Folk Theatre (c): Khulia Bhaona

Khulia bhaona have great place in Assamse culture and society. It is the cultural asset of Darrang district of Assam. With all the features of folk drama, Khulia Bhaona has been attracting both educated and uneducated audience since time immemorial. In Darrang, the term “Khulia Bhauria” is most popular then the term Khulia bhaona. Bhaoria means the person, who with different gestures and conversation can create Navarasa in spectator’s heart.^[1] Khulia means the performer who plays the Khol. In this folk performing art, Khol plays an important role and it can assume that Khulia Bhaona take its name from musical instrument Khol. There are controversy regarding the birth and origin of Khulia Bhaona. Some scholars claim that Khulia bhaona is a pre Sankari art form, while others view that it is a Post Shankari art form as, khol was propounded by Sankardeva. Earlier there was no provision of written script in Khulia Bhaona. Dramas of Khulia bhaona was orally transmitted from generation to generation. However, with the passage of time light of education spread in the society and people become conscious enough to preserve those orally transmitted dramas of Khulia bhaona in written form. It is also says that Khulia Bhaona evolved from Ojapali.

Theme of Khulia Bhaona

Khulia Bhaona is enacts with the story of the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and specially Badhakabya written by Ramswarashati. The main aim of Khulia Bhaona is to entertain folk people and to spread folk knowledge.Some popular dramas of Khulia Bhaona are Sita Shwayambor, Balibodh, Sindhumoni bodh, Raja Harichandra, Khotasur bodh, Boghasur bodh and so on.

Manner of presentation

A khulia Bhaona troupe consisted with twenty five to thirty members. They have one Oja, four to six khol players or Khulia, four to five Palis, two to four taluoi or cymbal player and two to five assistants. Khulia bhaona starts with Khol ghatan of Khulia’s. Six of the Khulias enter into the stage and gives salutation to alter and present audience. Following them, three to four Taluoi enters to stage and offers salutation to alter and audience. Khulia then makes two lines and starts playing khol. Taluoi accompanied them by playing tals.They then perform various beautiful techniques of Khol playing. This phase continues for 30 to 45 minutes. Thereafter, Khulia plays rhythm of entering of Oja to the stage. As soon as this particular rhythm starts on Khulias khol, Oja enters to stage and offers salutation to alter and audience. Oja holds a whisk in his right hand and a piece of red cloth in his left hand. Oja alone then recites a Sanskrit Sloka about Rama by standing in the middle of the Khulias. After recitation of sloka, vandana or invocatory is sing by Oja. Vandana has two parts-Diha and Pad. Oja starts the Diha part and Palis repeat it. Oja incorporates appropriate body gestures and dance during recitation. Palis recite last part of every stanza and repeats diha.Here role of Oja is very important. Thereafter, Oja narrates about the story of drama by dancing in the rhythm of khol and tal. Character of Rama earns great importance and respect in Khulia bhaona. Oja recites a Rama vandana and Rama enters into stage. Palis repeat the invocatory song. Following Rama, other characters of drama enter to stage one by one. Every character leads by the ariya holder. Ariya is a traditional torch prepared by soaking cotton cloth in a bamboo tube. Ariya holder through his dance and body gesture describes the position and characteristics feature of the actors. Like other folk dramas, in Khulia bhaona also music gets preference over dialogue. Dialogue of khulia bhaoria is not in prose form. Dialogues are of poetry type possessing a particular tune. Due to which actors have to recite dialogue by giving one-step forward and another step backward in dance posture. Oja here links conversation of characters. In khulia Bhaona Bilapa sangit (lamentation) plays an important role. Actor without help of Oja sings Bilapa sangit by dancing in the rhythm of tal and khol.Pali repeats the diha part.

Another important part of Khulia Bhaona is the performance of fighting scenes. Oja starts war song or judhar git when actors start to fight.Motion of war becomes fast and slows in accordance with the rhythm of khol and tal. Actors taking part in fight scenes use artificial weapons like wooden sword, bow and arrow etc.

Like other folk drama,comedy characters are also use in Khulia bhaona. Purpose of using of the clown is to make people laugh.The clown wears dress, which has no relevancy to the main play. Although it is not mandatory to use clown or comedy character, using of it adds more taste to the performance. The clown should posses some extra qualities. He should have presence of mind and should be able to create song, dialogue and comedy spontaneously according to the demand of the situation. With his witty dialogue he criticizes contemporary social evils and problems.Hasya rasa get preference in Khulia bhaona.

Khulia bhaona has great popularity among people of Darrang district. Performers are from folk society.Audience and performers close proximity makes the performance success. Khulia Bhaona is a seasonal performance. Mainly after harvesting, Khulia Bhaona troupe starts their show. Khulia Bhaoria performs in functions organized During Bohag bihu, Magh bihu, Kati bihu, Rass festival and in context of different pujas observed in Darrang district.

Costume and make up

Success of any performance depends on costume and make up they apply. Oja is the key person of khulia bhaona. Oja wears white shirt of full sleeve for upper part of his body and white dhuti as lower garments. Oja holds a whisk in his right hand and a red piece of cloth in his left hand. Pali, Khulia and taluoi dress like Oja. Actors of the play wear dress suitable to their role and they are made from easily available materials.Male plays female character by wearing woman dress. Hair made from jute is use by both male and female character. It is seen that Oja and his Pali of modern troupes of Khulia Bhaona wear decorated head gear.

Performers of Khulia bhaona depend on rice powder, vermilion, turmeric powder for their makeup. They never use chemical makeup. Divine characters use light colour, while demon characters use black colour. Mask made of light wood like Mango, Sopa (michelia champaca) tree etc. are use in Khulia Bhaona.

Musical instruments

Khol is the main musical instrument of Khulia Bhaona. It is said that, Srimanta Shankardeva created Khol. Khol is unavoidable in Sattriya culture.The shell of the khol is made by clay and two heads of the shell are covered by cowhide. Cymabal is another musical instrument made from brass metal.

Stage and light

There is no provision of well-organized fix stage for performance of Khulia Bhaona. Khulia bhoana can perform in open space in front of Temple, Namghar and courtyard of people.The arena where performance held is called “Khola”. This arena differentiates from audience by giving temporary boundary with jute rope tide on small bamboo post. A pandal is put on to protect audience and performer from rain, cold etc. on Bamboo post covered by banana leaf, coconut leaf etc. Performers kept their weapons and other goods of performance in a temporary hut in the western part of the stage. The small hut is called “So ghor”.Performers change their dress in that room in that small hut.

Traditionally Bhota was use for lighting of the area where Khulia bhaona performance held. Bhota is made by soaking cotton in mustard oil when there was no provision of electricity. Earthen lamps were also use in Khulia Bhaona.

Culture is not static.It changes with time. Previously,Khulia bhaona have a popular place in Assamese culture and was unavoidable in occasions like Durga puja, Kali puja,Saraswati puja and so on. Now a days this culture has lost its past glory.Many causes are responsible for it.Due to the availability of new form of entertainments people lost their interest on khulia Bhaona. Performers of Khulia bhaona are members of economically backward class. Peasant, gold smith, shopkeeper are performers of Khulia Bhaona. However looking at the detouring condition of Khulia Bhaona, many of the performers left to perform and engaged in other source of Income. With the passage of time, there will be no any performer of Khulia Bhaona as new generation people are not interested to learn it

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

David Roy,young artist of Goalparia folk culture.14/7/15