Group of men dressed as horse mounted soldiers, in colourful attire, perform the famous Ghode Modni dance at the Shigmo parade in Ponda, Goa

---

Ghode Modni is perhaps the oldest form of dance performance as it denotes the horse (ghode) mounted cavalier, setting off to war. Ghode Modni (‘Ghode’ means ‘horse’ and ‘Modni’ means ‘gyrations and dance-like movements’) is literally a dance involving horse-like movements. The costumes used in this are like that of a Rajput chieftain but the head dress used is a Peshwai puggree worn by the Maratha rulers. The kshatriya dancers also wear head gears made of colourful flowers, don in full traditional livery, fix at the waist effigy of a wooden horse beautifully bridled and decorated with colorful clothes, and carry ghungurs in the anklets. These dance forms are performed by the group of men only.

---

Size: 3648px × 5472px
Location: Ponda, Goa, India
Photo credit: © Arunabh Bhattacharjee / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: attraction, colourful, crowd, culture, dance, dancers, dressed, festival, folk, ghoddemoddni, ghode, goa, goan, group, heritage, hindu, hinduism, horse, horsemen, maratha, men, modni, mounted, parade, ponda, practice, rajput, revellers, ritual, romtamells, shigmo, shigmotsava, shigmya, shishirotsava, soldiers, spring, street, suggimaho, sugrishmaka, tourism, tourist, tradition, traditional, travel, yearly