Pururlia Chhau: An overview

Purulia Chhau was sprouted from the soil of rural Bengal. That’s why the intimate bond between the village people and Mother Nature is reflected in its performances. On one hand it possesses an organized dancing style like a classical dance; it also portrays different aspects of life.

In every dance routine, “deg” and “chaal” are important. God, man and animal- these three kinds of characters are found in a Purulia Chhau performance. According to that we can see “Daanava chaal”, “Manush Chaal” and “Pashu chaal”.

In this form of dance, movements of different animals, birds and living things are portrayed. There are few special movements in this Purulia chhau performences. Such as following the prey without making any noise, moving with the speed of air and then sitting on the ground are some trademarks of Purulia Chhau.

The presence of “vira rasa” is noticeable in Purulia chhau dance. The attacking stance of a performer is clearly visible when the performer stands firmly on his feet on the ground. The jumps and flips performed in the dance provide the performance with momentum. These flips are called “ulpha”.

The building excitement is an attraction of Purulia Chhau. In the first phase two opponents face each other, on second phase they call each other out for a duel, o third phase they fight and on the final phase, good triumphs evil.

In the Purulia chhau, play oriented performance and folk oriented performance, both are seen.The characters of God or some heroes are play oriented and the characters of common people, daanava (demon) and animals are folk oriented. However, the characters of Shiva, Parashuram etc are now considered as folk characters.