Bhartiya Lok Kala Mandal

Bhartiya Lok Kala Mandal: A cultural institute dedicated towards preserving India’s artistic legacy. This institute strives to raise cultural awareness among individuals, encourage persons interested in performing any Indian art form, display items in a museum, hold numerous events, and much more.

History of Lok Kala Mandal

Padma Shri Devi Lal Samar founded the Bhartiya Lok Kala Mandal in the year 1952 to restore the regional folk culture in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, and other areas. This institute was created to explore folk art forms and unearth them to make them visually available to those interested in learning art. This institute has also received international and national recognition for its puppet shows and other dance performances.

Key Highlights of Bhartiya Lok Kala Mandal

1.) Museum

Credits: www.lokkalamandal.com

Bhartiya Lok Kala Museum is an innovative place that deserves to be seen. Over the past 44 years, this Museum has been displaying rural dresses, puppets, decorations, masks, folk musical instruments, dolls, paintings, folk deities, wall sculptures, ceremonial pots, woodwork artwork, and henna patterns.

2.) Cultural Dance Performances

Credits: www.patrika.com

Every evening, a folk show is held in the studio theatre, featuring multiple traditional dance performances including Garba, Dandiya, Ghoomar, and others. These performances are made by highly experienced dancers. Moreover, it is a great venue to teach youngsters about local culture. It is, in some ways, a true celebration of Rajasthan’s rich cultural legacy; the folk singers and lively dancers exhibit the actual folk culture of Rajasthan to the audience.

3.) The Lok Kala Mandal Research Centre

This centre initiates research on diverse folk art traditions that are recorded in audio and video form for educational purposes.

4.) Institute for Rural Communication

This institute assists rural communities in developing rural connection lines and trains them on how to communicate via media.

5.) Govind Puppet Performing Centre

Credits: www.lokkalamandal.com

This Centre is dedicated to conducting puppet research and experimenting with various puppet show genres. Puppet performances are said to have originated over 2000 years ago, and The Lok Kala Mandal guarantees that one of the world’s oldest art forms is maintained and displayed at a global level.

Besides the above mentioned highlights, The Bhartiya Lok Kala Mandal also provides puppetry training on a regular basis to educate children, teachers, and other puppet admirers. Folk dance training is also offered on a regular basis at the centre where the subject experts teach traditional and tribal dances and music to young people, especially women, in order to preserve these art forms. These efforts help this establishment in sustaining puppetry as an art form for future generations.

Reasons behind creating Bhartiya Lok Kala Mandal

Rajasthan’s Mewar area is renowned for its diverse culture and art. Its local artefacts are, in fact, always praised and treasured around the world. Bhartiya Lok Kala Mandal took steps and created an institution to encourage local craftsmen and artists, as well as foster local arts and cultures, in order to preserve and grow this legacy.

Consequently, the Bhartiya Lok Kala Museum turned out to be a part of their objective, which was dedicated to showcasing Mewar’s exclusive and finest arts and crafts. The museum shows one-of-a-kind treasures amassed over the last 44 years and provides an overview of India’s conventional traditions.

Credits: www.lokkalamandal.com

In a nutshell, the Bhartiya Lok Kala Mandal is the ideal destination to learn about and experience Rajasthani culture and art. Mentioned herewith are some of the major objectives of this institution:

Educating and providing information about India’s art and culture.
Organizing training sessions to teach the local art forms to the art lovers.
Popularizing traditional dance and culture.
Prioritizing the puppet shows.
Encouraging the Folk dancers and musicians.

Why should you come to Udaipur’s Bhartiya Lok Kala Mandal?

To watch the evening folk dance and puppet performance, as well as to learn about cultural items that are displayed in the Museum. You may also take assistance from this research section of the institute if you want to seek information about any Indian art form. If you are a dedicated learner, there are also learning institutions on the grounds that may assist you in teaching any art form, such as dancing or puppet shows.

Credits: www.yuvrajudaipurtaxi.com

Entry Fee of The Bhartiya Lok Kala Mandal

Entry Fees for Museum:
Rs.60/- for Indian Tourists
Rs.120/- for Foreign Tourists
Rs.25/- for students and Kids under 5 years.

Timings: 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM

Charges for Folk activities and Puppet Show:
Rs.120/- for Indian Tourists
Rs.180/- for Foreign Tourists
Rs.60/- for students and Kids under 5 years.

Timings: 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM, 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM, 7:15 PM to 8:15 PM

So, when in Udaipur, it becomes a must to visit this gem of a place.

Our city – Udaipur is completely filled with beauty in and out. And this beauty is not reflected in just its history, culture and its places, but also in its people. There are some gem of the people belonging from Udaipur who, with their hard work and success, have not just made the city but the entire nation proud.

But sadly, with time we tend to forget the accomplishment of such people of the city. The series ‘People from Udaipur you should know about’ tends to glorify the journey of these famous and triumphant people from Udaipur who have become an epitome of success in their lives.

Devi Lal Samar

Devilal Samar was born on 30^th July 1911 in an Oswal family of Udaipur. He had a great interest in dance, theatre, puppetry and all the folk art forms of Rajasthan. For 10 years, he was a music, dance, and language teacher in Vidhya Bhawan school of Udaipur. After teaching in the school, he used to go to the nearby villages and spend his day amidst the artists residing there.

Folk dance and local art forms weren’t given much respect back then. The people who had acquired the art used to feel inferior of themselves. These people belonged to the lower castes and untouchables. Devilal wanted to build a platform for all such people who can showcase their talent and get respect and livelihood against it.

At the age of 42, he left his teaching profession and decided to spend his life in promoting the folk and local art forms. He determined to establish one organization that will give a boost to these abandoned people and their art forms. In the year 1952, he established Lok Kala Mandal in Udaipur.

But his mission wasn’t accomplished yet. He made a list of all the renowned artists from nearby places who were not given the respect they deserved, collected them at one place, appealed to the government to provide them lands to live and conducted many functions and events that helped all these artists to live a life of respect with their heads held high. This act of him helped many such people to get jobs in radio, Television shows, theatre and even in education.

Beginning of Puppetry

During one of his tours in Rajasthan, he found an old man who had mortgaged his puppets to a businessman. With one puppet remaining with himself, he was begging on the street trying to entertain the wayfarer. It hurt Devi Lal to look at artists in such conditions. He gave 40 rupees from his pocket (back in that time) to the old man so that he can release all his puppets. It struck his mind that this art form needs Kala Mandal’s attention. From then on, Puppet shows and puppetry became a major part of Lok Kala Mandal. He also began the first puppet festival in the year 1952. Today, there’s a separate puppet theatre in Lok Kala Mandal where puppet shows are conducted at regular intervals.

Achievements and Notable Works

In the year 1968, Devilal Samar was awarded the civilian award ‘Padmashree’ for his excellent work in the field of art and culture by Indian Government.
The state government made him the director of Rajasthan Sangeet Natak Akademi in the year 1967.
In the year 1969, he was awarded the title of ‘Loknatyashree’ at Kalidas Akademi in Ujjain.
In his lifetime, he has published several Rajasthani theatre, puppetry and art books in Hindi some of which are Bhartiya Loknrtiya, Antarman, Lokrang, Rajasthan ka Lok Sangeet, Rajasthani Loknatya, Rajasthan ke Rawal, etc.
He established folk-theatre museum Bharatiya Lok Kala Mandal which escalated the importance of folk art and culture of Rajasthan.

Devilal has dedicated all his life to folk art, dance, music, folk drama, puppet and to give a life of respect to all the artists in the society.

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