Introduction

Kariyila, also referred to as Kariyala, is one of the most interesting and popular folk drama forms of the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The performance of Kariyala is not the enactment of a single play in the sequence of introduction, storyline and conclusion, but in fact, it"s an entertaining series of small playlets, farces, skits, revues and burlesques. This open air folk theatre form is most popular in the Shimla, Solan and Sirmour districts of Himachal Pradesh. Being entertaining in nature, Kariyala is based mostly on social satire. Depicting all shades of humour, this art form presents sharp and pungent satires about the bureaucracy and social issues very boldly. The season of Kariyala generally starts after the festive of Deepawali. It is generally staged in village fairs and on some festive occasions.

Etymology of Kariyala

The word Kariyala is derived from the word "karal" which means ferocious. Since the usage of masks brings an element of ferocity in the play, it might have been named so. However, some scholars believe that the word is used to show its relation with the term "karal" that also means an offering, made by the devotee to his respected deity for having his wish or desire fulfilled. As a token of gratitude, the devotee makes the offering promised by him for the wish, if it is fulfilled.

Performers of Kariyala

Performers of Karyala make the folk theatre of Himachal Pradesh one of the attractive spectacle in north India. The amazing thing in Karyala is that such entertainment is provided with the minimum expense. Even today, in a time of highly commercialized shows, the Karyalchi can be invited on a mere pittance. All that is given to them are a few rupees and food on the night of performance and on the day of departure, the next day. These people are not professionals. As for talent only those who have a flair for mimicry, jest, rhapsody, will get in through natural selection.

After the Nawab Ka Swung there is time, as also the psychological moment of demand from the audience, for a session of song, dance and Nati. This Swung is also known as Kanchani Ka Naach. Kanchani is a danseuse. There can be two dancers both dressed as females or as one female and a male. The "females" in Karyala are all young boys and not women, although some infiltration of women has presently started. The boys are naturally selected for their good looks and sweet feminine voices, apart from their dancing talent. Kanchani Ka Swang is again not so much a play, on the part of the Karyalchies, to collect money, but an occasion for those assembled in the audience to give an exhibition of their money-power and the desire to be mentioned publicly. The dance and song items are no doubt very entertaining but to the patrons nothing is more exhilarating than the mention of their name and their contribution. It is a most cosmopolitan and secular party.

Although the big Dhol played with sticks is the main dramatis persona of Karyala, as if, carrying the whole show on its broad and round flanks, the purity of its presence is being diluted these days by the entry of the Harmonium and Tabla in the Dhol`s exclusive domain. The ankle bells (Ghungroo) adorning the boys` feet can also be cited as a dilution of traditional practice.

In this item there is a provision for those of the audience who would like to show off their accomplishment in dancing to participate in the collective Nati dance. There is also scope for request items from the audience for which the repertoire of the dancing boys has to be varied and sometimes proves beyond their capacity, especially these days, when all sorts of film hits and Ghazals are asked for.

The next item is that of Jogi Jogan. This is also made of versified songs in the form of questions and answers or a duet between the Jogi and the Jogan. The Jogi is generally handsome. An ascetic, and in love with God comes to the village. The so called Jogan, a married woman, in love with her husband, is also handsome but falls in love with the handsome Jogi.

Since in the manual of Karyala the exhibition of vulgarity, violence, death and other horrors of life are prohibited, this gruesome happening is given in the manner of true Karyala tradition, a humorous twist. The Jogi wanted to test the loyalty of the Jogan and the Jogan on her part wanted to test the Jogis loyalty both were exposed since the Jogi fled on seeing the severed head of the husband along with the trunk brought, on a cot, stained with blood, which was a mere camouflage.

The next Swung in the sequence is that of Daag and Daoon, witch and sorcerer. There is lot of witchcraft and black magic prevalent in Himachal Pradesh, specially in the interior and far flung tribal regions. Even in our parts which are considered as advanced regions in Shimla for instance, my mother still observes a day in the rainy season known as Dagaily. This day is particularly favourable for the practitioners of witchcraft and black magic and in order to ward off the evil, my mother pastes an impression of cow dung and on every conceivable entrance to the house, in order to block the entry of the daag and her missiles. Besides a `raksha string` (protective thread) with mustard seed knotted in it in a small capsule, is tied round my wrist, as a second line of defence against the onslaught of the witch, if any.

