and
has produced some of the best examples
of Indian art and architecture.
Artistic
traditions are maintained through
mural paintings, stone carving, wood
carving, icon paintings (known as
patta paintings), and paintings on
palm leaves.
Handicraft
workers are famous for their exquisite
silver filigree ornamentation and
decorative work.In tribal areas,
Orissa has a wide variety of folk
dances.
The
music of the madal and flute is common
in the countryside. The classical
dance of Orissa, known as orissi, has
survived for more than 700 years.
Originally it was a temple dance
performed for the gods. The modes,
movements, gestures, and poses of the
dance are depicted on the walls of the
great temples, especially at Konarka (Konarak),
in the form of sculpture and in relief
carvings. Modern exponents of the
dance have made it popular outside the
state.
The
chhau (a dance performed by groups of
masked dancers) of Mayurbhanj and
Saraikela regions is another feature
of Oriya culture. For the promotion of
dancing and music, the Kala Vikash
Kendra centre was founded at Cuttack
in 1952 with a six-year teaching
course. The National Music Association
serves a similar purpose.
Other
notable dance and music centres in
Cuttack are the Utkal Sangit Samaj,
the Utkal Smruti Kala Mandapa, and the
Mukti Kala Mandir.There are many
traditional festivals. A festival
unique to Orissa is the ceremony of
Boita-Bandana (worshiping of boats) in
October or November (the date is set
to the Hindu calendar). For five
consecutive days before the full moon,
people gather near riverbanks or the
seashore and float miniature boats as
a symbolic gesture that they will
leave for the faraway lands (Malaysia
and Indonesia) to which their
ancestors once sailed.The town of Puri
is the site of the Jagannatha temple,
perhaps the most famous Hindu shrine
in India, and of the temple's annual
Chariot Festival, which attracts
hundreds of thousands of people; the
English word juggernaut, derived from
the temple's name, was inspired by the
massive, nearly unstoppable wagons
used in the festival. A few miles
away, in Konarka, is a temple in the
form of a chariot of the sun god,
Surya, one of the finest examples of
medieval Orissan culture.
OrissaSculpture
decorating the monasteries cut into
the twin hills of Udayagiri and
Khandagiri in Orissa represents yet
another early Indian local idiom. The
work is not of one period but extends
over the first two centuries before
Christ; the stages of development
roughly parallel the styles observed
at Sanchi Stupa No. II, Buddh Gaya,
and the Great Stupa at Sanchi, but
they possess, like other regional
schools, fairly distinct and
individual features. The earliest
sculptures are the few simple reliefs
found in the Alakapuri cave, humble
works that recall the bas-reliefs of
Sanchi Stupa II. The Mańcapuri,
Tatoka Gumpha, and Ananta cave
sculptures--particularly the image of
Surya riding a chariot--are more
advanced and resemble work at Buddh
Gaya. The forms are heavy and solid
and lack the accomplished movement of
the later cave sculpture adorning the
Rani Gumpha monastery. These, like
other sculptures here, are in a poor
state of preservation, but they
represent the finest achievements at
the site. Most remarkable is a long
frieze, stretching between the arched
doorways of the top story,
representing a series of incidents
that have not yet been identified. The
work parallels that of the Great Stupa
at Sanchi, with the same supple
modelling and crowded compositions. At
the same time there is a nervous
agitation, a fluid, agile movement
together with a decided preference for
tall, slender human figures. The
reliefs on the guard rooms of Rani
Gumpha are also quite remarkable,
depicting forested landscapes filled
with rocks from which waterfalls flow
into lakes that are the sporting
grounds of wild elephants. The fine
work of this cave strikes a romantic
and lyrical note seldom found in
Indian art.
