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Garba
Dance is a popular folk
Dance of
Gujarat. It is a circular form of dance performed by ladies on the
Navaratri days, Sharad Purnima, Vasant Panchami, Holi and such
other festive occasions. The word Garba is derived from the
word Garbha Deep meaning a lamp inside a perforated earthen
pot. The light inside the perforated earthen pot symbolised the
embryonic life. In this folk dance, ladies place the pot with the
lamp on their heads and move in circles, singing in time measure by clapping
their palms or snapping their fingers, to the accompaniment of folk instruments.
The
actual performance begins at night after the women finish their house
hold work. All gather at street corners. A photograph
of the goddess or a lamp is kept in the
centre and around it the circle is formed. The dancing
begins with slow tempo and reaches a fast tempo. The
rhythm is kept by a Dholi or drummer who sit in the centre.
Some
times, women carry on their heads 'Mandavali' a
small canopy made of bamboo chips
covered with a red silk piece of cloth. They dance with
it and later put it in the centre. Mandavali symbolises the
temple of the goddess. Women wear sari in the Gujarati style. Each
community wears different clothes. In Saurashtra, women wear
embroidered petticoats (Ghaghara), a backless choli (Kapdu) and a
head cover (odhani) with lots of silver and head ornaments. Males wear Kediyum (shirt)
Vajani (trouser) and Rumal a
printed head piece with silver ornaments on the waist, neck and hands. The musical instruments used for Garba are mainly the drum or dhol
and Nal. But Rasa has Pavo (a double flute) Vansali (flute) Zanza (Discs )etc.
The drummer ties his drums around the neck and moves inside the circle beating
it.
Garba
songs are mostly in praise of Mother Goddess Amba describing her form,
powers, and invoking her blessings. Also there are Garbas describing
seasons and social themes of domestic ands married life.
There are certain folk dances which
typically represent the community activities
and their functional aspect.
The Tippani folk dance is a dance of such a variety in which women labourers
engaged in construction work, strike the floor with long sticks called Tippani.
They have a rhythmic musical process to escape the tedium of the toil involved
in their arduous task. The tribes in Gujarat have their own virile forms of the
folk dances.
The costumes and the instruments
used during these folkdances are also typical folk costumes which mostly consist
of a short coat called Kedia with tight sleeves with embroidered borders and
shoulders, tight trousers like the Churidars and colourfully embroidered
caps or coloured turbans and a coloured waist band.
Damru,
Tabla, Nagara, and pot drum
are among the instruments; percussion, Ektaro, Ravan hattho, and Jantar are
among the string instruments and Pavo, shehani, murli, turi, and taturi are wind
instruments used as accompaniments in the folk dances.
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