Dancing Around India: Chapter 8 – Assam Folk Dances
— by Srishti Bhattacharyya
–Reading Time – 13 min Approx
When Sunetra went back to her hotel after her day out with Mrs. and Mr. Chakraborty, she was feeling blessed to have visited this family of two. The places she visited and the historical facts that Mr. Chakraborty shared with her helped her in understanding the heritage of the city. She had even collected a few souvenirs as a reminder of this place.
While lying on her bed in the hotel room that night, Sunetra couldn’t help but think about the entire day. The snacks she had in the evening were enough to make her feel full so she didn’t order anything for dinner. She had learned about more than just a few dances in this place and her hands were itching to just write her experience down in her journal. Since she couldn’t afford to forget the little details she learned that day, she finally gave in to the overwhelming urge and took out her diary and pen and started scribbling in her journal. After an hour or so, when she was almost done, the tiring events of the day finally caught up to her and she went to sleep with her journal still opened in front of her while using her hand as a pillow.
The next morning when Sunetra woke up, the clock read around half-past eight. With a full night’s sleep, she was finally feeling fully rested. She had enough time on her watch to complete her journal entry which she had fallen asleep while writing and leisurely freshened up and took a shower before calling the hotel restaurant for her breakfast.
Simple bread butter and omelet didn’t take too long and while eating, Sunetra started mentally planning her next destination.
Initially, Sunetra had planned to visit Manipur after West Bengal. However, while buying the tickets of the flight, she noticed that going to Assam was more convenient for her than visiting Manipur as it saved her a day’s time. So she changed her schedule a little and planned to visit Assam first and then Manipur.
She didn’t know anyone in Assam, there were no people there and she hadn’t found any links to anybody either. So her plan for this state was to simply experience a day in the city of Guwahati, their food, people, et cetera, and read about the dance forms of the place in a book she had bought.
By the time Sunetra was done, it was time for her to leave for the station. It was gonna be a hectic day for Sunetra. Her Train from the Bolpur Station was supposed to leave at half-past eleven, or 11:28 AM to be more precise, and reach the Howrah Station at half-past one. She was then supposed to go straight to the airport and get her lunch there before boarding her flight which was supposed to take off at 04:20 PM. By 05:35PM, she was supposed to reach Guwahati.
Without wasting much time, she checked out from the hotel, hired an auto to take her to the railway station where she found her compartment before taking her seat. Throughout her train journey, Sunetra did some research on the two dance forms of Assam when her phone had network and the other times, enjoyed the scenery out the window.
Her research had taught her a lot about the Bihu dance form. As much as Sunetra knew, Bihu is a folk dance in the state of Assam and is related to the Bihu festival. A group of dancers, consisting of both men and women perform this dance and have made it an important fragment of the Assamese culture. The style of the dance includes rapid hand movements and sharp steps while wearing traditional colorful clothes, mostly based on the theme of red, signifying vigor and joy.
Not much is known about the origin of the Bihu Dance form. The folk dance plays a very important role in the representation of the culture of Assam’s diverse ethnic groups like Deoris, Kaivarttas, Sonowal, Chutias, Kacharis, Rabhas, Borahis, Moran, Misings among others. According to some of the scholars, the origin of the Bihu dance form happened in the ancient fertility cults which were associated with increasing the fertility of the land as well as the demographic. According to the traditions, the local farming communities performed the Bihu dance in fields, forests, groves, or the banks of rivers, especially under a fig tree.
In the 9th century sculptures of the Darrang and Tezpur district in Assam, the first depictions of the Bihu dance form were seen. It is also mentioned in the inscriptions of King Lakhshminaryan, a king of the 14th Century Chutiya Kingdom.
The cultural and social importance of the Bihu dance is also of great importance. The name of the dance form, Bihu, comes from the Bohag Bihu festival, also known as Rangali Bihu, which is the national festival of Assam. This festival is famous as the celebration of the Assamese New Year. The festival is timed around mid-April and the Bihu dance in the festival signifies the celebration and the emulation of the seasonal spirit. It marks the celebration of passion and fertility.
A group of young men and women perform this dance. Earlier, the Bihu dance served the purpose of a courtship dance. It is associated with the fertility of nature, that is the celebration of the spring season and the arrival of the spring rain which will give life to the crops. However, the erotic nature of the dances makes people believe that it also signifies human fertility. The drums and horn-pipes are the two major musical instruments used in this dance form as they are believed to replicate the sound of thunder and rain. It is a way of invoking precipitation.
