Chhau is a dance form with roots in West Bengal, Odisha and Jharkhand. There are mainly three types of Chhau that have gained immense popularity and have been classified as one of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO in 2010. The most popular types of Chhau performance are: 1. Seraikella 2. Mayurbhanj and 3. Purulia Chhau. Among these three performances it is only the Seraikella and Purulia Chhau which use masks in their performances.
ORIGIN
The origin of Chhau has its roots in ancient Indian indigenous forms of dance and martial practices and has also been classified as one of the oldest dance forms of Indian history. The essence of ancient Indian traditions are still visible in Chhau performances. Few of the prominent dance movements that Chhau consists of have also been classified as Nritya-Karnas and hand gesticulation which had been codified in Bharata’s Natyashastra and Nandikeshvar’s Natyashastra respectively.

A Chhau Performer
It is performed throughout the year, but it is intimately connected to religious festivals, particularly with the spring festival or Chaitra Parva. Although Chhau has different roots in three different states, I will particularly focus on Purulia Chhau which has its origin in the Purulia District of West Bengal.
Apart from having its origin in West Bengal, choosing Chhau Dance of Purulia has another rationale. The western narrative often categorizes Seraikella and Mayurbhanj dance forms as performances produced by an elite class or organised under royal patronage while ignoring the dance form of Purulia Chhau which has a folk origin and were performed mostly by people belonging to lower social identity – the scheduled caste and the schedule tribe. It is because of this reason that I believe that Purulia Chhau has a vast repository of cultural wealth which has not yet been tapped into because of the social marginalisation they suffer from. The performers of Purulia Chhau are almost always associated with poverty and are not recognized by the performance industry. Nonetheless, some might argue that it is the social exclusion which empowers them to maintain the natural folk essence of the Chhau performance. With a birds eye view, whenever we look at all the three forms of Chhau performances we find a coalescence of tribal and royal influences.

Performance of Purulia Chhau
Given the wide variety of Chhau performances, the meaning or the etymological roots of the term also holds different meanings. While some claim that the word Chhau has a Sanskrit root Chadma meaning disguise others, such as Sitakant Mahapatra, claim that it has an Odia origin from Chhauni signifying military camp, armour and strength. However, it has been most popularly agreed upon that the word Chhau was derived from the Sanskrit word Chaya meaning shadow or image or mask, in this context.
THE MOTIF MASTERY: EXPLORING THE ICONOGRAPHY OF CHHAU DANCE MASKS
The spirit of Purulia Chhau dance lies in the masks. The dancers wear masks of unique design and style, which construct the theme and the individual the dance revolves around. The masks also allow the dancer to immerse themselves into a particular character of their performance. However, the masks also come with certain restrictions. It limits the dancer to tap into their facial expression during the performance and henceforth they have to depend on physical movements to depict the expressions.

Purulia Chhau Mask
The mask makers constitute a different coterie of people than the performers. The mask makers belong to a specific community/clan called Sutradhar of Charida village of Baghmundi (also known as Mukhos Para). The masks used in the Purulia Chhau performances, however, did not evolve in conjunction with the dance and have a unique history of their own. Their history can be traced back to the late nineteenth century when local raja Madan Mohan Singh Deo of Baghmundi made mask makers of Burdwan migrate to Charida and gave them land to settle on. As mask makers slowly became popular and came to be associated as the makers of the images of God, the performers began to incorporate masks in their performances slowly paving the path for the Purulia Chhau performance we know today. The mask making community of Charida refer to Buddeshwar as a revered figure who had produced the first mask– of Kirat and Kiratini (representation of Lord Shiva and Parvati). There is also a statue of Buddeshwar in Charida village.

Mask of Kirat

Mask of Kiratini
The mask makers mainly used to produce masks of gods and goddesses related to the Brahmanic pantheon in wood. However, with their migration to Purulia and association with the performers, the process and the material used for mask making also changed from wood to clay. The subjects of the masks also extended from gods and goddesses to Rakshasas (demons). The reason for this change can be associated with the weight of the wooden mask as it had proved to be too heavy for the dancers to perform wearing them. Therefore, in contemporary times, we find mask makers continuing to produce two types of masks: one for the household and the other for performances. The perfect time for mask making is summer. The symbolic motifs of Purulia Chhau is portrayed mainly though the colours. Different colours of the masks symbolically represent different deities or characters of the Chhau performance. Such as:
- Dark yellow or bright orange are the colours often used to portray Gods and Goddesses like Devi Durga, Lakhsmi, and Kartik.
- White is generally used for Lord Shiva, Ganesha and Goddess Saraswati.
- Black or blue are generally used for masks portraying Goddess Kali.
- A talisman or a tilak is generally applied on the forehead of Lord Rama and Krishna.
- The Asuras are painted in black or deep green with thick moustaches and protruding teeth and large eyes.
Therefore, the motifs of the masks is grounded not in any particular symbol rather in the colours used to produce them. Apart from the colours the patterns also symbolises the rank and the temperament of the character. The shiny headdresses of the mask are made of shiny headdresses made of zari, foil, feathers, beads, plastic and paper flowers and thin bamboo sticks.
The process of mask making includes:
- A clay model of the mask is created and dried in the sunlight
- It is then covered firstly by powdered ash followed by paper mache
- On top of this structure another layer of fine clay is applied
- When this layer had dried, a layer of old torn cloth is applied on it with sticky clay
- After this step the mask is polished and intricate features are inscribed on it with a small tool called ‘Batali’.
- On the polished mask a layer of clay water is applied followed by a layer of zinc oxide when the clay water has dried.
- Finally it is painted and decorated and the mask is ready.
It is important to note here that every process of mask making contains a specific local name.

