THE COLORS OF BIHAR

Holi is a festival of colors celebrated all over the country. People celebrate it on the first day of the Hindu Calendar, that is 'Pratham Chairtra Mass' (February-March). In Bihar, a typical style Dhamar of holi song is sung in which the villagers celebrate it in a form of group with full joy and dance with musical instruments like dholak, jhal-manjeera, etc. This dance is related to the mythical story of Bhakt Prahlad and his demon father Hiranyakshipu.

Bihar is the state of fairs and festival related to various religious things. It is the state of much of the ritual communities. All of the communities have their own ritual folk traditions. But some of the folk cultures of Bihar celebrated by the all tribes of the state. One of them is the festival of Holi. Holi is the festival of India. It is the festival of colors, joys, and happiness.
Holi is the festival which celebrated by the people on the first day of New Year of Hindu Calendar which called as ‘Pratham Chaitra Massa’ that is the month of February or March. People of Bihar celebrate this festival with the Holi dance. Holi dance is the sign of joyous of people and the energy level to live the life with new manners. It is so beautiful folk dance in which both male and female participate. There are some of beautiful and rhythmic musical instrument like jhal – manjeera and Dholak make this dance so charm and energetic.
There is a mythological story behind the celebration of this festival and dance. It is said that the festival of holi is celebrated in the remembrance of Bhakt Prahlad. He was a true devotee of lord Vishnu. This is the festival which is not only celebrated in Bihar but also in all over the parts of the country.

Phagu Purnima

Phagu Purnima is another name for Holi where Phagu means the sacred red powder and Purnima or Pune is the full moon day, on which the festival ends.

At some places like Bihar, Holi is also known as Phagwa as it is celebrated in the later part of the month of Phalgun and the early part of Chaitra in the Hindu calendar. This corresponds to the English months of March-April.

The concept of New Year (Samvatsar) varies in the different provinces of our country. In some provinces, the month commences from the 'Krishna-Paksha' on the other hand in some provinces it commences from 'Shukla-Paksha'. For the former, the year ends on 'Purnima' of the month of Phalgun. The new years begins next day - Chaitra, 1st day of the Krishna Paksha. For them on this day the last year has died. For this reason in some provinces like Bihar and UP. Holika dahan is also called 'Samvatsar Dahan'. On this day all the bitterness and evil memories of the last year are burnt in the fire and the New Year is begun with a celebration.

THE VITAL LANGUAGE : BHOJPURI

The Bhojpuri people have a distinct and virile tradition and were famous in the past for their bravery. Bhojpuri is spoken in various forms and its grammatical structure differs in many respects from the other two languages in Bihar. It has peculiarities of declension and conjugation not found elsewhere. On the whole, its grammar is simpler than that of Maithili and Magahi.
The Bhojpuri language of Bihar is the third largest Indian language spoken outside India. The Bhojpuri language covers a large geographic area crossing state boundaries. Other than Bihar, the language is spoken in the North West part of Jharkhand (that was part of Bihar once), the Purvanchal or eastern part of Uttar Pradesh along with the adjoining area of southern plains of Nepal. Outside India, Bhojpuri is spoken in spoken in Guyana, Suriname, Fiji, Trinidad and Tobago and Mauritius. These are the places where the Bihari community migrated in vast numbers during the British rule to work in sugar plantations.

