Rukmini Devi Arundale
Rukmini Devi (1904-1986) was a bharatanatyam dancer, choreographer, inventor of the dance drama form to depict Indian epics, and a pioneering institution builder, whose creation, Kalakshetra, is now an important international centre of arts, attracting scholars from all over the world. A champion of the forgotten or neglected arts of India, Rukmini Devi was one of the persons mainly responsible for the revival of the classical south Indian dance, earlier known as sadir.
Rukmini Devi was born on 29 February 1904 in an upper class family in Madurai. Her father Neelakanta Sastri was an engineer with the Public Works Department, and mother Seshammal was a home maker. Deeply interested in Indian philosophy and culture, Neelakanta Sastri was a scholar who came under the influence of theosophy and moved after retirement to Chennai to the Theosophical Society and its leader Annie Besant. Seshammal was deeply interested in music.
One of eight children, Rukmini Devi displayed an interest in the fine arts from early childhood. Young Rukmini roamed freely among theosophists who came to attend the annual international convention there, and take part in tableaux-like presentations. She studied Greek dancing and participated in plays and was extremely fond of south Indian classical music. Sastri
encouraged her in all her activities. Annie Besant, who then headed the Madras Theosophical Society, took Rukmini under her wing. Around 1917, British educationist George Sydney Arundale came to Madras at the invitation of Annie Besant to help with her educational programmes and other activities.
In 1920, when Rukmini Devi was only sixteen, she married Arundale, more than 20 years her senior. After their wedding, the couple left on a tour of Europe to further the cause of theosophy. Annie Besant made Rukmini Devi the President of the All India Federation of Young Theosophists in 1923 and in 1925, the President of the World Federation of Young Theosophists.
Travelling with Arundale, Rukmini Devi was exposed to the arts—theatre, music, painting, sculpture, opera and ballet. With her innate sense of beauty and aesthetics, she responded to the various art forms. On a trip to Australia, Rukmini Devi met and befriended the famous ballerina Anna Pavlova. Their friendship nurtured an interest in dance. She went on to learn ballet from one of Pavlova’s associates, Cleo Nordi.
Pavlova persuaded Rukmini to study Indian classical dance. She had till then never even seen a performance of bharatanatyam. Captivated by the beauty of the dance form, Rukmini started learning dance privately from Mylapore Gowri Amma, a well-known devadasi of the period. She received full support from Arundale, her brothers, and her mother. Learning the dance further from the great master Pandanallur Meenakshi Sundaram Pillai, she took the bold step of presenting it in public during the Diamond Jubilee Convention of the Theosophical Society in December 1935.
Rukmini Devi established a dance academy, Kalakshetra, in 1936 and invited the greatest musicians and dance gurus to teach there. Her first student was her brother Sriram’s daughter Radha Burnier, now the president of the Theosophical Society. Kalakshetra with thatched roof studios, an atmosphere reminiscent of Tagore’s Santiniketan, and classes conducted under trees in the open air, soon grew and young girls from middle class families began to learn bharatanatyam.
Inspired by traditional temple dance-dramas, she started choreographing her own dance-dramas, enlisting support from a galaxy of personalities in the world of Indian music that composed for the performances. Of the 25 dance-dramas she choreographed, the six-part series based on the Ramayana remains outstanding. She even built a special theatre for staging the dance-dramas with the available state-of-the-art facilities. She had excellent taste and a modern mind.
Rukmini Devi had a deep interest in indigenous crafts. With the help of a grant from the Ministry of Labour and Industry in 1937, she established a weaving centre, setting the age-old looms humming, reviving several old designs and colours, and a variety of motifs. Kalakshetra saris are works of beauty and to possess one came to be regarded as a hallmark of high taste. With support from her contemporary, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, she helped revive vegetable dyes and the art of Kalamkari. The Crafts Education and Research Centre at Kalakshetra is an important legacy she has left behind.Rukmini also made a lasting contribution to children’s education.
Arundale and she invited the world famous Maria Montessori to the Besant Theosophical High School to train teachers in the Montessori system and run the Besant Montessori school.Fond of animals from her childhood, she used her position as a Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament to plead for the cause of animal welfare. She became the first chairperson of the Animal Welfare Board, doing remarkable work at the international level. Closely connected with the cause of animal welfare was her involvement with the vegetarian movement and the World Vegetarian Congress.
Numerous honours and awards came her way: the Padmabhushan, the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award, the Prani Mitra award, the Desikottama award from Santiniketan, the prestigious Kalidas Samman and many more. Till the end, she was a theosophist and believed in the ancient wisdom of Indian culture.
Rukmini Devi will be remembered as a renaissance woman, who enriched the nation with the highest artistic traditions and values of life.
Kalakshetra was declared an institution of national importance by an Act of Parliament—the Kalakshetra Foundation Act 1993. It is today recognised as one of the best academies of Indian dance and music and ‘a way of life’. The Rukmini Devi College of Fine Arts, The Besant Theosophical High School, The Besant Arundale Higher Secondary School, The Besant Cultural Centre Hostel, the open-air theatre, the weaving centre and Kalamkari unit of the Crafts Education and Research Centre and the Rukmini Devi Museum housing her art collection, mirror the multiple activities of Kalakshetra. They stand as a tribute to this multifaceted woman.