Dancing Around India: Chapter 9 – Manipuri Raas Leela
— by Srishti Bhattacharyya
–Reading Time – 13 min Approx
After her phone call with her friend Anamika, Sunetra had jotted down the address of where she was supposed to go. As it turned out, Anamika was a Manipuri Raas Leela dance trainer. After knowing about Sunetra’s new project, Anamika had invited her to spend one day with her in the dance school in Imphal where she teaches Manipuri dance drama.
Sunetra had readily agreed. It was her opportunity to meet up with her friend and also get a deeper insight into the Manipuri dance drama, she had no reason to say no. Her excitement of meeting her friend again led her to booking a flight at 10 in the morning to Imphal. Thus, after an early breakfast, Sunetra had made it to the airport by the clock struck 9 AM. Her flight was at 10:10 AM and was supposed to take only fifty-five minutes. So within the next one hour, Sunetra’s flight had landed in the Imphal International Airport.
Taking her luggage, she hired a cab to take her to the hotel Anamika had suggested to her. The Eco Heritage Villa was only 2.5 kilometres from the airport. As per their plan, Anamika would join her in her hotel room for lunch after which they will together go to her dance school.
Sunetra was excited. To know that one of her dearest friends had started her own dance school was huge news. She didn’t waste a single extra minute. Anamika has supposed to be there by 1 AM. She hit the showers and prayed that Anamika had lost her childhood habit of always being late. She was sure that she couldn’t wait any longer than she had to.
Sunetra didn’t have to wait much. Anamika had arrived early in fact. It was around 12:45 PM when Anamika had knocked on her door.
Sunetra couldn’t help the excitement and on opening the door, she noticed that Anamika was equally excited. The two old friends hugged.
“It’s been so long!” Anamika exclaimed.
“Almost three years,” Sunetra said with a cheerful smile.
Hesitantly Anamika released her from the hug, her eyes dropped down to her legs.
Sunetra smiled despite of the pang of hurt in her chest and shrugged it off.
“How have you been?” Anamika asked as she sat on the chair by the coffee table.
Sunetra seemed to think for a while before she gave her answer. “I am okay,” she nodded with a smile, “I have made peace with the accident. I might not be able to dance as much as I wanted, but I can still do something related to the classical dances.”
“That’s good,” she sighed, “I am so happy that you are doing well now. I remember how distraught you were after the accident.”
“I was, the thought that I would never be able to perform again was devastating. But with time you have to learn to deal with reality. I did too.”
Anamika smiled. They caught up about their old dance school, teachers and friends before they both decided to order lunch and dive into the story of the Manipuri Dance.
Sunetra had asked Anamika to choose their lunch for the day, her only condition being she wanted to taste a dish of the Manipuri Cuisine. Anamika remembered how much Sunetra loved vegetables and ordered a Manipuri dish called Chamthong or Kangshoi along with rice. This dish is a simple boiled dish where several vegetables are mixed with spices, salt, garlic, ginger and onion. This dish is one of Anamika’s favourites too and she was very eager to know Sunetra’s thoughts on it.
Once they had placed the order in their hotel restaurant, Sunetra urged Anamika to jump into the story.
The Manipuri Dance is one of the Indian classical dance forms that originated in the state of Manipur. This dance form is also known as Raas Leela. Raas Leela is based on the Hindu Vaishnavism themes. The exquisite performance of love is inspired by Raas Leela, the dance drama of Radha-Krishna, hence the name. The first written texts related to the Manipuri dance form were found in the early 18th century.
Like all the other Indian classical dances, the roots of the Manipuri dance, also known as Raas Leela, is set in the Natya Shastra, the ancient Indian Hindu Text. It is a fusion of all the local folk dance. Evidence has been found in the Vishnu temples of the medieval era that this dance form has been passed down verbally. The choreography is made in such a way that it shares the stories of Vaishnavite Padavalis, which are inspired by the performances related to Gaudiya Vaishnava that is found in Assam and West Bengal.
The historical texts of Manipur have not made it to the modern era. The most reliable records go back only to the early 18th century. Several theories about the original and ancient history of the Manipuri Raas Leela have been made based on the archaeological discoveries, oral traditions and references about Manipur in the Asian Manuscripts.
Bamon Khunthok, which stands for ‘Brahmin Migration’, is a text which states that in the 15th century the king of Manipur, who had arrived from the Shan kingdom of Pong, had adopted some Vaishnavism practises. Further waves of Hindus and Buddhists from West Bengal and Assam, in the mid-sixteenth century, i.e. during the Hindu-Muslim wars of the Bengal Sultanate, were whole with open arms in Manipur. In the year 1704, the king named Charai Rongba had not only adopted Vaishnavism but declared it as the state religion. Vaishnavism emphasized dancing, singing, religious performing arts that were centred around Krishna – the Hindu God. A few years later, in 1734, which was once only a devotional dance drama focusing on the Hindu God Rama, expanded into the Manipuri dance tradition.
