THE DANCE FORMS OF A DOUDINI IN KHERAI FESTIVAL OF THE BODOS OF ASSAM: AN ANALYTICAL STUDY FROM RELIGIOUS PERSPECTIVE

The Bodos are important tribes of the North-Eastern India, particularly Assam. They belong to the Indo-Mongolian group of tribes and are inducted as Kiratas. They are mainly scattered in the districts of Kokrajhar, Goalpara, Barpeta, Bongaigaon, Baksa, Dhubri etc. The traditional Bodos celebrate Kherai as one of their significant religious festivals Brahma (2008) 14. They perform Kherai for well-being of their families, to yield good harvest and prosperity of the society. Kherai is a religious custom in which the primitive spiritual almighty is prayed earnestly. It is a prayer institution of Bwrai Bathou or Sibrai, the supreme deity of Kherai festival. Though there are mainly eighteen types of dances associated with Kherai puja but there are some additional dance-drama forms which are also counted after those eighteen dances and the main dancer of the puja is the doudini Brahma (2003) 20.