Historical evidence has been found that supports the fact that the Bihu dance form was looked down upon by the Assamese people during colonial times. This was mostly because of the sexually charged nature of the dance form. It clashed with the Victorian views that were dominant among the British colonialist of the period.
Currently, the Bihu dance form has become a cultural emblem and plays a very important role in modern Assamese society as it has become a symbol of the Assamese cultural identity. Whereas it was only famous in the rural areas of Assam prior to independence, now it has managed to make some name and gain popularity in the face of urbanization. The dance form is now practiced and accepted in the urban centers of the region. It was in 1962, only 15 years after independence, that Bihu dance was performed on stage for the first time at a cultural event in Guwahati.
The performances began just like any other dance form. The male and female dancers together walk into the stage or the performance space. It is the men who first start playing the musical instruments. While the men start with the instruments, the women stand there with their hands above their hips, the palms facing outwards and form an inverted triangular shape. With the tune of the music, the women slowly start to gently sway and bend forward from the waist. Their legs remain slightly apart and their shoulders open up, taking the main posture of the Bihu dance form. As this goes on, the tempo of the tune played by the male monks, also called ‘bhokots’ become more intense, making the women thrust forward their chest and pelvis alternatively. In some variations, the men and women form lines and face one another while holding each other’s waist and neck, and in case of other more advanced sequences, of the dance form, the men and women pair at the center of the stage or performance area and perform a dance that signifies copulation.
Sunetra closed the tabs of chrome in her mobile and stared out in wonder. It was a shame she didn’t know anybody in Assam. However, she was also content with her plan of just experiencing and enjoying the places in Guwahati.
The train ride from Bolpur Station to the Howrah Junction only took about two hours. By the time Sunetra stepped onto the Howrah station at half-past one, she had utilized the time to learn all she could find about the Bihu Dance form.
Two hours to get some lunch, and go through the security check in the airport before she had to board the flight, even considering the traffic in the streets of Kolkata, she knew she had enough time.
From the Howrah railway station, she hadn’t wasted even a little time and hired a cab to take her to the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport, where her flight to Guwahati will take off at twenty minutes past four.
The lunch she had was a regular corn and cheese pizza from Domino’s near the airport. Checking in, going through the security check, boarding her flight, and landing in Guwahati was gone by the blink of an eye, and by 6 PM, she found herself in another cab in Guwahati taking her to the hotel she had booked. The Kiranshree Grand Hotel was only 1.7 kilometers from the airport. Sunetra had the next whole day to visit the tourists’ spots in Guwahati and eat some of Assam’s special dishes.
Sunetra had one day before she was going to travel to her next destination. So on this one day, she planned to visit the places like Kamakhya Temple, Umananda Temple, Assam State Museum, Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, and the Fancy Bazar. She also planned on tasting the famous dishes like Duck Meat Curry, Khaar, Xaak Aru Bhaji Oou Khatta, and others the next day.
For this day, she wanted to stick to simple food. So after she had freshened up, she ordered a simple plate of Paro Mangxo, a traditional made out of pigeon meat, and started her research on Sattriya dance form.
Sattriya is an Indian classical dance form attributed to the Bhakti movement saint and scholar of the 15th century, Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardev. It is a performance art that originated in the Vaishnavism monasteries.
The Sattriya dance dramas that only have one act to play are called Ankiya Nat. These plays were usually performed in the monastery temples or dance community halls and were an incredible merge of the religious and the aesthetic through the dance, ballad, and drama. The themes of these plays are mostly related to Lord Krishna, and other Vishnu Avatars like Rama and Sita, with reference to the Hindu epics, Ramayana and The Mahabharata.
The roots of the Sattriya dance form can be traced back to the ancient music texts and dramas of India, Bharata Muni’s Natya Sastra to be more precise. The history of Sattriya dance can be traced back to the inscriptions and sculptors related to the Shaktism and Shaivism traditions. Sankaradeva from the 15th Century had introduced the modern form of Sattriya by systemizing the dance form with the help of ancient texts. He had started using expressive dance and drama as means of emotional dedication to Lord Krishna and as a form of religious art.
