Natavara–Sogasu: A Soul Across Lifetimes

Ragam: Kannadagowla
Talam: Tisra Gati Adi Talam
Choreography: Yamini Kalluri
Music Arrangement: Kritya Ensemble
Year Created: 2025

This work opens with the Oothukadu Venkata Kavi composition Natavara Taruni in ragam Kannadagowla set to Tisra Gati Adi Talam. A gopika is immersed in the ecstasy of Raasa Leela, dancing with rhythmic abandon using raas sticks. In a moment of ecstatic frenzy, she trips, and one stick falls at Krishna’s feet.

Time suspends.

She looks up and becomes completely enamored by Krishna’s beauty.

 

The rhythmic pulse drops into stillness. Krishna, playful yet compassionate, gently nudges her back into the circular rhythm of Raasa. The dance resumes — but internally, something has shifted.

The spiraling patterns of Raasa Leela become a temporal vortex. Through rhythm and repetition, she is carried into a past life. She remembers: she was once a sage during the time of Lord Rama. That sage had fallen in love with Rama’s divine beauty, expressed through Tyagaraja’s Sogasu Chooda Tarama.

In that lifetime, Rama — bound by his vow of monogamy — did not reciprocate romantic love. Yet he offered a divine promise: in his next incarnation as Krishna, he would unite with the thousands of sages who longed for him. Devotion would not be denied — only deferred.

The gopika is revealed to be that sage reborn.

The choreography transitions back into Krishna’s world, expanding into a vibrant ode to the dancing Krishna. The work explores Krishna in multiple forms:

• The cosmic dancer in Raasa Leela

• Krishna dancing upon the serpent Kaliya

• The triumphant destroyer of Kamsa

• The playful mover among animals and gopikas

Here, Kuchipudi’s buoyant grooves, intricate footwork, and tisra rhythmic layering become central. The Tisra Gati structure enhances the circularity of Raasa, reinforcing the theme of cyclical time and rebirth.

This work meditates on:

• Devotion across lifetimes

• The fluidity of gender in bhakti traditions

• The transformation of longing into fulfillment

• The eternal protector manifesting in different avatars

Ultimately, the piece asks:
Is divine love ever rejected — or simply ripened through time?