Dance as well as music has a prominent place in Hindu
religious rituals and practices. Performers of Indian classical dances often consider
their art as a form of worship. In earlier days their was a practice followed in many
part of India by which girls dedicated their complete lives to learn dancing and perform
these in temples for pleasing the deity of the temple. As a matter of fact many of the
Indian classical dance forms have developed and flourished as a result of such
traditions of learning, teaching and performing dances in
temples.
Then common people also perform dances on
religious festivals to please the god. The festivals on which such dances are performed
and the kind of dances vary from one region to another. One most popular of such
festival dance is called Garba, dedicated to goddess, which is
performed during the nine day long festival of
Navratri.
In addition to dancing on
special festivals, devotees of different gods sing devotional songs and dance as a part
of their daily worship. Two great Hindu Saints, Mirabai and
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, used dancing profusely as a part of their
worship. The dancing of this kind by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, has
given rise to a very popular tradition of music and dance called Baul.
Many Hindu gods also practice dancing, perhaps
most accomplished dancer among Gods is Lord Shiva, who is also called
Nataraja, meaning the "Lord of Dancing". However, the most popular
incident of dancing by Gods is the dance called Rasleela, featuring
Lord Krishna, when he was a boy of less than 12 years, and a group of ladies from his
village.
No comments:
Post a Comment