Kathak

What the dance is

Kathak is danced with straight legs and a straight torso. Its weight sits in the feet. Dancers tie strings of small bells, called ghungroo, around their ankles, and the rhythm of those bells is matched to the drums and the music. Spins and quick changes of direction are part of the technique. When a story is told, the dancer speaks with the whole upper body: arms and hands, neck, stage movement, bends and turns. The eyes carry much of the meaning, and the eyebrows shape the expressions. Footwork and eyes are what an audience watches most closely. Old stone panels at Bharhut, carved in the 2nd century BCE, show dancers standing upright with one arm raised near the ear, close to positions used today.

Stories and the name

The word Kathak grows out of katha, a Sanskrit term for a story or a traditional tale, and from kathakaar, the one who tells it. Long ago in northern India, travelling bards carried epic tales from place to place, telling them through dance, song and music. Those storytellers, known as Kathakas, show up in old Hindu texts; the epics name dancers, actors, bards and reciters of legends many times over. The Natya Shastra, credited to the sage Bharata, is the earliest surviving text with links to this dance, and its chapters set out ideas of gesture, expression and posture that performers drew on. Kathak stands apart from the folk dances of the region, and offshoots such as Bhavai, a rural theatre, and Thumri grew from it.

Bhakti and the schools

During the Bhakti movement the dance turned towards Krishna, and performers told his stories with Radha and the milkmaids, drawing on the Bhagavata Purana. Their love stood for the soul meeting its source. Around Mathura, in the Braj country, Raslila joined dance, music and narrative. The Lucknow style is traced to Ishwari, a devotee from Handia village near Prayagraj who said Krishna appeared in a dream and told him to make dance a form of worship; his family passed the teaching down for six generations. From such lineages came four schools, called gharana. Jaipur is known for technique, long pure dance and fast spins. Banaras for footwork and Krishna tales. Lucknow for grace. Raigarh, the fourth, grew when a king brought teachers from the other three to his court.

In the Mughal courts

When the Mughal emperors ruled, Kathak moved from temple courtyards into palace halls. Patronage changed what performers did. Emperors and nobles kept dancers at court, and the dance grew more mannered, more graceful and more expressive. Wajid Ali Shah, the Nawab of Awadh, danced it himself. New instruments and Urdu ghazal entered the repertoire, and Persian and Central Asian themes came with them, including Sufi whirling. The dress shifted too: the sari gave way to garments that showed the midriff, with a light veil. European visitors in later years saw a blend of Indian tradition with Central Asian and Persian movement.

Decline and revival

In the 19th century, British colonial rule and Victorian ideas about modesty turned officials and missionaries against classical dance. From 1892 critics campaigned under the name anti-nautch movement. Dancers were insulted in print, patrons were pressed to withdraw support, and missionaries wanted the old Hindu stories swapped for European and Christian ones. Indian men educated in British schools added their voices. Hindu families went on teaching privately, and some teachers trained boys instead. Kalkaprasad Maharaj brought the dance to audiences outside India early in the 20th century. After independence it was revived, and the Jaipur and Lucknow traditions drew the most study.

How Kathak is kept

A performance usually brings together a dancer, one or more drummers and a singer. The tabla or the pakhawaj keeps the beat, and small cymbals called manjira may mark it too. The dancer starts with pure footwork, the bells answering the drum, then moves into spins and set pieces, and later takes up a story, shaping it with hands, face and eyes. Teaching happens by demonstration and repetition, a teacher passing material to a student over many years rather than from a written score.

When and where

Kathak has no single day of the year. It belongs to temple occasions, family celebrations and staged concerts, and in earlier centuries it filled the evenings of royal courts. Training runs all year, passed from teacher to pupil over years. The sources give no fixed festival date for it.

Northern India is its home, and Uttar Pradesh is named as its place of origin. Each of the four schools grew up around a city: Jaipur, Banaras, Lucknow and Raigarh. Delhi and other north Indian courts hosted the dance under the Mughals. Dancers now perform it well beyond India as well.

What Kathak means

To those who keep it, the dance carries devotion as well as display. The love of Radha and Krishna is read as the soul's longing for its source, and the old treatises describe dance as a way of expressing spiritual ideas and the essence of scripture. The Lucknow lineage begins with a dream in which Krishna asked a devotee to make dance an act of worship. Gesture, expression and rhythm are therefore not only technique; they carry a story and a meaning that the audience is meant to feel.

Questions people ask about Kathak

See also

DhrupadThe foundational vocal and instrumental classical music tradition of northern IndiaIkatA resist-dyeing craft from Southeast Asia, where yarns are tied and dyed before weavingJirgaA traditional consultative council of elders that settles disputes through consensusKolhapuri chappalHandcrafted braided leather slip-on sandals from western India

Good reading and sources

• Encyclopaedia BritannicaArticle
• BBC Arts - BBC Arts - Kathak: Does every gesture have a meaning?BBC, Article
• In tune with the old worldThe Hindu, Article
• ‘Kathak — India’s only secular classical dance form’Dawn, Article
• BBC Arts - BBC Arts - Kathak: Does every gesture have a meaning?BBC, Article
• In tune with the old worldThe Hindu, Article
• ‘Kathak — India’s only secular classical dance form’Dawn, Article

• Kathak on WikipediaEncyclopedia
• More photos on Wikimedia CommonsPhotos and video
• Wikidata recordOpen data

It may contain mistakes. Traditions differ from one family, village and community to the next, and the people who keep them know them best. If something is wrong, tell us. Last refreshed 2026-10-05.