A three-day programme highlighting the glory and aesthetic art of North-Eastern India under the celebration of the 37th Foundation Day of Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (IGRMS) concluded with a cultural programme on Saturday.
The cultural programme started with the presentation of Basanta Raas of Manipur. This elegant dance was based on the Bhagavata tradition of the Sringara Raas of the lord Krishna and his Gopies led by Shrimati Radhika as conceived by the great gurus of Manipur. The Gopies led by Radhika responding to flute to the lord came to the appointed grove and danced together and concluded with Milan of the lord Krishna and Radhika.
Basanta Raas was followed by a unique and classical act of an exorbitant movement of balance and thrilling gestures of bodily movement by a girl with her props — the Chei-Haibee dance. The word Chei-Haibee means swinging and balancing of sticks. This dance form has evolved as an art of defence for warfare under the patron of the Maharaja of Manipur, it gradually took the shape of a dance from and people fondly called as ‘stick dance’. The performance was summarised by Niyushi tribe group dance from Andhra Pradesh.
After such mesmerising performances, watching Assam troupe was a treat to the eyes of the audience. They presented Assamese famous Bihu dance. This was followed by Pheta-Folk dance of Nagaland, Wangala dance of Meghalaya, Hojagiri dance of Tripura and Sarlamkai dance of Mizoram at open air stage of the Manav Sangrahalaya.
Apart from this, the visitors were served with ethnic Mukhruchi food. Besides this, a workshop on Bio-Cultural Diversity, Environment and Sustainable Development was organised by Anthropological Survey of India at the Rock Art Centre of the Manav Sangrahalaya. In this workshop, scholars and researchers presented papers.