The National Mask Dance Festival ‘Mukhabhinaya’ at Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya concluded on Tuesday. The chief guest of the concluding day was Chief Workshop Manager of WCR lakshmi Raman.
The audience enjoyed the performances on the last of the festival. The artists from Odisha presented ‘Bagh Dance’ where they gave the message to save environment and save tiger. The strong and energetic performance of ‘Chou dance’ mesmerised audience. The artists from Jharkhand presented stories from Hindu epics, the only music was of the drums.
The animal Mask Dance locally known as Pasu Mukha Nrutya is one of the ancient dance forms prevailed in the district of Ganjam, Odisha, especially in Bhanjanagar sub-division. The Northern part of Ganjam is the most populated area of tribes and Goddess Byaghra Devi and Thakurani Devi is worship by the tribals as their deities.
The tiger mask dance which is popularly prevailed is Bhanjanagar is now gradually vanishing. In the honor of these deities artist wearing a life-size tiger mask along with other animas like Bull, Horse, lion, Deer, Peacock, Duck, etc performs as their representatives during Byaghra devi and Takurani devi yatra. They form a procession with the rhythmic sounds of ‘Changu’(single membrane drum) and Kahali(trumpet) played by traditional drummers and players.
Chhau dance is a genre of Indian tribal martial dance which is popular in the Indian states of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The Chhau dance is mainly performed during regional festivals, especially the spring festival of Chaitra Parva which lasts for thirteen days and in which the whole community participates. The dance is performed by male dancers from families of traditional artists or from local communities and is performed at night in an open space, called akhada or asar.
A variety of drums accompany the music ensemble including the dhol (a cylindrical drum), dhumsa (a large kettle drum) and kharka or chad-chadi. The themes for these dances include local legends, folklore and episodes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata and other abstract themes.
‘Mahishasura Mardini’ is a story taken from ‘Shiv Puran’ where Mahishasura abusing his powers to tried to capture heaven, hell and mortal world. Then Goddess Durga was worshiped by all deities. listening to the prayers goddess Durga appears and kills Mahishasur. This epic is a display of victory of truth on evil.