helping crops to grow but also brings
danger from waterborne infections and
venomous snakes. Chaturmas Vrat’s
inauspicious qualities and the difficulty
of travel caused by the monsoon make
this a time when wandering ascetics
should stay in one place. Religious wor-
shipduring this period tends to stress
rites of protection, to shield one from
these ritual and physical dangers. See
also inauspiciousness.Chau
One of the classical danceforms of
India; some of the others are Bhara-
tanatyam, Kathak, Orissi, Kuchipudi,
Kathakali, and Manipuri. Different
forms of Chau are found in the border
areas shared by the states of Orissa,
Bihar, and West Bengal. In all three
regions, the dancers wear masks (chau),
making this type different from other
classical dance forms. The expressions
on the masks set a mood and conceal
the dancers’ faces. Consequently, Chau
performers use their bodies and ges-
turesto develop the moods established
by their masks. The prevailing themes in
Chau dance are drawn from the mythi-
cal adventures of gods and heroes, par-
ticularly the mythology of the god Shiva.
For further information see Mohan
Khokar, Traditions of Indian Classical
Dance, 1984.Chaupai
(“four-footed”) Poetic form in northern
Indian poetry. As its name suggests, the
chaupai is made up of four lines. The
rhyme scheme is aabb, which has led
some to consider it a compound of two
two-line segments. Based on the dis-
tinction between “heavy” and “light”
syllables, each line contains sixteen
metric beats arranged in a pattern of
6 + 4 + 4 + 2. A heavy syllable contains a
long vowel or a consonant cluster and is
counted as two metric beats; all other
syllables are light and count as one beat.
The chaupai is one of the most impor-
tant metersin medieval Hindiliterature,particularly for longer narrative works,
and it is a significant meter in bhakti
(devotional) poetry. Its most famous
use appears in the Ramcharitmanas,
the Ramayana retold by the poet-
saint Tulsidas.Chaurasi Vaishnavan Ki Varta
(“account of eighty-four Vaishnavas”)
Sectarian hagiography supposedly com-
posed by Gokulnath, the third guruof
the Pushti Marg, a religious community
of Krishnadevotees (bhakta) founded
by the philosopher Vallabhacharya
(1479–1531). It is more likely that the
text was written by Gokulnath’s disciple
Hariray, who also wrote a commentary
on the work. The text describes the lives
of eighty-four paradigmatic Vaishnavas,
all of whom were allegedly associated
with the sect’s first two gurus,
Vallabhacharya and Vitthalnath. The
text’s primary purpose is to illustrate
the importance of the Pushti Marg,
particularly the importance of the
Pushti Marg’s leaders on these eighty-
four religious figures. This makes it an
interesting sectarian work, but it is not
historically reliable.Chauri
A small whisk used to brush off flies and
insects. The name is derived from the
word for the long tail hairsof a yak
(chamara), from which it was originally
made. In ancient India the chauri was
an emblem of royalty, and thus it is also
often seen in statues of religious figures
such as the Didarganj Yakshi.Chayagrahi
(“shadow grabber”) A demoness in the
Ramayana, the earlier of the two great
Hindu epics. Chayagrahi lives in the
ocean and catches birds flying overhead
by grasping their shadows in the water
and pulling the helpless creatures down
to her waiting jaws. This method brings
her a steady food supply, but her big
mistake is trying to capture the monkey-
god, Hanuman, in this way. HanumanChau