Ghumura Training Institute to come up in Bhawanipatana

Bhawanipatana: Manikeswari Ghumura Training Institute was dedicated here on Sunday at a function organised on Kalahandi University campus.

With the approval of Odia Language, Literature and Culture department, the Ghumura Training Institute will be established in Bhawanipatana by Odisha Sangeet Natak Akademi. The institute will raise the quality of warrior dance of Kalahandi to international standard, said Junagarh MLA Dibya Shankar Mishra.

Odisha Sangeet Natak Akademi secretary Probodh Rath said 30 trainees will be imparted training every year by the Ghumura gurus. Each trainee will get a stipend of Rs 4,000 per month for one year. After completion of one year residential training, Diploma in Ghumura Music certificate will be awarded to them. The academic session will start in Manikeswari Ghumura Training Institute from January next year. Kalahandi Collector P Anwesha Reddy said initially this institute will run in Kalahandi Kala Kendra. Later, a permanent infrastructure will be made available for the institution.

Narla MLA Bhupinder Singh, Dharamgarh MLA Mousadhi Bag, Lanjigarh MLA Pradeep Dishari, Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee Jayanta Kumar Behera and Kalahandi University Vice Chancellor Sanjay Satapathy attended as guests of honour.

Twenty Ghumura gurus were felicitated on the occasion.

In the morning, after ‘Mashal Puja’ at Manikeswari temple, a cultural rally was organised from Manikeswari temple to Kalahandi University. More than 500 artistes of 20 Ghumura troupes of different blocks of Kalahandi took part in the rally.

With the establishment of this Ghumura Training Institute, a long cherished dream of people of Kalahandi has been fulfilled, said Ghumura gurus Kailash Chandra Singh and Suru Barik. The Manikeswari Ghumura Training Institute will be a milestone for the qualitative development of Kalahandi’s unique martial dance Ghumura, they added.