For the first time in the history of the Bhojpuri language it is being noticed. From the coming of popular singers such as Kalpana that has made Bhojpuri almost a household name. Hindi film makers are now considering adding Bhojpuri item songs to attract the vast Bhojpuri speaking community.
In addition, the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) has decided to launch a foundation course in the Bhojpuri language. The course was inaugurated by Indian Parliament speaker Meira Kumar (also from Bihar). She added that "Bhojpuri is not only a language but a lifestyle and a culture. Sanskrit and Latin have most precise grammar and vocabulary. Bhojpuri too has a very precise grammar, rich vocabulary and literature". Although the course is aimed at Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, it is thought that the course might be useful to Bhojpuri speakers in places such as Mauritius. Soon the establishment will be starting Certificate and Diploma Courses in Bhojpuri. 
Bhojpuri is spoken in the western districts of Bihar such as Champa-ran, Saran, Shahabad, Palamau and Ranchi. Although the Ranchi district is mainly populated by Adivasis, the common language of the people is Sadari or Sadani, which is a form of Bhojpuri. Bhojpuri-speakers are also found in north-western Muzaffarpur and the Pirpanti and Golgong police stations of theBhagalpur district. There are more than ten million Bhojpuri-speaking people in Bihar. It is spoken also in the Varanasi and Gorakhpur divisions of Uttar Pradesh. Bhojpuri areas have helped much in the growth of Hindi literature. Although Bhojpuri has no such old written literature as Maithili has, the love with which its speakers cherish it is just as great. Bhojpuri is so called after the language of Bhojpur, a pergana of the Shahabad district.
Except in a few isolated instances, the form of the verb depends only on the subject. Bhojpuri is written in Kaithi, a script ascribed to the Kayasthas, the scribes of India, but this script is nowadays being given up by educated people in favour of Devanagri. A mass of oral literature is extant in Bhojpuri in the form of folk-songs, folk-tales and legends and it abounds in proverbs and riddles. In the works of such saintly poets as Kabir, Dharamdas, Dharnidas, Daryadas, and Lakshmi Sakhi, the influence of Bhojpuri is immense.
In recent times, many collections of folk literature have been published by Grierson, Ram Naresh Tripathi, Krishnadeva Upadhyay, Durga Shankar, Prasad Singh and W. G. Archer, and Sankata Prasad. The famous poem 'Batohia' written by Raghubir Narayan and the play entitled 'Bidesia' by Bhikari Thakur have made history by their popularity. Bhikari Thakur is the people's poet in Bhojpuri and in his poems are reflected the joys and sorrows, the toils and tears of the simple rural folk of his area.

THE ANCIENT LANGUAGE OF BIHAR : MAITHILI

Maithili was spoken in the ancient land of Mithila and so it has incurred the name Maithili. Tirhutia is another name for the region so Maithili is also known as Tirhutia. The people in Nepal and North-Eastern Bihar speak in this language. It is a language of Indo-Aryan origin.
The cultural and linguistic centers of Maithili in Bihar are the districts of Madhubani, Supaul, Araria, Darbhanga, Sitamarhi, Saharsa, Begusarai, Muzaffarpur, Sheohar, Samastipur, and Vaishali . Maithili is also spoken in the Terai region of Nepal, mainly in Narayani Zone, Janakpur Zone, Koshi Zone, and Sagarmatha Zone of Nepal.
In Nepal, Maithili is the second state language and is used by 12% of the total population. Here, Maithili was used in the court of the Kings, during Malla period.
Near about 30 million people in the 26 districts of N.E. Bihar speak in Maithili. The Sahitya Akademi, India and P.E.N (an international organization of letters for Poets, Essayists and Novelists) have recognized Maithili.

It ranks 40th among the most spoken languages of the world, while it occupies the 16th position in the list of the most spoken languages in India. Maithilakshar or Tirhuta is its own script, which originated from Brahmi (a script of the 3rd B.C., also found in the Ahokan Inscriptions). At present the Devanagari script has been adopted because of its widespread use.
It is generally believed that the Sidhhacharyas evolved Proto Maithili during the 8th -9th century when they composed Charyapada. Since then the language has progressed steadily. Vidyapati, a very productive writer has used Avahatta, a form of Proto Maithili in his dramas, the Kirtilata and Kirtipataka. He also composed melodious poems depicting the love of Radha-Krishna in his Padavali that is written in the Maithili of medieval period. Vidyapati also influenced Nepali, Bengali, Assamese, Oriya and Manipuri literature during the medieval period.
Linguists have classified Maithili as one of the Indo-Aryan languages. It is an offshoot of the Indo-Aryan languages, which is a branch of the Indo-European languages. Early Indo-Aryan languages (2500 BC to 500 BC) developed from Vedic Samskrit to Laukik Samskrit. Middle Indo-Aryan Languages (500 BC to 1000 AD) developed from Pali (early Prakrit, 500 BC to 100 BC) to Prakrit (middle Prakrit, 100 BC to 500 AD), Apbhramsha (neo Prakrit, 500 AD to 900 AD) and Avhattha (neo regional Prakrit, 900 AD to 1100 AD). From neo Magadhi Prakrit and its Variant Maithil Avahattha came Maithili Language (1000 AD). It is in the category of Modern Indo-Aryan Language (1000 AD to till date). Linguists consider Maithili to be an Eastern Indic language.
The first grammar of Maithili was written in the year 1880–81. A. F. Rudolf Hoernle published a Grammar of the Eastern Hindi from London in 1880 and compared with the other Gaudian Languages. In this Grammar, Dr. Hoernle recognized Maithili as a dialect distinct from Hindi. He was able to give some specimens of its grammatical forms, but no published materials were then available. The mis-classification by early linguists led to language politics in respect of Maithili. Beames (1872/reprint 1966: 84-85) considered Maithili as a dialect of Bengali. Grierson, however, adopted the notional term "Bihari" language for the language used in Bihar; it has since been shown to be a misnomer for Maithili.
Maithili is derived from Avahattha, the Maithil Apabhramsha, which is derived from Magadhi Apbhramsha. Maithili was traditionally written in the Maithili script (also known by the names Tirhuta, i.e., Mithilakshar) and Kaithi script. The ISO of Unicode Technical Committee has approved the encoding of Kaithi and Tirhuta scripts. Nowadays, Devanagari script is most is most commonly used. An effort is underway to preserve the Maithili script and to develop it for use in digital media by encoding the script in the Unicode standard, for which proposals have been submitted by Sh. Anshuman Pandey (now it has been approved by the ISO, the Unicode Technical Committee).
The term Maithili comes from Mithila, which was an independent state in ancient times. Mithila is important in Hindu mythology, since it is regarded as the birth place of Goddess Sita, the daughter of King Janak of Mithila, who eventually gets married to Lord Rama.
The most famous literary figure in Maithili is the poet Vidyapati (1350–1450), who wrote his poems in the language of the people, i.e. Maithili, at a time when state's official language used to be Sanskrit and Sanskrit was still being used as a literary language. The use of Maithili, instead of Sanskrit, in literature became more common after Vidyapti.

