Mughal-Indo-Persian Court Dance (Delhi)

Understand

Where Mughal-Indo-Persian Court Dance (Delhi) comes from

The Mughal court of Delhi (and the Indo-Islamic sultanate-era Delhi court) was the principal crucible of the courtly-dance tradition that later evolved into the modern Kathak. The court of the Delhi Sultanate and the Mughal court (under Akbar, Jahangir, Shahjahan and Aurangzeb) patronised the dance of the kathakars and the tawaifs (the court women) of the harem and the darbar. The dance tradition was strongly influenced by the Persian court-dance vocabulary of central Asia and Iran, with the nazakat (grace), the adab (the manners) and the khushbu (the refinement) of the court forming the central aesthetic. With the decline of the Mughal court, much of the court-dance tradition passed into the kothas (the hereditary court-music houses) of Delhi and Lucknow and the modern Kathak tradition is the direct continuation. Today the court-dance tradition is revived in the cultural programmes of the city and in the institutions of the central government of India.

How it's practiced

The Mughal-Indo-Persian court-dance tradition of Delhi is performed in the cultural programmes of the city (particularly the annual Mughal festival) by the Kathak exponents of the Delhi-Lucknow gharana. The dance draws on the nawabi-influenced dance vocabulary — the small nazakat-gesture of the hand, the soft sway of the body, the small chakkars. The dance is performed at the courtly settings (the Mughal-revival banquet of the Bikaner House, the cultural festival of the Red Fort) and at the cultural programmes of the city. Costume is the Mughal-influenced Anarkali dress with the small regional cap. The dance is performed at the cultural programmes of the city.