Subject: History

The Andhra Pradesh government has brought the curtains down on the popular Telugu play ‘Chintamani Padya Natakam’, which has enthralled people for almost 100 years.

Chintamani Padya Natakam

• It is a stage play penned by social reformer, writer and poet Kallakuri Narayana Rao about 100 years ago.
• In the play, the writer explains how people neglect their families by falling prey to certain social evils.
• It was aimed to create awareness on the Devadasi system and how the flesh trade was ruining many families at that particular period.
• Subbisetty, Chintamani, Bilvamangaludu, Bhavani Shankaram, and Srihari are some of the characters in the play.

Its performance

• The play is named after the main character, Chintamani, a woman born into a family involved in the flesh trade.
• The play focuses on how she attained salvation after repentance.
• Subbi Shetty, a character in the play, loses his wealth to Chintamani and his character is utilised in a way that engages the audience.
• Chintamani play is popular across the state. It has been performed at thousands of places.
• The play continues to engage the audience even today and has become a must stage play in villages during Dasara celebrations.

Why it got banned?

• Began as a social sermon, this play has been increasingly going vulgar.
• Subbi Shetty, who resembles a person of a transgender community, is used to portray the social group in a bad way.
• Obscene dialogues are added to the play in the name of creativity.

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Kathak legend Pandit Birju Maharaj has recently passed away.

About Kathak

• Kathak is one of the eight major forms of Indian classical dance.
• The origin of Kathak is traditionally attributed to the traveling bards in of ancient northern India known as Kathakars or storytellers.
• The term Kathak is derived from the Vedic Sanskrit word Katha which means “story”, and Kathakar which means “the one who tells a story”, or “to do with stories”.
• Wandering Kathakars communicated stories from the great epics and ancient mythology through dance, songs and music.

Its origin

• Kathak dancers tell various stories through their hand movements and extensive footwork, their body movements and flexibility but most importantly through their facial expressions.
• It evolved during the Bhakti movement, particularly by incorporating the childhood and stories of the Hindu god Krishna, as well as independently in the courts of north Indian kingdoms.
• Kathak is unique in having both Hindu and Muslim gharanas and cultural elements of these gharanas.
• Kathak performances include Urdu Ghazals and commonly used instruments brought during the Mughal period.

Major gharanas

• Kathak is found in three distinct forms, called “gharanas”, named after the cities where the Kathak dance tradition evolved – Jaipur, Banaras and Lucknow.
• While the Jaipur gharana focuses more on the foot movements, the Banaras and Lucknow gharanas focus more on facial expressions and graceful hand movements.

Performance details

• It involves both Nritta (pure dance) and Nritya (expressive dance).
• Stylistically, the Kathak dance form emphasizes rhythmic foot movements, adorned with small bells (Ghungroo) and the movement harmonized to the music.
• The legs and torso are generally straight, and the story is told through a developed vocabulary based on the gestures of arms and upper body movement, facial expressions, neck movements, eyes and eyebrow movement, stage movements, bends and turns.
• The main focus of the dance becomes the eyes and the foot movements.
• The eyes work as a medium of communication of the story the dancer is trying to communicate. With the eyebrows the dancer gives various facial expressions.
• A Kathak performance can be solo, duo or team. In a technical performance, the speed and energy the dancers exchange with the audience increases in multiples, that is the tempo doubles or quadruples.

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Kashmir is in a deep freeze as the 40-day harshest spell of winter, locally called ‘chillai kalan’ has started with the minimum temperature already sub-zero in the entire Valley.

Chillai Kalan

• Chillai Kalan is the coldest 40-day period of harsh winter of winter in the Jammu and Kashmir region.
• It is traditionally defined as a seasonal period of harsh winter accompanied by a change in increase in both frequency and quantity of precipitation usually snow.
• It begins from December 21 and ends on January 31 next year.
• It is followed by a 20-day long Chillai-Khurd (small cold) that occurs between January 31 and February 19 and a 10-day long Chillai-Bachha (baby cold).
• According to Persian tradition, the night of 21st December is celebrated as Shab-e Yalda-“Night of Birth”, or Shab-e Chelleh “Night of Forty”.

Its’ celebration

• In the Persian tradition, the night of December 21, the longest of the year, is celebrated as Shab-e-Yalda (night of birth) or Shab-e-Chelleh.
• Dozens of netizens from Kashmir named it the ‘Pheran Day’, after the long woollen gown worn during the winters in Kashmir.
• Use of a traditional firing pot called Kangri increases.
• Tap water pipelines partially freeze during this period. The Dal Lake also freezes.
• The famous tourist resort of Gulmarg receives heavy snow which attracts skier’s from every part of the world.

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UNESCO has inscribed ‘Durga Puja in Kolkata’ on the Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

What is Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)?

• ICH means the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated with them that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as a part of their cultural heritage.
• Furthermore, its importance is not in the cultural manifestation itself, but in the wealth of knowledge, know-how and skills that are transmitted from one generation to the next.

About Durga Puja

• Durga Puja, also known as Durgotsava or Sharodotsava, is an annual Hindu festival that reveres and pays homage to the goddess Durga.
• It is an important festival in the Shaktism tradition of Hinduism.
• It is celebrated because of Durga’s victory over Mahishasur.
• It is particularly popular and traditionally celebrated in the Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha among other states.
• It is a ten-day festival, of which the last five are of the most significance.

