Native to North India, Kathak (pronounced “Kah-tahk”) is one of six Indian classical dance forms. Kathak originated within Hindu temples as a storytelling device for portraying the epic tales from Hindu scriptures, Mahabharata and Ramayana. Poetry was combined with rhythmic movement to aid in the worshipful storytelling.
The term Kathak is derived from the Vedic Sanskrit word Katha which means "story", and Kathakar which means "the one who tells a story", or "to do with stories".[1][2]
However, the stories didn’t stay within the temple walls for long. Wandering Kathakars communicated stories from the great epics and ancient mythology through dance, songs and music.[2] Kathak dancers tell various stories through their hand movements and extensive footwork, their body movements and flexibility but most importantly through their facial expressions.
The origin of Kathak is traditionally attributed to the traveling bards in the of ancient northern India known as Kathakars or storytellers.[1]
The roots of this dance form trace back to Sanskrit Hindu text on performing arts called ‘Natya Shastra’ written by ancient Indian theatrologist and musicologist Bharata Muni. It is presumed that the first complete version of the text was completed between 200 BCE to 200 CE, but some sources mention the timeframe to be around 500 BCE and 500 CE. Thousands of verses structured in different chapters are found in the text that divides dance in two particular forms, namely ‘nrita’ that is pure dance which comprise of finesse of hand movements and gestures, and ‘nritya’ that is solo expressive dance that focuses on expressions.
Russian scholar Natalia Lidova states that ‘Natya Shastra’ describes various theories of Indian classical dances including Tandava dance of Lord Shiva, methods of acting, standing postures, gestures, basic steps, bhava and rasa. Mary Snodgrass states that the tradition of this dance form is traced back to the 400 BCE. Bharhut, a village in the Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, India stands as a representative of early Indian art. The 2nd century BC panels found there illustrates sculptures of dancers in different vertical poses with arm positions that resemble Kathak steps, many of which reflect the 'pataka hasta' Mudra. The word Kathak is deduced from the Vedic Sanskrit term ‘Katha’ which means ‘story’ while the term kathaka that finds place in several Hindu epics and texts means the person who tells a story. Text-based analysis indicates Kathak as
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I am a native speaker of Hindi (know Marathi too) and also have fluency in both Classical & Vedic Sanskrit. In University, I studied some Greek (Ancient) and later on picked up some Modern Greek while visiting Greece. I realized that Modern Greek is much more conservative than either Hindi or Marathi. Why is this so?
A few things that came to my head. We cannot possibly say it is because Greek is a prestige language of literature and Greeks constantly "re-Hellenized" their vocabulary by say imitating prestige registers (Atticism) because the exact same thing applies to Sanskrit and happened in India. Greek and Sanskrit have been the languages of liturgy and literature of a specific civilizational region for 2000+ years. So their role here is similar.
Now why is Modern Greek so much more faithful to Koine or even Attic compared to Hindi or Marathi vs Sanskrit? Is it because India has maybe more people so there was more variation in speech (evident by so many different branches of the Indo Aryan family) while Hellenic today has only Tsakonian as another branch/variant.
This is the best tl;dr I could make, original reduced by 78%. (I'm a bot)
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FYI, AFAIK Russian is a non Indian language which is one of the most Similar ones to Sanskrit. Next is Greek and Ethiopian I think.
Edit:I mean literally thousands of words, check on YT.
"सुखार्थिनः कुतो विद्या नास्ति विद्यार्थिनः सुखम्।
सुखार्थी वा त्यजेद्विद्यां विद्यार्थी वा त्यजेत्सुखम्॥"
- Anonymous.
Transliteration:
sukhārthinaḥ kuto vidyā nāsti vidyārthinaḥ sukham।
sukhārthī vā tyajedvidyāṃ vidyārthī vā tyajetsukham॥
English Translation: There is no knowledge for the seekers of comfort, and no comfort for the seekers of knowledge. A seeker of comfort should give up knowledge, and a seeker of knowledge should give up comfort.
Also, did people realize that languages like Egyptian and Phoenician were different from Indo-European languages?