Madhubani Paintings

The ceremonial folk paintings - popularly identified as famous Madhubani paintings - are the exclusive monopoly of women artists, passing down for generations from mother to daughter. The girl learns to play with the brush and colours at an early age which finally culminates in the Kohbar (nupital room), which acquires great sanctity in the social life of Mithila. All religious ceremonies relating to the marriage are performed in the Kohbar.The deep (earthen lamp - a symbol of happy conjugal life) is kept burning in all through for four days.

Madhubani painting originated in a small village, known as Maithili, of the Bihar state of India. Initially, the womenfolk of the village drew the paintings on the walls of their home, as an illustration of their thoughts, hopes and dreams. With time, the paintings started becoming a part of festivities and special events, like marriage. Slowly and gradually, the Madhubani painting of India crossed the traditional boundaries and started reaching connoisseurs of art, both at the national as well as the international level.
The traditional base of freshly plastered mud wall of huts has now been replaced by cloth, handmade paper and canvas. Since the paintings have been confined to a limited geographical range, the themes as well as the style are, more or less, the same. Indian Maithili paintings make use of three-dimensional images and the colors that are used are derived mainly from plants. The themes on which these paintings are based include nature and mythological events. The first reference to the Maithili painting of Bihar dates back to the time of Ramayana, when King Janaka ordered the paintings to be created for his daughter, Sita's, wedding.
Madhubani painting has been handed down from one generation to another. Translated, Madhubani literally means ‘a forest of honey’. The art flourished in the villages around Madhubani in the Mithila region of north Bihar near the Indo-Nepal border. This region has historical and religious importance as Mahavir, Buddha and Lord Rama’s wife Sita, are all believed to have been born here.
Extracting of Natural Colors
The women don’t use camel hair brushes to create their works of art, but use only plain, slatted bamboo sticks with wads of cotton to apply the paint. “The colours are made from vegetable dyes or are of natural origin and are prepared by the women themselves.” explained Anmala Devi, a Madhubani artist herself, who spread out samples of her work for us to photograph. “For example, black is made by mixing soot with cow dung, yellow from turmeric, blue from indigo, red from red sandalwood, green from leaves and white from rice paste. The black outlines are drawn first and then the colour is filled into the spaces. ” Yet, despite the crude implements, the result is a bright and bold image with a character of its own.
In the beginning, home made natural colours were obtained from plant extracts like henna leaves, flower, bougainvillea, neem, etc. These natural juices were mixed with resin from banana leaves and ordinary gum in order to make the paint stick to the painting medium. Home made paints, though cheap, was time consuming and produced less than the requirement. The solution was to switch to the synthetic colours avaibale aplenty in the market. Now colours come in powdered form, which are then mixed with goat’s milk. However, black continues to be obtained from the soot deposits by the flame of diya, dissolved in gum.
The colours are usually deep red, green, blue, black, light yellow, pink and lemon. They created mood and hence played an important role. For instance, energy and passion find expression through the use of red and yellow, as monochrome crashed over large surfaces of the painting. Concentration of energy and the binding force is best reflected in red while green governs the natural leaves and vegetation. The Brahmins prefer the very bright hues while the Kayasthas opt for mutted ones. In another class called the Harijan style of painting, hand made paper is washed in cowdung. Once the paints are ready, two kinds of brushes are used - one for the tiny details made out of bamboo twigs and the other for filling in the space which is prepared from a small piece of cloth attached to a twig.
While this art has been in practice for centuries, it has, for most practical purposes, remained confined within the region. Even now, the women prefer to remain anonymous. Most of them being illiterate, are shy, and have not been outside the confines of their mud-thatched villages.
Unfortunately, it was a tragedy that led to these paintings being exposed, appreciated and collected as ethnic art around the globe. During the period 1966-68, a prolonged drought struck Madhubani and the neighbouring region of Mithila. A new source of non-agricultural income had to be found to keep these people away from the pangs of hunger. The All India Handicrafts Board encouraged the women artists to create their paintings on handmade paper for commercial purposes. For the market, the work is done on handmade paper or cloth treated with cowdung to give it its distinctive look and identity. Ever since, this craft has become a regular source of income. The artists travel far and wide and sell their work through art exhibitions. Their success has inspired even their menfolk to join them in their art to meet the growing demand!

