Sanjhi (DVD)

Sanjhi is a folk aesthetic tradition of 15 day ritual, stretching from the full moon day to the dark moonless night, with paintings on the walls of houses. It is done by unmarried girls to pay tribute to the departed ancestors during Pitri Paksha and is in vogue in many places in north and central India. IGNCA has documented this tradition in Udaipur of Rajasthan and Ujjain in Madhya Pradesh. Young girls with the help of their mother create this Sanjhi on walls with cow-dung and a variety of flowers. This is created and recreated with new motifs every evening at the twilight hour and undone in the early down. Sandhya or Sanjhya devi is the central myth of this functional tradition.

The film shows the sanjha-ka-kot filled with objects familiar to the beloved dead. It highlights the objects drawn on certain days like the dice game, tower, sweets, handfan, swastika, old men and women, kagla-kagli, sage etc. Through these, girls are taught various nuances of life, reverence for bonds of society and for elders. They create these sanjhi so that they can be blessed with good husbands. The fascinating shades of this ritualistic play are revealed through this film.