Jagar (Jagar Nritya)

Understand

Where Jagar (Jagar Nritya) comes from

Jagar (or Jagar Nritya) is the trance-dance of the Kumaon and Garhwal regions of Uttarakhand, performed at the Jagar ceremony — a night-long ritual in which the local deity (the Gram Devta or the Kuldevta) is invoked through the performance of epic songs (the Jagar songs) and through the dance of the medium. The form is associated with the regional pantheon of the Kumaoni and Garhwali deities and with the local-tradition of the Jagar performance. The Jagar has been documented as one of the most distinctive ritual-dance forms of the hills of Uttarakhand and is recognised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi as a regional folk form. The Jagar songs are in the Garhwali and Kumaoni dialects and narrate the legends of the local gods.

How it's practiced

Jagar is performed in the courtyard of the village shrine of the local deity, particularly at the night-long Jagar ceremony of the Kumaon and Garhwal regions. The ceremony begins with the players (the Jagar singers) singing the epic of the local deity — typically the epic of the Kumaoni goddess (Nanda Devi, Mahasu) or the Garhwali local god. The medium (the Jagar dancer) is summoned and begins to dance in time to the song, entering into the possession state in which the deity is believed to speak through the medium. The dance is rhythmic, with the medium swaying and turning to the music of the small Hurka drum and the brass shehnai. Costume is the regional dress — the dhoti-kurta for the men and the colourful sari for the women, with the small white pagdi of the medium. Performances run through the entire night of the Jagar ceremony.