Rajasthan Quiz: Folk Dances and Folk Theatre

The songs and dances of the Kalbelia community, the traditional snake charmers of Rajasthan, were added to the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010; the women dance in a flowing black skirt worked with silver ribbon to the been and the khanjari, with movements…

Women of the Kamad community perform Terah Taali seated on the ground as an act of devotion to Baba Ramdev, with thirteen small brass cymbals called manjiras tied to the wrists, elbows, waist and ankles and struck in rhythm, while the men of the troupe play the tandoora.

The Chari dance is performed by Gujjar women of this belt, who balance on the head a brass pot, the chari, filled with cotton seeds soaked in oil and set alight, so the dance goes on beneath a flame; it marks weddings and the birth of a son.

Followers of Jasnath, whose centres lie in the Bikaner and Churu area, perform the fire dance by stepping on and dancing over a bed of burning embers to the beat of the dhol, the dance being an act of faith at their fairs.

Men of the Bhil and other communities of Mewar and Marwar dance Gair in a large circle during Holi, striking long sticks together in time with the dhol and the thali, and where women join the circle the form is called Gair Ghoomar.

In this dance of acrobatic skill a woman places one earthen or brass pot upon another in a tall column on her head and then dances on the narrow rim of a brass thali, on the edge of a sword or on a heap of broken glass, keeping the column…

The Bhils of Mewar perform Gavari for about forty days after Rakshabandhan in honour of the goddess, moving from village to village with fixed characters and episodes while the performers keep strict vows for the whole period, which makes it the longest and most elaborate folk performance of Rajasthan.

Khyal is the chief folk drama of Rajasthan, a sung play performed through the night on an open stage, and its schools are named after their artists or their places; the Kuchamani Khyal of Kuchaman is the best known of them and is associated with Lachhiram.

Rammat is staged in the open during Holi in these cities, with troupes singing the heroic and devotional stories of the desert to the dhol and the nagara, and it is one of the oldest theatre forms of western Rajasthan.

Men of the Shekhawati region strap on a horse made of bamboo and cloth, dress in bright costume with a sword in hand and enact the tales of local bandits and heroes to the fife and the dhol, and the dance is a regular feature of wedding processions.