Moadi Yeduthu: A Lost/Last Dance Component of Sadir Repertoire from Tamil Nadu

Abstract

Moadi Yeduthu is a lost dance drama piece from the Sadir repertoire, which was practiced by the devadasi communities when they were allowed to perform in temples and festival spaces in Viralimalai, Pudukottai district, Tamil Nadu. This dance drama was practiced by devadasis until the 1947 governmental anti-devadasi law, which forced most practitioners to stop performing Sadir and take up farming. Moadi Yeduthu is one of the performance pieces which is surviving by Muthukannamal, a Sadir dancer, and as this specific piece did not get itself into the transfiguration of the cleaning process from the Sadir to Bharathanatyam tradition. The piece Moadi Yeduthu was left with devadasis alone to be practices because of the nature of the choreography. Muthukannamal, one of the last devadasis of Viralimalai, embodied this particular dance piece as her kinesthetic knowledge through her regular practice in the temples where she was once serving as a devadasi. This paper explores details of this lost/last art form by analyzing the documented dance drama performed by Muthukannammal. Her regular practice of this artistry, especially Moadi Yeduthu, is one of the building blocks of the evidence of the lost art striving to find its place in the current scenario of dance movement practices. While Muthukannammal’s performed body continues to form layers of archival knowledge of the Sadir dance form, the dance researcher explores the artistry of this specific dance drama traversing from different times and spaces realising that it has no place in the present society. The paper explores the nature of the dance drama by comparing it to the other Sadir dance pieces, as well.