The Story of Purulia Chhou

Innovation in Themes and Contemporary Changes – A Temporal Phenomenon

Abstract

Chhou is an indigenous folk dance of Eastern India. Originally, it evolved as a martial art prevalent in the Chotanagpur Region of Jharkhand, Odisha and the western part of West Bengal. It is essentially a masked dance and conventionally, all the participants of Purulia Chhou wear masks. It originated as a ritualistic masked dance performed by the tribals of the Chotanagpur Plateau on the occasion of Chaitra Parva with the objective of worshipping Lord Shiva. However, Purulia Chhou underwent a long journey over time during which it saw many innovations and a large degree of transformation. This paper discusses the changes that have taken place in the performance over decades and its present status.