History of Dasi Dance

Dasi Dance or Dasi Attam (attam in the Tamil language means dance) is an ancient classical indian dance form. It originated in the temples of South India as a ritual offering to the Gods. Originally performed by young women under the tutelage of a male dance guru called Natvanar, this ancient classical tradition was passed down over the generations orally. This source text for this ancient classical dance form can be traced back to the ancient Tamil classical text Silapathigaram. Today Dasi Dance has been renamed Bharata Natyam and attempts have been made to create a fictious link with a sage called Bharata Muni. Dasi Dance was created by a community of temple dancers called Deva Dasis. Not by any sage called Bharata Muni. This is a common misconception. The second misconception is that the source text for this art form is Natyashastra. The source text, if there is any, to which the roots of the dance can be traced to is Silapadigaram.