Madhya Pradesh
Malwa Festival
- 12 May 2025
- 3 min read
Why in News?
The Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh participated in the Malwa Utsav organized at Lalbagh Complex, Indore from 6 to 12 May 2025.
Key Points
- About Malwa Utsav:
- It is a five-day cultural festival organised by Lok Sanskriti Manch.
- This festival has been organised regularly for the last 25 years.
- Objective:
- Preservation and propagation of folk culture and traditions.
- To provide a platform and market to local artists and craftsmen.
- To promote national integration and cultural exchange.
- Exhibition of Folk Arts and Handicrafts:
- In this festival, folk artists from different states of the country and different areas of Madhya Pradesh presented folk dance and music.
- Weavers and handicraft artists displayed weaving, clay and metal artefacts.
- Murals, Reza work, Batik prints, copper and brass statues, and tribal paintings were the main attractions of the festival.
Folk Dances of Madhya Pradesh
- Kathi : This is a dance performed by the Balai community, in which clothes decorated with peacock feathers and a bamboo 'kathi' are used. This dance is performed on the 'Dhak' instrument.
- Gangaur : In the month of Chaitra, women worship Goddess Parvati by dancing on clapping and thali. Its two forms – Thalaria and Thola are famous.
- Phaphriya : It is a group dance performed by men and women together to the sound of pungi.
- Madalya : In this, women dance at a fast pace with hand and foot movements to the beat of the drum.
- Ada-Khada : This dance is performed by women to the beat of drums on occasions like marriage, birth and death.
- Danda Dance : It is performed by men with a stick to the beats of drums and plates during the nights of Chaitra-Vaishakh.
- Matki : Women balance several matkis on their heads and dance in a circular motion to the beat of drums. Aada-Khada is one form of this.
- Rai : This dance performed by the Bedia tribe is in a conversational form based on makeup and social topics. Ram Sahay Pandey is its main artist.
- Saira : This dance is performed as a prayer to Lord Indra for rain by young men holding sticks accompanied by dholak and flute.
- Jawara : Women perform this dance while balancing a crop basket on their head, which shows the importance of crops.
