Madhya Pradesh Quiz: Folk Dances, Music and the Tansen Samaroh

Tansen was born Ramtanu Pandey in the village of Behat near Gwalior, learnt from Swami Haridas of Vrindavan and from the Sufi Muhammad Ghaus of Gwalior, served the court of Rewa and was then taken by Akbar into his own court, where he was counted among the nine jewels.

The Tansen Samaroh is held in the winter at the musician's birthplace of Behat and at his tomb in Gwalior, and the National Tansen Samman for Hindustani classical music is conferred during it.

Man Singh Tomar ruled Gwalior at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth century and was the great patron of dhrupad, drawing singers to his court and encouraging composition in the spoken language rather than in Sanskrit alone.

Matki is danced by the women of Malwa and the adjoining Nimar at weddings and other family celebrations, with an earthen pot held on the head while the dancer turns to the beat of the dhol.

Rai is the signature dance of Bundelkhand in the north-east of the state, danced by a woman of the Bedni community who whirls to an accelerating beat of the nagariya and the mridang while the audience calls for more.

Maach is the folk theatre of Malwa, played through the night on a raised wooden platform, which is what the name itself means.

Baba Alauddin Khan spent the greater part of his life as court musician at Maihar in the east of the state and gave his name to the Maihar gharana of instrumental music.

Gwalior had been a seat of music since the Tomar rulers patronised dhrupad, and when khayal took the place of dhrupad as the leading form the city produced the first of its gharanas.

Karma is danced by the Gond and Baiga of the eastern and southern districts after the harvest, men and women moving in a circle to the mandar drum, and Saila is the stick dance in which young men form rows and strike their sticks together as they move.

The temples of Khajuraho stand in Chhatarpur district in the Bundelkhand region, and the dance festival is held among them in February, when dancers of Bharatanatyam, Odissi, Kathak, Kuchipudi and the other classical forms perform against the temple walls.