KATHAK AND CULTURAL MEMORY: TRACING THE DANCE’S TRANSFORMATIONS THROUGH ORAL AND PERFORMATIVE HISTORIES

Abstract [English]

This research explores Kathak as a living tradition of India’s cultural memory, examining how oral traditions and performative practices have ensured its continuity across centuries of historical transformation. Kathak rooted in storytelling tradition of temples, evolved from a sacred narrative form into a refined classical dance that absorbed Mughal aesthetics and adapted to colonial and postcolonial realities. Kathak has remained anchored in its oral transmission system, where embodied learning through the Guru-Shishya Parampara preserves not only technique but also philosophy, emotion, and spirituality.
Adopting a qualitative and interpretative methodology, this study combines literature review, interviews the traditional torch bearer of particularly Lucknow Gharana, to trace how oral pedagogy functions as both a pedagogical and cultural framework. The findings reveal that oral transmission transforms knowledge into lived experience, positioning the dancer’s body as a “living archive” where memory, rhythm, and expression coalesce. Performance itself emerges as an active site of remembrance, mediating between history and innovation.
The research identifies three interrelated dimensions of Kathak’s endurance: the unbroken oral lineage that sustains cultural continuity, performance as embodied memory that activates historical consciousness, and the adaptability that allows the form to negotiate modernity without losing its essence. In the digital age, globalization and online pedagogy have expanded Kathak’s reach while posing new challenges for maintaining depth and authenticity. The study concludes that Kathak’s vitality lies in its dynamic equilibrium between preservation and transformation. As a living expression of India’s spiritual and aesthetic identity, Kathak exemplifies how cultural memory survives not in texts but through bodies in motion, voices in recitation, and rhythms that transcend time.