Address:
RIVERFRONT INCOME TAX AREA AHMEDABAD GUJARAT, AHMADABAD ,GUJARAT - 380014
About type of art
Cultural mapping of scheduled Tribes
(Tribal dance, paintings artefacts and Tribal cuisines)
Name of the tribal Dance Kahadiya dance
Name of the tribe Kunbi
Name of the Performer Mr. Kamleshbhai Chaudhary
Mobile no 9429788006
Meaning Significance
Tribal population is 94.64 Percent Percent of the total population of the Dang district of Gujarat. Kunbis dwelling in the Dang performs different dances on different occasions including Bhayannritya, Thakarenrytya, Ghummarian, and Pavrikke Madal. All these dances are performed to the rhythm of musical instruments like drum, sharanai clarionet, ghungharu anklet bells, kartal cymbals, and surjeva. Kahadiya is the main dance of Kunbi tribe. The family members of the Kunbi tribe perform the Kahadiya dance during the Chaitra month of Chaitra Vikram Samvat. There are a total of six different processes in this dance. They perform this dance to appease their own deities. In this dance men and women joins the group as dancers. In this dance, they make wooden or clay Mhoras (masks) to worship their Kuldevi. They make this mhora themselves and during the dance, when they perform steeps wearing the mhora, they believe that the mother's power enters their body so that they can dance with full vigor because the mother provides their strength. By doing this, the calamities that will come to them and their families are removed. By doing so, calamities befalling him and his family are removed. Among the Kunbis living in the Dang region, Khaula, Piula and Nachula seem to be a belief or a life mantra. The dance performed on social and religious occasions is called Nachan in their dialect.
Dress In Kahadiya dance brothers wear dark coloured bush shirt, dhoti, head part,( mathe faliyu) coloured handkerchief in hand, handkerchief on waist ,women wear kachh marel saree ( kacchi embroidery saree), blouse .
This dance consists of a coloured jari silk dupatta, a colourful embroidered umbrella, a wooden mhora, a cotton string, a crown, a small sword.
Performance Context
In the Kunbi tribe, dance is an important part of their life. This tribe living in Dang worships Mavlidevi, Kansridevi, Devlimadi, Vaghdev, Seemariodev, Goval Dev etc. To appease these gods and goddesses, they perform this Kahadiya dance more on various festivals especially during the months of Chaitra and Vaishakh. Kunbi tribe attaches great importance to religious festivals and festivals in their life. They perform this dance for their own amusement while votive offerings to the gods and goddesses during these festivals and such festivities. Young men and women living in a blade together perform this dance to the tunes and rhythms of folk songs and different instruments. According to every occasion they perform dances like Danginritya, Bhayanritya, Thackerinritya or Pawari. Kahadiya nritya is a traditional dance of Kunbi tribe. It is passed down from one generation to other generation by imitation and ritual. Boys and young men learn from elders and young women acquire the art of performing various dances slowly by observing from both men and women. Men and women joins the dance by dancing together with men and women, but maintaining the dignity of their family ties. If the elder men of a family are dancing, then the daughter-in-law of the family does not join in the dance. Men and women complement each other and join in the dance. They dance on social and religious occasions. In this dance, those, women who are menstruating and pregnant women who have not completed one and a half months after delivery do not join.
In one of the stages of this dance, an animal in the form of clay or God assumes the form of the Mother Goddess
They also dance wearing wooden mukhotas.
Costumes and Jewellery
Men and women of the Kunbi tribe dance in colourful costumes. In which men wear a white dhoti up to the knees, a colour full-sleeved bush shirt, a vest filled with brown or black white thread, this white safo, while women wear a red, brown saree cut to the knee, a dagli blouse, a cloak coat is worn. Lugda (cloth) is bordered with cotton and golden zari. These types of Lugda are made by cutting a whole five meter saree into two parts, mainly these sarees have a unique print of Tamil Nadu, South India. The clothes worn by the dancers in this dance are sewn by their caste fellows in the village who have acquired the skill of sewing clothes.
In the Kahadiya dance, men wears bracelets, swords, cords or leather coils on their waists, and cotton cords on their feet. While a woman wears silver bracelets in hands, sidebands, necklaces, halberds, waist coils, anklets, jhumkas in the ears, Shareoes are worn on the head. Men and Women wear silver ornaments during the dance. Earlier, while performing this dance, women used to put silver pins on their heads and make braids or garlands of flowers. At present, plastic pins, flowers, rubber coloured ribbons are put in it. By twisting the hair round and tying a small knot, they bend the Ambodo bun, so that various decorations can be made in the bundle of hair. While performing this dance, women make various efforts to make their hair look more artistic and beautiful. A round or rectangular pendant is attached below it and forty-eight bells are attached to it. At this time women wear necklaces guinea beads made from coins of the royal period. Bangles worn on the feet weigh from one hundred grams to five hundred grams. Married women wear rings on the fingers and toes of the hands and feet. Bajubands worn on the hands also weigh one hundred grams to two hundred and fifty grams. Women wear all the ornaments they have while dancing.
Music and Instruments
Musical instruments are an integral resource to make dance enjoyable. Kahadiyas play Shur, Nani Pipudi, Sharanai, Dholak vagad while performing in tribal dance. Dancers do not play any kind of musical instruments. Both the sharnai and the shur used in the dance are made of sesame wood. Teak or sesame wood is used to make the dholak. The dholak is made of goat skin. This dholak lasts for twenty years. The dholak being played is played by the artist in trital. The artist taps the dholak with both hands. Dholaknath tape slows down or speeds up the feet of the performers. Sharanai clarinet Vanjintra instrument.The Kunbi tribe of Dang, among other urban non-tribal societies, have incorporated it as an instrument in their dance. They worship all the musical instruments at the time of Holi. Men and women dances on rhythm and beats of musical instruments played in the dance, dances in a circular, semi-circular line, holding each others hands, putting their hands on each others waists. In this dance, women perform thirty-two dances such as Mohniachalo, Ulalio chala, Langale chala, Zoke chala, Bhawala chala, Lakhmi Kudai chala, Khavdia chala, Zopiya chala, Sipai chalo, Peacock, Kamarmodaya, Pagmodiyachala, Hand in hand, climbing up and down on ones shoulder, three-tiered Mandwa Piramidarchwan, etc. When it comes down from a mans shoulder, it touches the mans body and apologizes for the trouble he has caused the man.
Apart from this, they also dance by wearing clay or wooden masks of animals in the form of God during the dance.