Long shunned as too explicit, an Indian music genre is rising from the margins

Lovelorn maidens, heartless dandies and coquettes, envy, betrayal, languor and heaving passion, all amidst a profusion of moonlight and jasmine. This is the dramatic, and rather medieval, universe of padams and javalis – intensely amorous love verses set in the Carnatic mode and a legacy of the devadasi music and dance traditions of the south.

Mostly in Telugu, and written between the early 19th and early 20th century, the song texts of the javalis and padams are clearly an anachronism in our times – for the nayika is almost always long-suffering and the nayaka is invariably heartless. But these are also themes as old as the hills, of yearning, waiting and wanting, and the music remains eternally beautiful.

Largely shunned for decades on dance and music platforms for their explicit content and social history, some of these songs were brought alive on May 18 by Bharatanatyam dancer Leela Samson accompanied by Carnatic vocalist Savita Narasimhan in Bengaluru. Ee Mohamu (this desire), as the event produced by Kishima Arts Foundation was aptly titled, showcased six songs of the genre.

“This search and happy discovery of rarer padams and javalis has been on for many years [for me],” said Samson, who embodied the callow young nayikas with moving ease and...

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