Mask making
NARRATIVES IN PERFORMANCE: THE THEMATIC MOTIF OF CHHAU DANCE
The Chhau performances of Purulia revolve around a few generic themes revolving not only around religion but also covers other themes ranging from epics to social issues. Like every other performance, this performing space was also limited to men. It is for this reason that in most Chhau performances we find it is also men performing female characters. However, recent trends show that there is an increase in women participation in these performances blurring the stark gender divide

Chhau Performance: Durga slaying Mahisasur
Even though earlier performances of Chhau mostly centred around martial practices or folk themes connected to nature, the arrival and integration of the masks elevated the themes of Purulia Chhau performances to a higher mythological realm. The masks of gods and goddesses such as Shiva, Durga, Ganesh Kartik, Ram etc became the central characters around whom the performances were constructed. The performances , in most instances, narrate a drama where the performers play certain specific characters. Few of the themes of the performances include:
- Tarakasur Badh
- Mahisasur Mardini,
- Tandav Nritya,
- Nidhubone krishnakali

Theme of Ramayana
The themes referred here are mostly related to religion.
- Tarakasur Badh narrates the story of Lord Kartikeya slaying the demon Tarakasur.
- The second theme Mahisasur Mardini celebrates the victory of good over evil symbolised through the slaying of Mahishasura (King of Demons) by goddesses Durga.
- The third theme is the retelling of Lord Shiva’s famous Tandav Nritya.
- Finally the last theme attempts to highlight Krishna’s Raas Leela in Nidhivan (also known as Madhuvan). Even though these examples only highlight the role of religion in the performance, it is also important to specify that the themes also extended to the epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata. The most common theme related to Mahabharata is Arjun’s Darpachurna.

Theme of Kartikeya
As specified earlier, in contemporary times the themes of the performance also extended to social issues. Such themes mainly deal with awareness with a latent aim to educate the audience. Such a practice has seen a rising popularity and has also been encouraged by the government as the performers can deliver news directly to different local masses as they migrate to different regions for their performances. Two such example are:
- The theme of ‘Corona Awareness Programmes’ to ensure that the audience, mostly from the villages, does not give into rumours.
- The theme of any Government schemes such as ‘Kanyashree’ (Introduced by the Government of West Bengal) to ensure that information reaches even in the remotest areas.
It is important to remember here that most of these performances are played out in the form of a theatrical drama, referred to as ‘Pala’. The dancers do not emit any sound or dialogues rather execute the entire performance through dancing, background music and in certain cases a narration by a single narrator. The musical instruments used are Indian instruments ranging from dhol, kartal to shehnai.
CHHAU’S POP PRESENCE
Chhau performance itself is an all encompassing act filled with cultural essence to the brim. It involves not only dancing but also mask making, costume making, playing of Indian instruments, theatrical moves, stories/themes of performance, narration all of which provides a lens to acknowledge the rich cultural heritage of India, particularly West Bengal. The popularity of Purulia Chhau has also reached the Bollywood, where we see scenes of Purulia Chhau being performed in movies like Barfi and Gunday. Even the famous director Ritwik Ghatok himself had directed a documentary titled ‘Puruliar Chhou Nritya’ as far back as 1970.
WHERE IT IS NOW?
Purulia Chhau enjoys worldwide recognition in the present day. Along with its recognition as intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO, it has also been awarded the Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2018. All these rewards further accentuated the popularity of Purulia Chhau to an international scale.
Apart from performances, the mask used also emerged as a vital consumer product. Present in numerous styles, these masks successfully have made a mark both in international and domestic markets as souvenirs representing India’s cultural heritage.
Despite its international recognition, Purulia Chhau is still not free from the shackles of modernity. With increasing industrialisation, additional economic pressure, rise and popularity of alternative modes of entertainment made Purulia Chhau lose its popularity. Even with adaptation to modern age through the performance of contemporary themes, the failure of Purulia Chhau among the urban masses seemed inevitable. However, all hope is not lost as we witness the rise of numerous non governmental organisations (NGOs), such as Banglanatak.com, supporting Purulia Chhau to regain its lost popularity.
SOURCES
- https://www.journal.skbu.ac.in/published/paper_full_text/314311710935155.pdf?v=1723027655
- https://www.incredibleindia.gov.in/en/west-bengal/purulia-chau-mask
- https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/chhau-dance-00337
- https://www.outlooktraveller.com/experiences/heritage/spring-in-their-step