Report from

Komal Kothari

(This article is based on a field report sent to the NCPA by Komal Kothari at the end of a tour of survey and documentation of Rajasthan folklore undertaken by the Rupayan Sansthan and the NCPA.)

The district is one of the smallest administrative units of Rajasthan ( 26 districts in all) . The district has five tehsils: Abu Road, Pind­ wada, Sirohi, Reodhar and Shivganj. The district can be easily divided into two geographical areas: mountains and fields. Abu and Pindwada are moun­ tainous whereas the rest of the three tehsils consist of field areas. The fields abound with rivers and rivulets and the flora in both the areas is rich.

The mountain region is mainly inhabited by the Garasia and Bhil tribes . The Abu tehsil has a large number of Garasias with a small percentage of Bhils, whereas Pindwada has a Bhil population with small clusters of Garasias. The Garasias can be divided into four hierarchical groups. I am 'LGarasia girls

15 Garasia woman in dance form

not yet very certain about the inbuilt differences in their social organisation. Similarly, the Bhils can also be divided into three groups: Gameti Bhil, Thori Bhil and Mewada Bhil. The Thori Bhils mainly live in the lowland areas whereas the Gametis live in the mountains. The Bhils and Garasias have quite dis­ tinctive characterics.

The field areas provide a different picture. There are a lot of castes and professional groups. Carpenters, potters, iron-smiths, cobblers, leather workers are intermingled with the farming caste clusters. The area has a sizeable population of the Bania caste (business community) whose members work in , , Karnatak and other southern states. This multi-coloured population poses a different problem from the point of view of folklore collection . Going by my past experience, I tried to concentrate

16 on professional caste singers and certain farming castes. The Reodhar tehsil had an important cluster· of the Koli caste, which actually seems to be a tribe. Mainly engaged in farming, the Kalis also venture into Gujarat. They appear to have a different musical lore and are a bit difficult to work with. Similarly, in this area, we find that the Kalbis form the main stock of the farm­ ing community. The Sirohi tehsil has the Kalbi and Raika as the main farming or cattle-rearing groups. Here we also find the presence of the Meena tribe which becomes a dominant group in the Shivganj tehsil. Another important caste is the Meghwal or Bhambhi (leather workers) .

From the point of view of musical lore, we can safely work amongst the lower castes who have preserved the traditional material with them. Consequently we adhered to this approach. We were interested in recording the Raika, Koli and Kalbi people but due to social restrictions we could not go very far. Another caste like the Sargara or Hiragar also has an interest­ ing tradition of music, but we failed to mobilise women's groups from this caste.

Garasia dance It is interesting to take note of the professional caste singers in this district. The Garasias, as such, do not have any group attached to it as pro­ fessional singers. The whole community, the child, the young and the old, sing and dance. It is important to note that this society has tried to develop and create a type of music in which every member can participate. No spe­ cialised practice is visualized to become a musician in an artistic sense. Naturally such a musical style will have to base itself on a limited number of notes and simple rhythm patterns which essentially remain subjugated to the 'word of poetry'.

However, we found that the drummers have a special role to play. It is the general practice of the Garasias to dance to the accompaniment of a drum (kundi or nagari), thali and sometimes a bansali. The main drummer dances with the big drum and also accomplishes acrobatic feats. The drum depends on the main beats whereas the kundi provides the integral beat patterns. The bansali, as an instrument, is typical of the Garasias. It is a transverse flute (small in length), and closed at both the ends. The bansali plays a limited note, its high-pitched patterns merging with the main drum. All these instrument players are Garasias who are without any assigned social role.

Garasia Garasia kundi Garasia man playing the flute

The instruments are played to the accompaniment of dance or are played freely for the drummer to dance. On all auspicious social occasions or rituals the drum is a must for the Garasias. For Divali songs, the Garasias use the , a damaru-type of instrument accompanied with thali and singing .

With the Gameti Bhils we encounter a change. They have what is to be found among the Garasias: the drum, kundi, thali and bansali. We also find the emergence of a surnai- a double-reed aerophone. The instrument is known as lakka or lanka. But the most important feature of the Gameti Bhils is a group of people known as the Kamarias.

While we were recording among the Garasias in the Abu area, some people explained to us that there is a caste called the Kamarias among the Bhils . The caste fulfils the ceremonial and ritual needs of that community. While working near Rohida (Pindwada Tehsil), we came across these people. The Kamarias are not a separate caste, but part and parcel of the Bhil tribe. Even so, the Kama~ias has achieved a type of distinction as practising singers.

19 Garasia thali

The Kamarias inter- marry with the Bhils. The Kamarias have a Mataji-worship niche in their houses . A brass horse, as a deity, is placed on a wooden pat; a , a number of changs and a few pairs of manjiras are arranged around the shrine. Every time a musical instrument is taken up for playing a Kamaria has to offer a coconut or its value.

