50 Assamese actresses to perform in the capital

New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) "Ankia Naat Bhaona" - 15th century dance drama from Assam - will be performed by 50 Assamese film actresses including Moloya Goswami, Nishita Goswami, Madhurima Chaudhuri, Chetana Das and Borosha Rani here Saturday.

Presented by Assam Tourism Department, the performance will be held at Mavalankar Hall, Rafi Marg.

The actresses will participate in a performance depicting Ram Bijoy (the victory of Ram) - a set of stories from the "Ramayana". The script of the dance drama is called "Ankia Naat" and the performance is referred to as "Ankia Bhaona".

The "Ankia Naat" dance form was created by Srimanta Sankardeva - saint and social reformer of Assam - to propagate neo-Vaishnava religion in Assam. Sankardeva created it by bringing various aspects from the ancient Sanskrit drama, traditional dramatic art forms and his own innovative ideas.

"A key aspect of tourism is introduction to the culture of a place. As a part of our efforts to promote cultural tourism, government of Assam has decided to introduce and expose cultural traditions of the state of Assam to audiences across India and global destinations," V.S. Bhaskar, pincipal secretary, Assam's departments of tourism and transport, said in a statement.

"Assam has a rich cultural heritage and we see great opportunity in building tourism properties around our cultural heritage," he said.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi will be the chief guest at the function.

To introduce the cultural tradition of the state in the capital, Assam Tourism has partnered with Raginee, a socio-cultural organisation based in Guwahati, Assam.