How did this sparkling festival of lights come to be?Here is a little story.
During the Varaha Avatar, Lord Vishnu saves Bhoomidevi and their union brings to this world - Narakan (Narakasuran). Given his lineage, he grows up to be a valiant youth sadly drunk with power. He obtains through penance a boon, by virtue of which he could die only at the hands of his mother. Now which mother would slay her own child, thus was his logic. His atrocities knew no bounds and one day he abducts and jails 16000 young women. Finally Lord Krishna (an Avatar of Lord Vishnu) steps out to put and end to him. He cleverly requests Sathyabhama, his second consort to take the reins of the chariot. Here we need to know couple of things about Sathyabhama, she was an expert archer, charioteer and was also an Avatar of Bhoomidevi herself. Killing the mighty Narakan was not an easy task. First his layers of protection including the demon Mura had to be slayed. A great battle ensued and Krishna is injured. Angered by this Sathyabhama takes the lead and fights Narakan and eventually shoots that one killing arrow. Realising, she had indeed slayed her own son, she requests that this day be a celebration of good vanquishing evil with lights and festivities by all of Mankind.
Thus was born Deepavali.

This piece is from Vijayathe Gopala Choodamani-part 2 which was presented in various sabhas in Chennai during the margazhi season 2017.
It was initailly presented at the Cleveland Thyagaraja festival.

Music : Kalaimamani Neyveli Sri. Santhanagopalan
Lyrics : Dr. P R Venkatasubramaniam
Choreography & Nattuvangam : Kalaimamani Smt. Anitha Guha
Vocal : Vidushi Sriranjani Santhanagopalan & Chinmaya sisters Vidushi Smt. Uma
Mridangam : Vidwan Sri. Ram Shankar Babu
Rhythm pad & special effects : Vidwan Sri. R Suresh
Violin : Vidwan Sri. Rahul
Flute: Vidwan Sri. Thyagarajan
Veena: Vidushi Smt. Padmini Lakshminrayanan
Keyboard: Dr. P R Venkatasubramaniam

Recording: Sri Ganesh (Digi Studios)
Lights: Sri Iyyappan Arumugam
Video: Chella Videos

Dancers:
Jyothsna Akilan
Sandhya Shankar
Subhiksha Madhivanan
Monaja Jawahar
Nutana Nair
Nivedita Ganeshram - Sathyabama
Smrithi Krishnamoorthy - Sri Krishna
Smrithi Sudhakar - Narakasuran
Mahima - Narakasura's sarathi
#bharatanatyam #bharathanatyam #indianclassicaldance #deepavali #diwali #narakasuravadham #bharathanatyamdance