Jatra (, origin: Yatra meaning procession or journey in Sanskrit) is a popular folk-theatre form Bengali theatre, spread throughout most of Bengali speaking areas of the Indian subcontinent, including Bangladesh and Indian states of West Bengal, Assam, Odisha and Tripura As of 2005, there were some 55 troupes based in Calcutta's old Jatra district, Chitpur Road, and all together, is a $21m-a-year industry, performed on nearly 4,000 stages in West Bengal alone, where in 2001, over 300 companies employed over 20,000 people, more than the local film industry and urban theatre.
The word means journey or going. The origin of intrinsically a musical theatre form, is traditionally credited to the rise of Sri Chaitanya's Bhakti movement, wherein Chaitanya himself played Rukmini in the performance of Rukmini Haran ("The abduction of the Charming Rukmini") from Krishna's life story, a first definite presentation of this theatrical spectacle. The performance, which lasted through the night in 1507 AD., has been described in Chaitanya Bhagavata, Chaitanya's hagiography by a disciple Vrindavana Dasa Thakura. Though there are evidences of existence of a form of singing called the 'Carya', which was popular between the 9th and the 12th centuries in Bengal, which existed in Odisha simultaneously as the popular 'Carya Padas' form. performances resemble the Nautanki of Uttar Pradesh, the Tamasha of Maharashtra and Bhavai of Gujarat.
Though its birthplace lies in the religious landscape, replete with various Bhakti movements of Hinduism, by the end of the 19th century it was replaced by morally didactic content, and eventually became secular, when it gained entry into urban proscenium theatres during Bengal Renaissance. The survival of the form over such a vast period of rapidly changing social milieu, while catering to a heterogeneous audience, has been credited to its innate malleability and ways of adapting to changing social dynamics, and thus staying not just relevant and alive, but also thriving.
Jatra performances
are usually epic four-hour-long plays, preceded by a musical concert often lasting an hour, used to attract audiences. The dramatic performance itself is liberally interspersed dramatic monologues, songs and duet dance routines on the folk tunes, which often serve as scene transitions and sometimes mark the end of an act. plays are usually performed on stages that are open on all sides in open-air arenas. The stage often had minimal or no furniture or props, it was rather seen as a neutral space, free to be given a meaning befitting the scene, this technique continued even when started getting performed in proscenium theatres. Sets, props and lighting came in much later, when its started interacting with Western theatre in the late 19th century, as urban educated youth started joining the tradition.