The Rich Dance Culture of Rajasthan.

Beautiful singing before the folk dance show begins!
I recenly visited Udaipur in Rajasthan, Udaipur is undoubtedly one of the most beatiful lake cities of India. Udaipur's breathtaking views and rich dance culture make it apt for tourists. The folk dance performances happen every evening at Bagore Ki Haveli, a palace on Lake Pichola that dates back to the 18th century. This is one of the best cultural shows I have ever witnessed. I was touched by every performance especially by the performane of a 70 year old artist who danced with eight to ten mud pots on her head, her balancing act was out this world. 

Below are some of the beautiful performances of the evening. Lets begin with CHAARI DANCE OF RAJASTHAN. In Chari dance women light fire in their pots, and then balance these brass pots on their heads and happily dance! The sight is dramatic and leaves you in awe. 
https://youtu.be/g1XLcFffe2k

GORBANDH DANCE
GAVARI - A Dance Drama of Bhils!

There is no definite origin of gavari. Some beliefs say the story of demon Bhasmasur who worshiped Lord Shiva, who pleased with bhashmasur’s devotion, granted him a strange wish that whenever he keeps his hand on anyone’s heads that person will die burning in fire. Thereafter, Bhasmasur started misusing the grant by killing innocent people on earth. Lord Vishnu to resolve the problem transformed himself into a beautiful woman named Mohini – the dancer and went to Bhasmasur. Bhasmasur fascinated by her beauty started imitating her dance and kept his hand on his head to copy mohini, thereby departed his life.
Bhasmasur’s soul asked forgiveness from lord Shiva and appealed Lord to keep him alive in minds of people in return of his great devotion. Lord Shiva thereafter declared that, for paying homage to a great devotee like Bhasmasur, Gavri will be celebrated every year. Since then this fest is organized in the region of Mewar by the Bhil Community.
In this folk play there are four kinds of characters – dev, humans, demons and animals. The RAI and BURIYA are the two main mythological characters to form the GAVARI, Bhil ritual performance. In GAVARI dance-drama group, there are two RAIs in form of PARVATI (GORJA) and MOHINI goddesses in female costumes who always stays or sits in the centre of the performing circle. The BHURIYA as Bhashmasur – keeps a wooden mask of black surrounding bull tail hair on his face and carrying a wooden stick or “Chhari“, always walks in opposite direction to other performers. The other priests as Bhairon and goddess Mata, stays with RAI as a guard to her.
Mostly in the day time they perform GAVARI in the village where they enact different mythological and social episodes with MADAL and THALI as their main musical instruments. People go from village to village, especially to the villages where their daughters and sisters reside after getting married.

TERAH TAALI DANCE:

Terah taali dance is one of the folk dances of Rajasthan, which is performed by the Kamada Tribe. Terah Taali Dance is one of the oldest performing arts of Rajasthan, the dance is performed with Manjeeras and other instruments made of metal. The unique part about this dance is the thirteen instruments used in different parts of the body and they way the dancer plays the manjeeras matching the background is simply exhillirating and leave you awestruck.

GHOOMAR

 Ghoomar dance came into being because of Bhil Tribe of Rajasthan and later became popular among various Rajasthan communities. The dance is performed by groups of women and is done in cricular fashion. The unique feature of this dance is the circles and the swirling part. The word Ghoomar is drived from the word Ghoomna! These were few of the amazing dances of Rajasthan.










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