Manipuri dance

Manipuri dance, sometimes also referred to as the Manipuri Raas Leela (Meitei: Jagoi Raas/Raas Jagoi), is a jagoi and is one of the major Indian classical dance forms, originating from the state of Manipur. It is one of the Meitei intangible cultural heritage. The "Manipuri dance" is a confluence of four ritualistic traditions – Lai Haraoba, Huyen Langlon, Meitei Nata Sankirtana and Raaslila. Owing to the Meitei civilization, the classical dance form, first formally developed by Meitei Hindu king Ching Thang Khomba (Meitei for 'Rajarshi Bhagyachandra') of the Kingdom of Manipur, is considered to be the highest spiritual expression of the worship of Hindu deity Krishna. The themes of this dance are generally taken from episodes in the life of Krishna. Owing to its huge influences on the diverse cultural heritages across the Indian subcontinent, it is recognised by the Sangeet Natak Akademi of the Ministry of Culture of the Government of India as one of the few primary classical dance forms of the Republic of India, and is honoured with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award for Manipuri annually. It is referred to as the "national dance" during the Armenia-India joint issue of postage stamps, as a part of the Armenia-India international relations. This dance form was patronized by many Manipuri rulers.¶

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

Manipuri dance is one of officially eight classical Indian dances, 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 7 external registers, which can be verified through the citation.¹¶