Costume, Makeup and Stage Presentation
This domain tests what a Sattriya dancer wears, why, and where the form is performed - traditional namghar versus modern proscenium.
Costume
Women wear the Assamese mekhela-chador, usually in pat silk, with the riha across the chest and a waist-band to hold the drape; white with a red or gold border is the classic combination. Hair is drawn into a high bun (khopa) with a head ornament, and Assamese jewellery such as galpata, keru and gamkharu completes the look. Men wear a dhoti tied in the kacha style with a chola or kurta and a pagri turban, and a tilak of sindoor on the forehead; the Sutradhara dresses in this male mode. The costume signals the dancer as a devotee within a sattra lineage rather than a court entertainer.
Makeup and stage
Makeup is light: a chandan or turmeric-based base, sindoor for the forehead mark and lips, kajal for the eyes - nothing like the heavy mask of Kathakali. Traditionally the dance is performed on the floor of the namghar, with the audience close and the manikut (sanctum) behind the performers; today it is also staged in proscenium theatres with lighting and wing space, which changes spacing and scale but not the vocabulary.
Worked example. A stem claims a Sattriya dancer's ankle bells mark the beat. It is wrong: traditionally no ghungroo are worn, since khol and taal carry the rhythm, and the bare foot striking the floor is itself audible. Some modern staged productions add bells, but the traditional norm is silence at the ankle.
Traps. Importing Odissi's mahari-style costume; assuming heavy mask-like makeup; forgetting that the namghar floor, not the proscenium, is the original stage.