THE FOLK DANCES: DUMMY HORSE DANCE

Thanjvaur is the world famous city in south India for its stone made Big Temple, to a height of 212 feet, carnatic music, Bharatha Natyam(Claassical Indian Dance), Veenai( most ancient string instrument), Sculpture, Painting, Wobble Doll and so on. Among 64 arts / talents, carnatic vocal, Bharatha Natiyam and instrmental music were considered the most important fine arts to reach the people directly in olden days.

But, atleast a little knowledge about these fine arts was required for the people to enjoy them and so a large number of common people needed these fine arts in a simplified form without much technicality involved. There arose a mojor variation in these fine arts without least injury to their classicalform, according to the common people's need. The main changes were in Folk Dances, instrumental music, story linking melodies, rhythms etc.

The Dummy Horse Dance with its drum music is one of the fine arts among Folk Dances. About 150 years back, the Marattas started the Dummy Horse Dance in Thanjavur with some modified form. This dance mainly involves a light weight hollow Dummy Horse made of light materials, painted attractively without legs. The dancers wear the Dummy Horse at ther hips, as if they are sitting on them and they use strong wooden sticks tie with their legs, just above the ground level to use these wooden sticks as horse legs.

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