Bihar Jhijhiya

Jhijhiya is a famous folk dance of Bihar and is performed in the mythological town of Mithila. Mithila was supposed to be the birthplace of Lord Sita, who was considered to be the human form of Lord Lakshmi, the consort of Lord Mahavishnu. As the story goes, King Janaka found the baby Sita from under the earth during one of his morning walks. With such mythological background, the folk dance of Jhijhiya is performed with great vigor and gusto in Bihar.

History

The Jhijhiya dance seems to have been performed even in the earlier days of history. There are mentions about this dance by the women of some tribes in Bihar on the last day of Navaratri – which is commonly referred to as Bijaya Dasami. This translates to Victorious tenth day and the women thank god for all their achievements and pray for more on this day while performing the Jhijhiya dance.

Description

This Jhijhiya dance is performed by the women only. The whole Navaratri – ‘nine nights’ festival is celebrated to worship the three forms of Lord Lakshmi, Parvati and Saraswathi. This is a very revered festival for women and is celebrated with a lot of gaiety and splendor all over the country. Going by facts in mythology, these three forms united to eradicate the devil god Mahishasur, so this is seen as a time of victory and success over all evil things.

The day after the nine nights, which is the day of Bijaya Dasami, the women of Bihar get together and perform the Jhijhiya dance. This dance needs a lot of practice, as the women carry lighted lanterns on their heads when they dance. Most of the folk dances have some aspect like this – which adds more beauty and grace to these folk dances.

The cultivation of food crops is an important occupation and means of living in India and for cultivation, the rain is the most important factor. The vagaries of monsoon can lead to either bad or no crops, and the tribals of Bihar, perform prayers to their Gods, to bless them with a plentiful harvest. Since all this depends on rain, they perform special prayers to the Rain God and to the King of Gods, Lord Indra, so that he takes care of sending enough rain for the crops to grow well. The ladies perform the Jhijhiya dance as part of their prayers and request God to take care of their crops and prevent them from getting into a state of famine or less food crops. They also thank God for so many years’ cultivation and request for continued good harvests.

The dancers of Jhijhiya place lanterns made of mud on their heads. These lanterns are very artfully designed with holes in them. There are lamps that are placed inside these lanterns. These lamps are filled with oil or ghee and lit. It is a beauty that can only be seen, as the lamps keep burning and the light travels through the holes of the lanterns and since the women are holding this in their heads, the light also seems to be moving gently and gracefully. This is a very beautiful sight indeed.

These dancers are well trained and seem effortlessly dancing, and this proves that they have been training form a young age to dance to this perfection. The light shines through beautifully coming out from those intricately carved holes in the lanterns and we can’t help but praise the dancers – the oil isn’t spilt, they don’t lose balance, it is all very systematically and professionally executed, that we feel they deserve a much better recognition for all their passion that is exhibited in performing this Jhijhiya dance – these folk dances talk so much about our capability, but however only a few of these dances have hogged the limelight. It is time we woke up and put our efforts in spreading the information about the greatness of our folk dances.