Seraikella Chhau

Understand

Where Seraikella Chhau comes from

Seraikella Chhau is one of the three documented forms of the Chhau dance of eastern India — the other two being Purulia Chhau (West Bengal) and Mayurbhanj Chhau (Odisha). Seraikella Chhau takes its name from the Seraikella-Kharsawan district of Jharkhand and developed under the patronage of the Seraikella royal family (the former princely state). The dance uses masks to identify the characters (the same convention as Purulia, but not Mayurbhanj) and has a refined martial-art quality enriched by the palace-court aesthetic. The dance is performed in the spring Chaitra Parva and at the Sun (Surya) festival — the characters drawn from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Puranas, with strong Shaiva themes. In 2010 UNESCO inscribed Chhau as a whole on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The Seraikella style is known for its dance-of-grace quality (the chowk and the tribhangi postures) and for the refinement of its masks.

How it's practiced

Seraikella Chhau is performed by troupes of male dancers wearing brightly-coloured masks identifying the characters — Shaiva and Vaishnava deities, the heroes of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and the demons of the Puranas. The dance features acrobatic leaps and turns, martial postures and the chowk stance, with the refined upper-body grace of the Seraikella style. The accompanying music is the dhol, the dholak, the shehnai and the small cymbals. The dance is performed on the open village square (the akhada) in the spring, particularly during the Chaitra Parva, and at the Sun festival. Costume is the regional Seraikella style with the elaborate masks, the heavily coloured bodysuit with gold-bordered sashes and the large head-dress for the principal characters.