Documentations

Social Issues, Traditions and Customs in Bundeli Folk Songs

19-year-old Rajni is taking the singing legacy of her 74-year-old father forward.

On Karthik Puranmashi, the full moon night following Diwali, there is a huge fair on the outskirts of Mahoba, near an ancient Sun temple that dates back to the 9th century. The temple, which predates the more famous Konark Sun temple by a couple of centuries, doesn’t receive many tourists. Still, naturally, it was very crowded that day because of the fair and the festivities. Amidst all that chaos and commotion, 74-year-old Laxmi Prasad and his daughter Rajni and the rest of his group performed folk songs of varying genres like Sanskaar Geet and Gari.

The first song, Bacchi ka Geet, talks about the importance of having a girl child and that those parents are truly blessed with a girl child and can raise her and marry her into a good family. Kanyadaan is a wedding ritual in which the bride’s father hands over his daughter’s hand to the bride, transferring the girl’s responsibility over to her husband. It is a common and popular wedding ritual across India, and even performing the ritual for orphan girls is considered a very auspicious and meritorious deed. The song is presented as a prayer to God to bless all parents with the girl child and allow them to have the good fortune of performing Kanyadaan – “Karbe kanyadaan ka kanya, bitiya de daiyyo bhagwan.”

The song is written in the dialect of Hindi spoken in the region, and the tune is composed by Laxmi Prasad himself. Singing alongside him was his 19-year-old daughter, the last of his four daughters. In between the performance, much to everybody’s amusement, she teased him about why he was praying for a girl child when he already had four. Laxmi Prasad jokingly replied that he’d like to have one more, to which Rajni laughed sarcastically. This playful banter between the father and the daughter continued through the evening, adding to their charm and humour. Despite her very young age, Rajni confidently held her own opposite her father, a veteran singer. Laxmi Prasad later told us that Rajni is very popular across Mahoba, especially in the Bhajan and Keertan events, where they perform all night in temples, entertaining the audience and aiding their prayers.

“Bitiya bina hai angna soono, ye toh keh gaye ved puraan. Unke bade bhaagya hai kallu, jin ghar bitiya de dei bhagwan.” Rajni jokingly comments that her father is certainly the most blessed of us all because he has so many daughters. Laxmi Prasad is very fond of his daughters and has raised them all to be singers and musicians. Although he wanted Rajni to learn computers and work in an office, she has taken to singing full-time and is continuing her father’s legacy.

In contrast with the young Rajni is Bihari Lal, who, at the age of 81, is one of the oldest musicians in the region. A man of many talents, he can sing and play the harmonium, dholak, and manjeera, but in that performance, he played the Jhika. He is a retired peon in a college and has learnt music from his father. For him, music has been a form of prayer, and he treats it as his divine duty to continue performing.

The group then performed two Gari songs. Gari is a type of folk song that is sung at weddings. The songs talk about different things, including the blossoming love between the groom and the bride, the divine nature of the union, and even issues about morality and life. Weddings are considered a ceremony with which the couple formally enters the life of householders. Hence, it is seen as a fitting occasion to introduce them to the ways of the world and folk philosophy through these songs. The first song warns us that we are all living our karma, a cycle we cannot escape. Our fortunes and miseries are a product of our karma, which is why we shouldn’t be proud of them or resent them. It elaborates on the harmful ways attachment and worldliness manifest and that they are antithetical to love and moral life.

The second Gari song is centred around a story in which the wife tries to stop the husband from poisoning his brother due to petty enmity. The wife emotionally appeals to reconsider his obligations and blood ties, and that family is ultimately the only ones who do not abandon us in misery. The song perfectly fits into the mood of the wedding, which is about the unison of not just the bride and the groom but their respective families, and reinforces the need to hold relationships and blood ties as pristine.

The final song is an ode to Mahoba – its history right from the time of Chandelis to the present – and its many historical places, educational institutions and beauty. It was dark by the time the performances started, and lights had beautifully lit the Sun temple. The full moon night and the massive Sun temple lit by artificial lights formed a perfect backdrop to their performance, which was all about society, our worldview and the moral choices we are meant to make. 

