Artists from Chota Udaipur, Gujarat, celebrated the monsoon season in Shilpgram.

Artists are expressing their happiness over the arrival of monsoon in the country. Along with the rains, Shilpgram is witnessing showers of dance performances on old evergreen songs. On Tuesday, performing on old hindi movie song “Aya saavan jhoom ke”, these artists prayed for Udaipur to be blessed with a good monsoon.

Artists from Naakhal village in Chota Udaipur in Gujarat are performing in Shilpgram these days celebrating monsoon in full swing. This tribal village borders Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra. Visitors in Shilpgram are getting to know the unique folk traditions of this tribe.

This tribal tradition of dance is actually a very interesting one. Rangu Bhai Rathwa of Rathwa(Teemli) group said that the village Naakhal is inhibited by Rathwa tribe. The dance they performed in Shilpgram is mostly done during the festival of Holi. Any member of the tribe who stays away from the village makes it a point to return to village during this festive season. This dance is performed during Holi wherein people also make some vows(mannat). On the completion of their demands, they offer whatever they had pledged in front of God. These tribals go from village to village while still dancing and thus a caravan is formed. They are given dakshina by other members of the tribes. The process of dancing and mannat continues for 5 days. All those who keep this mannat collect at one place and pray that the whole coming year be full of prosperity and give good crops.

This tribal group of Gujarat will be performing in Shilpgram until 15^th July. They have 4 performances in a day. 18 tribal artists including Rangu Bhai Rathwa, Rai Singh Rathwa, Mahesh Rathwa, Kiran Rathwa, Bharat Rathwa, Ramanbhai Rathwa are performing in Shilpgram.