Gavari
[2] Each year, bhopa shamans from Mewar's Bhil communities petition the Goddess to permit their villagers to perform the Gavari ritual and to accompany them for the weeks of touring.
These values are reflected in traditional Bhil society where the environment is revered, hierarchy is abhorred, and women enjoy greater rights and status than in communities outside.
The play compresses and conflates the armed might of Turkic, Mughal and British invaders and depicts Goddess-inspired Bhil warriors finally driving them all away with daring ambushes, sabotage and shrewd guerrilla tactics.
Players strive to perform in a receptive trance known as bhava, which resembles the fluid creative state that musicians and athletes call "flow" or "the zone".
Depending on the day and the plays selected a single Gavari troupe can present dozens of different characters - goddess avatars, gods, demons, historical figures, sacred animals, corrupt officials, etc.
This invocation is held in every Mewari Bhil community on or shortly before the full moon in the Hindu month of Shravana, which usually falls in August as the monsoon planting season ends.
Initial sanction invocations are usually held in a darkened sanctuary attended by a small group of bhopa shamans, village elders and veteran Gavari players.
Typical reasons for refusal include discord in the village, shrine disrepair, a poor monsoon, a crop blight, etc., which must be dealt with satisfactorily before petitioning Her again.
[19] Daily confirmation invocations are performed around an altar in the center of the Gavari arena where shamans, musicians and senior players gather in a tight circle.
[20] Additional ritual instruments employed following the manifestation of the deity include peacock feather scepters utilized to emphasize and convey the dynamic energy of possession, as well as sturdy saankal chains that trance-induced participants frequently use to strike their backs.
[22] Such views are the seed Seven generation sustainability among many indigenous tribes and their current widespread battles to safeguard water resources, endangered ecosystems and biocultural diversity.
[25] Its dramas vividly depict and celebrate the dispatching of powerful officials, gurus and merchants either by the mocking scorn of villagers or the sword of the Goddess in a protective maternal rage.
[26][8] The healthy skepticism such skits reflected and encouraged in rural Mewar, along with other similar art forms/practices in the subcontinent helped birth India's 2005 Right to Information Act, which has been hailed as "the most significant change to Indian democracy since Independence" [27] Gavari's itinerant format continues to closely network and promote solidarity among Mewar's scattered rural villages as well as their constituent castes and religious communities.
[3] Gavari's comedic skits on farm finance, greedy middlemen and corrupt merchants offer villagers wry lessons in real world commerce and economic self-defense, especially with regard to crop brokers, moneylenders, credit scams, and urban conceptions of wealth.
[19] Gavari tightens inter-community bonds with its month of itinerant village visitations and solidifies Bhils’ sense of responsibility for a world far beyond their neighboring fields.
Add to this the accelerating exodus of working age youth to metro centers in search of employment and the average size and number of rural Gavari troupes continues decline.
[13][36] This was followed by the first Gavari presentation in Delhi at the 2016 National Tribal Carnival, which was attended by Prime Minister Modi who offered lavish praise and encouragement.
