Tamasha
Encyclopedia
Tamasha is a traditional Marathi
Marathi people
The Marathi people or Maharashtrians are an Indo-Aryan ethnic group, that inhabit the Maharashtra region and state of western India. Their language Marathi is part of the southern group of Indo-Aryan languages...

 folk art form. often with singing and dancing, widely performed by local or travelling theatre groups within the state of Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

, India. It has also been the subject of several Marathi films. Some Hindi movies have also included Tamasha-themed songs
Lavani
Lavani is a genre of music popular in Maharashtra and southern Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Lavani is a combination of traditional song and dance, which particularly performed to the enchanting beats of Dholak, a percussion instrument. Lavani is noted for its powerful rhythm and...

 in the past.

The word has spread to Hindi
Hindi
Standard Hindi, or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi, also known as Manak Hindi , High Hindi, Nagari Hindi, and Literary Hindi, is a standardized and sanskritized register of the Hindustani language derived from the Khariboli dialect of Delhi...

, Urdu
Urdu
Urdu is a register of the Hindustani language that is identified with Muslims in South Asia. It belongs to the Indo-European family. Urdu is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan. It is also widely spoken in some regions of India, where it is one of the 22 scheduled languages and an...

 and Marathi
Marathi language
Marathi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Marathi people of western and central India. It is the official language of the state of Maharashtra. There are over 68 million fluent speakers worldwide. Marathi has the fourth largest number of native speakers in India and is the fifteenth most...

, but is of Persian
Persian language
Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

 origin and means "fun" or "play". Colloquially the word has come to represent commotion, or any activity or display with bustle and excitement, sometimes ironically in the sense of "a tempest in a teacup".

Traditional Tamasha is influenced by many Indian art forms and draws from such diverse traditions as kaveli, ghazal
Ghazal
The ghazal is a poetic form consisting of rhyming couplets and a refrain, with each line sharing the same meter. A ghazal may be understood as a poetic expression of both the pain of loss or separation and the beauty of love in spite of that pain. The form is ancient, originating in 6th century...

s, Kathak
Kathak
Kathak is one of the eight forms of Indian classical dances, originated from Uttar Pradesh, India. This dance form traces its origins to the nomadic bards of ancient northern India, known as Kathaks, or storytellers...

 dance, dashavatara, lalit
Lalit
Lalit is a left political party in Mauritius. It is opposed to private or any other undemocratic control of the means of human survival on the planet...

 and kirtan
Kirtan
Kirtan or Kirtana is call-and-response chanting or "responsory" performed in India's devotional traditions. A person performing kirtan is known as a kirtankar. Kirtan practice involves chanting hymns or mantras to the accompaniment of instruments such as the harmonium, tablas, the two-headed...

. There are two types of Tamasha: dholki bhaari and the older form, sangeet baari which contains more dance and music than drama. In Maharashtra, the Kolhati and Mahar
Mahar
Mahar is an important social group within the Indian state of Maharashtra and surrounding states. A grouping of related endogamous castes, the Mahar are the largest scheduled caste group in Maharashtra, in which they comprise ten percent of the population .On...

 groups are traditionally associated with the performance of Tamasha.

Tamasha in other languages

In Maharashtra, there are two types of Tamasha, first is DHOLAKI FADCHA Tamasha and the other is SANGEET BAARICHA Tamasha. Dholaki Fadcha tamasha is complete art, which includes song, dance, and theater. Now in Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...

 there are only 18 to 20 full time tamasha parties. Each tamasha manadal performs approximately 210 days in all over Maharashtra and also some border villeges of Karnataka and Gujarat. Raghuvir Khedkar with Kantabai Satarkar Loknatya Tamasha Mandal is Maharashtra's most popular tamasha mandal.
  • In the Telugu
    Telugu language
    Telugu is a Central Dravidian language primarily spoken in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India, where it is an official language. It is also spoken in the neighbouring states of Chattisgarh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa and Tamil Nadu...

     and Kannada language "tamasha" means funny.
  • In the Kiswahili language "tamasha" means show or festival.

See also

To learn more about the real life story of a tamasha artist, please read the book KANTABAI SATARKAR, which is the biography of a well-known senior tamasha artist Kantabai Satarkar, written by Santosh Khedlekar.
  • Jaipur Tamasha
    Jaipur Tamasha
    Jaipur Tamasha, a unique musical folk play, is a 19th century contribution by Jaipur city in Indian state of Rajasthan to the folk theatre of Rajasthan. At the outset of the 18th century, in the peripherals of Agra, between two groups originated and developed a poetic dialogue...

  • Lavani
    Lavani
    Lavani is a genre of music popular in Maharashtra and southern Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Lavani is a combination of traditional song and dance, which particularly performed to the enchanting beats of Dholak, a percussion instrument. Lavani is noted for its powerful rhythm and...

  • Sound Tamasha
    Sound Tamasha
    Sound Tamasha is an event series and artist platform that is determined to promote the exchange of artists from the music scenes of Europe, India, China, and other parts of the world. The idea behind this collaboration experiment is to connect across cultures...

  • Tamasha Theatre Company
    Tamasha Theatre Company
    Tamasha is a British theatre company founded in 1989 by director Kristine Landon-Smith and actor / writer Sudha Bhuchar with a mission to bring contemporary drama of Asian influence to the British stage....

  • Big Tamasha
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