Mrinalini Sarabhai Wiki, Age, Death, Husband, Children, Family, Biography & More

Mrinalini Sarabhai (1918-2016), fondly called ‘Amma,’ was an Indian dancer, choreographer, teacher, and activist, who is known for mastering and preserving the South Indian classical dance forms. Wife of famous Indian scientist, Vikram Sarabhai, she is the recipient of Padma Sri and Padma Bhushan and is recognized as the first female dancer of Kathakali. Mrinalini reawakened Bharatanatyam, Kathakali, Mohiniattam, and Kuchipudi in a contemporary style. She is regarded as the ‘High Priestess of Indian Classical Dance’ and was the founding director of the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts. Mrinalini was also an author and environmentalist. She died on 21 January 2016 due to complications of a stomach infection.

Wiki/Biography

Mrinalini Sarabhai was born on Saturday, 11 May 1918 (age 97 years; at the time of death) in Madras Presidency, British India (now Chennai or Kerala^[1]The Indian Express^[2]The New York Times, India). Her zodiac sign is Taurus. She grew up in a family of liberal revolutionary fighters, who belonged to the Vadakath Tharavad Family. Her mother and father were independence activists. Mrinalini attended a boarding school at Dalcroze School, Switzerland for 2 years. She was later educated in music and painting by Rabindranath Tagore and Nandlal Bose at Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India. Here, she realized that her true calling was to become a dancer.

She went for dance training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in the United States and returned to India to get trained in Bharatanatyam by Meenakshisundaram Pillai and Kathakali by Guru Kunchu Kurup.

Physical Appearance

Height (approx.): 5′ 4″

Hair Colour: Black

Eye Colour: Gray

Family & Caste

Mrinalini Sarabhai comes from a Tamil Brahmin and Malayali Nair family. Mrinalini’s mother was her father’s Sambandham partner and later became his wife. Sambandham was an informal marriage custom under the Malabar Marriage Act, of 1896, which allowed a Nair woman to have multiple partners from upper-caste- Brahmin, Kshatriya or Nair family, except the men from the same household. This custom stopped around the 1920s.

Parents & Siblings

Mrinalini Sarabhai’s father, Subbarama Swaminathan, was a noted Indian independence activist and a professional criminal lawyer at Madras High Court. He also served as principal of the Madras Law College. Her mother, Ammu Swaminathan, was a social activist, an Indian independence activist, and a parliamentarian.

She had two siblings. The elder sister, Lakshmi Sahgal, was the commander-in-chief of Azad Hind Fauj’s ‘Rani of Jhansi Regiment.’ She was also a doctor and a politician.

Mrinalini’s brother, Govind Swaminadhan, was a barrister in criminal, constitutional, civil, and company law. He also served as Attorney-General for the Madras state (present-day Tamil Nadu).

Husband & Children

Mrinalini Sarabhai’s husband was Vikram Sarabhai, the famous Indian physicist, to whom she married in 1942. Vikram Sarabhai planted the Indian Space and Research Organisation (ISRO) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, India.

She gave birth to a son and a daughter.

Kartikeya Sarabhai, her son, is a noted environmentalist and educationist. He is the director of the Ahmedabad-based Centre for Environment Education.

Mallika Sarabhai, her daughter, is an Indian dancer, actress, and chancellor of a deemed university, Kerala Kalamandalam.

Other Relatives

Her grandson Revanta Sarabhai is an actor, dancer, and choreographer.

Anahita Sarabhai is the granddaughter of Mrinalini Sarabhai, who is a performance artist, educator, consultant, and writer. She is the founding director of QuuerAbad, an online platform for Ahmedabad’s LGBTQIA community.

Ambalal Sarabhai, an Indian industrialist and philanthropist, who supported Mahatma Gandhi, was Mrinalini’s father-in-law.

