Mohiniyattam

Mohiniyattam is an Indian classical dance form originating from the state of Kerala. The dance gets its name from Mohini—the female enchantress avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu, who helps the devas prevail over the asuras using her feminine charm. Mohiniyattam's roots, like all classical Indian dances, are in the Natya Shastra—the ancient Hindu Sanskrit text on performance arts. However, it follows the Lasya style described in Natya Shastra, that is a dance which is delicate, eros-filled and feminine. It is traditionally a solo dance performed by women after extensive training, though men also perform the dance in the contemporary period. The repertoire of Mohiniyattam includes music in the Carnatic style, singing, and acting a play through the dance, where the recitation may be either by a separate vocalist or the dancer themselves. The song is typically in Malayalam-Sanskrit hybrid called Manipravalam. The earliest mention of the word is found in the 16th-century legal text Vyavahāramālā, but the likely roots of the dance are older. The dance was systematized in the 18th century, but was then ridiculed as a Devadasi prostitution system during the colonial British Raj; it was banned by a series of laws from 1931 through 1938, which was protested and partially repealed in 1940. The socio-political conflict ultimately led to the renewed interest in and the revival and reconstruction of Mohiniyattam by the people of Kerala, particularly the poet Vallathol Narayana Menon.