Saturday 18th February - Ahichhatragarh Fort, Nagaur
Traditional dance of the Teratali
A tribute to Baba Ramdev
The dance of the Teratali
The Teratali dancers and singers (tera: twelve, tali: rhythms) are the small coloured goddesses of the temples of Rajasthan, of which the dancing blends with the sacred and the ritual of everyday life. Just like the sunlight reflecting on the moon, the light of a candle brushes the surface of these finger cymbals bewitched by their cosmic
The dance of the Teratali
The Teratali dancers and singers (tera: twelve, tali: rhythms) are the small coloured goddesses of the temples of Rajasthan, of which the dancing blends with the sacred and the ritual of everyday life. Just like the sunlight reflecting on the moon, the light of a candle brushes the surface of these finger cymbals bewitched by their cosmic
circling. The candle is placed on a lota, a metal pot itself perched on the head of the dancer, a sword (Talwar) between her teeth.
This magical ceremonial is a devotional rite (Bhakti) dedicated to the great saint Baba Ramdev, in which the poet accompanies these dances to the tambura (tandura in Rajasthan), celebrating life through a poetic narrative, often repeated in the singing of the women.
The saint Baba Ramdev lived in India between the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the 16th century. He is adulated as a god as much in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab, as in the states of Madya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
The approach of Baba Ramdev, with a mystic discourse and an everyday spirituality, more than through the elaboration of a precise path or of a particular dogma, allows underprivileged castes within the Brahmanic hierarchy, to gain their freedom and to attain a religious dignity, conferring them an egalitarian status. This approach appeared in a major spiritual movement, where, between the 13th and 14th century, a new syncretic approach between Hinduism and Sufism. Indeed, certain low caste panth sects grasp the new Ishmaelite doctrines which are spreading through the proselytising (dawa) of numerous wandering missionary (dai). These nomadic monks that wander around northern India, are similar to different Sufi branches, and create new mystic movements, such as Nizar Panth or Nizari Dharm, or also in the present case, the Kamadiyya Pandth, the sect to which the teratali belong.
Thus the doctrine of Ramdev (also known as dherhon ka dev, “the god of the pariahs”), is one of the outcomes of the mystic attempts that allow a new spiritual identity to be given to a multitude of castes excluded from official Brahamism. Today, Baba Ramdev, well integrated as a divinity within official Hinduism, is still venerated as a spiritual master in Indian Sufism under the name of Ramdev Pir or Ramash Pir.
At the beginning of the 20th century, in the Nagaur district, where the kamad women danced for the lower caste of the Meghwal, tanners and fabric makers, the sudden decision to ban these dances in public contributed to them almost disappearing. Today, this dance is enjoying a renaissance, thanks to the new patronage of exiled merchants in the south of India. On the other hand, the tradition had remained in force with the Nat caste, artists living in the Udaipur Pali district, which has never given up on these women.
Today, almost all of Rajasthan’s villages have a temple dedicated to Baba Randev. During devotion nights, the singing dancers invoke their god through sung jama poems (in Arabic, djama, meeting), and through bhajans, devotional songs of the great ancient poets such as Kabir, Mira Bai, Dharmidda and Harji Bhatti, one of Ramdev’s disciples.
The saint Baba Ramdev lived in India between the end of the 14th century and the beginning of the 16th century. He is adulated as a god as much in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Punjab, as in the states of Madya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
The approach of Baba Ramdev, with a mystic discourse and an everyday spirituality, more than through the elaboration of a precise path or of a particular dogma, allows underprivileged castes within the Brahmanic hierarchy, to gain their freedom and to attain a religious dignity, conferring them an egalitarian status. This approach appeared in a major spiritual movement, where, between the 13th and 14th century, a new syncretic approach between Hinduism and Sufism. Indeed, certain low caste panth sects grasp the new Ishmaelite doctrines which are spreading through the proselytising (dawa) of numerous wandering missionary (dai). These nomadic monks that wander around northern India, are similar to different Sufi branches, and create new mystic movements, such as Nizar Panth or Nizari Dharm, or also in the present case, the Kamadiyya Pandth, the sect to which the teratali belong.
Thus the doctrine of Ramdev (also known as dherhon ka dev, “the god of the pariahs”), is one of the outcomes of the mystic attempts that allow a new spiritual identity to be given to a multitude of castes excluded from official Brahamism. Today, Baba Ramdev, well integrated as a divinity within official Hinduism, is still venerated as a spiritual master in Indian Sufism under the name of Ramdev Pir or Ramash Pir.
At the beginning of the 20th century, in the Nagaur district, where the kamad women danced for the lower caste of the Meghwal, tanners and fabric makers, the sudden decision to ban these dances in public contributed to them almost disappearing. Today, this dance is enjoying a renaissance, thanks to the new patronage of exiled merchants in the south of India. On the other hand, the tradition had remained in force with the Nat caste, artists living in the Udaipur Pali district, which has never given up on these women.
Today, almost all of Rajasthan’s villages have a temple dedicated to Baba Randev. During devotion nights, the singing dancers invoke their god through sung jama poems (in Arabic, djama, meeting), and through bhajans, devotional songs of the great ancient poets such as Kabir, Mira Bai, Dharmidda and Harji Bhatti, one of Ramdev’s disciples.
