Basic Bharatanatyam Hand Gestures - Part II

This post is the continuation of my previous post concerning the 28 single hand gestures that make up the vocabulary for the dance form of Bharatanatyam. This hand gestures are manly used in the story telling part belonging to the Natyasastra science (science of stage) and serve as ornaments to the rhythmic steps during a Bharatanatyam performance. This hand gestures are single since they can be used on one hand independently from the other. Let’s explore more about hand gestures and give me the opportunity to introduce you to the following ones.

	Arala (meaning "Bent") Index finger and thumb make a circle. The rest of the fingers are held straight.
	Shukatunda (meaning "Parrot's beak") Index finger and thumb make a circle (like in Arala). Ring finger is bent to the front. Middle finger and little finger are held straight.
	Mushti (meaning "fist") All fingers are clenched in the palm.
	Shikhara (meaning "spire") Thumb is pointing up and the rest of the figners are clenched in the palm.
	Kaphita (meaning "elephant apple") Little finger and ring finger are clenched in the palm. Middle finger and ring finger are pressed by thumb finger.
	Kathamukaha (meaning "opening in a link") Thumb, index finger and middle finger they all touch each other. Ring finger and little finger are pointing up.
	Suchi (meaning "needle") Index finger is simply pointing and the rest of the fingers are clenched in the palm.
	Chandrakala (meaning "digit of the moon") Index finger is pointing to the side, thumb finger is pointing up and the rest of the fingers are clenched in the palm.

I have prepared a video which contains the 'mudra shloka' (a shloka is a sanskrit word which denotes a metered and often rhymed poetic verse and/or phrase) for this eight hand gestures. This shloka also contains six other hand gestures which I introduce in a previous post.

Name of the hand gestures contained in this video: Pataka, Tripataka, Ardhapataka, Kartaramukha, Mayura, Ardhachandra, Arala, Shukatunda, Mushti, Shikara, Kaphita, Kathamukaha, Suchi, Chandrakala.