The Swang of Daag and Daoon starts with a chorus from Naipathya green room, with these lines - Hail! There cometh, the witch of the Kangra fort and then the Daag enters theatre, dancing in a weird way and brandishing her magic broom and then disappears. After that the two Elders of the village enter and find inauspicious and dangerous articles like owl`s claw, pieces of human skull and hair etc. strewn on the floor which gives a clue to the visit of the witch and such other queer creatures in the vicinity. It is discovered a little later that the daughter of one of the Elders is down with epileptic convulsions, which is a sure sign of the witch`s influence. The Elders having suspected mischief send emissaries in search of the Daoons, the exorcists, in order to ward off the witchcraft. All sorts of funny looking buffoons masquerading as exorcists appear on the scene and convert the tragic situation into a hilarious farce, each one of them incapacitated and floored by the flourish of the magic wand over their heads, by the witch. And now as the condition of the victim worsens, someone suggests that the village deity be approached and his protection sought. So finally the deity through its representative the Denvan (Godman) is brought to the spot and he, after going into a trance which is excited by a particular rhythm on the Nagara (a duo percussion instrument) spots the culprit in his super-conscious state, and summons her back to the arena. The Daag having confessed her mischief begs the deity for pardon. She is however forgiven only after an assurance on her part that she would give up her abominable profession.

Stage of Kariyala

The stage of Kariyala is very simple. It is performed on a square-shaped arena called "Khada", with four poles raised at each of the four corners. To make clear demarcation in the performing arena, a rope is tied to the poles. In the centre of the Khada, a bonfire is lit that acts as the source of light and heat. The bonfire is considered sacred and all performances are held around it, in all seasons.

Performance of Kariyala

Performance of Karyala can be clearly divided into various stages and forms. The performance opens with a virtuoso recital of Jung on Dhol and its ensemble, continuing till the crowd gathers and are completely seated, and then by a Pujawal or worship of the propitiated God Bijju. Incidentally there are many temples of this Deo Bijju, known as Bijeshwar, in Junga, Deothal of Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, and its idol sports a Dangroo i.e. a small axe in its hand.

After this process is over, the first item begins which is a dance by Chandravali and a companion who could be a consort. The Chandravali naach has many interpretations tagged on to it. Some say that she is one of the gopis of Lord Krishna and the consort accompanying her is Kanha i.e. Krishna himself; others say that Chandravali is none other than Goddess Parvati and the consort who but Lord Shiva, playing the Tartdoo, Avdhoot or Vidushak (jester) initiating the play. This latter interpretation may be more authentic since Himachal Pradesh is the land of Lord Shiva and Parvati and not of Lord Krishna and the gopis as such.

And since the local name prevalent for the accompanying Avdhoot is `Chirgiya` which means the tickler, the starter, one who triggers it off, it could be, that the pristine Lasya-Tandav dancers used to grace the occasion with their antics, though disguised and impersonating, which in essence is the function of drama, as visualised by Bharata Muni himself. This dance then is performed to a slow rhythm of fourteen beats with Chandravali lifting her right hand straight, parallel to her right profile and her left hand resting on her bosom, horizontally. She does not sport the ankle bells and goes round the Akhada, the arena, in this very pose with her face veiled, with the Chirgiya also, mindful of the fourteen beat cycles dressed comically with a dangroo (small axe) in his right hand, sporting his off-beats, within the frame of fourteen matra time-scale. This dance also serves to some extent as filler, till the arrival of the late comers, so to say and also it rises to a crescendo when suddenly the on-coming Swang of the Sadhus is superimposed on this scene, by their chorus for benediction by a collective drone providing the tonic - saluting the five Deities, the primordial Goddess Bhawani her son Lord Ganesh, Lord Brahma, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva soliciting their benediction.

In the Sadhu Ka Swang, the entry of hordes of Sadhus of different nomenclature and sangat from various points and angles in the audience and beyond is so effective and dramatically apt, that this very first number of this variety programme arrests the attention of the audience. The arena being filled by the dancing and singing Sadhus vibrates for quite some time with the famous opening chorus-cum-dance.

After they have settled down, the village elder acting as Poochhnewala, the questioner, starts the preliminary pleasantries, the whereabouts and also the serious questioning regarding life here and beyond and the Eternal Truth and all that Indian spiritualism stands for.

The important point to be noted here is that matters depicting the most serious and deep problems of man and his existence are discussed in the very first item of the play. This is not just an accident but an example of the consummate, collective dramatic skill of the naive villagers, whose main work is other than that of being professional dramatists. This Sadhu Ka Swung is also the longest item in the whole repertory of Karyala. The exposition of various schools of Indian Philosophy is debated with much vigour and dialecticism and the conclusions communicated to the audience in the simplest and most concise terms. Every intonation, gesture and movement is punctuated with rhythm, rhyme and reason. All that the show has to provide in terms of education and knowledge, is imparted in this very first item, and the heaviness and the depth of the substance reduced to the felicitous movement as if it were, a spiritedly butterfly dancing in the air.