The Kamarias are invited by afflicted families or individuals who want to overcome evil. The Kamarias on their own go to Bhil farmers or others after the harvesting is done and they receive a small share of the crop. However, this practice does not make them a separate caste group in the Bhil community. Whoever has some expertise in ballad singing or in sacred songs is known as a Kamaria.

Except for the tribal people, we find, in general, a different social setup. The professional singers are at a lower level and have a fixed and separate caste: the Jajmani system comes into force. During our work we came across a caste known as the Jogi (or Jogirha) in the Reodhar Tehsil, the Sami (or Samirha) in the Pindwada Tehsil and the Pauva in Sirohi in Shivganj Tehsil. These people play on a sarangi of three strings (made of horse-tail hairs) and with a small bow ghunghroo. The instrument is dif­ ferent from the ravanhatha.

20 Gameti lanka

The .Jogis seem to be mendicants who go out to beg in the early morning with their instrument and songs. They visit different homes in the locality. They do not have .Jajmans. We were informed that in the month of pos (winter) the .Jogis move among the savaran houses in the early hours of the morning and at the end of the month, they are given old clothes, quilts, mattresses and grain. The .Jogis mainly sing about Ganesh, Krishna, Raja Harishchandra, Raja Chandan etc. The songs do not run in the ballad form but eulogise the exploits of great mythical or legendary heroes. We found that songs about recent dacoits are also sung by these people.

Bhil marriage procession Kamaria Bhil girls

In the last few years, the -.Jogis have decided that women folk should not sing with male singers. This decision has resulted in certain musical lapses in their compositions. We were able to record -.Jogi women separately and they seem to be exceptionally good singers and render complicated songs with ease and felicity.

We could gather from various people that in the Sirohi Tehsil the -.Jogis have women companions who participate in the singing. But we found that families were reluctant to sing for the recording .

Among other professional caste musicians, we came across the Turi and Dholis. The Dholis were of two types. One group was attached to the higher castes like the and Banias and the other set of Dholis were linked with the Meena tribe. Both the Dholi sections have a different musical tradition .

The Turi Bhats are to be found in the Reodhar, Abu and Pindwada tehsils . As professional caste musicians, they are attached to the Meghwal or Bhambhi community. The Meghwals are mainly leather workers or shoe­ repairers. In itself the Bhambhi caste is at a vEry low level of the social hier­ arc hy. In other parts of Rajasthan, the Meghwals or Bhambhis do have caste singers and they are known as Kamads. It would be interesting to compare the Kamads with the Kamarias of the Bhils. The name belongs to the same linguistic root and the ir function also seems to be identical.

22 The Turi Bhats play on the tandoora, , , manjira and apang. Their lore consists of the Nirguni Vani and musical narratives. Their expertise and control over narrative is fantastic. Even the prose of a story is musically rendered with the help of the group.

We discovered that the Turi Bhats also perform folk dramas known as Veshlana. The drama is performed for a whole night and different themes related to Miyan-Bibi, Mina-Mini, Bania-Baniyani etc. are enacted. This tradi­ tion can easily be compared to the Bhavai of Gujarat and the Rammat of the Rawals of Rajasthan . When they perform the folk drama, the Turis use another type of drum known as the mardang .

The Turi Bhats are mainly invited by the Meghwals for nightlong singing or story-telling. They have to depend on whatever money they get from their Jajmans.

The Dholis have grown around the courts of the Jagirdars. Nowadays they call themselves kalawant-s. But this seems to be the case at Sirohi alone. Sirohi was an independent state before 1 94 7 and the Dholis attached to king's court counted themselves above the other rural Dholis. Among these Dholis, both the men and women sing . Usually the men sing in courts and the women entertain the ladies. The men use the sarangi and the as accompaniment. The sarangi is played by the singer himself.

Jogi sarangi Turi group

The sarangi which we saw with the Dholis of Sirohi was made in Meerat. U.P. about sixty years ago. It resembles the classical sarangi.

The king's court was open to many classical singers from different areas and this naturally had its impact on the male singers. Many Dholis became gandaband shishya- s of the Ustads.

However, among the Dholis, we find two different traditional musical styles: the classical raga tradition and local songs in praise of the king's court and other ceremonial or mehfil items. The composition of these songs is quite different from classical ones.

The main local items which the Dholis render are in Sarang, Mand, Des, Maru, Sorath, and sometimes Malhar. Ceremonial songs do not come under these raga categories.

We have recorded a Dholi from Ramseen village on the border of . He had a sarangi and knew a lot of songs. His repertoire was much bigger than that of the Sirohi Dholis and represented the tradition better. His name is Pata Ram .