BIHARI CULTURE AND DANCE:- CHHAU DANCE

The simple tribal people of Bihar express their creative joy through the Chhau dance, which was originally a war dance, preformed in order to perfect fighting techniques. It has, over the years, evolved into a narrative ballet.

Chhau dance is a mask dance performed by the male dancers. It is prevalent in Mayurbhanj district in Orissa, Sareikela in Bihar and Purulia district in West Bengal. The dance form was nurtured and developed under different royal patronage. Maharaja Krishana Chandra Bhanj Deo of Mayurbhanj was its greatest patron. Basically, Chhau is a festival dance, performed on the occasion of the sun festival observed according to the Bengali calendar towards the end of the month of Chaitra. Nowadays, Chhau is not only performed on this sun festival but also during many other festivals at other times of the year.


The Chhau dance is indigenous to the eastern part of India. It originated as a martial art and contains vigourous movements and leaps. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many of the princely rulers of the Orissa region took a keen interest in the development of this art. They maintained troupes that performed on special occasions and festivals.

Some Chhau dances use large stylized masks. The depiction of birds and animals is a distinctive feature. There are also heroic dances with sword, bow or shield, with which dancers demonstrate their dexterity. In keeping with the martial origins of Chhau, some of the themes include the depiction of mythological heroes, such as Parashurama, Mahadev, Indrajit and others, from the Mahabharata and Ramayana epics. Over the course of time, female characters and more diverse themes were added.

There are three recognized schools or styles of Chhau. These are the Seraikella, Purulia and Mayurbhanj varieties. Mayurbhanj Chhau dancers do not wear masks. In recent times, Mayurbhanj Chhau has become popular as a medium of choreography, with its wide range of postures and movements that adapt well to modern as well as traditional treatment.


 Origin of Chhau Dance
It is said that the word `Chhau` is derived from the Sanskrit word `Chhaya`, which means shadow or image. In Oriya `Chhauka` means ability to make a sudden unexpected attack. Chhau dance perhaps originated from the martial dance Phari Khanda Khela (playing with the sword and the shield). Some say the word `Chhau` has been derived from `Chhauni`, which means military barracks. Most of the tribal people performed it in an effort to appease and influence the Sun God. Whatever may be the origin of this folk drama in course of time it has developed its own rules and grammar. Nowadays, Chhau dance is generally performed during the Chaitra Parva. Gradually this dance has shifted from the barracks and has taken a ritualistic turn.

 Theme of Chhau Dance

The Chhau dance is mythological, as it is mainly based on various episodes of the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. Sometimes certain episodes of the Indian Puranas are also used. The individual dance items of Chhau dance of Mayurbhanj include solo, duet and group performances. Two Rasas are dominant in the performance- Vira and Rudra, and in the end, forces of evil are punished and the righteous triumphs.

Music in Chhau Dance
Most of the tunes for Chhau are traditional and folk which are played on Mahuri and various types of drums. The music appropriately reflects the moods which the dancers so impressively interpret. The use of the drum is an important part of Chhau performance. With the beating of drums an invocation to Lord Ganesha is given and the dance begins. As the singer completes the invocation song, a host of drummers and musicians start beating the Dhol and the Dhamsa. The musical part is an integral prelude to the actual dance performance. After this musical journey, the character of Lord Ganesha appears on the dancing ground followed in quick succession by other characters -gods, demons, animals and birds.

