Origin of Garba
The dance form of Garba is synonymous with the celebration of Navratri. This dance form is the most popular among all dance forms. Originally, when this dance form originated in the Indian villages, a pot was ceremoniously decorated with folk art and a lamp used to be placed inside. These pots are commonly ‘garbis’. Then, these lighted pots are carried around by the village maidens on their heads and they dance around the various village dwellings.Each such colourful festive group of pot-bearing girls will have a leader who sings a line of the traditional songs and the rest of the group repeat after her. They go round in circle beating two sticks on the ground in unison to create a rhythm. The movements are extremely graceful and synchronised.
Garba forms an important part of the community celebration
People of various castes and creeds eagerly form a part of Navratri celebration through Garba dance form. Nice melodious songs are sung or played in accompaniment with the Garba dance. Everybody from the community is welcome to join the community dance and have fun with family and friends. Drums or dholak is played in rhythmic mode and sometimes the women sing themselves. The songs narrate beautiful historical and mythical stories through the melodies and these folk songs are handed over to posterity for the last several generations. The songs of the Garba are often steeped in history and are very melodious and these songs have very ancient origin and have been handed down to posterity through generations.When Garba dance first came into vogue, they seemed to revolve round the theme of tribal dance sung at the time of hunting. When life settled down a bit into the agricultural lifestyle, these dances changed its texture and form a part of the agricultural ritualistic dance dedicated to Goddess Ambika. Presently, with the change in living pattern, Garba has attained popularity solely as a social dance encouraging participation from all sections of the society and harbours a grand communal mixing. In essence, Garba still retains the flavour of a being a fertility dance.
Garba is enjoyed in its different forms. The dancers belonging to the many different communities have formulated their own style and dance steps. In the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan that are primarily agricultural, the Garba dance form has an earthy flavour. The urban flavour commingles with the rural to create the magic for festivity during the Navratri days. While the tribes or the rural community worship the various forms of nature such as the air, water, rain, clouds they also worship Nature in the form of an icon or a painted image drawn on an earthen pot known as garbi, a bamboo structure or a wooden structure. Sowing and sprouting of corn during those nine days form an important part of Navratri celebration among the agricultural communities. The culmination of the festival is marked by the colourful and lively folk dance of garba.
Garba is now a social platform where traditionalism and modernity mixes and gives an opportunity for people to come together to heighten the joy of celebration.
Garba has surpassed geographical boundaries
Ahmadabad, the capital of the Indian state of Gujarat, is well known for its Garba dance performances. Ahmadabad attracts a lot of crowd from all over the world. Apart from Garba, the other traditional dance forms such as Raas and dandiya are also performed with equal enthusiasm. The whole atmosphere gets charged as the lively and colourful dancers gather in various community halls and open parks. The air gets filled with Garba music. The young and old get lost in the joy of celebration.Garba was more popular in the Western part of Gujarat once upon a time but now it has transcended the geographical boundaries and had become immensely popular in foreign countries too. The three major metropolitans Delhi, Kolkata, and Bangalore observe the ritualistic Garba dance with great furore where hundreds of young men and women are seen to be dancing to the tunes of Garba songs. Outside India, Garba is immensely popular among many parts of United Sates and United Kingdom where a large number of Gugratis reside. The people from other Indian communities too gather with similar passion to celebrate Navratri through Garba dance.
Garba attire
Most of the ladies who participate in the Garba dance performance prefer to wear colourful gorgeous sarees. A few also wear bright and vibrant lehenga cholis with odhni or dupatta covering the heads. The ladies order and buy special custom-made dresses particularly for the Garba dance performances. The men too wear traditional attire that comprises kediyum shirt, vajani trouser and a headpiece to match the elaborate dresses of the women folk.In the modern dance forms, Garba is sometimes performed with colourful sticks that are moved and swayed and struck is unison in well synchronised dance moves. This dance form is called dandiya and through this dance form Garba has acquired the new-found glamour due to its heightened popularity among the upper sections of the societies, celebrities and because of the hype created by the various media sources.
