Beyond Regional Frontiers the story of Kathak


 
 
Concept Explanation
 

Beyond Regional Frontiers the story of Kathak

Beyond Regional Frontiers: The Story of Kathak:Kathak is one of the eight major forms of Indian classic dance. The origin of Kathak is traditionally attributed to the traveling bards 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 .

The term Kathak is derived from Katha, a word used in Sanskrit and other languages for story. The Kathaks were originally a caste of story-tellers in temples of north India, who embellished their performances with gestures and songs. Kathak began evolving into a distinct mode of dance in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries with the spread of the bhakti movement. The legends of Radha-Krishna were enacted in folk plays called rasa Lila, which combined folk dance with the basic gestures of the Kathak story-tellers.

Kathak was performed in the Mughal court.Here it acquired its present features and developed into a form of dance with a distinctive style. Afterwards, it developed in two traditions of gharanas:one in the court of Rajasthan (Jaipur) and the other in Lucknow.

Kathak grew into a major art form,under the patronage of Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh .By the third quater of the nineteenth century it was firmly entrenched as a dance form not only in these two regions ,but also in adjoining areas of present -day Punjab ,Haryana,Jammu and Kashmir,Bihar and Madhya Pradesh .

British administrators disfavoured Kathak .However,it survived and continued to be performed by courtesans, and was recognised one of six"classical" forms of dance in the country after independence.

 
 


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