FIELD(FOLK) SONGS OF CHHATTISGARH
The South-eastern region
of the Central indian is known as
Chhattisgarh, the land of thirty-six forts.
This area comprises the
present districts of Raipur, Bilaspur, Durg, Rajnandgaon, Baster and other 13 districts forming the
Chhattisgarh block of the Eastern State Agency. Historically and
linguistically only the first three districts and the adjoining states come in
The great plains of Chhattisgarh, watered by the Mahanadi and her
tributaries, are inhabited by a large number of agricultural
castes and tribes. The hills and forests are the abodes
of a number of primitive people living at at varying levels of
culture. Important among the people inhabiting the plains
are the Rawat, Teli, Satnami, Kewat,Ganda and Panka, with a
sprinkling of many others tribes.
The principal primitive
tribes living in teliis tract are the Gond, Baiga, Binjhwar,
Kainar, Bhunjiya, Dhanwar and Korwa. Improvements in
the system of communication have brought a
continuously flowing stream of alien population from the North and
the South, and the Brahmin Marwari, Punjabi and the
Kachchhi notably have infiltrated even into some of the
remote villages of Chhattisgarh.Barring the small
section of immigrants who have settled here in the past
few decades, the people of chhattisgarh garh have, in general, a
distinctive culture, In their villages they share together
their appalling poverty, misery and suffering; for
although the forests and agricultural lands of Chhattisgarh are
rich, her people are unbelievably poor.
The 'Field Songs' are
the songs of these people of chhattisgarh. They may be
regarded as truly representative tative of their culture.
They picture their joys and sorrows.;They graphically
describe their changing moods. These songs play a part of
considerable importance in their dull and uneventful life and
occasionally lighten their burdens,cheer up their hearts
and impart mirth and enjoyment to their dreary existence.
The Field Songs of
Chhattisgarh are the songs of the people; and are
themselves uncertain, as the quickly changing moods of those who
sing them. They do not admit of any formal
classification, although, they can be roughly divided into certain
more or less well-marked groups :
(i) General Songs (ii)
Dance Songs (in) Caste- Songs
(iv) Songs for Special
occasions (v) Tribal Songs (vi) Legends.
General songs
The Songs belonging to
this class can be sung by all people at all occasions
irrespective of their caste.
The Dadariya is certainly
the most popular and the most important of the
Chhattisgarhi folksongs.
In its two simple lines, one of which is
often only lor tuning, it conveys some eternal aspect of their
life. People may sing it in fields and forests, mountains
and rivers; women may sing it when they sit by the
fireside; a pretty maid may sing it to her lover when they are
alone together, for love is generally the central theme of this
type of song. The Chhattisgarhi dadariya is rich in fancy
and poetic concepts, and stands apart
as a class by itself.
Its lighter vein is sometimes crossed by a sudden outburst of
spicy and penetrating observations on life as these people
know it.
Dance songs
In this category fall
the Karma Nach and Sua-geet which are sung only to
the accompaniment of particular
dances. The great Karma
dance is always accompanied by suitable songs which
determine its rhythm and pauses.The dance indeed becomes
a splendid sight when the Madar and Chhaddi
are played well together,
and the songs are
suitably chosen. These songs are very sweet and beautifully
express the sentiments of love. In some of the older Karma
songs there is a philosophic reflection on life. It
is indeed tragic that tho people are now giving up their
beautiful Karma songs, and are disfiguring their otherwise
lovely dances by importing cheap and drab cinema songs.
Nacha
Nacha is the commonplace
popular folk-dance of Chhattisgarh, which together
with its music consists of many humorous dramatic
dialogues and pleasant lyrics. Nacha songs always accompany
this dance. Each line of the song is repeated twice
by the main singer and is then followed by a chorus and
vigorous dancing.
The prime Diwali
attraction in rural Chhattisgarh is the suwa-dance of the Chhattisgarhi women. A group of
about twelve young women
participate in this dance. Their leader, the first in the
Hue, has a basket fall of the golden paddy of the recent crop with a pair of earthen parrots, in it. With the opening
line of the song the women divide themselves into two
groups. While the first sings, the second bends down and
begins clapping and dancing, and while the second sings,
the first in turn bends down and dances, The bulk of
these songs concern the women themselves, and vividly
reflect their joys and sorrows. Many of them have a sad note,
and many others have a tragic ending.
