Socio-economic Status of Gandharva Community Living in Batulechaur, Pokhara Ananta Raj Dhungana School of Development and Social Engineering, Pokhara University Email: [email protected] Abstract: This study aims to exploreKishor the Chapagain socio-economic status of Gandharva Gandharva community of Batulechaur in Pokhara were interviewed by using structured community. For this purpose, the household heads of all the fifty households of from the respondents. The study focused on socio-economic status and occupational shiftquestionnaire. of Gandharva Descriptive community. statistics The wasstudy used found for analyzingthat the Gandharvathe information community gathered is socially marginalized and relatively poor in comparison to other communities. Their living status is not good. They have low education and low income profession as reason. For this reason most of them have shifted their occupations from singing and dancing to others like service sector, unskilled job, foreign employment in golf countries and some small business like running shops, vegetable selling, ect. Keywords: Gandharva Community, Living status, Marginalized, Occupation, Singing Introduction Gandharva in Batulechaur, Pokhara with total More than hundred castes and ethnic groups population 375. are living in Nepal. Among these, 26 caste Gandharva people sing folksongs that groups are considered as Dalit communities have been never written but passed verbally which are further divided into two groups from person to person from generation to based on regional origin like mountainous/ sorrow resulting from death and disasters these Dalits, Gandharva or Gaine is one of whichgeneration. were Theirfaced songsspecially reflect by therural feeling people. of thehilly Dalit and castesplain/ living Tarai in(NDC, hilly region.2016). AmongMainly, The main economic source of Gandharva Gandharva are inhabit in the western hill people was singing, and dancing in the past. Even now some of them have the same Baglung, etc. According to the census of source of income for their livelihood. As a 2011,districts the liketotal Lamjung,population Tanahun, of the Gaine Kaski, is result of modernization in different sectors, 6791. Gaines are famous for their diverse urbanization process is going rapidly. For this reason people have interest towards of Gaine population have been migrated to the modern songs and musical instruments. and floating cultural life. A large number The modern means of communication like T.V., Radio have minimized the importance ThisTarai. study However, focused this on study only isthe flcused Gandharva only of Gandharva's folksongs and sweet music ofon Batulechaur,in search for Pokhara, livelihood since (NDC, the 2016).place of Sarangi. Their traditional occupation has the largest concentration of Gandharva of singing, dancing and begging is also people. There are around 50 households of not liked by modern society (Macdonald, Journal of Development and Social Engineering Volume 3 | Number 1 | December 2017, 9-16 ISSN 2382-5332 © School of Development and Social Engineering, Pokhara University 10 Ananta R. Dhungana seriously to their source of income. It is believed1975). These that thefactors Gandharva have beensang thehindering heroic Pradesh.1975). The Most historicity of the Gaine of the agree Gaine with is thought the fact songs to encourage the army to show their to be related to the Bhat and Badi of Karnali badi and Bhat communities of western Nepal their socioeconomic status was gradually that they have strong sense of affinity with degradedbravery in due the to battlefield. the various In reasons. course of time It has been already mentioned that there Nepal is a multiethnic, multi-cultural, are(Darnal, very 2043).few sociological and Studies on the multi religious and multi linguistic country. Due to it's geographical and socio- cultural diversity, it is a fertile land for studieslowest (Dalit)about castes the in GaineNepal. Sociologistscommunity. and anthropologists have not done sufficient has stated the Gaine are occupational caste. allsocio the anthropologicalcastes and ethnic research groups of(Gurung, Nepal. TheirKantipur, traditional a Daily normsnewspaper and customs(5 May, 2005)allow Also,1989). he Bistadescribed (1970) their has custom, described belief almost and marrying in childhood. They eat meat of pigs cultural life in brief. Gautam and Thapa brief description of Gaine of Nepal in their Surnameand drink of wine the Gandharva.necessarily. TheyKantipur, are livingDaily bookMagar(1994) entitled have Tribal attempted ethnography to highlight of Nepal, the inNewspaper western (6regions. June, They2005) are has doing stated early the marriage now. But some NGOs/INGOs are Gaine's inhabiting districts, their physical working to promote the lifestyle of the Gaine characteristics,Vol. II (1994). Intheir this septs.book theyThey described tried to community by doing different programs describe the Gaine of Nepal with reference like as counseling to do marriage in adult, to the historical background. Also, they educating programs etc. Nepal government