The masks are heavy and do not permit the dancers to breathe normally, so after a particularly strenuous piece, the performer flings himself onto the line of attendants, gasping madly. They inevitably collapse like dominoes onto the screaming children, as they frantically rip off their masks. This adds to the strange, unearthly feeling of the evening...

On the fourth night, the dance festival begins at the Kalika Ghat. The dancer wears a black costume and covered in black body paint looks terrifying. He dances his way up in a trance from the river, surrounded by the bhaktas, and comes to the Shiva temple. Outside the temple a brief ceremony takes place in front of a small fire while the dancer sways his body and rolls his eyes.

– Extract from an article on Chhau by Ram Rahman

Story-telling

Everyone loves a good story. We have heard stories from our grandparents, parents, family and friends throughout our childhood.

In India we have invented many ways of telling stories. A few of them are described below.

Puppetry: A puppet is a doll or figure representing a person, animal, object or an idea and is used to tell a story. The puppet is made of various materials and can be moved in different ways. Puppets are classified as follows on the basis of the way they are moved in performance:

♦ string puppets

♦ glove puppets

♦ rod puppets

♦ shadow puppets

Scroll Paintings: There are different kinds of scroll paintings in India. Scroll paintings usually done on cloth are narratives on different social and religious themes. The narrators sing and explain these themes, sometimes accompanied by instrumentalists. Especially famous are the scroll paintings from Rajasthan, West Bengal and Orissa.

Theatre: It is a great form for story-telling in which one or more actors using the skills of dancing, acting, singing, talking, miming and theatre crafts like masks, make-up and costumes create a story world for us.

Every corner of India has its own unique form of folk theatre — the lively Nautanki of Uttar Pradesh which often draws on romantic Persian literature for its themes; raw vigour and bawdy humour characterise the Tamasha of Maharashtra or the Bhavai of Gujarat; the blood and thunder of the Jatra melodramas of Bengal which are in great demand during Puja (Dussehra) festivities: or the dance-drama form of Yakshagana from Karnataka, to name just a few.

In this chapter we look at only a few of these to encourage you to look for and discover any similar traditions that exist in your own neighbourhood.

 

How the Chhau Mask Is Made

The most beautiful masks in our country are made for the Chhau dance form. Chhau is a style performed exclusively by men from the triangular area where Bihar, Bengal and Orissa meet. This is the tribal belt of India — home to the tribal groups of Bhulya, Santhals, Mundas, Hos and Oraons. The masks they use vary depending on the style of Chhau practised — Seraikella Chhau or Purulia Chhau. In the third form of Chhau, Mayurbhanj Chhau, masks are not worn.

The Chhau mask is made of potters’ clay (matti ghada) over which layers of muslin are pasted followed by paper (kagaz chitano). Using a delicate wooden chisel, different features of the mask are polished — the nose, eyes, ears, chin and lips. Once it is dried it is painted in pastel colours (kahij lepa). Then the mask is separated from the clay model and fully dried in the sun. The clay is then reshaped to make another mask. Finally, the mask is worn with a highly decorated head-dress of tinsel, pearls, coloured paper and artificial flowers.

Mask making is a hereditary occupation and mask makers come from Chorinda village in Bengal. Masks are made between February and June as it does not rain at this time, but the fragility of the mask ensures its makers are always in high demand. It is only in Chhau that all the dancers wear masks. The sophistication of technique and expression is most evident when the mask is seen in movement.

Though they appear flat and neutral with their distinguishing features of arched eyebrows and elongated half-closed eyes, the masks acquire a whole range of expression with every twist and turn of the body. Accompanied by the huge dhamsa drums and two energetic dhol players who provoke and encourage the dancers, the Chhau dancer makes lightning body movements known as chamak.

Excavations have revealed small hollow masks dating back to the Indus Valley Civilisation. In fact in Bihar a terracotta mask of the fourth century has also been excavated. The Natya Shastra speaks of masks and their use in theatre. Here it is mentioned that masks can be made of ground paddy husks applied to cloth.

 

Musical Instruments

Music is an important component of the performing arts like dance and drama, and of rituals. Each community has its own style of music and tradition of songs.

There are essentially two ways to make music: with the human voice and with an instrument.

The musical instruments are classified on the basis of the scientific principle used to create the sound they make. They are briefly described below.

Percussion Instruments: These instruments are struck to produce sound. Often these are used to produce the taal or beat and do not produce all the musical notes—manjeera or cymbals.

Wind Instruments: These need air to flow through them to produce sound—bansuri or flute.

String Instruments: These are instruments that use one or many tightly tied strings that when struck vibrate to create sound—the veena or ektara.

Drums: A drum is made of a membrane stretched across a hollow frame and played by striking — the dholak or mridangam.

Drums of India

A membrane made of hide, tautly stretched over a bowl or frame, is the key element in generating drum sounds — which is why this family of musical instruments is called membranophones. Tablas, dholaks, damrus, naggadas, chendas and many others fall in this category.

Drum makers are specialists; chiselling a solid block of wood to create just the right pitch is skilled work, and is very exacting. Although the drum base is sometimes carved, the craftsman is more concerned with the audio effect of the cavity, its size and shape, and the thickness of the wood that is to be used, than with the form or decoration of
the drum.

Dholak: We come across the dholakwallah most commonly in our cities. Though it looks simple, dholak making involves a great deal of effort. To start with, the wood has to be perfectly seasoned. Dholakwallahs buy the readymade wooden shells primarily from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh.

These shells are smoothened and vigorously polished with a special mud-paste. Thick string is toughened and interwoven through hooks in the shell. Goat leather flaps are hemmed onto the two sides—and the dholak is ready.

Then comes the sound testing routine—rhythmic tapping to determine if the notes are right.

Dholakwallahs belong mainly to Uttar Pradesh coming from Barabanki, Gonda, Allahabad and Kanpur. They are nomadic and travel the length and breadth of the country selling their ‘wonder drums’ wherever they go. A market for dholaks exists all over India, with Delhi, Bombay, Lucknow and Amritsar as the main centres.