The Vaishnava Bhakti movement helped the Sattriya dance form to grow. The monks practiced the Sattriya dance-dramas based on the stories of myths and legends of Krishna from the texts of Bhagavata Purana. This dance is not performed in front of any religious idol but is performed in front of a copy of the Bhagavata Purana placed on the eastern side of the dance hall, also known as Manikut of the dance hall.
Sankaradeva, the Assamese poet and saint had written and directed most of the Sattriya dance-dramas. It was once only performed by males but is now performed by females too. Like all the other classical dance forms, Sattriya performances also can be grouped into three groups –
- Nritta – It is an abstract, rhythmic and fast aspect of the dance. The movements are pure and the emphasis is on the beauty in form, motion, range, speed, and pattern. This repertoire has no interpretive aspect or storytelling.
- Nritya – This is a slower and more expressive aspect of the dance. It is an attempt to express the feelings and storyline related to the spiritual themes. The silent expressions, gestures, and body motions based on the musical notes that tell the story are more than just sensory entertainment and aims to target the mind and emotions of the viewer.
- Natya – Natya is basically a play, a team performance that can be acted out by a solo artist as well.
Apart from these, there are also hand gestures or ‘mudras’, footwork or ‘padas’ and other aspects of Sattriya that follow closely the descriptions in the Natya Sastra like the other classical Indian dance forms like Odissi, Bharatnatyam, Kathakali, et cetera. The basic dance unit of Sattriya is known as ‘Mati Akhara’, which equals 64 foundational sets that the dancers learn during their training. The Ankharas are classified into Saatam Ora, Jhalak, Pak, Sitika, Khar and Lon. The performances are also of two types – masculine (filled with energy and jumps, called Paurashik Bhangi) and feminine (filled with delicate steps, called Lasya or Stri Bhangi).
When a knock on her door sounded, Sunetra reluctantly left her laptop on the table and opened the door to let the hotel staff place her food on the table and went straight back to the page opened in chrome that had her whole attention.
The Sattriya dance form has two types of costumes, one for the male dancers and one for the female dancers. The male dancer’s costume consists of a dhoti, a chadar, and a paguri (i.e. a turban) while the female’s costume consists of a ghuri, chadar, and a kanchi (i.e. waist cloth). The costumes were usually white, or other raw silk colors like red, yellow, and blue. Whereas velvet and satin were used earlier, with time, the material of the dance costumes also evolved. Paat (silk produced from the mulberry plant in Assam) and Muga Silk (golden silk of Assam) are not used to make the dance costumes. The materials are handwoven and are decorated with intricate local motifs like Miri, Kingkhap, Kolka, Motif et cetera.
Some costumes are play-specific, for example, the yellow and blue colored costumes are saved for part of Lord Krisha while a special type of turban and the white costume was kept aside for the Sutradhar Nritya.
Traditional Assamese jewellery, made through a unique technique from raw gold, or ‘Kesa Sun’ is also a part of the costume. Kopali on the forehead, bracelets called Gam Kharu and Muthi Kharu, neckpieces called Mata Moni for the males are some of the most common jewellery found to be a part of the costume. Some other important neckpieces used in the costumes of Sattriya dance form are Bena (a crescent-shaped pendant), Dugdugi (leaf-shaped), Dhansira (a strand of rice grain), Jethipata (lizard-shaped), Senpata (eagle-shaped), and Lokaparo (pigeon design). Earrings of the similar design are also worn by dancers. Female dancers also wear white flowers in their hair. There are also masks to depict demons and special characters.
Sunetra swallowed all this information with as much enthusiasm as she could procure. The story of Msam Kavitha Supramaniam, which promoted the dance overseas filled her with joy. She was an accomplished dancer from Malaysia who learned the dance under the guidance of Preeti Chowdhury, her teacher from Assam.
Sunetra’s phone rang at this moment. At first, she was annoyed by the interruption but when her eyes fell on the caller ID and she recognized the name to belong to a friend whom she hadn’t spoken to in a while.
After a rush of excited greetings, when her friend asked her what she has been up to, Sunetra jumped in the details of her past destinations as well as the current place that she was in. However, the funny thing was knowing that Anamika, her friend was currently residing in Manipur and choreographing a dance drama.
A feeling of gratefulness took over her as Sunetra realized that in her next destination, that she wouldn’t feel so lonely.
— by Srishti Bhattacharyya
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