danda nata

Danda Naata, also written as Danda Jatra and Danda Yatra (Odia: ଦଣ୍ଡ ନାଟ, ଦଣ୍ଡ ଯାତ୍ରା) is one of the most important traditional dance festivals organized in different parts of South Odisha and particularly in the Ganjam District, Kandhamal District,Dhenkanal District & Angul District the heartland of ancient Kalinga Empire. The Danda Naata festival is being held in the month of Chaitra of every year. As per Ram Prasad Tripathy's article, it is an ancient festival of the Kalinga kingdom and still alive in and around the ancient Kalinga capital Sampa or Samapa i.e modern day Jaugada of Ganjam district. The Participants of Danda are called Danduas (also known as Bhoktas) and they pray Goddesses Kali and Shiva during this 13-, 18- or 21-day Danda period. Danda begins on an auspicious day before the Chaitra Sankranti or Meru Parba with traditional worship and fasting. The total number of days for the festival is 13, 18 or 21 days. Only male persons take part in this festival. The participants are known as the 'Bhoktas'. All the `Bhoktas` or 'Danduas' lead a very pious life for all these days during the festival and they avoid eating meat, fish or cohabiting during this period. It is believed that the present day Danda Naata is a part of the ancient Chaitra Yatra festivals being celebrated every year at Tara Tarini Shakti Peetha. The Kalinga Emperors organised this Chaitra festival for their Ista devi, Tara Tarini.¶

The text above is adapted from the Wikipedia article “Danda Nata”, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence.¶

danda nata is type of dance, according to the structured record cited below. This entry was generated automatically from that record and has not yet been reviewed by a person familiar with the tradition.¹¶

The source record links this tradition to 1 external register, which can be verified through the citation.¹¶