Rasa Leela of Shri Shri Govindajee
( Manipuri Dance (Jagoi) )

By: N Mangi Devi *

This festival of Rasa-Leela is mainly celebrated at Shri Shri Govindajee's temple, Imphal as it is a dance festival of Shri Bhagavan Krishna with Srimati Radhika and other gopies of Brindavan. It is a dance drama (leela) about the divine love of Shri Krishna Bhagavan and it is inseperably associated with the life style of Manipuri Vaishnavite.

This festival has a deep significance of Bhakti Yoga as it exhibits the love of Srimati Radhika and other gopies for Shri Krishna Bhagavan. The very dances of this festival are famous as Manipuri classical dance to the lovers of music and dance of the whole world.

The first observance of this Rasaleela festival had been started by the Raj Shri Bhagychandra Maharaja of Manipur at Rasmandal of Kanchipur, the then capital of Manipur in front of the idol of Shri Shri Govindajee that had been installed by the Maharaja himself.

A story goes like this that the particular fig tree was brought down through the Iril river from the Kaina hill, the off-shoot of Nongmaiching, the eastern hills facing the imphal city and out of that tree the statutes of Shri Govindajee, Shri Bijoy Govindajee of Sagolband, Shri Avdaitya of Bishnupur, Shri Gopinathjee of Ningthoukhong, Shri Madal Mohan, Shri Bangshibol of Khangabok, Shri Arambam Nityananda, Imphal and Shri Anuprabhu of Nabadwip were carved out and installed them at the said respective places.

It is generally performed at night in the Mandop in front of Shri Govindajee's temple or other temples and watched with a deep sense of devotion. The performance of Rasaleela is a combination of solo, duet and group dances by the dancers as the gopies of Brindavan throughout the night.

The whole performance of dance is supported by the playback female singers called Sutradhari, the experts who are well versed about the Rasa Leela and its components. The unique feature of celebrating of this festival is the adoration of the beautiful idols of Shri Govindajee and Srimati Rasheswori in the middle of the big Mandop of Shri Shri Govindajee at the palace compound of Manipur Maharaja (Konung Mandop).

It is a magnified manifestation of Rasa Leela of Nikunja Bond of Brindavan. The costumes and style of dances are typical Manipuri traditions innovated by Raj shri Bhagyachandra Maharaja during the eighteenth century (1779). The richness of the costume gives lustre to the beauty of the art of Rasa Leela. This festival is commonly known as Jagoi Rasa in Manipur.

This dance drama has always been preceded by the Nupa-Pala (male nat-sankirtana) to invoke the festivity of divinity of the Rasa Leela. Nupa Pala (Kartal cholom or cymbal dance) is ramification of the Manipuri style of dance and music giving devotional songs (prayer) to Sri Gourchandra Mahaprabu. It is performed by male artistes using shining big cymbals and wearing white Pheijom (dhoti) and spherical turbans. They sing and dance to the rhythm of Pung (Mridanga).

There are five kinds of Jagoi-Rasa namely

• Basanta-Rasa,
• Kunja-Rasa,
• Maha-Rasa,
• Nitya-Rasa and
• Divya-Rasa

that are celebrated at different times in a year.

The Basanta-Rasa, the Kunja-Rasa and the Maha-Rasa were founded by Rajshri Bhagyachandra Maharaja himself and they were performed at the nights of Basanta Purnima, Sarda Purnima and Kartik Purnima in the Mandop of Shri Shri Govindajee with the beautiful idol of Shri Govindajee.

The Nitya-Rasa was founded by his grandson Sri Chandrakriti Maharaja and the Divya-Rasa introduced by Sri Churachand Maharaja.

The Jagoi Rasa does not mean for entertainment but to worship and pray to Shri Krishna and Radharani. It has an immense value for realisation of divine love

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* N Mangi Devi wrote this book entitled "Festival of Manipur" . This article was webcasted on April 29th 2010.