Arts

Folk Music

In the surrounding villages of Jagdalpur, the Leja song has a significant place. The Leja has its origin with the 'send off ' ritual to some dear one.

The land of Bastar is known for the Chait Parah and the Dhankul songs. The former is of the seasonal category while the latter is associated with the invocation to the goddess Danteshwari.

The stock of the traditional music of Chattisgarh is semi tribal in texture. It has many traces of tribal phrases woven into the fabric of its own music. The music of Chhattisgarh is not fully agricultural in its socio-perspective.

The marriage songs of the Kamars are generally short. Many of them are addressed to the trumpeter Moharia. The Dadaria of this region has a pattern of rhyming lines. They are also called Ban-Bhajans or Salho. The Dadaria has a style of question-answer rendering.

The basic structure of the songs from Bundelkhand rests on the medieval sentiments. The musical compositions of the songs are simple and rigid. They have a few dominant characteristics of rhyming phrases.

The Bundelkhand region and Baghelkhand which is the land of the Baghelas are known for their heroic deeds. Hardaul is the popular deity of both these areas. Though semi-historical in character, Lala Hardaul has received deep reverence in the contents of the folk music of Bundelkhand.

The songs of the poet Isuri came into prominence among the people of this region. His four-lined compositions (Chaukaria Phag) have become part and parcel of the folk musical tradition of the region stretching down to Bhopal. In Nimad, songs attributed to Singa and Daluji are very much alive. The ballads about Chhatrasal and the Rani of Jhansi have also become one with the existing folk music. As compared to the seasonal songs and the children's songs the music of Bundelkhand is not of much antiquity.

There are romantic Led and the Pai songs. The Pai is associated with the Saira dance of the rainy season . The Bambulia of Bundelkhand has religious fervour and is always sung by the people who go for ceremonial bath to distant rivers. The song corresponds to the Batgamni of Mithila. The Alha of Jagnik narrates the account of fifty-two battles fought by both Alha and Udal against Prithviraj of Delhi. The Alha reciters are known as Alhets.

The dirges of Nimad are full of pathos and the Sati songs of Malwa are haunted by sadness while the Jogiras and the songs about Raja Bharthari and the folk devotional type of Sakhis of Kabir, sing of the transient nature of the world. The Garbi of the Narmada valley has a softer melody than the Garba songs of Nimad. It has three variations like the Rewari Garbi, the simple Garbi and the Gujarati Garbi.

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