ARTS IN KASHMIR PROVINCE
Dance
Hafiza dances is common in Kashmir during wedding celebrations at
the homes or when the wedding processions would be taken out on boats on the
Jhelum river. Along with Hafiza dance which is generally catered to the elite
among the Hindus and Muslims, there evolved the popular dance form known as
Bacha Nagma. It was introduced by Afghans from Kabul, in which a teenaged
boy dressed as a girl dancer, is trained in the Hafiza style of dancing. Bacha
Nagma is popular in the villages, particularly at harvest time.
Among
the folk dance forms of today, the only one popular is the Ruf. Mainly
danced by women on festive occasions and by boy dancers in the Bacha Nagma
opera, Ruf is an off shoot of Chakkri which is a form of collective
singing by men and women. Ruf has thus descended of a dance form of collective
folk merry-making in items when singing and dancing were in vogue. Another
dance form, Dambaeli danced to the accompaniment of naghara
(drum) and suranai (a kind of shehnai, the reed pipe) has lost much of
the cadence of step and music and is practiced by the so-called backward class
of watals (mostly sweepers) only. Another lesser known dance form is the
Wuegi-nachun, danced by the Kashmiri pandit women round the bridal rangoli (pattern made
with henna and lime and others colours) after the bride has left for her
husband's home.
Music
Kashmiri
in course of time developed its own idiom, Sufiana Kalam, chorus. The
most favoured instrument is the 100 stringed Santoor (San means
'hundred' and toor means string, in Persian) which is the Sitar
of Kashmir. The most popular instrument in folk music is the Rabab,
introduced by Zain-ul-Abidin from Turkistan. The Sitar of Kashmiri
musician is the Saz (or Saz-i-Kashmir) which is the bowed instrument and
is accompanied by a Dukra.
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