Manipuri is from the northeastern state of Manipur. Manipur literally means “the city of jewels”. It is indeed a jewel. Surrounded by beautiful hills and verdant fields, this lovely state has given us one of the jewels of Indian culture, and that is Manipuri dancing. Dancing is a way of life with the people of Manipur. The people are deeply religious but no worship, no puja is possible unless it is accompanied by song and dance. As such every inhabitant knows how to dance and sing and many of them also play various instruments.
Intricacies of the dance form
The present Manipuri repertoire or the form was created sometime in the end of the 17th century and beginning of the 18th in the reign of Maharaja Shri Bhagyachandra. The present dance style, the classical part of it has two major streams. One is the sankirtana which is the devotional aspect and the other is rasa. The people who are by and large Vaishnavite in their faith have deep religious fervour towards Krishna and as such the different rasas that Lord Krishna is supposed to have performed with the gopis of Gokul on the banks of River Yamuna predominate in the presentation. The gorgeous colourful costumes enhance the aesthetic beauty of the dance style which has both tandava and lasya very well defined. The tandava aspect is presented in various drum dances pung-cholom and dances with cymbals in the hands karatala cholom. The lasya aspect is presented by the ethereally beautiful and delicate movements representing the gopis and Radha. This is Manipuri.
The early pre-Hindu dances of Manipur were of an animistic nature; then came dances offered as worship to Shiva and Parvati in their native avataras and then came Vaishnavism which took deep roots and is the chief religion of the state.
The Manipuri epic
At present there are two sects in Manipur–the Meiteis and the Vishnupriyas. The pre-Hindu culture of Manipur is that of the Meiteis. A favourite legend, which is a part of history also, is Khamba and Toibi who are the principal male and female characters of the great Manipuri epic ‘Moirang Parba’. It tells the story of their great love for each other, the great privation and opposition that they had to face from the society, their eventual short-lived marriage which ended in the death of both of them. Apart from their great love story, they are remembered as great dancers so much so that they were regarded as avataras of Shiva and Parvati. The favourite dance came to be known as Lai Haraoba (Festivity of Gods) which is one of the main facets of today’s Manipuri.
In the 18th century, King Pamheiba ascended the throne. He came under the influence of Vaishnavism and thus changed the entire nature of the social ethos of Manipur. He ordered all his subjects to embrace Vaishnavism and, in a religious fervour, destroy all the records of the earlier religion and its culture. He also forbade the worship of Meitei and the use of the Meitei language itself.
The Rasa dance
After him came the main architect of what we know as Manipuri-Maharaja Bhagyachandra who was a great devotee of Shri Krishna. In his reign the influence of Bengali took deep roots in Manipur. It is Bhagyachandra who created the Rasa dance under divine inspiration. The present Manipuri repertoire has three major streams.
- Sankeertana which is deeply religious and ritualistic in nature.
- Rasas performed by Krishna and gopis.
- Lai Haroaba which is the oldest traditional stylised dance.
There are three types of Rasas – Kunja Rasa, Vasanta Rasa and Maha Rasa. Kunja Rasa describes the meeting of Radha and Krishna with the help of the sakhis in a kunja or arbour.
Vasanta Rasa describes the divine play of rasa by Krishna and the gopis, and the resultant jealously of Radha and their eventual reconciliation. This dance is usually performed at the time of spring and ends with movements representing throwing and splattering of colour by Krishna and Radha, which is reminiscent of the Holi festival.
Maha Rasa captures the spirit of the divine rasa danced in a circle by Krishna and the gopis. All the rasas are performed on special full moon (Purnima) nights. They are very lyrical and have very graceful and fluid movements done to soft and light stepping which creates an ethereal atmosphere.
Dance postures
In Manipuri not only the hands and the face but the entire body is used to communicate ideas and meanings and thus one can say that it is nritya that predominates. In this light, the whole of the rasa technique though full of nritta patterns becomes, in effect, nritya. This use of the entire body to emote has, very naturally, lessened the emphasis on the mukhaja abhinaya which in comparison to the other dance styles looks very tame and insignificant. One must understand the completely philosophical and spiritual meaning of this underplay of emotions. Here the abhinaya is raised to such great spiritual heights that it ceases to be a mundane presentation of worldly moods and becomes an exalted transcendental affair where not so much the body, but the soul is to be taken as the supreme vehicle. Rasa thus has an ultimate religious and devotional fervour. The basic dance sequences, five in number are very intricate to dance which are called the bhangi pareng.
Manipuri is characterised by its fluid movements. Each movement appears to flow into the next one. It also has extremely graceful movements of the wrists and palms. Though having a wide variety of tala patterns; unlike other classical dances, Manipuri does not employ heavy and harsh pounding of the feet. The footwork is executed predominantly on toes lending the dance its renowned ethereal quality. The female dancers appear as if they are almost gliding in the air. Drum dances form an integral part of this dance style. Almost every dancer knows how to play on the pung and most, male dancers perform the pung cholom. Pung cholom literally means the drum dance. Here the dancer dances with the pung which is Manipuri ‘percussion instrument. It is perhaps the most beautiful manifestation of the abstract concept of tala being presented in a concrete lilt. The dancer dances and accompanies himself with the drum.
[/column][column size=”4/5″]
Dr. Kanak Rele.
The writer is Director, Nalanda Dance Research Center and is a recipient of Padmabhushan award, Akademi Ratna (Fellow of Sangeet Natak Akademi)[/column]