The Majjhima Patipad is a riveting dance-drama, centered on the Middle Path that was taught by the Buddha after his enlightenment. The performance premiered in New Delhi on 23 May and was conceived and written by Delhi-based artist, Suranya Aiyar. Aiyar is also the founder of Bhagyam Arts and Ideas, a local cultural organization. Aiyar acted as the narrator of the play, who connected the various threads of the story. These various parts of the storyline were enacted in the dance-form by local dancers Swarnali Kundu and Akash Mallick. The drama featured songs and a background score by musicians on-stage.
The performance consists of four acts, utilizing material from the Pali and Sanskrit traditions of Buddhism, as well as from Sinhalese and Bhutanese traditions. The first act depicted the birth of the Buddha, followed by his life as a young prince, Siddhartha Gautama, and later, after marriage, with his wife Yashodhara. It included the scenes from his decision to renounce the world to seek enlightenment (Pali: maha–abhinikkhamana).
One of the highlights of this act was the well-known Sri Lankan dance composition, Thuranga Vannama. This conventional Sri Lankan art form depicts the grief of Prince Siddhartha’s favorite horse Kanthaka, as Siddhartha decides to depart home, riding Kanthaka out of the gates of Kapilavastu, to renounce the world.
Suranya Aiyar, the narrator, held up an image of a carving from the Gandhara region (modern-day Pakistan and Afghanistan) to illustrate the scene of the departure. The carving shows the devas, or gods of the celestial realms of pleasure, in attendance as the future Buddha was leaving, holding Kanthaka’s feet in their palms to soften any noise from the hoofs.
The second act featured the Buddha’s crucial insight into the Middle Way, after which the performance was titled. This insight enabled him to preach a spiritual path that was between the two extremes of sensual delight and physical mortification. Along with the Four Noble Truths and the Noble Eightfold Path, the Middle Way forms one of the essential insights of the Buddha’s enlightenment. The act also included the legend of the courtesan Amrapali, who became a Buddhist nun and a member of the female order. The third act included the pacification of the raging elephant Nalagiri by the Buddha and was accompanied by vivid dance moves. These brought to life the terror evoked by a raging elephant, and the legendary calm of the Buddha who confronted it with complete serenity. The fourth and final act depicted scenes from the life of the Buddha’s first truly imperial devotee, and the first monarch to order a missionary push of Buddhism beyond its earliest borders: Mauryan emperor Ashoka the Great.
This act was set to a song composed by Suranya, utilizing lines from Ashoka’s Toleration Edict, also known as the Major Rock Edict XII (these edicts, or messages, were often chiseled onto rocks and pillars throughout Ashoka’s empire). This particular Edict advocates that all sects (Prakrit: sava-pasamdani) should live together in peace and harmony. In the song there are the original words in the Prakrit of the rock inscription, and some lines in the modern Hindustani language.
The act opens with Emperor Ashoka on the battlefield at Kalinga, in eastern India, ready for battle. The battle rages and towards the end we see Ashoka regretting the death and devastation caused. He takes out his sword and casts it in the nearby river. He then enacts the words of the song in the form of a dance: that all creeds should live in peace and follow principles of compassion, open mindedness and goodwill towards all. The act ends with the dancers enacting the form of the rock edicts and stone pillars put up by Ashoka that carried his messages.
The show benefited from some very talented artists who greatly enriched the storyline and made it a visually enchanting treasure. The dancers, Swarnali Kundu and Akash Mallick, are trained in classical Indian dance-forms like Bharatnatyam, Kuchipudi and Kathakali. They are both masters of expressive performances.
The on-stage singer, Sudha Raghuraman, belongs to an illustrious family steeped in music. She is an accomplished and much-respected musician in the Carnatic musical genre of India. The flautist, G. Raghuraman, is also from a family of musicians and has been acclaimed internationally for his work. The percussionist, M. V. Chander Shekar, plays the horizontal drum called a mridangam. He is also highly regarded. He is adept in playing both for Carnatic concerts and dance recitals and has won appreciation widely. His heart-quickening beats at key moments in the current performance, for example, when the steed Kanthaka carries Prince Siddhartha, were greeted with loud applause.
The writer, Suranya, explained that the dance-drama is the mode she has utilized for some of her other productions: “This is the form I have been working in, generally: a multilingual dance drama with a Sutradhar [an on-stage narrator] blending traditional art forms.”
Several factors came together to inspire her to pen this performance. “I published a long blog in February [2025] on the history of South India which I worked on for nearly a year, and discovered the deep and long history of Buddhism in South India,” she said, explaining her initial impulse.
She then happened to speak to a Sri Lankan woman who had watched one of her other programs, and introduced her to the Thuranga Vannama. Aiyer was deeply touched by the Sri Lankan method of storytelling. Around that time, she was also witness to the agitation to restore the Mahabodhi temple in Bodh Gaya, India, to complete Buddhist control. These factors and events awakened in her mind the desire to craft a show centered on Shakyamuni Buddha.
“The production took about six weeks. The most time went into researching and writing the script, and choosing the songs,” she revealed.
Regarding the crucial coordination with the dancers and the musicians, Suranya confessed it involved a barrage of communication between all the participants. “My dancer-and-musician friends and gurus are used to getting audio notes and long messages with photos, clips of dancers and singers from five in the morning when an idea is upon me,” she explained with a touch of humor.
“But all Indian traditional artists are very knowledgeable about many things. Besides dance and music, they have a wide-ranging knowledge of mythology, ancient religious and literary texts, carvings, and paintings,” she added. This facilitated a smoother artistic co-operation. “For this show, besides going over the story sequence and discussing how to tell the story, I put together a series of visual catalogues for the dancers, showing them photos of Buddhist sculpture and art. These really formed the heart and soul of this production,” she noted.
On the whole, designing and producing the performance was akin to a spiritual journey for her. “I needed to go through my own inner process of meditating on the Buddha to understand his life and message. In particular, as a woman and a mother, I had my reservations about his choices,” she confessed.
But in the end, digging deep into the teachings and incidents connected with the Buddha for this performance, his message resonated with her. That profound inspiration found its efflorescence in the form of the Majjhima Patipad, a well-researched and aesthetically rich performance.
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