Type: Prelims Only

Medaram, a tiny village in Telangana’s tribal heartland of Mulugu district, is getting ready to host the Sammakka-Sarakka jatara, billed as the country’s biggest tribal fair.

Sammakka-Sarakka Jatara

• The mega four-day jatara, scheduled to begin on February 16 in Medaram. It takes place once in two years.
• It is perhaps the only tribal fair devoted to pay tribute to tribal warriors who made supreme sacrifices defending the rights of aboriginal tribal people.
• It symbolises the traditions and heritage of the Koya tribal people.
• The sacred site in Medaram and its surrounding Jampanna vagu, named after tribal martyr Jampanna, son of Sammakka, comes alive with lakhs of devotees during the four-day jatara.

Why do tribals come to Medaram?

• This festival commemorates a tribal revolt led by Sammakka and Saralamma, a mother-daughter duo, against levy of taxes on tribal people during drought conditions by the then Kakatiya rulers in the 12th century.
• Tribals (and others) flock to Medaram during the jatara not just from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh but also from as far as Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra.
• Sammakka and Saralamma are revered by devotees as tribal goddesses, and devotees make offerings to propitiate them to bestow health and wealth.
• All the rituals at the jatara site are held in tune with tribal traditions under the aegis of tribal priests.

Features of the celebrations

• One of the striking features of the tribal fair is the offering of jaggery to the tribal goddess at the altars (bamboo poles).
• It encompasses common features of tribal fairs – die-hard devotees going into a trance, the sacrifice of fowls and goats, besides pulsating traditional drum beats accompanying folk songs.

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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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