Dandiya And Navarathri Celebrations
June 24, 2008
Navaratri, which means nine nights in Sanskrit is when the nine forms or Shakti, a metaphor used for Goddess Durga are worshipped, as are Lakshmi – the Goddess of Peace and Prosperity and Saraswati – the Goddess of Knowledge. Holding special significance for Gujaratis and Bengalis, this festival is celebrated with great zeal and fervour. Navaratri celebrated with the Dandiya and Garba dances and with Aarti is all about celebrating the triumph of Good over Evil.
Dandiya raas and Garba form the highlight of this festival, when sweet meals are prepared for the celebrations, and children and adults dress up in their festive best for the night performance.
During the festival of Navaratri, Garba, the most popular women folk dance of Gujarat consists of village girls going from door to door and dancing around their houses with attractively decorated pots placed on their heads, in which a light has been placed. Associated with Lord Krishna’s great granddaughter, Usha as legend has it, women generally dance, carrying the pot on their heads or around it in a circle, singing songs in praise of the goddess, or ballads narrating heroic deeds, folk tales, and stories of manners and modes.
Whereas, the dandiya raas is performed by men with sticks to which tiny bells have been attached. With a complicated rhythm, of ancient origin and ritual significance, the dandiya raas still retains its popularity, even today. Although dandiya is now associated with the festival Navaratri, originally it has a complete different root. Dandiya was performed by men with a pair of bamboo sticks, about 2-inches in length. Very energetic, originally, it was intended to serve as practice for sword fighting footwork.
Traced back to the life of Lord Krishna, the Raas dance was performed by him with Radha and his Gopis. A highly energetic, colourful and playful dance, one can catch glimpses of Raas, which has been incorporated in both the Garba and Dandiya dances. Dandiya performed by both men and women, is a dance that offers myriad opportunities to act and exchange messages through eye contact with the opposite sex, which is why many romances blossom during Navaratri, making Dandiya highly popular amongst the younger generation.
Differing from each other, the main difference between the Garba and Dandiya is that the former is exclusively performed by women before Aarti, in honour of the Goddess, while Dandiya is performed much later, as part of the merriment. Both play a significant role in the Navratri celebrations, which would be incomplete without festively dressed devotees dancing the Garba and the Dandiya with devotional zeal.
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