Marwar & the Thar · Arid Northwest
Dance
A circular dance whose name comes from ghoomna, to spin. Dancers move in a ring with a swinging ghagra and clap on the turn; the veil stays drawn throughout.
Performed by: Women, originally of the Bhil community and later adopted at Rajput courts. Occasion: Weddings, Teej, Gangaur, festivals
Serpentine, fast and acrobatic, danced in a black skirt with mirror work to the been and dholak. Inscribed by UNESCO on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010, at a time when the community's traditional livelihood had been made illegal.
Performed by: Women of the Kalbeliya (traditionally snake-catching) community.
The dancer balances a stack of seven to nine brass pots on her head while performing on the rim of a brass thali or the edge of a sword or a glass.
Performed by: Women.
Thirteen small manjeeras (cymbals) tied to the ankles, wrists, elbows and waist, struck in sequence by the seated dancer while a man sings and plays the tandoora.
Performed by: Women of the Kamad community. Occasion: Devotional gatherings for Baba Ramdev
Dancers in a dummy-horse frame stage a mock battle with swords to fife and drum, usually narrating the exploits of local bandit-heroes.
Performed by: Men. Occasion: Weddings, bridegroom processions
Gair is a large mixed-gender circle dance of the Bhil at Holi, danced with sticks. The fire dance of the Jasnathi sect at Bikaner involves dancers stepping onto and dancing on live embers to nagara drumming.
Occasion: Holi (Gair); Jasnathi sect gatherings (fire)
String puppetry from the Bhat community of the Nagaur region, performed with a bamboo-and-cloth articulation and a reed voice-modifier, with a female narrator translating for the audience.
Music
Two hereditary Muslim musician communities of Jaisalmer and Barmer who perform for patron families, keep their genealogies, and sing at their births, weddings and deaths. Manganiyar repertoire invokes Hindu deities alongside Sufi material — an unbroken syncretic practice, not a modern fusion.
A semi-classical melodic style, courtly in origin and Rajasthan's signature form. "Kesariya Balam" is the best-known composition, made famous nationally by Allah Jilai Bai.
Kamaicha (Manganiyar bowed lute), sarangi, ravanhatta, algoza (paired flutes played with circular breathing), khartal (wooden clappers), morchang (jaw harp), nagara and dholak.
Theatre
A long painted cloth scroll telling the epic of Pabuji or Devnarayan, unrolled at night and lit lamp-section by lamp-section while a Bhopa priest-singer performs the episode and a Bhopi holds the lamp. The scroll is a portable temple, not a backdrop.
Open-air folk opera forms — Khyal across the state's east, Rammat performed at Holi in Bikaner and Jaisalmer, both sung, improvised and often satirical.
Crafts
Fired at low temperature from a quartz-and-glass dough with no clay at all, glazed in cobalt and copper. The technique arrived via Persia and Central Asia and survives essentially only here.
Distinct court schools, each with its own conventions — Kishangarh's elongated eye and the Bani Thani profile, Bundi's dense vegetation and night skies, Kota's hunting scenes.
Hollow relief votive plaques of local deities, made by the Kumhar community of one village and carried away by tribal communities from across the region to serve as shrines.
Enamelling in mineral colours fired into gold, with Jaipur's red enamel a technical specialty; kundan sets stones in pure gold foil rather than claws.
Gold-leaf embossing and painting on camel hide, applied to vessels, doors and ceilings.
A snack with a GI tag — moth-bean flour extruded and fried, first made in the late 19th century and now the reason the city's name is known nationally.
The dance, music, theatre and crafts of Marwar & the Thar, from classical forms to village traditions. (18)