R Muthukannammal (born 1937) is a seventh generation veteranSadir dancer from the Indian State ofTamil Nadu. She is the only surviving person among the 32Devadasis who served the deity at theViralimalai Murugan temple and she is the last woman to have the ceremonypottukkattutal of dedicating oneself to God performed at the Viralimalai temple.[1] In the year 2022, Govt of India honoured Muthukannammal by conferring thePadma Shri award for her contributions in the field of art.[2] The dance form Sadir, variously called as Sadiraattam or Parathaiyar Aattam or Thevarattam, is a classical Indian dance from which was reinvented, modified and rechristened asBharatanatyam through the efforts ofE Krishna Iyer in 1932. However, Muthukannammal has chosen to call her art form Sadir, making her the only Sadir exponent today.[3]
Muthukannammal was born in 1937 inViralimalai, 28 km fromTrichy into a hereditary IsaiVellalar family of dancers and musicians. She is the daughter of Ramachandra Nattuvanaar (1890-1988) who himself was a much respected dancer, a competent dance teacher and the most popular and respected nattuvanar in Viralimalai.[4] Since her family is a dancers' family, she had started dancing from the time she learned to walk. At the age of seven, she hadpottukkattutal performed atViralimalai Murugan temple and she had herarangetram (début on-stage performance). Later she was trained extensively in dancing by her father and grandmother.
Her family was closely associated with temple dance practices in the Viralimalai Murugan temple and other temples, and also with thePudukkottai Palace. Her family was under the patronage of Pudukkottai kings. KingRajagopala Tondaiman, the ninth and last ruler of the princely state ofPudukkottai, had gifted agricultural lands to her family for their temple services. However, due to the strong ant-Devadasi movement then raging inTamil Nadu, especially in Viralimalai, there was a steep decline in interest among the general public and temple administrators in the ritualistic traditional performances of dance and music by Muthukannammal and members of her family. This resulted in the dwindling of a regular income and Muthukannammal and her family had go through severe hardships. Perhaps this forced her to embark on a new life with performances at weddings and other social functions.[4]
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