Palatiya, A Folk Theatre Of North Bengal: Its Social Context And Performance Style

Abstract

Palatiya is one of the prominent folk theatres of North Bengal. The other traditional folk theatres of North Bengal Such as Kushan, Kichchabondi, Bishohora has its own individual performing style. These are lyrical in nature and while performing, ‘poyar’ songs are introduced to describe some part of the story. Later in the performance, the story or incident is described through the conversation of ‘Mulee’ and ‘Doyari’. After this, the story is acted as per need. Herein description and explanation plays a major role, the whole story need not be acted. But the topic of our discussion, ‘Palatiya’ gan has a different presentation style and it is much more similar to traditional Jatrapala. In this case, description of the story does not take place; instead the folk theatre (pala) is directly performed. Therefore, it is named as Palatiya. This form of theatre is performed in Rajbangshi language in sponsorship of the Rajbangshi community. In the past, its arena stage was circular in nature, but later on it has taken square shape. The audience perch encircling the arena stage. As the story progresses, performers get themselves involved in interaction with the audience. This is a one of the salient features of folk theatre. These folk theatres (pala) are consist of the plots related to Puranas, Shastras or social stories. These theatres carry religious or moral lesson for the larger audiences. Presently, this form of folk theatre is on the verge of extinction from the society.