Folk Arts Project
Documenting the folk arts of Odisha
There are literally hundreds of folk arts in Odisha. Only a handful them are popular enough for even a significant number of people to know their name, leave alone know what it is about. This disturbs me no end.
And so I decided I’ll try to audio-visually document anything and everything about any Odia folk art I can. I’ll keep updating this page.
Please help me with the contact details of any artists you know.
Ghoda Nacha
Presented by the fisherfolk of Odisha, this traditional dance whose name literally translates to ‘horse-dance’ is one of the most popular folk dances. They believe that the horse was gifted to them by Vishnu. The legend further tells that Vishnu advised them to worship the Goddess Basuli. Hence, every performance starts in front of a humble village shrine of the mother-goddess with an invocation to her.
The most popular version is where a main speaker talks about some story from the epics. It is elaborated upon through music and is filled with profound interpretations. The musical segments are when men wearing horse-puppets dance to the tune. This is more of a folk-theatre that tells stories musically, not just a dance.
Another variant is where there are just the huge horse-puppets. They sway to the tune of traditional music. This is just pure dance.
Kendera Gita / Jogi Gita
The kenderā is an ethnic stringed instrument ritually used by ascetics of the nātha sect while gathering alms. It is normally made of a coconut shell on which the skin of a monitor lizard has been stretched. A bamboo stick is used as the bow for the instrument. Its sonorous music paired with ancient mournful tunes and a sharp voice can move people to tears.
The begging-songs of these wandering yogis form the class of folk-songs known as kenderā gīta (after the instrument) or jogī gīta, literally ‘song of the yogi.’
One day, this happened -
And so I recorded six songs from him. Most people are only aware of the one ‘ଭଜୁକିନା ରାମନାମରେ କୁମର’ but that is not all the jogīs sing; their repertoire is vast and mostly unknown. All of the videos will soon be on YouTube with Odia & English subtitles. Here’s the YouTube playlist -
Instruments of Odisha is a related project in which I document traditional musical instruments of my state. This article contains a bit more information about the kendera and about documentation work by other people.
Mayurbhanj Chhau
Chhau is a traditional folk dance having its roots in tribal dances. It has three distinct schools or styles : Mayurbhanj in Odisha, Seraikela in Jharkhand and Purulia in West Bengal. This is the Mayurbhanj style, characterised by its movements that never stop, giving it a ‘floating’ appearance. This continuous ‘flowy’ movement is perfected by dancers over years of rigorous practice. The Mayurbhanj style is the only one that does not employ masks.
This video was shot during the National Chhou Festival organised by the Odisha Sangeet Natak Academy at Rabindra Mandap, Bhubaneswar on 26/11/2017.
This dance item is called Nataraja and the performers were from the Utkal Sangeet Mahavidyalaya.
Prahallada Nataka
While I have not done any first-hand documentation of Prahallada Nataka, I’ve tried numerous times to make more people aware by annotating and retrieving rare clips about this rather unheard form.
I collated some of the info into this article. It includes a subtitled video of the trance that the Nrusingha actor gets into during the ritual performance.
