In a traditional Saang performance, the women's roles were
- A.Taken by men of the troupe
- B.Taken by women of the village
- C.Mimed without speech
- D.Left out of the story altogether
Correct answer
Explanation
The correct answer is A, taken by men of the troupe. A traditional Saang troupe was made up entirely of men, and the younger singers took the women's parts in costume, singing the same raginis in a higher register. This is the same convention that held in Nautanki and in the Ramlila of the plains until the twentieth century, and it is why the first women to appear on such stages are remembered by name.
Option B, women of the village, is wrong for the old form, although women perform in Saang troupes today. Option C, mimed without speech, describes no part of Saang, which is a sung and spoken form throughout. Option D, left out altogether, is plainly wrong, since the best loved Saangs turn on their heroines, Somvati, Savitri, Padmavati and Heer. The stories need the women; the convention only decided who played them.
Read the full article: Folk Music, Dance and Saang of Haryana: Forms and Facts
Practice Questions
View allWho gave the Saang folk theatre of Haryana its settled form in the eighteenth century?
- A.Pandit Lakhmi Chand
- B.Pandit Deepchand
- C.Baje Bhagat
- D.Pandit Mange Ram
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Pandit Deepchand is the first great name in the history of Saang and is credited with turning a loose village entertainment into a sung play with a structure: an opening invocation, a story carried in verse, prose passages between the songs and a troupe built around the poet.
Read the full explanation →Which poet of Haryana is honoured as the Surya Kavi and called the Shakespeare of Haryana?
- A.Pandit Lakhmi Chand
- B.Baje Bhagat
- C.Pandit Deepchand
- D.Dhanpat Singh
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Lakhmi Chand is the best known Saang poet of Haryana, honoured as the Surya Kavi or sun poet and commonly called the Shakespeare of Haryana for the range of his plays and the quality of his raginis.
Read the full explanation →The Dhamal dance of Haryana is performed mainly by
- A.Women at weddings
- B.Men in a circle on full moon nights
- C.Children during Holi
- D.Devotees carrying the chhari
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Dhamal is counted the oldest dance of Haryana and belongs mainly to the Mahendragarh and Jhajjar belt, where the men of the village gather on the open ground on a full moon night of the Phalgun season, form a wide circle and dance to the beat of the dhamal drum…
Read the full explanation →The Loor dance, in which two facing groups of women sing in question and answer, belongs to which tract of Haryana?
- A.The Bagar tract
- B.Mewat
- C.The Kurukshetra plain
- D.The Yamuna belt
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Loor belongs to the sandy Bagar country of the south-west of the state, around Bhiwani and Mahendragarh, and is danced by women and girls in the month of Phalgun and at Holi, when the spring crop is standing.
Read the full explanation →On which occasion is the Khoria dance of Haryana performed?
- A.After the bridegroom's party leaves for the bride's village
- B.On the birth of a child
- C.At the end of the harvest
- D.During Gugga Naumi
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Khoria is danced by the women of the household among themselves once the men have set out with the wedding procession.
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