During one of our visits to Jaipur, we made a trip to the marble city of India — Kishangarh, popularly known as Madanganj-Kishangarh. The Kishangarh style of painting, which is famous for depicting singer and poet Bani Thani, had its origins here. As one of our hobbies is painting, we were fascinated by this beautiful art. It portrays elegant and graceful women with characteristic features — sloping foreheads, long curved eyes, chiselled lips, sharp pointed nose and chin. Curled locks near the ear is also one of the specialities of this painting. The Radha-Krishna love is one of the central themes, apart from court scenes and portraits of kings, nawabs and saints.
We also witnessed the popular Chari dance and came to know that the musical instrument Bankia is played during the performance of this folk dance. Bankia resembles the trumpet and belongs to the category of aerophones. It is also played during weddings, ceremonial processions, religious ceremonies and festive occasions in Rajasthan and neighbouring regions. It is performed mostly by the bhopas, the priest-singers of the folk deities and the Dhadhi community.
Powerful sound
The Bankia is a natural trumpet, a valveless instrument. It is made of bronze and has two parts, the bugle is like a tube and a bell that is in the shape of a saucer with an integrated mouth piece through which air is blown. It is a simple bugle that produces a powerful sound.
Chari Dance is performed in a group by women belonging to the Gujjar and Saini communities of North Rajasthan. The women, who are colourfully dressed and adorned with jewels such as armlets, bangdi, gajra, hansli, karli, kanka, mogri, navr, punchi and timniya, hold the Chari pots, usually made of brass or clay, on their heads. Chari is also referred as Charu means metallic water pot. Usually the Chari is lit with fire and the fire is set with the usual lamp oil or with cotton seeds immersed in oil. The dancers, without touching it, perform graceful movements and fast twirls to the tunes of the Bankia and rhythms of the dholak.
The Chari dance is performed at weddings and on the birth of a child, particularly a male child, apart from other celebrations and festivals. This dance is said to depict the ritual of collecting water. Rajasthan being an arid region, women walk miles daily with their charis to collect water. Among the other instruments that accompany the Chari are the nagada, dholak, harmonium, dhol and bankia. The men stand in a corner and play these instruments with the women dancing at the centre.
Bankia is also part of the Kachi Ghodi folk dance which is performed by men on dummy horses. It is performed during the annual elephant festival, held just before Holi in Jaipur.