Arts and artisanal heritage

Chhau of SeraikelaMartial

A masked dance built out of a martial movement vocabulary, in which the face is fixed and every meaning is carried by the angle of the head, the line of the spine and the arms. The masks are made by Sutradhar families in Seraikela from clay moulds and layered paper. Chhau in its Seraikela, Purulia and Mayurbhanj forms was inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010 — Seraikela and Purulia masked, Mayurbhanj without masks.

Performed by: Trained dancers of Seraikela, historically under court patronage. Occasion: Chaitra Parva, in April

PaikaMartial

A shield-and-sword dance in a fast circle to the mandar and nagara, with leaps and mock combat. The name is the old word for a foot-soldier, and the form retains the drill.

Performed by: Munda and Sadan men. Occasion: Festivals and public receptions

JhumairFolk

The plateau's general-purpose dance — a linked line moving with a swinging step to the mandar, sung in Sadri, Khortha or Kurmali. Mardana jhumair is danced by men, janani jhumair by women. It travelled with migrant labour and is now danced in the Assam tea gardens and the Dooars as well.

Performed by: Everyone, at the village akhra. Occasion: Harvest, Karam, weddings, and any occasion at all

Jadur and Sarhul danceRitual

Danced on the sal blossom, from the sarna grove to the akhra, with the pahan leading and the line growing as it passes each house.

Performed by: Oraon and Munda. Occasion: Sarhul, in Chaitra

Lagre, Dong and BahaTribal

Named Santal dance-song genres, each with its own drum pattern on the tamak' and tumdak' pair. Dong is a wedding form; Baha belongs to the spring flower festival; Lagre is danced at almost anything.

Performed by: Santal. Occasion: Baha in Phalgun, weddings, Sohrai

Karam danceRitual

Danced around a karam branch planted in the courtyard, all night, with the jhumair step and Karam songs answered line for line between two groups.

Performed by: Across communities, led by unmarried women. Occasion: Karam, in Bhado

DomkachFolk

A night-long women's dance with parody, cross-dressed roles and teasing songs, sung in Nagpuri or Khortha. Shared with Magadh and Bhojpur to the north.

Performed by: Women of the household. Occasion: Weddings, after the wedding party has left

Tamak' and tumdak'

The Santal drum pair — a large kettle drum struck with sticks and a two-headed hand drum — which between them set the pattern that names a Santal dance. A dancer identifies the form from the drum before the singing starts.

Mandar and nagara

The plateau's other percussion pair, carrying jhumair, paika and Karam across the Sadri-speaking villages. The mandar is slung and played with both hands; the nagara is a bowl drum beaten with sticks.

Banam and tirio

The Santal bowed lute, often carved as a standing human figure with the strings running through it, and the side-blown bamboo flute. The banam is played solo and is as much a sculpture as an instrument.

Nagpuri song

The Sadri-language popular repertoire — jhumair, domkach and pachra forms recorded commercially since the cassette era, and now the plateau's largest music industry by volume.

Jadopatia scroll performance

A Jadopatia painter arrives at a house with a rolled scroll, unrolls it frame by frame and sings the narrative — including the chakshudan scroll painted after a death, in which the eye of the departed is completed only when the family has paid. Painter, singer and ritual officiant in one visit.

Chhau at Chaitra Parva

The Seraikela festival is staged over several nights in April as a sequence of solo and duet items, each a single mood or figure, and until the mid twentieth century was performed largely by men of the ruling and artisan households of the town.

Nachni and rasik

A professional dancer-singer and her male partner-composer performing jhumur at fairs and private gatherings across the Purulia and Dhalbhum belt. A long-standing performance institution with a hard social history, now sustained by a small number of ageing performers.

Sohrai and Khovar painting GI registered Hazaribagh — Barkagaon, Bhelwara and neighbouring blocks

Done by women of Kurmi, Santal, Munda, Oraon, Ganju, Teli and Prajapati households on the outer and inner walls of their own houses — Sohrai at the cattle festival after the harvest, Khovar on the marriage chamber before a wedding. The motifs are cattle, forest, wheel and plant, and they repeat forms found in the prehistoric rock shelters of the same district, which is the connection Bulu Imam spent decades documenting. Registered as a geographical indication in 2020.

Material: Local earths — white kaolin, red and yellow ochre, black manganese, on a mud plaster. Technique: Sohrai is painted on with a chewed sal or cloth swab in coloured earths, after the harvest. Khovar is subtractive — a coat of white kaolin is laid over a dark manganese ground and, while it is still damp, the white is combed away with a broken comb so the pattern appears as the dark layer beneath. One is added, the other is removed.

Paitkar scroll painting GI-worthy East Singhbhum — Amadubi

Practised by Chitrakar families in a handful of villages, with Amadubi the surviving centre. Subjects run from the Ramayana and Krishna cycles to Santal creation narratives and the journey of the soul after death. Closely related to the Jadopatia tradition of Santal Pargana. Very few working painters remain.

Material: Handmade paper and cloth, natural pigment. Technique: Painted in horizontal frames on a long scroll, unrolled and sung frame by frame.

Seraikela Chhau masks GI-worthy Seraikela-Kharsawan

Made by hereditary Sutradhar households in Seraikela town for the Chaitra Parva dance and, increasingly, for sale. The mask is a functioning instrument — its weight and balance determine what the dancer can do.

Material: Clay mould, layered paper, cloth, mineral paint. Technique: A clay master form is built, layers of paper and cloth pasted over it and dried, the shell lifted off, smoothed and painted. The face is finished with a deliberately neutral expression so that head angle and lighting can supply the emotion.

Lac work GI-worthy Khunti, Ranchi, Simdega

Jharkhand produces most of India's lac. It is an insect resin harvested twice a year from host trees, and the same material supplies bangles, sealing wax, shellac and traditional inlay. The national institute for lac and natural resins is at Namkum, near Ranchi.

Material: Lac resin from Kerria lacca, farmed on kusum and palas trees. Technique: Resin melted, coloured, rolled and worked into bangles, beads and inlay.

Bamboo and sabai grass work Across the plateau

Grain bins, mats, fish traps, winnowing fans and rope. Sabai grass rope from the Singhbhum and Odisha border villages is a cash crop as much as a craft material.

Material: Bamboo, sabai grass, siali fibre. Technique: Splitting, coiling and plaiting.

Bell metal and Dhokra casting Khunti, Ranchi, Dumka

Practised by Malhar and Tanti caster households, mostly for ritual lamps, measuring bowls and figures. It is the same technique as Bastar's registered Dhokra, without the registration and with a smoother finish.

Material: Brass and bronze scrap, beeswax, clay. Technique: Lost-wax casting, with the mould broken to release each piece.

Tasar reeling and weaving GI-worthy Seraikela-Kharsawan, West Singhbhum, Godda

A forest-based sericulture — cocoons are reared on standing trees rather than in sheds. The finished cloth often leaves the region undyed and is dyed and finished elsewhere, which is where the margin goes.

Material: Antheraea mylitta cocoons reared on arjun and asan. Technique: Forest rearing, hand or machine reeling, pit-loom weaving.

Stone and wood carving Dumka, Sahibganj, Hazaribagh

Grave and memorial stones, house posts, and the carved wooden figure-necks of Santal banam fiddles. The memorial stones set at Santal burial grounds are the region's least-photographed sculpture tradition.

Material: Local stone, sal and gamhar timber. Technique: Direct carving, with no joinery in the ritual pieces.