Citation for the UNESCO tag

• The UNESCO Committee commended its initiatives to involve marginalized groups, and individuals as well as women in their participation in safeguarding the element.
• The festival is also marked by scripture recitations, performance arts, revelry, gift-giving, family visits, feasting, and public processions.
• Durga Puja not only is a celebration of the feminine divinity but is a consummate expression of dance, music, crafts, rituals, practices culinary and cultural aspects.
• The festival transcends the boundaries of caste, creed and economic classes and joins the people together in its celebration.

Also read: National List for Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH)

Other ICH in India

• With the inscription of Durga Puja in Kolkata, India now has 14 intangible cultural heritage elements on the prestigious UNESCO Representative List of ICH of Humanity.
• In recent years, the ICH elements that saw inscriptions are Kumbh Mela (inscribed 2017), Yoga (inscribed 2016) among others.
• Also, India is a SIGNATORY of the 2003 UNESCO Convention which aims for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Heritage along with traditions and living expression.

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An angry mob allegedly vandalized an Assam Rifles camp and the office of the Konyak Union in Nagaland’s Mon district.

Konyak Tribe

• With a population of roughly 3 lakh, the area inhabited by the Konyaks extends into Arunachal Pradesh, with a sizeable population in Myanmar as well.
• They are known to be one of the fiercest warrior tribes in Nagaland.
• The Konyaks were the last to give up the practice of head-hunting – severing heads of enemies after attacking rival tribes – as late as the 1980s.

Significance in Naga Peace Process

• Mon is the only district in Nagaland where the separatist group has not been able to set up base camps, largely due to resistance from the Konyaks.
• The Konyaks therefore, are imperative for a smooth resolution of the peace talks, as well as the post-talk peace process in the state.

Also read:

Naga Peace Accord

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The Prime Minister has greeted the people of Goa on the day of the Feast of St. Francis Xavier.

St. Francis Xavier (1506-1552)

• Francis Xavier venerated as Saint Francis Xavier, was a Catholic missionary and saint who was a co-founder of the Society of Jesus.
• He was born in Javier, Kingdom of Navarre (in present-day Spain), he was a companion of Ignatius of Loyola and one of the first seven Jesuits.
• He led an extensive mission into Asia, mainly in the Portuguese Empire of the time and was influential in evangelization work, most notably in India.

His works

• He has asked for a special minister to the king of Portugal whose sole office would be to further Christianity in Goa.
• He also was the first Christian missionary to venture into Japan, Borneo, the Maluku Islands, and other areas.
• In those areas, struggling to learn the local languages and in the face of opposition, he had less success than he had enjoyed in India.
• Xavier was about to extend his missionary preaching to China when he died on Shangchuan Island.
• Known as the “Apostle of the Indies” and “Apostle of Japan”, he is considered to be one of the greatest missionaries since Paul the Apostle.

Try this question from CSP 2021

Q. Consider the following statements:

1. Francis Xavier was one of the founding members of the Jesuit Order.
2. Francis Xavier died in Goa and a church is dedicated to him there.
3. The Feast of St. Francis Xavier is celebrated in Goa each year.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

 

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The Government of India has initiated a Scheme known as “Scheme for Protection and Preservation of Endangered Languages of India” (SPPEL) informed the Minister of Culture and Tourism.

About SPPEL

• The Scheme was instituted by Ministry of Human Resource Development in 2013.
• The sole objective of the Scheme is to document and archive the country’s languages that have become endangered or likely to be endangered in the near future.
• The scheme is monitored by the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL) located in Mysuru, Karnataka.
• The CIIL has collaborated with various universities and institutes across India for this mission.
• University Grants Commission (UGC) is also providing financial assistance for the creation of centres for endangered languages at Central and State Universities.

What are Endangered Languages?

• At the moment, the languages which are spoken by less than 10,000 speakers or languages that are not been linguistically studied earlier are considered endangered language.

Present status of the scheme

• Presently, 117 languages have been listed for the documentation.
• Documentation in the form of grammar, dictionary and ethno-linguistic profiles of about 500 lesser known languages are estimated to be accomplished in the coming years.

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Odisha CM will lay the foundation stone of the much-awaited Puri Heritage Corridor.

Puri Heritage Corridor Project

• Conceived in 2016, the Puri Heritage Corridor Project was unveiled in December 2019 to transform the holy town of Puri into an international place of heritage.
• The project includes redeveloping major portions of the holy town and in the vicinity of the temple for visitors and tourists.

About Jagannath Temple

• The Jagannath Temple is an important Vaishnavite temple dedicated to Jagannath, a form of Sri Krishna in Puri in Odisha.
• The present temple was rebuilt from the 10th century onwards, on the site of an earlier temple, and begun by Anantavarman Chodaganga Deva, the first king of the Eastern Ganga dynasty.
• The Puri temple is famous for its annual Ratha Yatra, or chariot festival, in which the three principal deities are pulled on huge and elaborately decorated temple cars.

Its architecture

• With its sculptural richness and fluidity of the Oriya style of temple architecture, it is one of the most magnificent monuments of India.
• The huge temple complex covers an area of over 400,000 square feet and is surrounded by a high fortified wall.
• This 20 feet high wall is known as Meghanada Pacheri.
• Another wall known as kurma bedha surrounds the main temple.

The temple has four distinct sectional structures, namely:

1. Deula, Vimana or Garba griha (Sanctum sanctorum) where the triad deities are lodged on the ratnavedi (Throne of Pearls). In Rekha Deula style;
2. Mukhashala (Frontal porch);
3. Nata mandir/Natamandapa, which is also known as the Jagamohan (Audience Hall/Dancing Hall), and
4. Bhoga Mandapa (Offerings Hall)

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