attempted to highlight Gaine's cultural life, social belief as well as economic status. the lowest untouchable caste groups. If any member(2002) has of thestated high the caste Gaine Hindu are group considered is ever have traced about some untouchable castes of touched accidentally by them, he/she must Gautam and Thapa Magar (1994) also purify either by sprinkling “gold water” or Halkhor etc. are some of the untouchable taking bath in the pond as well. Even today castesNepal. theyBadi, have Dom, tried Gaine, to Kami, describe. Musahar Sarki, Gandharva are not allowed to fetch water The word Gaine indicates that they are the either form the private or public tube-wells. professional signers. The word ‘Gandharva’ is They have separate tube wells for their own mentioned in our holybooks like Ramayan, use or go to the nearby stream to fetch water. Mahabharat and other epic literatures. In Regarding their origin, the Gandharva these literatures Gandharva is mentioned as a have their own ideas and believes. Most musician of Indra, a Hindu god. According to of the Gandharva claim that they are the Yogi Narahari Nath, there was an existence of descendants of the Gandharva a musician of Indra, a Hindu god. According to their 1279. It is supposed that the Gaine of Jumla version, Brahmaji the creator, created four areaGaines gradually in Karnali migrated Pradesh to in thearound eastern sake part Era of the country during the medieval period. there was one Rishi called Gandharva, who Also, Hira Gaineni was a good singer who wasRishis less (hermits). cunning than Among his colleague. these four So, Rishis other sang the songs on the bravery of Mathvar three Rishis wanted to remove him from their Sing Thapa. Gaine themselves say that it group. For this, they consulted each other and was only under the rule of Ranas that their they gave him a leg of a cow and told him to position deteriorated to the point where they beg for alms uttering the word "Awariha". The simple minded Gandharva Rishi did what he became one of the lowest castes (Macdonald, Socio-economic Status of Gandharva Community... 11 was told to do. On returning with alms, he process of Nepal by king Prithivi Narayan he had used the leg of cow and so from then are found mentioned during the unification hewas was told to that continue he had his defiled life as ahimself beggar. because Thus it Gandhrava live in remote area of Nepal, is believed that Gandharva is the progenitor soShah all (NNDSWO, the people 2005). of that area engage in different occupation. Gandharva has own Gaines by birth are regarded as low caste today.of the TheGaine stringed and sincemusical he instrument was defiled called the and so on. So their condition is not so well. the 'Aarwajo' which they use to provide music Afterworks, declarationsinging, dancing, of republic fishing, democratic laboring having simple works. Some serve in Hotel, whileGandharvas they sing also have originated their own (Gautam language and as Nepal, Gandharva engage in different field otherThapa communityMagar, 1994). which is known as Parsi workers. Because of being uneducable they arehospital not ableand toin beother employee offices in as higher low grade rank to communicate within community and inter personalsimilar to asDamai well andto keepKami. something It is mainly secret used In terms of population and socio- in front of other language speaking people. economic(Wordpress, development 2016). Gaines is the But to communicate with other community most marginalized caste among the Dalits people, they prefer to use Nepali considering many more changes are taking place. Their communities. By the order of the first languagea common behavior field of has experience. been changed. At present Their DalitsNational caste Civil hierarchy. Code 1854 According (Muluki to Ain, the 19101991 lifestyle has also been changed. The young census,BS) Gaine the numberis listed of at Gaines the bottom was 4,484. of Now,intra generation hardly use their own language but the latest census 2011 shows there are 6791 prefer to use Nepali language instead. The Gaines in Nepal. This is 0.03 Percent of total old generations suggest them to continue their traditional occupation but the young Though, more or less Gaines are scattered generations have rejected their suggestions. overDalit allpopulation the country (3710575) but the large of the population country. It seems to be a great confusion about the National Dalit Strategy Report 2002 states origin(NNDSWO, district 2005) of Gandarava society in Nepal. theof Gaines population are found of Gaine in Batulechaur with more thanof Kaski. 200 No reliable graphical source has been found in number is observed only in seven districts is the original place of Gandarva people and localsas yet. thinkCertain that researchers Batulechaur claimed is the that ancient Kaski compared(Dang, Kaski the Chitwa,Pyuthan, national average Gulmi, of 39.6Surkhet, per place of the Gaine and they have been living centTanahun). whereas The the literacy overall rate literacy of Gaine rate was of Dalit31.3 over there for generation to generation.