Hello everyone! Today I will be talking about an art form that fights for social change from Gujarat, my mother's birthplace and a significant part of my heritage! This art form is called Bhavai. Bhavai is a form of folk theater that combines music, art, and dancing to portray mythological and historical events. Bhavai is more than 600 years old and is one of the oldest forms of folk music still practiced and taught today. Before we jump into the ties between Bhavai and social change, I want to go over the musicality and structure of this classical art form. As I said before, Bhavai is an art form composed of many different elements. One of the distinct elements is a dance form that consists of intricate balancing acts. Men sway back and forth with other men in lines while balancing fragile and sharp materials on their feet or heads. Women were banned from performing Bhavai but now veiled women balance up to 25 pitchers on their heads while they dance and sway on glass or swords. This act takes many years to learn and requires strength, coordination, and patience. Another crucial element of Bhavai is the music played during the performances. The accompanying music consists of traditional folk instruments such as the dhol, nagara, jhanj, and harmonium. The music sets the mood and rhythm of the performance and enhances the dramatic impact. The rhythm made by the drum-like instruments is essential because it allows the dancers to stay in tempo and together with the dancers around them.
Both dancing and music are significant to Bhavai, but they serve to highlight the primary purpose: the stories and messages portrayed through acting and storytelling. Bhavai is a type of ritual offering made to the Hindu goddess Amba. The word Bhavai splits into two words: "Bhava," meaning universe, and "Aai," meaning mother. These two words together refer to the mother of the Universe, Amba. The performances occur in open theaters with a prayer area where performers and audience members can pay tribute to the goddess Amba before the performances start. The individual who started Bhavai in the 14th century is called Asaita Thakar, a house priest for a village's headman. Unfortunately, the headman's daughter got kidnapped, and when the priest went to save her, he was ultimately outcast by the Brahmins (the highest caste in India's caste system). In order to earn a living, he began writing and performing plays that soon became known as Bhavai. He wrote about 360 plays, but only 60 are still known and performed to this day.
As Bhavai became more well-known, a new caste formed for the performers called Tragala. Although it is a ritualistic performance, Bhavai is known for having performances that criticize social norms and weave in humor in order to reach their audiences. Most performances condemn individuals of the higher castes, Brahmins,
and scoff at the injustices lower caste people face because of them. In fact, performances criticize the whole caste system and portray how people from lower castes can never succeed because of it. More recently, other social injustices such as famine and domestic violence have been prevalent topics of performances. Bhavai performances highlight gods and goddesses that criticize social injustices so the audience can feel the need for change. Overall, learning about Bhavai has been very eye opening and I hope to keep researching it through my studies of Music and Social Change. Please tune in to my next blog where I will be talking about my personal experience of visiting a village in Gujarat and being able to see bhavai first hand! Thank you for reading!
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