Distinctive, high-pitched singing of Chhaprahiya

With roots in Chhapra, Bihar, Chhaprahiya is a popular folk form in Eastern UP.

Chhapra is a town located in Bihar, near the border with Uttar Pradesh and is the heart of the Bhojpuri-speaking region of North India. Chhaprahiya is a folk form that derives its name from this town and is a very popular and well-liked genre in Eastern UP and Bihar, which is easily recognised by its distinctive high-pitched singing. Traditionally, the songs are sung by dancers who would also dance by swinging their hips, and this kind of performance soon became well-known across the Bhojpuri-speaking world. It is one of the many folk forms classified as ‘Purbi’, a loose classification of a variety of folk forms that are native to Eastern UP and are mainly in Bhojpuri.

The style of singing and dancing in Chhaprahiya is called mahini in Bihar, that is, singing in a very high pitch. This is usually performed to entertain the audience in weddings and other occasions and does not have any religious significance. Like many folk forms of the Hindi belt, the Chhaprahiya’s songs also base themselves on the stories from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and other Puranas. These stories are well-known and often narrated within families and serve as an effortless inspiration for the folk songs here.

Jittu Yadav hails from Deogaon in the Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh and identifies primarily as a Birha Lokgeet singer. He belongs to the Yadav caste, and his ancestors sang Birha, Kajri, Chaiti, Chanaini, Chhaprahiya and many other folk forms of the Purvanchal region. Birha is a ballad that tells the story of heroic Yadavs, warriors or other noble people. He took inspiration from other musicians in his village as a child and started to learn to sing by himself. He fondly remembers his childhood when the dance groups from Darbhanga, Bihar, would come to his village and stay there for months. During that time, he would mostly be with those artists, and he learnt by closely observing them and interacting with them afterwards.

He started his music group in 1980 and has over thirty years of experience as a singer. He predominantly sings in his mother tongue, Bhojpuri, and his cultural background overlaps with that of Bihar. He performs at weddings and other gatherings in his district. Additionally, he has also travelled around the country to Mumbai, Kolkata and other cities to sing the folk songs of Purvanchal. He and his group have also performed in Kumbh Melas in various places. He proudly claims to have not missed a single Kumbh Mela in all these years.

The Covid-19 pandemic has hit him hard, and he finds it difficult now to find shows and performances. He is also a farmer and teaches music to a few students in his village. He was also part of a project for the government, where he taught Chautaal to children in a school in Kanjhit village in Azamgarh in 2020. Despite his success in music, he hasn’t encouraged his children to take up music because it is a challenging career and requires a lot of practice and patience. His children instead work in the service sector in the city.

Surendra, another group member, agrees that it is difficult in Azamgarh to survive exclusively as a folk artist. Although he has been interested in music all his life and starting in his childhood, he never became a full-time artist and only pursued it as a hobby. His uncle was a Harmonium player, and he learnt music from him. Today, he is primarily a farmer, but he performs alongside Jittu Yadav in all his shows. He explains that although it is difficult to earn enough to sustain their families, it is not like folk artists are not in demand or are out of fashion. Folk artists are still integral in weddings, political rallies and other gatherings. Folk artists are commonly employed to catch the public’s attention and keep the show running until the actual event commences. He believes the problem is mainly that folk artists aren’t paid enough for their work. Also, finding work largely relies on your contacts and how well you are known, resulting in uncertainty regarding consistent employment.

Aside from Chhaprahiya and Birha, Jittu Yadav also sings many folk songs of his region which do not fit into any genre and are just known as Purbi folk songs. These songs are based on popular folk stories about the origin of the Yamuna River. Chhaprahiya also belongs to Purbi and is also known as Purbi Chhaprahiya. In weddings, it is performed as a jugalbandi between the bride’s family and the groom’s family, and it is typically performed all night to engage and entertain the guests.

Jittu Yadav is passionate about keeping the tradition of his community and his people alive but is also conflicted about letting his children follow in his footsteps. This is more or less a commonplace among many artists of the region as the economic prospects of being a folk artist are now fast dwindling. It is saddening to see them forced to take this step, and it is a matter of utmost concern that needs to be addressed so the folk traditions stay and the coming generations can also learn them.

