Langa and Manganiar Music

Tha Langa and Manganiar are communities of western Rajasthan which have for long practised music professionally for their living. The Langas are possibly descended from drummers in the militias of chieftains who branched off into civil work. Tha Manganiars were employed as musicians in the smaller courts before they found the patronage of the Meghawal community as singers at domestic life-cycle ceremonies. The principal feature of the music of the Langas and Manganiars is an order of ragas and talas modelled after and named as in Hindustani music but independent of the Hindustani code in performance. Regional elements colour the music strongly. It has a rich repertoire of songs of varied content. The bowed Sarangi and Kamaicha are the chief melodic accompaniments and castanets called Khartal provide the rhythm.

Bihu Dance From Assam

Bihu is a representative dance of Assam and is performed during the Bihu festival in the harvest season. The spring festival has its roots in ancient fertility cults which find expression in the songs accompanying Bihu Dance as well as in the movements of the dance. Bihu is performed by young men and women in a fast tempo to the beat of the Dhol, a drum and the wind instrument Pepa or flute. The Bihu festival also ushers in the sowing season after the harvest and the time for marriages in rural society.
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Yakshagana Dance From Karnataka

Yakshagana is the principal traditional theatre of Karnataka and is practiced widely in the coastal districts of the state. It draws upon epic and religious lore for its content - The MAhabharata, Ramayana, Bhagavatha or Puranas - and chooses its episodes or prasangas particularly for the moral instruction they hold for common folk. The prasangas are enacted with great vigour using a most appealing mis of music, dance, improvised speech and dazzling costume. In all these aspects as in its language of gesture and expression and make-up, Yakshagana has evolved to High artistic distinction since it took shape around the sixteenth century. There are today some forty Yakshagana repertory companies or mandalis, giving around two hundred performances individually every year.
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Theyyam Dance From North Kerala

Theyyam is a shamanistic ritual performed, in its native context, in temples and sacred groves to propitiate dieties who may be heroic, mythological or divine beings. The performer acts as a medium between the diety and the devotee. Fantastic headdresses and costumes, body-painting and the trance-like enactment characterize Theyyam performance. The musical accompaniments are the Chanda drum, cymbals called Elathalam and the Kuzhal horn. The performer along with drummers recites the ritual song narrating the legend of the diety propitiated. Theyyam is performed only by men of a given caste.
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Thang-ta Dance From Manipur

Thang-ta is combat using sword and spear, which weapons thang and ta stand for. This martial art of the Meiteis originates in military practices from Manipur's medival past, when the independent state was often at war with its neighbours. Manipur was annexed by the British and merged with the Indian Union in mid-twentieth century, when Thang-ta began to be performed for audiences.
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Singhi Chham from Sikkim

The Singhi Chham or dance of the snow lion, pays homage to the Kanchenjunga peak in the Himalayas, the guardian diety of the Sikkimese and the five smaller peaks that surround it. Bathed in sunlight on tis flanks, the Kanchenjunga takes on the look of a lion with fiery mane - the snow lion of Sikkimese legend. The dance with its enormous masks brings the mythic figure to life as it enacts the legend around Singhi Chham. It is performed at harvest time, ushering in the new year and is especially associated with the Bhutias of Sikkim.
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Sammi Dance From Western Punjab

The Sammi Dance which possibly has origins in nomadic tribal society in the western part of Punjab, now in Pakistan, has taken on a new life on the stage in recent times. A women's dance, it builds its theatrical context based on certain foci of the communal life of village women and though a narration of the romance of Sammi, a legendary heroine, gives voice to their inner emotion. The dance is performed to a repertoire of songs special to Sammi. The Dhol provides the rhythm.
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