Team Herald
MARGAO: Chandrapur, the erstwhile capital of the Bhojas in fourth century and Kadambas in the 11th century, celebrates Carnival in a different manner by performing a warrior dance that is believed to have originated during that period and survived to this day.
What is significant of the Mussoll dance as it is called, is that it is performed by Catholic chardo or kshatriya males and is performed in Cotta, a part of revenue village Chandor on Monday night while in neighbouring Cavorim revenue village it is performed on Tuesday night.
The dancers dress like Indians with a white dhoti, white shirt and a waist coat, turban on the head, sash around the waist and anklets on the foot. The dance is performed in two or three steps and beating of a pestle at a marked place called the barik roin. The dancers move around in circles in strictly prescribed movements as the Mussoll song is sung to the accompaniment of instruments like the dhol and kansal (percussion drum and cymbals).
While earlier the dance would begin with an invocation to Lord Shiva, at present it commences with a Christian prayer. Besides the names of Hindu Gods and Kadamba kings have been replaced with Christian saints like St Tiago and St Anthony and this is probably how the dance survived the Portuguese rule.
As the Mussoll song has many references to trees and animals, it was believed to be a harvest dance, but has now been established that it is a martial dance specially as the oft repeated verse talks about Harihara’s legion and his army assembling.
Some traditions do continue even though times have changed drastically. For example, a petromax is always carried for the dance to illuminate the path even though street lights fulfill this need at present.
The dhol may become extinct as the leather that was used is no longer available since a monitor lizard skin was used and monitor lizard is now a protected animal.
On Monday the dance begins at the chapel by the roadside near the ruins of the Shiva temple at Cotta at around 8 pm and ends at around 11 pm after the dance is performed at around 35 houses while in Cavorim it begins near St Anthony’s Chapel on Tuesday at 8:30 and ends up at around 2 am the next morning after visiting about 50 houses.
While in Cotta only two of the seven wards of the Chandor-Cavorim village are covered, in Cavorim the remaining five wards are covered.
In Cotta descendant of the original gaunkar Nicolau Antao manages the affairs of the Mussoll dance while in Cavorim they have a committee which has been elected a week back with Andrison Antao as the president and Menino alias Minush Gomes as the secretary.
Another tradition in Cavorim village was the fell danced by the original gaunkars of the village which would commence at Bansor and then visit various places in the village where community gathering places or mandd were earmarked.
However, as the younger generation has now migrated to other parts for their livelihood, this tradition is dying with only the Rebello family now gathering at Bansor for a short prayer and then dispersing.
