Mylapore gowri amma biography of martin tn

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She was the last bastion of the Devadasis attached to the Kapaleeshwara Temple, Mylapore, Madras, who held the dignity and honour of her profession until the Anti-Nautchl Bill was passed by the government and the Devadasi system was abolished. To most classical dancers, Gowri Amma represented pinnacle of perfection who was particularly noted for the perfect synchronization of muscle movement and emotions.

Gowri Amma was the senior most among the well known Bharathanatyam dancers in the early part of 20th century when classical dance was slowly emerging as an art form in its own right. Born in she was the great grand- daughter of Mylapore Dhanam who was a noted musician. Her mother Doraikannamma was a dancer who had learnt under the famous dance teacher Krishna Nattuvanar of Tanjore.

Doraikannamma was herself an exquisite dancer and her ravishing beauty was an extra-ordinary point in her favour. Her beauty was such that when she passed away her widowed husband refused to get treatment for his falling eye-sight saying that the need for recovery of the eye had ceased with the death of his wife. Coming from a long line of hereditary artists well versed in music and dance, Gowri Amma had a natural cultural bearing displaying her art with restraint and refinement.

Gowri Amma had her early training under the great master Nallur Munuswamy Nattuvanar and developed Abhinaya under the tutelage of her mother. Short of stature and fair of complexion and endowed with a musical voice, she was one of the few Bharathanatyam dancers who sang while doing Abhinaya. No wonder that her performance at the Music Academy, Madras on 3rd January received high acclaim both from the public as well as by the press.

As Gowri came from a family of traditional temple dancers, she took to temple dancing as her career. Unfortunately with the passage of the Anti-Nautch Bill by the government which abolished the system of employing Devadasis by the temples, she lost her job and became unemployed. Even she had to vacate the house allotted to her by the temple.

It is said that when she vacated the temple residence and her intimate association with the temple came to an end, she was disheartened.