Caste songs
Caste-songs include the
Danda-geet and the Bans-geet which are exclusively
the songs of the Rawats and the numerous legends and
songs of the wandering Dewars,Tradition has secured to
the Rawats the monopoly of the Diwali Danda-dance
of Chhattisgarh. Dressed in beautiful red and yellow
clothes, decorated with cowries and peacock feathers, the
Rawats participate in the ceremonial dance in batches of
twelve to twenty. The Vanda-geet is sting to the
accompaniment of this dance. Some of the comparatively recent
Danda-songs have religious touch about them; but the
others are beautiful love- songs which
charm the people when
they are sung with proper pause
and jhunjhunwa dance.
The Bans-geet is also a
song only of the Rawats. While they sing it, they also
play on a huge bamboo flute which they call the bans. This
is song for the hours of leisure when the Rawats have
nothing else to do. Many of these songs are in praise of
Lord Krishna, who is specially worshipped by the
Rawats. Many others are in the form of dialogues, chiefly
between husband and wife. They truly and vividly depict the
domestic scenes of rural Chhattisgarh. The nomadic Dewars of
Chhattisgarh are a very poor tribe, and many of them
are professional beggars and singers. They have a
very rich store of folk-songs, legends and ballads.
Their songs
provide many evenings of enjoyment to the
Chhattisgarhi village-folk, and many of their
legends continue night
after night for weeks together.
Songs for special occasions
Special occasions call
for special songs. Child-birth provides an occasion for
the Sohar, and the Bihaw-geet
provides a musical background to marriages.The advent of the
new-born is an occasion for unmixed
rejoicing, while the
sentiments in the marriage songs are mingled. They express
sorrow for the girl's break from the past, and joy for her
step forward in the future. Some of the marriage-songs of
Chhattisgarh are very pathetic.Many of them contain the
lofty ideas of the past; and many others are the bittersweet stories of women in love. Many of them express in a
simple and vivid style the feelings of the bride at the time of
her separation from her parents.The Goura-geet are the
songs relating to Parvati, sung during the days
preceding Diwali when goddess Goura is worshipped in
Chhattisgarh. The Mata-Sewa songs are sung in honour of the
Mata. Small-pox, from times immemorial has been
propitiated as a Mother-Goddess by the Hindus to please her, to
expedite the recovery of the patient affected by small-pox.
There are various other worship-
songs for different
occasions.
Tribal songs
Many of the recent
monographs on Indian primitive tribes turn upon the
subject of their folk-songs.
Chhattisgarh has a large
aboriginal population, and some of the tribes even to-day retain
different dialects of their own. Because of the stress of modern
life, most of them have become bilingual, and their
legends and songs are fast disappearing.The Gond and the Baiga
have a sufficiently advanced folk-poetry, but the
folk-songs of the Kamar and Bhunjia are disappearing quickly.
Not many of their songs are rich in
poetic value, but they
are still of great interest to the scientist. The tribal
songs of the Kamar recorded in this
volume point to the
importance which the folk-songs of a people may have for
anthropological field-workers.
The legends
The importance of the
legends and ballad poetry of Chhattisgarh is Chandini, Lachhman jati, Pandwani and
Parghania.Chandeni is claimed to
be an original legend of Chattisgarh. Near Arang in
the Raipur district, there stands a monument commemorating
the memory of the beautiful princess Chandeni, her
gallant lover Lorik and their love.
In wealth of imagery and
subtle descriptions, Chandeni can easily win for itself a
place of honour in the folk-poetry of India. In fact, the
legend of Lorik and Chandeni has already travelled far
and has captured the hearts of village- folk in Bundelkhand and so in other parts of the india.
The legend of
Dhola-Maru, originating perhaps in Rajasthan, has come down
to Chhattisgarh in a modified
form. Although its
atmosphere is alien, it holds people spell-bound and is
universally popular in Chhattisgarh.
Next comes the legend of
Rasalu Kuar. the hero who starts on matrimonial
adventures and marries the princesses of seven different kingdoms
after braving considerable difficulties in each adventure.
Lachmanjati is the legend of ascetic Lachman who, on being alleged to have illicit connections
Lachmanjati is the legend of ascetic Lachman who, on being alleged to have illicit connections
with Seeta, proves his
innocence and purity by passing through the ordeal of
fire. Similarly, Pandwani is the
Chhattisgarhi version of
the Mahabharat with Bhim as its legendary hero whose
deeds and adventures form a major part of the legend.
Pargbania is the long legend of Good heroes. Chandeni and
Dhola have been included in this book as typical
specimens of the legends of Chhattisgarh.
The Field Songs of
Chhattisgarh do not represent the folk-culture of
Chhattisgarh in all its aspects; yet, they do give us a glimpse of it.
Through them we can visualize a picture of the life
lived in rural Chhattisgarh, a life of little love and perpetual
struggle, crossed by a sullen note of uncertainty and
pessimism.
No comments:
Post a Comment