Festivals

Dhunuchi naach: what the dance is, when it happens, and the dhak behind it

The clay incense burner and what burns in it, when in Durga Puja people dance with it, who the dance belongs to, and two dhak recordings and three dhak songs to dance to at home in 2026.

Rajib SenPublished 3 Oct 2026Updated 8 Oct 2026

In this post (6)

What is dhunuchi naach?
What burns in a dhunuchi
When is it danced?
Who dances it: men, women, or both?
Steps, and how many dhunuchis
The dhak to dance to

In 2016 a medium-sized clay dhunuchi sold for 20 to 25 rupees in the shops of Bankura, according to Wikipedia's article on the dhunachi. It is one of the cheapest things in the pandal. Then the evening arati begins, the dhak picks up, somebody lifts one in each hand, and it is the thing everyone turns round to watch.

What is dhunuchi naach?

Dhunuchi naach, or dhunuchi nritya, is a dance with a dhunuchi, done in front of the goddess to the dhak. The Bengali Wikipedia article on the dance calls it a tradition of the Bengali Hindus of West Bengal and Bangladesh. If you came here asking which state it belongs to: West Bengal, and across the border, Bangladesh.

The name is plain Bengali: dhuno (the resin), the dhunuchi (what you burn it in) and naach (dance). English Wikipedia calls it a dance with the censer, which is accurate and sounds nothing like it.

What burns in a dhunuchi

A dhunuchi is a flared clay cup on a stem, with one handle, two, or none. Inside, dried coconut husk is set smouldering and dhuno goes on top. The Bengali Wikipedia article on the dance adds camphor to the dhuno, and says some people also lay burning coal underneath to light the husk; English Wikipedia describes it starting from the coal. Every fresh pinch of dhuno sends up another cloud.

Potters in districts such as Nadia and Bankura make them in bulk before every Puja. Brass and silver dhunuchis exist too, with longer handles, because metal carries the heat to your hand.

When is it danced?

Mostly at arati, when the priest offers light, incense and the rest to the goddess, one thing after another. The dhunuchi often comes after the pradip, the lamp with an odd number of wicks, as Wikipedia's dhunachi article puts it. The Bengali Wikipedia page on Durga Puja in Bangladesh describes a special arati every evening of the Puja, with the devotees dancing in front of the goddess, dhunuchis in hand. The dance is not tied to the arati alone: English Wikipedia's Durga Puja article says people dance to the dhak during arati and outside it.

Which days? The English Wikipedia article on dhunuchi nritya puts it mostly in the last days of the Puja, between Ashtami and Dashami. By the Kolkata calendar that is Ashtami on Monday 19 October, Navami on Tuesday 20 and Dashami on Wednesday 21 this year. If your para's puja follows the Gupta Press or Benimadhab Sil panjika, Ashtami comes a day earlier, on Sunday 18 October, and pujas on that reckoning do not all agree on Navami and Dashami. Our Durga Puja 2026 day by day has the rest of the week's timings.

The Bengali Wikipedia page on Durga Puja in Bangladesh says the dance is done especially at Sandhi Puja; the other articles don't single it out. In Kolkata it depends on your para.

Who dances it: men, women, or both?

Raise this at an adda and expect an argument. English Wikipedia says dhunuchi nritya is traditionally performed by women. Bengali Wikipedia says the opposite: it was traditionally a men's dance, and women now join in more and more. The English line has no reference of its own, and one of the sources that same English article cites describes the dance as male-dominated. On paper, the question stays open.

What English Wikipedia's Durga Puja article does record is a separate rite, dhuno pora. At some pujas, especially home pujas, married women carry dhunuchis burning with incense and dried coconut on a cloth spread over their head and hands. At a para puja today the rule that counts is the committee's, so ask before you pick one up.

Steps, and how many dhunuchis

Wikipedia, in English or Bengali, sets out no fixed sequence of steps for dhunuchi naach. English Wikipedia measures the skill by counting instead: beginners hold one or two dhunuchis, experienced dancers three, two in the hands and the third held in the mouth. Wikipedia's dhunachi article adds that many pujas hold contests for the best dance, and Bengali Wikipedia says the same. Five things we would tell a first-timer:

Hold it by the stem, not the cup. The clay heats up quickly.
Keep the end of your sari or dupatta clear of the mouth of the pot, because the husk can flare when it is swung.
Carry a gamchha. English Wikipedia notes that dancers, men and women alike, do; it saves your fingers and your forehead.
Leave the teeth trick to people who have done it before.
At home, light it on a balcony or by an open window. Dhuno is not an agarbatti, and a closed room will tell you so.

The dhak to dance to

The dance follows the dhak, and the dhak follows the arati. Wikipedia's article on the dhak calls the drum and the arati together a part of Durga Puja that is unique to Bengal. Neither Wikipedia, in English or Bengali, names the dhaki's arati beats. Ask the dhaki at your pandal what they call it; it is a better conversation than most you will have that week.

For home, two recordings of the dhak itself and three songs built on it, in order of how seriously you mean to dance.