Karma Dance

Understand

Where Karma Dance comes from

Karma dance (or Karma Naach) is a traditional dance of central and eastern India performed annually during the Karma festival. The festival begins on the eleventh day of the bright fortnight of the month of Bhadrab (August-September) and is observed across Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal. The festival centres on the worship of Karam Devta — the god of fate, understood as the cause of good and bad fortune. Karma is one of the most widely practised tribal dances of central India, performed by Oraon, Munda, Ho and other Adivasi communities of the Chota Nagpur plateau and its western extensions into Madhya Pradesh.

How it's practiced

Karma dance is performed by men and women in a circle around a freshly-cut branch of the Karma tree (held between the dancers and not touching the ground during the dance). The dancers hold each other around the waist and dance in coordinated steps to the heavy rhythm of the timki drum — the principal instrument — accompanied by thumki, chhalla, payri and jhumki. The men's steps are more vigorous and forward-moving while the women bend low to the ground, the two motions forming the dance's characteristic pattern. At the end of the dance the Karma branch is washed with rice and milk and installed at a central place for the rest of the festival.