People Web International

By Anita Mathew Perumal, PWI Reporter Tamil Nadu

A Sanctuary for Indian Arts – TFA, established in 1981 built on a sublime foundation of Love, Faith, Dedication and Vision carries forward the legacy of their spiritual Guru and the founding fathers.

One of the founding members of THE TEMPLE OF FINE ARTS, Late Mr.V.K.Sivadas, an artiste from Kerala, who gave away his dancing anklets, promised his parents never to dance again and travelled to Malaysia way back in 1952 to look for a job and earn his living.

Was it destiny or Irony that took, late Mr.V.K.Sivadas all the way from Gods Own Country, Kerala in South India to Malaysia? Despite promising his father, very reluctantly on the request of his friends and with much persuasion performed during an Indian festival in Serdang, Malaysia. That was the day, his destiny was being sculpted as he was enthralling the audience with his one and only passion, Indian classical dance. Among the audience, was the father of 10 year old Vatsala. Mesmerised by his performance, Vatsala’s father requested him to take lessons in dance for his daughter. And thus began a new journey for, the teacher, the student, and the art lovers and for the country.

During my recent travel to Kualalumpur, I was fortunate to meet Mrs.Vatsala Sivadas, wife of Late Mr. V.K.Sivadas. She is recognised as one of Malaysia’s living heritage treasures for her contribution to Art and culture. This title was awarded to her in the year 2009.

When Vatsala was 15 years of age and a young dancing beauty, Sivadas and she decided to get married. It was soon after, THE SIVADAS VATSALA DANCE TROUPE was formed and they together charmed audiences in Malaysia and Abroad. Some of their most popular choreographies were the Peacock dance and Shiva Parvathi.

While all this was happening, there was another dancing couple in Malaysia, Late Mr. Gopal Shetty and his student, Radha who also got married almost around the same time and formed their own troupe and was teaching and performing like Sivadas and Vatsala. They have been friends since the 50’s and still continue to be friends and the 2 pillars of THE TEMPLE OF FINE ARTS.

In the year 1972, was their first encounter with the spiritual Guru Swami Shantananda Saraswati who travelled to Malaysia for his discourses. A great lover of  Indian classical dance and music, Guru Swami Shantananda Saraswati completely taken aback by the potential and sincerity of these two dancing couples to teach and communicate the values and traditions of the Indian culture through Art, convinced the two couples to get together and start an academy and have all their students under one roof. Both the couples disbanded their individual troupes and with immense blessings, support and guidance from their spiritual Guru formed THE TEMPLE OF FINE ARTS with 30 students in the year 1981. Unfortunately after a couple of years, both Vatsala Sivadas and Radha Shetty lost their husbands and  a few years later, both of them decided to move on and continue doing what they love.

Almost 30 years since, THE TEMPLE OF FINE ARTS has moved its base from a humble beginning to a very aesthetically designed multi storey building in a very prominent locality in Kualalumpur and houses several dance and music studios, 500 seater performance hall, recording studio, library and other amenities. An institute that started in 1981 with 30 students today has over almost 1000 students being trained in various styles of dance and music.

The faculty has 30 very qualified instructors imparting our ancient Art forms and ensuring the young generation of today would stay focussed on the great values our forefathers and teachers taught us. The teachers and students have some outstanding productions to their credit, some of which are Ramayanam, Lady White Snake- a Chinese folk tale, A Mid Summer Night’s Dream and Taj Mahal.

The legacy continues and THE TEMPLE OF FINE ARTS with the support from a lot of well wishers strives very hard to fulfil the vision of their spiritual Guru, Swami Shantananda Saraswati.
The directors of the Temple of Fine Arts, Mrs.Vatsala Sivadas, Mrs.Radha Shetty and Mrs.Thava Malar Gunaratnam along with the trust members are very proud and happy to have made the dream a reality. TEMPLE OF FINE ARTS also has within the building premises -ANNALAKSHMI, a vegetarian restaurant which is completely under the care of dedicated volunteers and guests are not charged for the meals. The guests are however free to donate what they wish. They also have an in-house souvenir gift shop- LAVANYA ARTS, a travel agency- HAMSAVAHINI and their own design and communications facility – HANSA COMMUNICATIONS. The newly built building is open for tourists and is a must visit when one is in Kualalumpur, Malaysia.

What is even more credible is that within these few years THE TEMPLE OF FINE ARTS has spread its wings to Singapore, Australia, and Ceylon and has also brought back a branch of the academy to Chennai and Coimbatore in South India where the style and tradition originated. THE TEMPLE OF FINE ARTS is recognised by the Government of Malaysia and will be officially inaugurated by the Prime Minister of Malaysia in July, 2011.

For more information on THE TEMPLE OF FINE ARTS, log on to: www.tfa.org.my

-- by Anita Mathew Perumal - PWI Reporter Tamil Nadu -tamil.nadu@peoplewebinternational.com
25 April 2011