An ode to the rich cultural heritage of Bundelkhand

The glory and magnificence of Bundelkhand’s rich cultural heritage come to life in the voice of Uma Shankar.

Located in the heart of the Bundelkhand region in southern UP, close to its border with MP, Mahoba is an important historical site that was once the capital of the Chandeli kings in the medieval period. The town is splattered with temples and lakes that date back to that period, including the 9th-century Sun Temple located on the outskirts. Within the town, an annual fair takes place on the banks of an artificial lake, Keerat Sagar, that is held in memory of the battle between the Chandeli king Paramardideva (locally known as Parmal) and Prithviraj Chauhan of Ajmer in 1182 CE. Upon this battle, Bundelkhand fell to the hands of foreign rulers, eventually assimilating into the Delhi Sultanate.

On the banks of the same Keerat Sagar Lake, Uma Shankar Sen performed Aalha, a folk genre native to the Bundelkhand region. He enthusiastically shares the genre’s history and why Keerat Sagar holds such special significance for an Aalha performance. Aalha and Udhal were two legendary warriors who fought on behalf of Parmal against Prithviraj’s armies, and their strength and valour astonished the enemies. Though the king eventually lost his territory, Aalha and Udhal’s bravery persisted in public memory. It later concretised into a folklore that pays homage to the courage and pride of the Bundeli people. The Indian subcontinent has gone to be ruled by many foreigners and invaders throughout history. Every time, Bundelkhand has contributed to some of the most well-known warriors and brave people who resisted the occupation. This tradition is a direct consequence of Aalha and Udhal, according to Uma Shankar, who believes these two warriors forever bless Bundlekhand.

With a sword in his hand and its sheath in the other, he thunders in a gusty voice – “Bindhyanchal ghaati bhaaro, Betwan dhaasan bhaaro, Chambal youn Ken bhaaro, Naam hai Bundelkhand.” A fitting praise to Bundelkhand’s strategic location in Northern India, surrounded by mountains and rivers, blessed with fertile land and innumerable forts that defend the territory. He praises the various places that add to its glory – Kalinjar, Chitrakoot and Khajuraho. It’s a devbhoom and durgbhoom – one that the Gods bless and forever invincible – and the place that has given birth to many brave people (veer-veerangana).

Aalha is a blend of theatre performance and singing. It is traditionally sung by a single lead singer, with other instrumentalists joining in the chorus now and then, mostly in wah-wah and aha, to keep the tempo going. The orchestration is also relatively minimal – a Dholak, a Jhinka and two Manjhiras – all percussion instruments with no melodic instruments. Naturally, the obligation to draw and engage the audience falls entirely on the singer and the lines he sings, and Uma Shankar more than lives up to that. He uses exaggerated body language and mannerisms to convey the song’s emotions, which are so unmistakably vivid that even someone unfamiliar with the language can comprehend them. Pride, valour, magnificence, and an unending sense of awe and allure for Bundelkhand are what the performance primarily intends to convey.

Uma Shankar is a veteran singer in this genre, having over 25 years of experience. He fondly remembers his childhood in Kamal Khera, a village in the same district, where his father would often invite folk performers to their village and organise performances. This instilled in Uma Shankar a lot of interest in Alha from a very young age. His father would often explain that Aalha inspires raashtrabhaav (pride for the nation) in the hearts of the youth, and hence it is a tradition that must be continued without fail.  He learnt from various teachers over the years. Chedalal Yadav, who plays the Jhinka alongside, is older than him, and Uma Shankar considers him an inspiration too.

Word spread quickly, and a group of the audience gathered around to hear Uma Shankar’s performance, and he thrived in the attention he got. Aalha is sung for hours at a stretch. Uma Shankar points out that despite its length, the audience is never tired as the story is filled with endless fantastical and mythical elements that glorify the history and the people of Bundelkhand. In his second song, he talks about how the land is blessed by the birth of so many great people. It features prominently in both the national epics – the Ramayana and the Mahabharata – and is also where Tulsidas, the great poet who wrote the Ramayana in the language of the commoners, was born.

