Mancha is a Folk theatre form of central India, specially of Malwa region of Madhya Pradesh. The theatre belongs to Bhagat genre like some other theatre forms such as Nautanki, Swang or saung and khyal. But immediate source of its origin is Khyal theatre of Rajasthan. Originally it was also called Khyal Mancha. Some Gurujans (Mentors) migrated from Rajasthan to Ujjain (MP) and there they imbibed the native cultural elements and incorporated them in this theatre form. Gradually a new theatre form evolved in this Process. Presently it is a flourishing theatre form of central India. There are a large number of troupes spread allover Malwa region and more than one hundred plays have been written in Malwa dialect which are staged regularly. The playwrights are very talented and some of them have command on Marwri, Urdu, Gujrati and Malwi dialects including Hindi. This is the first serious documentation of this theatre form in English language.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Niranjan Mahawar
The author did his post-graduation in economics in the year 1960 from Sagar University and went to Bastar in 1962 to look after their family business of rice mill. He was fascinated by the tribal’s and their way of life. While living in Bastar he developed interest in anthropology and culture of the people and started documenting various aspects of arts and culture. Gradually, he developed interest in the tribal culture and various art forms of Central India and since last forty five years he has been documenting tribal and folk arts, folk theatre forms, folklore, tribal myths and other aspects of tribal and folk ways. On the basis of his work which is spread in more than four decades span of time he has planned five books on tribal and folk arts, eight books on folk theatre, four monographs on tribes and three- four books on folk tales and folk songs and ballads. All these works will be appearing soon gradually.
The author has a very large collection of artifacts of his own which includes tribal bronzes from Bastar, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal. He has also a large collection of folk and tribal paintings, artistic wooden tribal combs, tribal ornaments and other ritual objects. He has gifted his collection of terracotta artifacts numbering about six hundred of Central India to the Anthropological Survey of India Museum at Bastar.
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