Gana Kala Goregaon presented ‘Meenakshi TiruKalyaanam’ dance ballet by Mausam Mahendra & students
Gana Kala along with Institute of Goregoan, an organization started by Mrs. Mausam Mahendra, presented a dance ballet ‘Meenakshi TiruKalyaanam’ . The programme was compiled and choreographed by Guru S.P. Srinivasan with the assistance of Mrs. Mausam Mahendra. A total of 40 students participated in this programme. The role of Meenaksi, the main character in the play was played by Mrs. Mausam Mahendra, one of the teachers of Gana Kala Institute.
PROGRAMME DETAILS
The programme started by the dancers offering flowers to deity Meenakshi. This pushpanjali was followed by the introduction of Madurai Meenakshi. After witnessing the performance of the court dancer the king and the queen express their agreeing not having a child. On advice from Rishi Naradar they perform a Putra Kamishti yagyam for having a child. The scene IV depicts Meenakshi emerging from the fire after doing the yagyam. Between scenes V and VII the king and the queen teaches their daughter Meenakshi various skills and decides to do Makutabhishekam for their grown up daughter. Meenakshi’s mother is overwhelmed seeing the daughter sitting on the throne and asked her to get married. Meenakshi was not ready to get married but wants to conquer the world. The mother blesses her for the journey.
After the interval Meenakshi starts her journey to conquer the world and finally reaches the ultimate God Lord Shiva. Meenakshi is attracted towards Shiva and praises Shiva. Shiva in turn tells Meenakshi that on such a date he will visit her parents and marry her.
In the last scene, Meenakshi Kalyanam is shown where Brahma does the rituals and Vishnu blesses his sister Meenakshi.
(Scene description)
Scene – I
The dancers are offering flowers to deity Meenakshi. It is a pushpanjali followed by the introduction of song of Madurai Meenakshi.
Scene – II
King and queen witness the performance of court dancer.
Scene – III
King and queen expresses their grief of not having any child. Rishi and Naradar asks them to perform putra kamishti yagyam for having a child.
Scene – IV
In the next scene trees are planted, flowers are being decorated. Meenakshi emerges from the fire after doing the yagyam. Meenakshi plays with her friend and having a good time.
Scene – V
In this scene, the king and queen trying to teach their little daughter Meenakshi, various skills like singing, dancing, archery etc. Seeing their child already skilled in various forms, they are overwhelmed and planned to do Makutabhishekam for their grown up daughter.
Scene – VI
In this VIth scene, Makutabhishekam of Meenakshi is done.
In the next scene Meenakshi’s mother is overwhelmed seeing her daughter sitting in the throne. Mother asks her daughter to get married. But Meenakshi is not ready and she wants to conquer the world. Finally mother blesses Meenakshi for her journey.
INTERVAL
Meenakshi starts her journey to conquer the world and with her bravery defeated Varuna Devan and Indran.
In the next scene she enters Kailash and mesmorized seeing Kailash.
In the next scene she fights with Nandi and bhoota ganas.
Next, Narada describes about Shiva who is the ultimate God and Lord Shiva appears.
In the next scene, Meenakshi is attracted towards Shiva. Meenakshi’s friend criticize about Lord Shiva in a sarcastic manner. But Meenakshi praises about Lord Shiva and asks her friend not to tell bad about him. This is followed by Shiva telling Meenakshi that on such date he will come and marry her.
In the last scene Meenakshi Kalyanam is shown where Brahma does the rituals and Vishnu blesses his sister Meenakshi. This is followed by Mangalam.
Brief about Meenakshi
We are all aware about the origin of Goddess Meenakshi. Meenakshi is an avatar of the Hindu Goddess Parvati, the consort of Shiva. She is also one of the few Hindu female deities to have a major temple devoted to her. The name `Minachi’ means fish eyed and is derived from the words “Mina” means fish and “aki” means eyes. The lady Goddess Meenakshi is the principal deity of the temple and not Sundareswar – this is unlike most Shiva temple in South India where Shiva is the principal deity. According to Hindu legend, in order to answer the prayers of the second Pandya king Malayadwaja Pandya and his wife Kanchanamalai, Parvati appeared out of the holy fire of the putra kamashi yagyam performed (sacrifice for childwood) by the king. According to another legend, the Goddess herself gave a boon to Kanchanamalai in one of her previous births that she would have the privilege of mothering the Goddess. The girl who came out of the holy fire had three breasts. A voice from the heaven told the King not to worry about the abnormality and added that the third breast would vanish as soon as the girl meets her future husband. The happy king named the girl Tadaatangai and being the heir to the throne, Tadaatangai was trained carefully in all the 64 Sastras in the field of science. As the time came for Tadaatangai’s coronation, she had to wage war on the three worlds across eight directions. She advanced to Shiva’s abode Kailasha. She very easily defeated the bhoota ganas, and Nandi, the celestial bull of Shiva and headed to attack and conquer Shiva. The moment she looked at Shiva, she was unable to fight and bowed her head down due to shyness, the third breast vanished immediately. Tadaatangai realized that Shiva was her destined husband. She also realized that she was the incarnation of Parvati. Both Shiva and Tadaatangai returned to Madurai and the queen arranged her daughter’s marriage with Shiva.
Sri Meenaksh symbolizes the celestial marriage of Shiva as Sundareswara and Shakti as Meenakshi. Vishnu as the brother of Shakthi comes to give away the bride and Brahma performs the Smartha form of Vedic marriage rituals.
