Shabdam__Margam Part 4

Shabdam means "words", " stories" " describing qualities of a particular being". It is a Abhinaya based composition. It is the first item where the students of Bharatnatyam are introduced to expression. Shabdam teaches the students how to translates the words into mudra, thus speaking through dance. The songs of Shabdam tells us the story of a deity or a king or a particular incident. These stories can be divided into 3 to 4 stanzas where a single line can be repeated several times in each of the stanzas and the dancer needs to perform on the same. In the second type - Shabdam can be performed on a particular deity where each stanza contains different incidents based on his/her life. The korvais (based of the adavus) separate the stanzas. The emotions and abhinaya are composed and sequenced in a disciplined way. Another unique feature of Shabdam is that it is very short just the Pallavi and a couple of Charanas.

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Usually a particular Ragam is selected for the Shaittam (song), but now a days it is seen that each stanza has a different Ragam to make the composition interesting. Ragamallika and Kambodi are the most common ragams that are used. Many are of the opinion that Shabdam is a mini Varnam and I to some extend agree to that as I have performed Shabdam as a warm up for Varnam. Rukmini Devi Arundale says that " I found Shabdam, musically uninteresting, as it depends on the Manodharma and the quality of the singers." What she actually means is that since Shabdam brings out the emotions of the song, it is important to select the composition based on the qualities of both the singers and the dancers. It was previously called "Salamu " ( Muslim influence from the word selami), which were performed in presence of the person whose praises were sung.
Advice : It will be useful to teach the Nayak-Nayika Bhedam to the students before beginning the Shabdam.

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