Costumes of Lavani

Costumes of Lavani

The female performers of this dance dress themselves in a nine-yard long sari called navvari and tie their hair in a bun. They also wear heavy jewelleries like necklace, ear rings, payal, kamarpatta (a belt at waist), bangles etc to complete their look. Bindi is an important accessory of this dance. The participants usually put a large bindi of dark red colour on their forehead. There are also men that dance in lavni along with the ladies. They are the called nat(male dancer) usually the kinnars. These men dance in support with the lead dancer.Although beginnings of Lavani can be traced back to 1560s, it came into prominence during the later days of the Peshwa rule. Several celebrated Marathi Shahir poet-singers, which include Parasharam (1754-1844), Ram Joshi (1762–1812), Anant Fandi (1744-1819), Honaji Bala (1754-1844), Prabhakar (1769-1843), Saganbhau and Lok Shahir Annabhau Sathe (1 August 1920 - 18 July 1969) contributed significantly for the development of this genre of music. Honaji Bala introduced tabla in place of the traditional dholki. He also developed the baithakichi Lavani, a subgenre, which is presented by the singer in the seated position. Satyabhamabai Pandharpurkar and Yamunabai Waikar are the popular present day exponents of Lavani. Shringar Lavani is mostly sung and danced on the stage by a female and written by male. Lavani can also be termed as a romantic song sung by lady who is waiting for her lover to accept her, who longs for his love. Many Lavani dancers are from some castes of Maharashtra like Mahar Kolhati, and Matang. Marathi films played an important role in making Lavani genre accessible to masses. Movies such as Pinjara and Natarang not only attempted to blend traditional music with social messages but also helped portray Lavani world in positive light.