Costumes of Chhau Dance
The costumes of the Chhau performers are of various colours and designs.In Bihar they uses mostly facial expression and legs are mostly use to show the dance. in south of India  they mainly comprises of Pyjamas in deep green or yellow or red shade that is worn by the artistes playing the role of gods; whereas those playing the role of demons have on loose trousers of a deep black shade. Sometimes, stripes of contrasting colours are also used to make the costumes more attractive and different. The costumes for the upper part of the body are full of various designs. The costumes for the character of Goddess Kali are made up of cloth of unrelieved black, and to express the separate and distinct identity, the characters of animals and birds use suitable type of masks and costumes.

Special features About the dance:

As this dance as a part of martial art, earlier only men used to perform this dance including the women character. But now even women have entered the arena and mastered this art.
Due to the dance being physically demanding in nature, the dancers can get exhausted after a short time. Therefore it`s played over brief period except in the Purulia School where they can have nightlong performances.
One of the main and unique characteristics of this dance, is emotions are not depicted by facial expressions but by legs. The dance has very detailed footwork, jumps etc. to convey the emotions of the character.
This highly energetic dance tells the stories from ancient mythologies like Mahabharata, Ramayana and other folklores. It depicts the nature in dance forms like Sagar Nritya and animal kingdom like sarpa, mayura dance. Melody, mood and rhythm all go hand in hand in making Chhau dance a success.    

CULTURE :-THE TRADITIONAL WEDDING ; PART I

The Traditional wedding in Siwan,(Bihar) India.

When the marriage has been agreed upon, the father of the bridegroom visits the father of the bride, and each provides a few handfuls of paddy. These are mixed together and then divided between the two fathers by the priest, and the bridegroom's father takes his share home. This ceremony is called dhanbatti. This paddy is reserved to be parched in the chulha .

Then the females of the bride's family perform the chumawan or chumauna ceremony. In this, five women take rice between the thumbs and forefingers of both hands and touch in order her feet, knees, and shoulders with it. They then put it on her head. On the fifth or eighth day before the expected arrival of the wedding procession, the preparations are made in the bride's house. If they take place five days previously, they are called pachmangra ; if eight days athmangra.

On the ceremony of matkorwa , the women of the family and their friends go singing to a well. They level a piece of ground near the well and smooth it down with lal mati, a kind of yellow clay which is generally found immediately over gravel. They then dig a clod up out of it, and carry it home on the head of one of them. They make a fireplace, chulha, of this mud in the center of the court-yard, aangan. In somewhere a plantain-tree and a bamboo is set up in the courtyard, under which the mud is placed.

The day before the expected arrival of the marriage procession, the family sets up a bamboo shed in the court-yard over the fireplace. This shed is called marhwa, or manro. An earthen pot, called kalsa, with a four- wicked lamp, called chaumukh,on its top is placed in the house where the family god is placed for the purposes of the marriage. This house is called kohbar.

Some of the pot are placed at marhwa. A plough-shaft , haris, a plough-yoke palo, and some bamboo twigs, karchis are then buried in the ground in the centre of the marhwa. Then five men bring out from the kohbar the kalsa, and place it under the marhwa in front of the bamboo twigs. The father of the bride then anoints the four posts of the marhwa with ghee and on each the mother applies some vermilion (senur). The name of this ceremony is gheeudhari or ghidhari.

At the same time worship is offered to the progenitors of the family, which is called mantri puja. Then five men take turmeric (hardi), oil and dub grass (dubi), which they scatter on the bride's forehead. This is called hardi charhae. Then women anoint her body with oil and turmeric. This is called ubtan.

Next follows the ceremony of swallowing the mango fibre. This is called imli ghontai. An elder male of the mother's family (usually her brother) puts into her left hand a present of money or ornaments. The barber's wife then gives him the center fiber of one of the mango leaves hanging up in the marhwa, which he presents to the bride's mouth. She then bites a small piece off this and deposits it in the hollow of her mother`sown right hand, into which the elder male pours a little water. The piece of fiber is called kharika. This the mother holds over her daughter's head and gulps it all down.

The elder male then says to her, " Are you cool (jurailoo)"? to which she replies " I am cool (jurailin)".

Wedding wreaths of mango leaves, flowers, etc., are hung over the door, and about the marhwa. These are, bandnewar or ghera. In Bhagalpur mango branches are hung about the house, and are
called pallo.

In the bridegroom's house, before the marriage procession starts for the marriage ceremony, very similar ceremonies are gone through; the matkorwa is performed. A chulha is made in the court-yard. The plough-shaft, yoke, and bamboo twigs are buried, and the earthen pot with lights is set up. Only no marhwa is built. The ceremonies of chumauna and hardi are performed on him, as is done to the bride.