The performance of Kariyala starts in the evening and continues throughout the night, staging various popular items one after the other. Its enactment usually starts with Mangalacharan, a musical ensemble invoking the blessings of three Gods - Brahma, Vishnu and Mahesh, the forest gods and goddesses and Saraswati, the goddess of learning. After this, the Manasukha or Dandoo comes on the stage and makes the announcement of the theme of the play before the people. The themes of Kariyala range from historical to mythological and are portrayed with contemporary references. The tales of Ramleela, Raasleela, Krishnaleela, mythological tales from the Puranas are displayed in contemporary satirical fashion. Some time after the announcement, a male actor in the guise of Chandravali enters the arena with a plate or "thali" containing a well-lit lamp, holding it in his hand and performs a dance around the bonfire. This is the auspicious start of the performance. Chandravali represents Goddess Lakshmi, the deity of wealth and prosperity.

After Chandravali"s dance, the stage is taken over for "Sadhu Ka Swang", wherein several actors in the guise of Sadhus emerge in the scene by passing through the audience and reaching the performing arena. They engage in a conversation with each other or with the ones present in the arena. The Sadhus discuss many serious spiritual and metaphysical issues as per their respective sects and traditions. The dialogues are mostly short and sarcastic depending upon the occasion and what is being discussed.

After the Sadhu Ka Swang is over, the other Swangs are presented in succession. In between these Swangs, different folk dances and songs are presented to entertain the audience. In some of the tribal areas, the custom of community dancing is prevalent, when all the men and women stand in straight rows or in a semi circle, singing and dancing throughout the night. The entire valley reverberates with the sound of music on such an occasion. Thus, Kariyala like all the folk art forms reflects the simple thought patterns of the rural folk. The plays are full of dances that are set with songs. Some of the folk dance forms that are presented in this theatre form comprise Nati, Giddha, Luddi, Dangi and Dandaras and the musical types incorporated are Jhanjhoti, Mohana, Gangi, Jhooriyan and Laman.

Musical Instruments used in Kariyala

A number of musical instruments such as Chimta, Nagara, Karnal, Ranasingha, Shahanai, Basuri, Dholak and Khanjiri are played in Kariyala enactments, providing background music to the ongoing drama and dance.

Make-up of Kariyala

For the purpose of make-up, the Kariyala artists use wigs, Kohl powder and costume jewellery. A face powder is made of fine lime or common flour and Kohl is prepared out of carbonated lamp soot. For the wigs, barks of trees are used.

Costumes of Kariyila

Costumes of Karyala, incidentally, are indigenous and inexpensive. The white is that of rice or wheat flour, the black from the tava, or skillet (the chapatti cooking iron plate the griddle) the red from geroo (a kind of local red coloured earth). As for wigs and beards, these can be easily made from jute and other fibres available locally. Also the masks are prepared indigenously from tree barks and pulp as well as by carving wood.

The third item in the sequence is the famous Sahab Ka Swung. Here again the genius of the native Himachali is at its best. His drawing of the Sahab`s character as well as his household and attendants is so perfect and convincing that to repeat a cliche, it has to be seen to be believed. While the Sadhus in the first item had beards and tilaks and overalls, depicting different sects realistically and the devilish mischief-maker in the second swang Jhoolna, was made up grotesquely, the "Sahab" in this swang is given a mask. This again points to the innate discriminating sense of dramatic application of the unlettered Simla Karyalchi; Simla, because it was here that the Englishman with all his paraphernalia functioned, and it was here that the native Chaprasi, the bearer, the khansama, the ayah, the malan, the butler, had a close look at the "Sahab" and his motives and manner of living. As the scene opens, the audience is alluded to as a Mela, a Fair, by the Chaprasi who enters and cautions everybody, saying "Halla gulla band karo, Saab aa raha hai -"Hush, keep quiet, the Sahab is coming." And there the Sahab enters and asks the Chaprasi as to what is happening. He is told about the Mela, the Fair. Sahab says "All very good, please send for Mem Sahab and baba log as also the Khansama, the bearers etc." as he would like to camp there, while also doing some recruitment for the Army.

