If there is one image of a Kolkata Puja night that stays with people, it is this: the drummers playing faster and faster, the air thick with white smoke, and someone in the middle of the crowd swinging a burner of glowing coals in time to the beat while everyone around them cheers. This is dhunuchi naach.
The dhunuchi
A dhunuchi is a clay incense burner, shaped like a wide cup on a short stem. It is filled with dried coconut husk, which smoulders, and handfuls of dhuno, a powdered resin from the sal tree, are thrown on top to raise clouds of thick, sweet-smelling smoke.
From the arati
The dhunuchi belongs to the arati, the offering of light, fire and incense made to the goddess every evening of the Puja. The priest waves the lamps and the burner before the idol while the dhak plays. The dance grew out of that moment: as the drumming quickens, people pick up dhunuchis of their own and begin to move with them.
How it is danced
There are no fixed steps. Dancers hold a burner in each hand and swing them in arcs and circles, dip and spin, crouch and rise with the rhythm of the dhak. The bold balance a third burner on their head, or hold one by its rim between their teeth. Good dancers make it look effortless, and the coals never seem to fall.
Dhunuchi naach happens through the evenings of the Puja, but Nabami night, the last full night before the goddess leaves, is when it is at its wildest. Many pujas hold dhunuchi naach competitions.
Everyone joins in
Once it was mostly men who danced. Today women, children and grandparents all take a turn, and dhunuchi naach is one of the moments when the line between the people watching and the people performing disappears.
Stay safe
- The burners are hot clay full of live coals. Hold them by the stem, and keep a cloth handy.
- Wear cotton rather than synthetic clothes, and tie back long hair and the loose ends of a sari or scarf.
- Give dancers room. Sparks fly, and a swinging dhunuchi needs a wide circle.
- The smoke is heavy. If you have asthma, watch from further back.