This is the online compendium documenting my process of engaging with historical Mahari ritual performance. It also presents my PaR component in performance where I creatively engage with my Odissi repertory to discover the inheritances of Mahari ritual performativity.

Name: Meena-Danda (2017)

Date of Creation: May 2016 to May 2017

Venue: Department of Dance at The Ohio State University

Length: 7 minutes

Description: In this performance, I give an overview of Mahari performativity and its relationship to Odissi technique. I creatively deploy the pure dance and expressional elements of Mahari ritual performance contesting the received notions of unskilled dancing by the Mahari.

Durable Document: u.osu.edu/ritual and digital file.

Meena-Danda

Mahari ritual practice accompanied the worshipping practices of Jagannath in Puri’s Jagannath temple since the time of its inception in the twelfth century. I scour for her ritual movement as captured for film in the documentary Given to Dance made by anthropologist Frederique Apffel-Marglin and director Ron Hess. Also, fragmentary traces of her temple-dancing permeate the contemporary Odissi repertory. Here, I excavate Mahari movement influences from her ritual practice from within Odissi canon.

Sashimoni Mahari performing to percussive accompaniment. A Still from Given to Dance.