Subject-wise the songs of the Dholis can be divided into tvv o sections: one dealing with family ceremonies like marriage, childbirth and other festive occasions; the other consists of songs mainly sung in mehfil-s. These songs are about drinking, hunting, the joys of the rainy season, processions etc. Cere monial songs are mainly from the women's repertory.

24 Dholi women do sing in mehfil-s but they do not seem to resort to musica l improvisation. They mainly depend on the strophic text of the songs. The male Dholi singer uses the sarangi; a female Dholi singer uses just the dholak. Male singers render solo songs bu,t women singers always sing in a group.

If we compare the Dholi women of this area to those of and Bikaner, we find that the latter have much more developed forms. Gavari Devi of Jodhpur and Allahjilani Bai of Bikaner have gone to the extent of in­ cluding a thumri-style of improvisation. Such a practice has not developed among the Dholis of this area.

The most important feature to be noted is that many Dholi women continue to sing and have not fallen prey to the new social restrictions born in the process of acculturation.

Another set of Dholis is linked with the Meenas of the Shivganj area. Like the Turi Bhats, they also render musical narratives and perform folk­ dramas. But the style of singing is quite different. The musical rendering of doha-s (couplets) is one of its most interesting features. It is said that they used to play the Kamayacha when they sang but this instrument has been completely replaced by the harmonium. We could work with only one group and hence we require to collect more material before drawing any definite conclusions.

Experience in the field work conducted at Sirohi district has raised many relevant problems which require thorough examination on many levels.

The spoken language has a peculiar chant which makes it a bit difficult to understand. But the songs or ballads are sung in standard Rajasthani. It was always easier for us to follow songs than the conversation.

The Sirohi district has two distinct cultural lines: the tribal and the non-tribal. The tribal population of Sirohi has a common boundary with , Pali and Gujarat. Till 1947, Udaipur was a separate and Pali was part of the Marwar state. The historians of Rajasthan tend to look at culture from the point of view of the former princely states. Actually this has little relevance to the objective situation. The tribals, whether living in Siroh1; Pali or the of Rajasthan or parts of Gujarat. have one cultural pattern; their life style is consistent with certain norms of social organisation. Neither Rajasthan nor Gujarat can claim the tribals as belonging to their cultural milieu. If the tribal people are at all close to any culture, it is to the Rajasthani and not to the Gujarati.

The non-tribal belt poses a different cultural problem. Among the Dholis of Sirohi. Reodhar and Pindwada, we find certain musical compositions which are on the lines of those of the Badmer.Jaisalmer belt. The Dholis are found with the Kamayacha and Sarangi. These instruments are common in the desert districts. These instruments have not been reported from Gujarat or the Udaipur district. Similarly, the Dholis of the Meena caste use the Kamayacha and the mode of the doha rendering conforms to that of the Badmer.Jaisalmer belt. This was the reason why we took a diversion from the Sirohi district to the district. We worked at Bhinmal and the riddle seemed to be solved.

25 It may be of interest to note that the main bulk of singers in the Badmer-Jaisalmer area are Muslims. These people are known as Mirasi. Manganiyar, Bhand and Langas. In Bhinmal we came across a lot of families of Mirasi singers. We do find stylistic differ­ ences between the Badmer-Jaisalmer singers and Bhinmal singers. They have quite a lot of things in common too.

It was clear that the Sirohi district is at the tip of the Badmer-Jaisalmer belt and the Jalore district is the bridge between them. We find the same tradition in a part of Pali and Jodhpur district. But Central, Northern or Eastern Rajasthan does not have any trace of this tradition.

The are concentrated in the Reodhar tehsil and penetrate into the adjacent area of Gujarat and their musical tradition seems to move into Gujarat. The Reodhar Dholis going in the direction of Jalore-Badmer and the Kalis moving towards Gujarat­ this suggests a very peculiar cultural phenomenon.

The Dholis related to the Meenas are mainly concentrated in the Shivganj tehsil and then move into the - but only a small part is covered by them. There is an area known as Godwad in the Pali district which can claim a big cluster of these Dholis. The musical line thus moves into various regions.

We did find a two-flute instrument in the Sirohi district. It is known as the Rajgola in the region and mainly played in the Sirohi and Shivganj tehsil. There is a tradition of group singing with the Rajgolas. The Meena and Raika are said to be main players of the Rajgolas.

This instrument is known all over Rajasthan, and U.P. as the Algoza.

We find that the Algoza, which is prominently played in the Sirohi and Shivganj tehsils, moves to the adjacent area of Pali and towards Ajmer. From here it falls into the hands of the Gujars and reaches the southern parts of Rajasthan, that is the Bundi and Kota districts. We do not find the same Instrument in Jalore, Badmer, Jaisalmer and most of Jodhpur.

These facts lead us to conclude that cultural inter-action and geographic continuity should be traced with greater care and depth.

26