Nautch

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Nautch, a word used in several languages of North India, is an Indian term for "dance", and indicates several forms of popular dancing styles by young girls, generally called the Nautch girls. The culture of the performing art of Nautch rose to prominence during the later period of Mughal Empire, and the Company Rule. Over a period of time, the Nautch traveled outside the confines of the Imperial courts of the Mughals, the palaces of the Nawabs and the Princely states, and the higher echelons of the officials of the British Raj, to the places of relatively smaller Zamindars, and other places.

Some references use the terms Nautch and Nautch girls to describe Devadasis who used to perform Hindu ritual and religious dances in the Hindu temples of India. However, there is not much commonality between the Devadasis and the Nautch girls. The former performed dances, mostly Indian classical dances, including the ritual dances, in the precincts of the Hindu temples to please the temple deities, whereas the Nautch girls performed Nautches for the pleasure of the human beings.

1 Etymology
2 See also
3 Further reading
4 External links

[edit] Etymology

Nautch is an anglicized version of नाच (nāc), a word of Hindi and Urdu, and several other languages of North India. The word, Nach has its origin in a Sanskrit word, Nritya, and another word of Prakrit, Nachcha. A simple and literal translation of Nautch is the dance and the dancing.