Manipuri

Manipuri is among the classical dance traditions recognised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, India's national academy for the performing arts, and is performed alongside Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Kathakali, Kuchipudi, Odissi, Sattriya and Mohiniyattam in the standard enumeration of classical forms tested in the UPSC art and culture syllabus. Rooted in the Meitei culture of the Imphal valley in Manipur, the form fuses an indigenous ritual substratum — the Lai Haraoba festival honouring local deities — with the Vaishnava bhakti tradition introduced under King Bhagyachandra (Ching-Thang Khomba) in the eighteenth century, who is traditionally credited with creating the Ras Lila and designing the distinctive kumil (Potloi) costume. The dance is fundamentally devotional, dramatising the love of Radha and Krishna and the gopis, and is inseparable from the Sankirtana music tradition.

The defining aesthetic of Manipuri is restraint and gracefulness: movements are gentle, rounded and curvilinear, avoiding the sharp lines and percussive foot-stamping of Kathak or Bharatanatyam, and the feet are placed softly so as not to disturb the rhythm of devotion. The female Lasya style — represented by the Ras Lila — is delicate and lyrical, while the masculine Tandava style finds expression in the vigorous Pung Cholom (drum dance) and Kartal Cholom (cymbal dance), where male dancers play and dance with the pung (a barrel drum) simultaneously. The dancer's face remains relatively serene and the body veiled, with comparatively less emphasis on detailed facial abhinaya and elaborate hand mudras than in other forms. The cylindrical, stiff embroidered skirt of the female dancer and the conical veil are immediately recognisable visual markers. Manipuri Sankirtana — the ritual singing and drumming of the Vaishnavas of Manipur — was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2013.

The form was brought to wider national attention by Rabindranath Tagore, who introduced its training at Santiniketan in the 1920s. The Jhaveri sisters — Nayana, Suverna, Ranjana and Darshana — were celebrated twentieth-century exponents who popularised Manipuri across India, trained by the guru Bipin Singh, regarded as the leading authority on the form. Guru Bipin Singh's work in codifying and reviving the technique remains foundational. As of 2026 Manipuri continues to be taught at institutions such as the Jawaharlal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy in Imphal and is performed at major cultural festivals nationwide.

For the UPSC examination, Manipuri appears in General Studies Paper I under Indian art, culture and heritage, and in the optional and preliminary tests on the classical dances. Typical question angles ask candidates to match dance forms with their states of origin, to identify distinctive features (the Pung Cholom, the cylindrical Potloi costume, the Ras Lila), to associate the form with King Bhagyachandra and the Vaishnava bhakti movement, and to note the UNESCO 2013 inscription of Manipuri Sankirtana. Prelims frequently uses elimination-style statements distinguishing Manipuri's soft Lasya aesthetic from the more percussive northern and southern forms, making precise feature-recall essential.