Kallpa House's Garba Workshop

brief description

The word garba comes from the Sanskrit word for womb and so represents the cycle of life. Traditionally, the dance is performed around a clay lantern with a light inside, called a Garbha Deep ("womb lamp"). The dancers thus honor Durga, the feminine form of divinity. Garba is performed in a circle as a symbol of the Hindu view of time. The rings of dancers revolve in cycles, as time in Hinduism is cyclical. As the cycle of time revolves, from birth, to life, to death and again to rebirth, the only thing that is constant is the Goddess, that one unmoving symbol in the midst of all of this unending and infinite movement.