Why the Mohan Khokar Dance Collection amazes as much as overwhelms
Sometimes it’s not the space but what’s in it that matters. The Mohan Khokar Dance Collection is largely housed in three small rooms at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) in New Delhi, but the treasure trove of offerings here is huge.
It begins right at the reception, with seven thematic glass-window displays holding some of the prized assets of the collection, such as figurines, costumes, masks and ornaments. On the first floor, there’s an A-Z glossary of dance celebrating veteran individuals and organisations that have shaped Indian classical dance in significant ways.
Then one walks through a passage whose walls hold incredible poster art of luminaries such as Uday Shankar and Balasaraswati alongside lovely photographs. It’s only then that we reach the three rooms that hold more gems.
By now, the Mohan Khokar Dance Collection has already proven that Mohan Khokar was truly a pioneer in Indian dance history. A massive collector, he didn’t let anything escape his eye that was connected to dance. Be it newspaper and magazine clippings, programme notes, artist brochures, phuljadi and agarbatti boxes or lottery tickets with dancers on them, his is a collection that amazes as much as it overwhelms with its sheer volume and range.
Dance-based terracotta, bronze and wooden sculptures and paintings too find their way here. Khokar’s passion for the arts is further evident in the innumerable boxes named after dancers, which cover every nook and corner of one room.Just as he took on the gruelling task of piecing together Indian dance history in the 1940s, Khokar was also the first male student from North India to study at Rukmini Devi Arundale’s prestigious Kalakshetra Foundation in what was then Madras.
But that’s not the only first to his name. Khokar was the founder-head of the dance department at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. This was the first institute to offer a dance course at the graduation level. A dance scholar, critic, researcher, educator and arts promoter and organiser, Khokar wore many hats with ease and aplomb.
Billed as the single-largest archive of Indian classical dance, one will find at the Mohan Khokar Dance Collection valuable information dating back to at least 200 years. There are 4,000 books, 5,000 journals, 50,000-plus images, 1,500 artefacts and over 100,000 press clips, besides numerous negatives, slides and audio/video recordings.
There’s a little bit of personal touch too, such as Khokar’s correspondence with artists and the responses he’d get in return. He even kept the wedding invites he received from dancers! Needless to say, even weeks won’t be enough to browse through it all.
Mohan Khokar’s son Ashish Khokar, dance scholar and editor-publisher of Attendance, and Ashish’s mother, the renowned dance guru M.K. Saroja, donated the collection to IGNCA in 2018. It would take nearly two years for the team to go through the 136 cartons, all of it well-preserved by the Khokar family.
Mohan Khokar himself was known to make copies for back-up. The Covid-19 pandemic would slow down the pace of work, but the team at the Mohan Khokar Dance Collection has managed to catalogue and showcase relevant bits to the public.
“Seeing is believing,” says Ashish Khokar of the collection. The sight of kathak queen Sitara Devi’s ghungroos, a stunning Nataraja idol, a print advertisement of a dance costume by a tailor, postal stamps all are truly a reminder of India’s rich dance heritage and the wealth of its talent. One man had the vision to save it all, and his family to share it with a public institution. It has ensured that generations will have access to what is nothing short of a dance museum.
