Sacred Dance of India

Author(s): Mrinalini Sarabhai
Publisher: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan

Page 47

Scarves, also, have through the ages been utilised for the dance and in Kashmir, there is a terracotta sculpture of a dancer holding a long scarf, dated around the 4th century
There are also animal dances where human beings hope to entice the animals and birds they hunt The Juangs, the Gonds, the Beigas have beautiful dances of birds and in the classical dance the Kathakali dancers give remarkable representations of the swan, the peacock, the deer, the elephant and many other animals
There are also 'question and answer' dances, where opposite groups converse with each other in song and dance The Sangla and the Dangi dance of Himachal Pradesh are of this variety and in the Sangla, the dancers sing with extraordinary harmony, in voices that echo through the hills The dance may also be merely acrobatic like the Raibenshe dance of Bengal which is an ancient war-dance, where dancers also show their balance and skıll, as in the Savara dancers of Sarangarh In the Punjab, the Bhangra, celebrating the harvest, is a vigorous expression of the energy of Life The Thumar too, executed first in simple rhythm, and then becoming faster and faster, uses sticks to harmonise with the beat of the drum
Sometimes the dance is in the form of a game as in the Hakat dance of Kashmir, where children clap their hands and whirl around to the rhythm of the music in a movement known to young people everywhere Dancers who clap their hands, dancers with sticks, with bells, with lamps, dancers on stills with scarves, are prevalent throughout the country The Tera-talı of Rajasthan, is performed by women, while seated on the ground The cymbals or manera are tied to various parts of the body and the dancer with the manjira in her hand plays the rhythm in thirteen variations
In the incense-dances of Bengal, the dancers with pots of incense in their hands, keep rhythm, throwing more incense into the fire, causing a spurt of smoke and flames as they move, creating a weird atmosphere
The richness of the Indian dance has remained in all its variety through the centuries In the cities, as in the remote areas, the human being has sought solace in the abandonment of the body, evoking a power that will bless and enlighten Whether it be in classical style or folk-form, the dancer has always been a supplicant who is transformed into a god-like being as he dances
It is as though the simple rhythm of the body, as it moves, becomes one with the universal rhythm of the spheres That this is possible is the sacred message of the Indian dance,
rhythm, th Dengal, the den in thirteen
Raj Gond (Andhra)