Domni (Bihar)

Understand

Where Domni (Bihar) comes from

The Domni dance is associated with the Dom community of Bihar — the drum-beater caste whose hereditary occupation was the serving of the drum at Hindu festivals and marriages. The Dom communities of north Bihar (Tirhut, Mithila and Bhagalpur) developed a distinctive dance-and-dom-dom (small drum) playing tradition, performed at the weddings, Sohrai celebrations and lifecycle rites of the village. The form is part of the wider Bhojpuri-Maithili drum-dance tradition and is documented as one of the lesser-documented but living folk-art forms of Bihar. The Domni tradition has continued in the Tola (small district) areas of north Bihar and has been revived in the cultural programmes of the state.

How it's practiced

Domni is performed by the Dom community at the village wedding, with the men playing the dom-dom (the small hand-drum covered with goat-skin, beaten with two curved sticks) and the women and children dancing in a circle or procession. The dance is vigorous, with the footwork rhythmic to the dom-dom and the dhol. The accompanying songs are the folk verses of the Dom community's song tradition — typically the Domni-Geet, with their own imagery of the village and life. Costume is the everyday rural Dom dress — the dhoti-kurta for men and the colourful sari for the women. The dance is performed in the procession of the village wedding and at the evening of the village celebrations.