Dhanu Jatra is a festival celebrated in the small town of Bargarh to celebrate the visit of Lord Krishna to Mathura. It is a distinguishing form of annual festivity, in which the small Bargah town of Orissa turns into a massive open-air theatre. The life and activities of Lord Sri Krishna starting from the killing of Demon Putana to the subduing of Kaliya snake is performed over a period of eleven days.

Performance—a type of theatrical presentation is performed for the local people of Orissa. In this performance subject matter being a part of ‘Krishnalila’, the river Jira is conceived as the sacred river Yamaha, ‘Amapali’ as ‘Gopapur’ and ‘Badagada’ as ‘Mahura’. All the villages, town and the river turn to be acting zones; naturally all the inhabitants and visitors also turn to be characters.