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K. Sarveshan collaborated with vocalist Amritha Murali for his performance Prithvi, at Natyarangam\u2019s Pancha Bhootha Bharatham dance festival 2026.
\n | Photo Credit: B. Velankanni Raj<\/p>\n
What does it mean to call the earth our mother when human civilisation is built on extracting from her? The tension between dependence and exploitation formed the conceptual core of K. Sarveshan\u2019s Prithvi, with Amritha Murali lending vocal support, on the opening evening of Pancha Bhootha Bharatham, the 28th annual thematic festival, hosted by Natyarangam, the dance wing of Narada Gana Sabha Trust. The five-day festival explroes the Pancha Bhootas \u2014 Akasha, Vayu, Agni, Apah and Prithvi \u2014 with each day devoted to one element.<\/p>\n
In her introductory talk, resource person Dr Sudha Seshayyan placed the five elements within the Indian understanding of the cosmos, as well as their presence in the human body and in the processes that sustain life. Of these, Prithvi, she explained, represents structure and support, and is associated with stability and solidarity. She invoked the Bhumi Sukta, the Atharvaveda\u2019s hymn to Mother Earth, with its declaration that the earth is the mother and humanity, her child. The idea gained contemporary resonance later, when Sarveshan addressed humanity\u2019s exploitation of the earth.<\/p>\n
Sarveshan extended the idea into the body. Referring to the connection between humus and human existence, he described humanity as eternally tethered to the earth. Prithvi became, in his conception, both the ground of devotion, the recipient of rain and the starting point of spiritual ascent through the Mooladhara. This movement between the physical and the spiritual set the vocabulary of the performance.<\/p>\n
Prithvi moved from mythology and spirituality to literature and ecology.
\n | Photo Credit:
\n VELANKANNI RAJ B<\/p>\n