Animal Spirit In Dance: Pashu Mukha Nrutya Of Ganjam

The ancient cannibal spirit of nature has found a personification in the animal mask dance of Ghumusar of Southern Odisha.  Ghumusar, is a princely state infamously chronicled by colonial administrators as the prime seat for the evil practice of human sacrifice.

There is also a spread of Tantric heritage and occult rituals in this region which has metamorphosed into many odd forms of life including dance aesthetics when a vermillion-coated stone becomes a goddess, a mask-clad dancer transforms into a man-eater wild beast. Each virile footstep speaks of lore and oozes the vigour of the scintillating jungle kingdom. The spring is welcomed with the thump of Changu (an indigenous tribal Drum) and a fiendish galore in the village. That’s the time to worship their tiger goddess.

Spring is the time to celebrate divinity by offering gratitude to Maa Byaghra Devi (the tiger goddess, the queen of the jungle) and Maa Thakurani. When the deities are out on a procession during the Thakurani Jatra,  village artistes dress up as animals and perform this dance in her honour. This art form is on the verge of extinction and is only practised by a handful of artistes in a couple of villages in  Ganjam district.

Many years back, it was revived and recalibrated by legendary folk artiste Padmahsri late Bhagaban Sahoo. His famous folk dance troupe of Narendrapur revived many a folk dance form of southern Odisha. He took this lesser-known Animal Mask Dance to the global stage.  Being nurtured in the nonchalant environment of village Akhada  Ghara (The village community centre), this dance form was a part of the social and spiritual life of people and self-sustained. It is a great example of Guru Sisya Parampara (the teacher-disciple legacy).

It is one of the most tedious and demanding art forms. You need costumes, masquerades and many other paraphernalia to organise a dance recital. To give a full-fledged performance, one needs months of dedicated preparation and practice. You need to learn the steps, moves and gaits meticulously. For the poor artistes, it is very difficult to practice the art form and earn a livelihood simultaneously. More than the dance, the preparation is an arduous task. The animal masquerade is prepared by the artist with cane, jute and silk along with appliqué works to give the attire its due lustre and regalia

Pasu Mukha Nrutya is the synthesis of animal gestures in human moments.  It carries a multitude of colours and undaunted animal expressions intermixing indigenous steps and gaits.  The representation of the animal kingdom is not exclusive to Pasu Mukha Nrutya, rather, in every tribal community of the world, the ethnography is reflected in some form of primal dance. It has also influenced sophisticated classical dances with its dynamism.  The artists who are living the originality of this dance form for years are marginalised and hardly received their due credit.  One can witness them as a part of the ceremonial procession of Independence Day or Republic Day but it does not light their hearths or fill their hearts.

Apart from the religious rituals, Paumukha Nrutya was a part of every social celebration, but now things have changed.  Colourful dancers ceremoniously performing to the ringmaster in a marriage celebration is a rare sight now. Only invitations from government festivals can’t justify this sagacious dance form. To keep the charisma intact, the government must look for an institute for documentation and preservation of this precious art form.

After Sri Bhagaban Sahoo, there were not many who took it as a challenge to revive this ancient art form.