The Dogri language is spoken in Jammu and adjacent southern districts of Jammu and Kashmir State, and in adjoining areas of Punjab and Himachal Pradesh as well. Its rich and varied performances of ethnic folklore revolved around the Baghtan, a clan of actors and singers who frequently arrived from the Sialkot region with a repertoire of Ramlila and Raslila, narratives inherently rhythmic in movement. Patronage at the Dogra royal court caused Baghtan shows to accelerate in the temple city of Jammu and reach other towns like Punch, Ramnagar in Udhampur district and Basoli in Kathua district.
In 1898, Maharaja Pratap Singh called upon the `Victoria Company`, Bombay, to perform at a family ceremony in the Green Hall of his palace in Jammu. This event inspired proscenium theatre in Dogri. The Sanatan Dharam Natak Samaj came up in 1914, its focal point of activities die Dewan Mandir at Kachi Chawni, Jammu, where a playhouse still exists. The Hindi film star, Om Prakash, and singer-actor K. L. Saigal are two famous names to have emerged from this cultural organization, which staged numerous mythological and moralistic plays. Friends Club copied the Parsi theatre in such productions as Dard de jiga or `Bleeding Heart` and Mobabbat ke phul i.e. `Flowers of Love`. For the coronation of Maharaja Hari Singh in 1925-6, many troupes presented command performances, including local folk groups, Baghtan from Sialkot, Suraj Vijay Company and Amateur Dramatic Club from Bombay, and Madan Theatres from Calcutta. The thread of modern Dogri theatre can be picked up with the staging of Vishwanath Khajuria`s social satire Achut i.e. `Untouchable` in 1935, directed by him at the Middle School, Ramnagar, followed by D. C. Prashant`s Devaka janam i.e. `Birth of the Gods`. The Dogri Sanastha formed in 1944 under Dinubhai Pant and Ramnath Shastri, both literary personalities, proved a boost for theatre. After the Dogra regime collapsed in 1947 with the dawn of Indian democracy, the Dogri psyche sagged but for Shastri`s Bawajitto, produced at the Kisan or farmers Conference at Tikri in Jammu, 1948. Khajuria and Prashant also separately dramatized this folktale about the fifteenth century heroic martyr. A children`s theatre developed when Narender Khajuria began to write plays for performance by children.
As the Sanatan Dharam Natak Samaj continued its pursuits and the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages was established in 1958, the Dogra cultural identity re-emerged. New groups appeared besides the revival of Friends Club in 1965. Dewan Mandir and the Dogri Sanastha became the hub of activity. Financial assistance from the Academy sustained most groups and supported multilingual theatre festivals, still in vogue. Important original plays in die 1970s included those by Narsingh Dev Jamwal, Madan Mohan Sharma, and Puran Singh. During the 1980s, Dogri theatre earned recognition beyond Jammu and Kashmir through young artistic directors like Balwant Thakur, who heads the popular group Natrang.