It was one Maharaja Bhagyachandra of the late 18th century of Manipur had adopted the Gaudiya Vaishnavism that has codified and documented the Manipuri dance style. This is what had launched the golden era of the refinement and development of the dance form. The Raas Leela dance form has been divided into five types, out of which three are composed by him. Those three types of Raas Leelas are – The Maha Raas, The Basanta Raas and the Kunja Raas. During his reign, these were also performed in Imphal at the Sri Sri Govindaji Temple. He had also composed the Achouba Bhangi Pareng Dance. The elaborate costume called Kumli, which is a cylindrical, long, stiff skirt, was also designed by him. This costume makes it seem like the dancer is floating. The Govind Sangeet Lila Vilasa is an important text that states the details of the fundamentals of this dance. This text was also attributed to him. Another thing that he is credited with is starting public performances of the Manipuri Dances and Raas Leela in the temples.
Another one of the important figures in the history of the Manipuri Dance is Maharaja Gambhir Singh. He had composed the Gosththa Bhangi Pareng, the two parengs of Tandava type, and the Goshtha Vrindaban Pareng.
Maharaja Chandra Kirti of the late 19th century had composed 64 drum dances called Pung Choloms, the Vrindaban Bhangi Pareng, Khrumba Bhangi Pareng and two parengs of Lasya type. He was also a very gifted drummer.
Later on in 1891 when the British Colonial Government brought Manipur under their control along with the other Indian states, like the other Indian classical dance forms, Manipuri dance was also ridiculed, called immoral, old-fashioned and ignorant. It had survived only in the temples. At that time, the expansion of the Manipuri dance and the age of creative systemization had come to an end. Finally, the scholars and Indian independence movement activists had resisted this cultural discrimination and the dance was revived.
Laureate Rabindranath Tagore was the one who had put in great efforts and had given a second chance to the dance genre of Manipuri Raas Leela. While in 1919, in Sylhet in Bangladesh, Rabindranath had witnessed the dance composition of Goshtha Lila, he had been thoroughly impressed. This had urged him to invite Guru Budhimantra Singh, who was a learned trainer of the Manipuri Raas Leela Dance to be a faculty member of his centre of Indian culture and studies in Shantiniketan. In 1926, Guru Naba Kumar had also joined the faculty there to teach the Manipuri Raas Leela. Senarik Singh Rajkumar, Nileshwar Mukherjee, Atomba Singh were a few of the famous dance trainers whom Tagore had invited to be the choreographer of several of his dance dramas.
At this point, a knock sounded on the door. Anamika got up to let the bellboy in and place their food on the table. After letting him out, she served herself and Sunetra and continued with the story.
The performances of the Manipuri Raas Leela are graceful, sinuous, fluid and lay greater emphasis on the upper body movements and hand gestures. The music for this classical dance is devotional and is created with several instruments. The beat is set by the cymbals (i.e the manjira or Kartal), and the double-headed drum (known as pung or Manipuri Mrdanga).
The basic dance movement in the Manipuri Raas Leela dance form is called ‘Chari’ or ‘Chali’. The underlying play and repertoire depend on the season. The dance performances are usually celebrated three times in the months of autumn, i.e. from August to November, and in spring, i.e in March or April, during the full moon nights. Basanta Raas, also known as the festival of Colours and ‘Holi’ as well as the festival of Diwali are two festivals when the Manipuri dances are celebrated too. During both of these events, the celebratory plays and recitations pay a tribute to the stories of Radha and Krishna, with the inclusion of the characters of ‘Gopis’ called Vishakha, Champaklata, Lalita, Indurekha, Tungavidya, Sudevi and Rangadevi. For each Gopi, the dance sequence and composition is different.
The play mostly focuses on Krishna and Radha. The dancer playing Krishna has to express a lot of emotions and the dancers playing Gopi have to use their body language and hand gestures to express feelings like dejection, longing and cheer.
There are several other Manipuri dance plays where the dancers have to be more acrobatic and forceful. Their costumes are also adjusted to provide to the need of the dance. The ‘Gopa Ras’ is danced by dozens of boys in sync. There they enact the chores of their daily lives, like feeding cows and more. Ragini Devi states that in ‘Uddhata Aknba’, the dance is filled with energy, elegance, and jumps.
The costumes of classical Manipuri Raas Leela dance also have a unique feature to them. The women dancers are made to dress like a Manipuri bride. They have to wear the Potloi Costume with a notable Kumil, which is a barrel-shaped skirt that is decorated elaborately. It is a long skirt where the bottom and the part close to the top are stiffened. Gold and silver embroidery is what decorates the barrel. There are also border prints of lotus and also small pieces of mirrors on it. A Kumila, which is a tight, sarong like wear, an adaptation of Phanek
