OJHA dance, a religious dance form of Barak Valley, Assam

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'Ojha', the term usually means the name given to the profession of an exorcist. Ojha can also be a healer, or a teacher, such as of a religious dance. But, Ojha dance is totally a different idea. It is a religious dance form performed mainly in the Barak valley of North-Eastern state of Assam. Ojha dance is performed by a single male performer. He wears a long skirt and a kurta. He performs taking a 'chamar' (a broom kind of thing) in his hands. Now, ladies also perform. This dance form is usually performed at the time of 'Bishari' ( a goddess) puja mainly in the fourth Bengali month 'Shravan' (July-August) in Panchami tithi. The dancer also recites mythological story related to 'Behula', 'Lakhindar' and 'Chand saudagar', a trader.



 The story goes like this. Chand saudagar', the trader was a great devotee of Lord Shiva and a respected person. The goddess 'Bishari' wants  Chand to worship her so that all the people in the earth start worshipping her following him. But Chand is adamant and he denies to worship any other god apart from Lord Shiva. At this, the goddess becomes furious and all his six sons die one after another.

 Lakhindar is the seventh son of Chand, who gets married to a noble lady called Behula. On their marriage day, the goddess sends her snake to kill Lakhindar. However, Chand already took precaution this time and built a strong protective iron house for the newly wed with the help of Lord Viswakarma. But, Viswakarma also ditched him and had left a hole for the snake as the goddess ordered to do so. On, the wedding night, the snake enters their room and bites Lakhindar. On finding this, Behula, the noble wife took him to Lord Shiva crossing lots of barriers and troubles. She performed a very attractive and dedicated dance in front of the Lord to get his blessings. At this, Lord Shiva was impressed and he ordered the goddess to return the life of Lakhindar. The goddess agreed on a condition that Chand must worship her. Behula agreed and promised that her father-in-law will surely perform the puja. Lakhinder got back his life and they returned their home happily.

 Then, Behula requested Chand to perform the worship of goddess 'Bishari', also known as 'Manasa' for the sake of his son's life. Chand agreed for the life of his son but on a condition that he will perform the puja with his left hand as he worships Lord Shiva with the right one. After he performs puja, all his sons get back their lives.

In Ojha dance, the performer elaborates this "Manasa mangal" story in poetical and musical form. Some other people sit around with 'karatal' and perform in chorus. This age old dance form is now becoming extinct as the young generation is hardly interested to perform this. But, we need to revamp this dance so that the next generation can get an idea of their traditional dance form.

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