plain white or ivory cream traditional sari embroidered with bright gold-laced brocade.<\/li>\n<li>Instruments used: Mridangam, Madhalam, ldakka, flute, Veena and Kuzhitalam(cymbals).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q1) What is Natyashastra?<\/h3>\n<p>\u00a0It is a classic on dramatics and aesthetics which has been commonly attributed to Bharata, the sage for its authorship. It has been founded on human psychology prevailing under conditions of India\u2019s cultural system with a focus on stage performance.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/kerala\/kalamandalam-opens-doors-for-boys-to-learn-mohiniyattam\/article67998584.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><u>Kalamandalam opens doors for boys to learn Mohiniyattam<\/u><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mohiniyattam  is an Indian classical dance form that evolved in the state of Kerala.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2625,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}