Paper: 2 Relationship Of Dance And Theatre, Study Of Rupaka And Uparupaka, Traditional Theatres Of India Module 25 Jatra In Bengali the meaning of the word Jatra is to travel from one place to another. Even processions are included in this travel idea. Several ancient texts mention Jatra. In Skanda Purana we find twelve kinds of Jatras are cited each held in one of the twelve months. These are usually festivals held for the worship of Vishnu all over the year. They are Chandani Jatra- held in the month of Baishakh i.e. April-May Snapuni Jatra – held in Jaitha i.e. May June Rathyatra Jatra - held in Asharh i.e. during June-July Sayani Jatra - held in Shravan Dakshin Parshia Jatra - held in Bhadra Bamparshia Jatra - held in Aswin Uthhani Jatra - held in Kartik Chhadni Jatra - held in Agrahayan Puspabhishekh Jatra - held in Poush Salyodni Jatra - held in Magh Dol Jatra - held in Phalgun Madanbhanjika Jatra – held in Chaitra In Bamkeshar Tantra there are sixteen Jatras mentioned held in different months. Mancha Jatra and Chandan Jatra- held in the month of Baishakh i.e. April-May Mahasnan Jatra –held in Jaitha i.e. May June Rathyatra Jatra - held in Asharh i.e. during June-July Jala Jatra - held in Shravan Dhunan Jatra - held in Bhadra Mahapuja Jatra - held in Aswin Deepa Jatra - held in Kartik Nabanna Jatra - held in Agrahayan Angarag Jatra - held in Poush Magadevi Jatra - held in Magh Dol Jatra - held in Phalgun Duti Jatra, Ras Jatra, Basanti Jatra and Nil Jatra – held in Chaitra So we see that the Jatras mentioned in ancient texts and literature are only social and religious festivals and did not specify any art form. This statement seems all the truer when we see that a number of ancient Sanskrit plays are written to be performed in the Jatra festivals. Like Bhavabhuti wrote Uttaramcharit and Malatimadhava for the Kalpriyanath Jatra. Jatra is an initiative where people gather for rites, rituals, devotion and entertainment. Thus these became festivals for the society. In ancient times Jatra was also counted as a festival and theatre or drama was almost a compulsory part of it. The reason of naming the ritualistic worship in a place also as Jatra is found in the fifteenth volume of Biswakosh. It says that though Jatra was initiated as a religious procession along with kirtan singing in the preliminary state, but gradually people began to confine the activities of the procession and its rituals in a chosen place and hence the total activity became a static occasion. But these occurrences carried forward the name Jatra. Later on, the elements of the art of acting were added to this devotional singing and dancing ceremony. This new emerged form of performance is now coined as Jatrapala. The chief areas of the performance of Jatra are Bihar, Bengal, Orissa and Assam in the eastern India. Hemanta Kumar Das opines regarding Oriya Jatra, “We do not know exactly when this powerful medium came to be known as Jatra. But one thing is clear that it was widely known under that name during Sarala Das’ time….This was at least a century before Chaitanya’s arrival at Puri and the appearance of Krishna Jatra in Bengal … However it must be added that Oriya Jatra came in contact with Bengali Jatra during the 19th century and since then it has always depended upon it for inspiration.” From the beginning Oriya Jatra received the favor and patronage of rural as well as the urban people. In Orissa it is in true sense a mass performing art media. Primarily the stories here are also based on mythology, religious themes, history and story of individuals. Social plays have very major contribution in this art form. Now-a-days famous film stories are also adapted along with technical advancements like sound, lights and other aids are adapted in the performance, which they think are important to continue the fight with electronics media and cinema. In Bihar, Jatra is a folk dance of the Oraons, who are tribes supposed to be emigrated from Nepal. These Oraons have three dances - Jatra, Karma and Jadur. Interestingly Jatra here represents the fight of life and the technique includes a lot of martial movements. The movements are fast and display energy. During the dance a musician stands in the center of the performing arena and sings the songs in such a way that the delivery serves in motivating the dancers. The songs are sung in Nepali. Among many instruments that are used is the Dholak. In Assam Jatra is performed as the bhavna. These presentations include religious stories taken from Sanskrit literature. Masks are a special feature of this presentation. Bengal has contributed greatly to this art form. In Bengal the festival of the local folk deities is called Jata. Some are of opinion that Jatra has derived its name from this Jata. Whatever be the