At this juncture a queer creature dressed up in multi-coloured rags and a conical cap, known as Sanyee, emerges representing the average reaction of the villagers, to the Sahab and his ensemble. Again there are in the Brechtian style, albeit intelligibly, duo dances of Sahab and Mem, songs by Malan and a chorus by the participants i.e. yellow Mem and red Sahab etc. A point that should be mentioned here is the stance that the village Karyalchies takes whenever some outsider comes to their village, which is to have the better of him in verbal repartee, thereby tickling and feeding the pride of the local inhabitants and scoring a plus point in communication. The funny man who encounters the Sahab and his household in this manner is known as Sanyee as mentioned before. This Sanyee is the prototype of other jesters, like Poorbia in Sadhu Ka Swung and the fire-eater of the second swang Jhoolna. That is to say every item has a main conductor, who has to introduce humour, although the overall composition of various characters in any of the skits resembles those of Shakespeare`s alone in "Mid-summer Nights Dream," like Bottom and company.

So in this Swang of Sahab, the village buffoon`s main thrust is to disarm the Sahab of his superiority, by firing at him shots of verbal nonsense and once this equation of equality with the Sahab is established, it provides an agreeable channel of communication, on equal level between the two, as well as the spectators. Sahab on his part also starts enjoying the lighter treatment of the whole thing and as such, does not mind a laugh at his expense and in the process develops a rapport with the village knave.

The sources of humour in all these cameos are by (a) punning on rhyming words, (b) oblique reference to the Institution of Father in various contexts and (c) by comment on distortion of speech and angularities in behaviour and other oddities. People will be surprised if I mention that there is no vulgar reference in any repartee although most recently the unfortunate trend has set in. Karyala is perhaps the only folk burlesque which is not obscene and is a conspicuous example of clean humour.

This Sahab Ka Swang is another item of considerable length and its duration, as that of any other item of Karyala presentation and performance, is flexible and adaptable. The presentation of the Karyala items is intimately connected with the immediate reactions of the audience and that is why this form of presentation is so very popular today in spite of film, radio and Television. And since there is no compulsion, of a script, of learnt up dialogues or the story telling from the Epics, the team of actors collectively is the freest creators, which in itself is a great challenge to their histrionic ability and quick wit and they meet it very admirably.

History of Karyala

History of Karyala explains at great length about the origin and forms of the folk theatre form from the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. As there is no script to act upon, the main thrust of the performers, the Karyalchees, is to instantly improvise situations and comment on them to entertain the audience through the medium of humour and wit. This situation draws upon their in-built ability to invent postures, stances and tones inviting a spontaneous reaction from the audience. Given any situation they improvise immediately a small sequence there and then and collectively achieve an instant result.

It is thus that these Karyalchees conceive and perform their small Cameos, and for this they have no training; there is no school of drama. It is their inheritance of reflexes which is imbedded in their being and called as "readymade formats of being". This "readymade format of being" consists of the ethnic sensibility to respond to "rhythm, rhyme and reason". Rhythm, because every movement of this play pulsates with rhythm, which is the life line of every Himachali, to whom Nati, taal or rhythm, comes naturally. A sense of rhythm also helps in witty and satirical repartee which has to be delivered with a hair-breadth sense of timing. This sense of rhythm automatically leads to "rhyme" which is expressed in the dialogue which they improvise on the spot - the exchanges ending in rhyme, an instance of this can be cited from couplets in Sadhu Ka Swang.

Karyalchie is also gifted with a built-in insight to defeat a fraud, to see contradiction, to distinguish the real from the spurious; the sublime from the ridiculous and it is here that his inclination towards rationality comes to his help. He discovers the `cant` and lashes out at it with a wit which amuses the victim and the audience alike, since it is disguised as tickling frivolity and does not hurt.

Origin of Karyala

Origin of Karyala, dates back long to the centuries in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. However there are differences about the etymological origin of the word Karyala some relating it to the Kreednniykam of Bharatmuni, others to the local fragrant flower known as Karyal i.e. Kachnaar, the famous blossom. There is another Pahari word Karel which means to unearth some secret. The preliminaries of Karyala are religious and connected with such rituals as the lighting of the Chaumukha Deevat - a lamp depicting the four corners of the Earth; the Bhoomi Sparsh - obeisance to Mother Earth; Akhada - the Arena; the Vadya Sparsh - obeisance to the ensemble consisting of Dhol, Nagara, Sahnai and Karnal the Ghyna Parikrama; movement to and fro about the bonfire.

With regards to the origin of Karyala, there are varied legends that can be associated with the same. Some feel that, although, this form may have anthropological strains, it need not necessarily be prehistoric and that it could have evolved to its present stage through the influence of the religious impetus at the time of the Vaishnav Bhakti Andolan (movement) of the seventeenth century. Another thought holds that this tradition of folk dance-drama and dialogue precedes even the Natyashastra formed by the great Bharatmuni.