Depicting the beauty of River Ganga

Renowned Bharatanatyam dancer, Rajeswari Sainath performed a recital, ‘Ganga- a river with soul’, with her group at Ravindra Bharathi over the weekend. The 16-member group narrated the story of the holy River through dance.

The dance started with explaining the reason why Ganga came to earth from heaven. Kosala king, Sagara wanted to do the ‘Ashwamedha Yagnam’. In the process his royal agents lose sacrificial horses and in an attempt to track them the king burns down forests. As a result he is cursed by sage Kapila. After many years, Bhagiratha, grandson of king Dileepudu, praised Lord Brahma to bring Ganga into the Earth.

Sainath along with her team showcased the important milestones of River Ganga with their recital. The two-hour dance depicted topics like Triveni Sangam (the confluence of three rivers), its pride, anger and beauty. It also explained about how people are polluting it by throwing waste materials in it.

Speaking after her show, Sainath said, “This dance is about the beauty, pride and anger of River Ganga. This is also about creating awareness about how sacred it is.” “We are lucky that such a great river is flowing in India. Many people treat her as a Goddess. Ganga came from heaven to Earth by Bhagiratha’s attempt. Dancing for the holy river is like a dream for me,” she added.

“My daughter Vaishnavi went to the Himalayas and she fell love with the river and decided to depict its greatness to the people through dance form. We are doing our next performance with the co-operation of Opera House, Sidney that will be a Jazz show,” said Sainath on a concluding note.