Saraikela Palace

About Saraikela Palace

Saraikela Chhau is one of three Chhau dance traditions — the other two being from Seraikela's neighbours in Mayurbhanj (Odisha) and Purulia (West Bengal) — but Saraikela's version is particularly distinguished by its refined use of masks. The masks, depicting gods, animals, seasons, and cosmic forces, were developed by the Saraikela royal family over generations as the visual language of the dance, and their craftsmanship reached a level recognised internationally as significant intangible cultural heritage. The dance was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2010 as part of a combined listing of all three Chhau traditions. The Saraikela royal family's contribution was the formalisation of the masked vocabulary — there are 25 traditional mask designs, each corresponding to a specific character or cosmic element in the dance's repertoire. The Saraikela Palace complex, while not open as a formal museum, is the context in which the Chhau tradition lives. The Chaitra Parva festival in March — when performances are given in the palace grounds — is the best opportunity to see the dance in its original setting. The festivals runs over several evenings with full-costume performances in outdoor settings. Outside festival periods, the palace exterior and the adjacent Chhau Academy, where young dancers train, can be observed. The Chhau Academy maintains active training programmes and visitors can sometimes observe rehearsals on weekday mornings.