About
Karma is a harvest-season dance performed around a freshly cut branch of the karam tree planted at the centre of the dance ground, men and women moving in an interlocking circle to the driving beat of the mandar drum. It is as much a ritual of tree-worship as it is a performance.
History
Karma is tied to Karma Parab, one of the most widely observed festivals in Chhattisgarh's tribal and rural calendar, celebrated at the close of the monsoon to mark a successful harvest. The dance's call-and-response songs carry agricultural themes, and its rhythms have been widely absorbed into the state's film music.
Styles
Ritual Karma
The opening, ceremony-bound sequence performed around the karam branch at the start of the festival.
Celebratory Karma
The extended, all-night social dance that follows, open to the wider community.
Instruments
Mandar · मांदर
A barrel-shaped clay or wooden drum, the heartbeat of Karma and Sua dance gatherings across rural Chhattisgarh.
Timki · टिमकी
A small kettle drum played in pairs, adding a high, quick counter-rhythm to Raut Nacha processions.
Regions
Surguja, Bastar
Associated Festivals
Karma Parab (Bhadra–Ashwin (Aug–Oct))