Manipuri Ras Lila Imphal Manipur

Manipuri Ras Lila is the devotional dance-drama tradition of Vaishnava Manipuri culture, performed to enact the rasa-dance episode of the Bhagavata Purana where Lord Krishna dances with the Gopis, and represents the synthesis of Vaishnavism introduced to Manipur in the eighteenth century with the pre-existing Jagoi dance vocabulary of the Meitei people. Unlike the fast rhythmic footwork of South Indian classical forms, Manipuri Ras Lila is characterised by fluid, circular torso movements, softly bent knees, and continuous orbital hand gestures evoking the lotus and the wave, performed in heavy cylindrical barrel skirts called Potloi of embroidered silk that extend the visual sphere of the dancer and conceal foot movements to create an ethereal gliding effect. The male role of Krishna is played by a male dancer wearing a peacock-feather crown and yellow dhoti, while Radha and the Gopis are played by women in the Potloi costume. Guru Bipin Singh and Guru Atomba Singh are credited with codifying Manipuri Ras Lila into a teachable classical form in the twentieth century. The Jawaharlal Nehru Manipur Dance Academy in Imphal and the Manipuri dance departments of national institutions such as Sangeet Natak Akademi transmit the tradition.