The Sound Of Ghungroos

In my earlier blog I mentioned that “Sangeet Natya Academy” [the national academy of performing arts in India] recognizes 8 Indian dances as classical dances of India. They are Bharatnatyam from Tamil Nadu, Kathak from Uttar Pradesh, Kuchipudi from Andhra Pradesh, Odissi from Odisha, Sattriya from Assam, Manipuri from Manipur, and Kathakali and Mohiniyattam from Kerala. All these dances are culturally rich. They are traditionally regional and include their own music and recitation in local language or Sanskrit. They have their own different costumes, makeup and jewellery. Each of them proudly presents its own style and rhythm and they all are graceful and truly delightful for the spectators.

Irrespective of all their differences we can observe that they all have one thing in common and that is “Ghungroo”. “Ghungroo” are small metal bells, mostly made of brass, strung together to form a musical anklet. A string of ghungroo can range from 50 to greater than 200 bells knotted together. “Ghungroo” is also known as “ghunghru” or “ghungur” in Assamese and Bengali and “chilanka” or “silangai” in Malayalam and Tamil. “Ghungroos” are worn immediately above the ankle of the dancer. When a dancer starts learning dance, he or she may wear a string of 50 ghungroos but as he or she grows advance in technical ability and experience the number of “ghungroos” increases. The sound produced by the “ghungroo” varies depending upon the number of individual bells.

A renowned Indian classical Kathak exponent, V Anuradha Singh evolved “Ghungroo Vadan”, a music style which focuses solely on foot movements as percussive art. She developed “ghungroos” as a main musical instrument and performed in many music festivals.  

The “ghungroos” are considered very special and are regarded with great respect by the Indian classical dancers. Most of the classical dances tend to use complex leg movements that serve to highlight the dancing skills of the individual. All this will go unnoticed if there is nothing to accentuate these movements and that is why the practise of using “ghungroos” while performing a dance came into being. The sound of “ghungroos” keeps the dancer in tune to the music and helps him/her to stay in rhythm and this gives more life to his/her dancing and makes it more grand and graceful.

As a classical dancer I have always felt excited by the sound of “ghungroos”. I strongly believe that “ghungroos” play a key role in Indian classical dance forms. So, I felt that I should share some information about them with you all. Hope it enlightened you.