Culture of Chhattisgarh

Chhattisgarh hosts religious sects including Satnami Panth, Kabirpanth, Ramnami Samaj, and others. It is a small town with religious significance as the birth place of the Saint Vallabhacharya, increasingly important as a pilgrimage site for the Gujarati community.

Languages

Official language of the state is Hindi and used by almost entire population of the state. Chhattisgarhi was also known as Khaltahi to surrounding Hill-people and as Laria to Sambalpuri and Oriya speakers. In Koria, Surajpur, Surguja and Jashpur, it appears as Surgujia sub-dialect. In Bastar Gondi, Tribal languages are spoken. Other major languages spoken in Chhattisgarh are Hindi, Sambalpuri, Marathi and Oriya

Religion

In Chhattisgarh over 95% of the population of the state are Hindus. Several saints have their origin in Chattisgarh, including Parsurama Ramnami and Vallabha Acharya. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, a noted Hindu leader and founder of the Transcendental Meditation was from Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh). There is a significant minority of Christians among several tribal groups in Chattisgarh, though there are few reliable statistics on their exact numbers.

Fair and Festivals

Bastar Dussera, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Ramaram, Ma Bambleshwari, Ratanpur, Shivrinarayan, Sihawa, Bhoramdeo, Girodhpuri, Damakheda are the major fairs in the State.

Music and Dance

The state has rich traditional folk songs among which sohar, bihav and Pathoni songs are famous.

Sohar songs are related to child birth. Bihav songs are related to marriage celebration. The main parts of Bihav songs are Chulmati, Telmati, Maymouri, Nahdouri, Parghani, Bhadoni and other songs related to Bhanver, Vidai songs.

Pathoni songs are related to Gouna that is, the departure of a bride to the bridegroom’s home.

Pandavani is a well-known ballad musical narrative, essentially based on the stories in the epic Mahabharata, but with Bhima as hero. Teejan Bai is the internationally acclaimed Pandavani artist, who was awarded Padma Bhushan in 2003 for her contribution to Pandavani. Ritu Verma is also well known.

Bihar has a very old tradition of beautiful folk songs, sung during important family occasions, such as marriage, birth ceremonies, festivals, etc. and the most famous folk singer has been Padma Shri Sharda Sinha. They are sung mainly in group settings without the help of many musical instruments like Dholak, Bansuri and occasionally Tabla and Harmonium are used. Bihar also has a tradition of lively Holi songs known as ‘Phagua’, filled with fun rhythms.

Panthi, Raut Nacha “Karma” and Soowa dance styles are popular in the region. Raut Nacha, the folk dance of cowherds, is a traditional folk dance of yadavs/yaduvanshis as symbol of worship to Krishna at the time of ‘dev udhni ekadashi’ (the awakening of the gods after a brief rest) according to the Hindu calendar. The dance closely resembles Krishna’s dance with the gopis (milkmaids).

Arts and crafts

Chattisgarh is known for Kosa silk,lost wax art. Besides saris and salwar suits, the fabric is used to create lehengas, stoles, shawls and menswear including jackets, shirts, achkans and sherwanis. In Lost wax metal, International Sculptor Sushil Sakhuja’s Dhokra Nandi is famous and available at Govt’s. Shabari handicrafts emporium, Raipur.

Source: Wikipedia