Signature/Autograph

Career

Dancer & Choreographer

By the 1940s, Mrinalini Sarabhai had become an eminent danseuse, whose Bharatanatyam and Kathakali performances were based on contemporary social issues that had a message for humans to check their actions against the harmful activities that were prevalent in society. She connected spirituality with her dance. She once wrote,

How many lives before

I danced away the passions

Of my heart

How many fires lit my body into nothingness

Releasing again the energies

More real than life

Curled into my very atma

For each new life renewed

I dance

And will dance again.”

Some of her most popular dance productions were:

• Manushya (1958) – This was her first popular Kathakali performance with Kavungal Chathunni Panicker; it was the first Kathakali performance by a woman. It was especially praised by Prime Minister  Jawaharlal Nehru. It was also her first performance that toured internationally.
  

  Jawaharlal Nehru praising Mrinalini Sarabhai after her ‘Manushya’ performance, the first Kathakali performance by a woman

• Ganga – to sensitize people about polluting the holy water of the river Ganga in the name of religion. This dance ballet depicted how people are as equally polluted as the Ganga, and how they need to be conscious of their actions to become as pure as the Ganga River which was clean of dirt in the past.

• Memory: Ragged Fragment of Eternity – it was on the issue of dowry death.
  

  Mrinalini Sarabhai in a Nataraja pose

• Ranmalpur – it voiced out violence against Dalits.

• Aspirations – it was inspired by the movement against the building of the Silent Valley Hydroelectric Project in Kerala.

• Shakuntala – this was created on Western classical music.

She was recognised internationally for her choreography for the Ballet Folklorico of Mexico for which she received a gold medal by the Mexican government.

Instructor & Founder of the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts

In her later years, Mrinalini Sarabhai served as a teacher of Indian classical dances at the dance institute Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, Ahmedabad, which was opened by her in 1948 with the support of her husband, Vikram Sarabhai.

Writer

Mrinalini Sarabhai wrote various books on dance, history, and mythology. She wrote an autobiography titled Mrinalini Sarabhai: The Voice of the Heart and was an active blogger.

Mrinalini has also authored, ”The Sacred Dance of India.’

Awards & Honours

• Natya Kala Sikhamani (1960)

• Padma Shri (1965)

• Gold Medal by Mexican Government (1968)

• Gujarat’s first state award for dance (1969)

• Vishwa Gurjari Award (1984)

• Desikottama (D.Litt. Honoris Causa) degree by Vishva-Bharati University (1987)

• Padma Bhushan (1992)

• Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship (1994)

• Veera Shringhala

• Kerala’s first state award for dance, Nishagandhi Puraskaram (2013)

Death

Mrinalini Sarabhai died on Thursday, 21 January 2016, in Ahmedabad, India, at the age of 97 years due to stomach conditions related to old age. ^[3]The New York Times

Facts/Trivia

• She was the first Indian to be graced with a Diploma and medal from the French Archives Internationales de la Danse in 1994.

• She is the first and only woman to be honoured with Veer Shankila for her contributions to Kathakali.

• She was sensitive about the environment and had based many of her dance dramas on giving people the message of stopping the destruction of natural resources. She along with her friends also created a group called ‘Friends of the Tree.’

• Mrinalini Sarabhai’s character can be seen in Rocket Boys, a web series based on the life of Vikram Sarabhai and Homi J. Bhabha. Actress Regina Cassandra portrays her character.
  

  Regina Cassandra portrayed Mrinalini Sarabhai in the web series Rocket Boys

• She was nominated as a member of the International Dance Council’s Executive Committee, Paris, in 1990.

• She was chairperson of the Gujarat State Handicrafts and Handloom Development Corporation Ltd and the Nehru Foundation for Development (NFD).

• She was one of the trustees of the Sarvodaya International Trust, an organization promoting Gandhian ideals.

• Google Doodle commemorated her 100th birthday on 11 May 2018.
  

  Mrinalini Sarabhai’s Google Doodle, honouring her 100th birth anniversary

• At Shantiniketan, she participated in the dance plays of Rabindranath Tagore.

• Mrinalini Sarabhai also did a course in sound processing from America.