The Seraikela royal palace and chhau dancers at a performance. File pictures

Jamshedpur, March 29: In a toss-up between the palace and the state as chhau’s main patron, a 300-year-old royal ritual has been hit the hardest.

Like every year, the members of the Singhdeo dynasty at Seraikela royal palace are trying to organise chhau performances for its traditional four-day Chaitra Parva — dedicated to Shiva-Parvati with chhau dancers considered as divine incarnations — held annually around the second week of April. But Seraikela district administration has stolen the event’s thunder.

This year, the fest starts from April 9-13 and will be simultaneously organised by the royal palace, Seraikela district administration and Kedarnath Chhau Centre, as well as a few local organisations.

Since nearly 50 years, the district administration has been organising a four-day Chhau Mahotsav as part of Chaitra Parva on the 5,000-seater Birsa Munda Stadium or Chhau Manch. On its part, the Seraikela royal palace has also been hosting the chhau fest for more than 300 years. But state patronage has greater pull, as most artistes flock to the stadium instead of the palace.

The Seraikela district administration started chhau celebrations based on an agreement inked between Seraikela royal family and the government of Bihar in 1964, which said the state would work to conserve the area’s culture.

As the Chaitra Parva is held simultaneously at all venues, members of the royal palace recently even requested the district administration to team forces and hold the Chhau Mahotsav at the palace courtyard. But the district administration nixed the offer, citing that the function would have to be whittled down to a much smaller scale.

“Since the 1960s, the district administration has been organising the event, so this is also tradition. We get thousands of artistes, as we give those from remote areas a platform. The stadium has a capacity to seat 5,000 people, which the palace can’t,” said Tapan Patnaik, director of Chhau Dance Academy run by the Seraikela district administration.

To add to royal woes, some socio-cultural outfits have also hijacked Seraikela chhau artistes for their individual Chaitra Parva fests.

“Chaitra Parva is an age-old tradition of Seraikela. But now, festivals are mushrooming, which causes good chhau artistes to get scattered across different venues. If there are no artistes to perform chhau, we may be forced to stop celebrations,” said Pratap Aditya Singhdeo, now the elder member of the Seraikela dynasty.

The Chaitra Parva is a visual delight with stirring performances based on episodes from Hindu mythology such as asur vadh (killing of demons), ras leela (divine play of lord Krishna, consort Radha and gopis or cowherd girls), Kalia daman (Krishna defeating the serpent demon), and others.