origin the historians of Bengali dramatic literature have linked its origin to Natgeet, which was actually sung in festivals that were called Jatra. Hence gradually the word Jatra took the place of Natgeet. However, the history of Bengali literature points to the Jangam festival, which people referred to as Jatra. This Jangam too was a religious procession. The Natyashastra stands as a proven fact of the prevalence of Natya in India. But according to Biswakosh, Jatra was a common patronizing art form of the Hindu kings. It narrates that the actors with all make up and costume would sit in the performance area commonly called the asar/असर. As per their appearance sequence according to the story, each actor would stand up, sing, dance and act the character. This is an example of Jatra being a separate kind of performing art, which is not guided by the Natyashastra technique. So it is obvious that the dramatists are not in the lineage of Bhasa, Kalidasa or Sudraka, the Sanskrit dramatists. Around 15th century, Baru Chandidas of Bankura-Birbhum area of Bengal wrote Srikrishna kirtana/श्रीक्रि�णकीर्तन . Prior to this between 1473 and 1480 Maladhar Basu of the village of Kulin in Bardhhaman wrote the first Bengali literature on the theme of Krishna named Srikrishna Vijay. In 1494 Jasiraj Khan wrote Krishna Panchali/कृ �णा पा車चाऱी. In 1495 Biprodas Piplai of Basirhat wrote Manasabijoy. Kabindra Parameswar of Chatttogram wrote Pandav Bijoy. From this time onwards we find a definite development of the elements of Bengali drama. The stories of Manasa (the serpent God), his kind of Dharma, Chandi and other local mythology along with Ramayana, Krishnalila were taken as theme and presented through songs, dance, music and narration. These kinds of oral tradition presentation were now penned down by the writers and poets. Thus Srikrishnakirtana of Baru Chandidas was the first writing on the story of Radha Krishna and it is presented with dialogues and songs illustrating the story line. In the introductory episode the depiction of the birth of Radha and Krishna takes place;then follows twelve more episodes on Krishna’s life cycle in this play- such as Tambulakhanda/र्륍बुऱाख車ड, Dankhanda/द車ख車ड, Noukakhanda/नौकाख車ड, Bharkhanda/भाखंड, Chhatrakhanda/छात्रख車ड, Vrindavanakhanda/वन्ृ दावनख車ड, Kaliyadamankhanda/कालऱयादमनख車ड, Yamunakhanda/यमुनाख車ड, Harkhanda/हखंड, Vankhanda/वनख車ड, Vangshikhanda/व車嵍शीख車ड and Virahakhandaववरहख車ड. All these episodes could not be performed in one day. They were performed on different days. The word pala was already in existence in Bengal. So with each episode the word pala was added now. So the episodes became Tambulakhanda Pala, Dankhanda Pala and so on. Sri Chaitanya was born in 1486, while Srikrishnakirtana was written in 1500. So during the life of Chaitanya Srikrishnakirtana was already prevailing. In Srikrishnakirtana generally the songs are dialogue- oriented and hence had a dramatic structure. There are three main characters -- Krishna, Radha and Barai (the messenger) - all three characters present their dialogues in tune. In this way the story is described and the dramatic moments developed. Hence Srikrishnakirtana is often called by various names like the Gitinatyakavya/गगतर्ना配याक핍य or the Natyagiti/नाटयगतर् by the scholars. But nobody could deny this as a Natya as the dramatic elements were present. During the time of Chaitanya, Krishnakirtana and Krishnajatra was already prevalent but Chaitanya added a different dimension to the Krishnajatra. He introduced the costume and make-up according to the characters. Around the first half of the 16th century we find Sri Chaitanya had acted in Krishnalila/कृ �णऱीऱा. This performance is described in Sri Chaitanya Bhagavat of Brindavandas. Hence we may conclude that it was Chaitanya who formulated the first stage of Jatra in Bengal. But after Chaitanya till the 18th century there is not much evidence of the development in Jatra. In the 18th century the second phase of Jatra development began. We find that different kinds of Jatra are now performed. Some of these are Shakti Jatra, Nath Jatra, Pala Jatra and Krishna Jatra, which was the most popular. In Krishna Jatra, the Kaliya Daman episode was so popular that Krishna Jatra became famous as Kaliya Daman Jatra also. At the end of this century Bidyasundar Pala of Bharat Chandra was the most popular Jatra. But at the same time Jatras incorporated cheap entertainment and hence its dignity started to decline. Shishuram Adhikary took up the task to revive the old glory of Jatra and performed in it. He introduced prose dialogues with songs. His performances gave more importance to dialogues and the use of songs was reduced. The next personality in Jatra to come up in the first half of the 19th century was Premchand Adhikary.