Lakshmibai, popularly known as Jhansi ki Rani, also finds mention – “khood padi jwala mein, nahi nikari mooh se aah! Marte marte bata gayi wo des prem ki paawan raag.” Praise to Bundelkhand also means praise to the Indian nation –

“Saare sansaar beech bhaarat ek anokha desh, yahan ki prashansa karat German Japan hai.

Dyer ko fire se maara Veer Udham Singh, veeron ki khaan, ye humara Hindustan hai.”

He even praises the sword he is holding and bows to it, signifying that the sword is not a means for violence but rather an instrument of defence that has aided us in preserving our rich culture and knowledge over the years.

Although a farmer by profession, Uma Shankar considers performing Aalha his most satisfying vocation, which has gotten him a great name and fame across the country. He has even performed in Doordarshan and Akashvani, is associated with four music organisations and has trained about 35 students in the folk form. Two of his students are his sons, both of whom were present during his performance. One assisted his father in between the performances, while the other played the Manjhira. They both said that they are inspired by the respect their father has earned being a folk musician, and they want to take the tradition ahead. The other Manjhira player in the group was Yashwant Singh, the grandson of Baccha Singh, a renowned singer of Aalha, known as the Aalha Samrat of Mahoba. Everybody in the group is passionate about taking this tradition forward to innovate it, broaden its appeal beyond Bundelkhand, and see it grow as a folk genre that defines the nation’s spirit. 

The ballad that inspired an epic Sufi love story

Chanaini is one of the oldest surviving folk ballads in India that is not only performed in Uttar Pradesh but also in Bihar and Bengal.

Ballads are a staple in folk music. They are long, elaborate stories about larger-than-life characters’ fascinating lives and misadventures. These stories are also often grandiose and talk about the themes of fate and destiny in our lives and how our primal emotions like passion, greed and jealousy drive most of our actions. Chanaini is one such ballad in the Awadhi language, which is still performed in the Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh.

Awadhi is a rich language that bears similarities to Hindi and its dialects, but it is a language in its own right. The language has borrowed extensively from both Sanskrit and Persian and Arabic. Its literary heritage is a testament to the unique history of the Awadh region and its Ganga-Jamuni culture, defined by a synthesis of Hinduism and Islam. One of the earliest works of literature written in this language is Chandayan, an epic poem composed by the Sufi saint Mulla Da’ud. The Chanaini songs are believed to be the source of inspiration behind this poem.

Chandayan tells the story of the lovers, Lorik and Chanda, who elope against all odds and find a home for themselves by the end. The story is long and features a lot of metaphors, and like most Sufi works, the story on the whole serves as an allegory for religious teachings. Chanda is forced to marry an older man against her wishes, but she escapes back to her parent’s house, and there she is hidden away to avoid social stigma. The news of her return, though, soon spreads and grabs the attention of Lorik, a handsome young man who is already married. He leaves his wife to be with Chanda, which creates much tension in the lives of everyone involved. The story meanders through many years, describing in detail the characters’ emotional states and how luck and fate play an important part in how they ultimately end up.

Chanaini refers to the tune in which these ballads are performed, and Chandayan has historically been the most popular ballad that was performed in this tune. It is not only performed in Uttar Pradesh, but it is also performed in Bihar in Bhojpuri. It is known by the name Chanda there. It is performed in Bengal and Bengali and is known as Chandravali. Like most other folk forms of Uttar Pradesh, Chanaini has also been modified with time, and today singers not only sing traditional ballads in this tune but have also composed their songs and poems. Vijay Kumar ‘Anjaan’ is one such poet and singer from Ramnagar in the Jaunpur district who writes songs and poems and sings them to the tune of Chanaini.

Vijay Kumar does not come from a family of musicians, though his mother and father were both very fond of singing and had melodious voices. He believes his talent to be God-gifted and his parents encouraged him to take up music and performing arts at a very young age. In addition to singing, he can play Dholak, Harmonium, Tabla, and Flute and is even trained in Kathak. He learnt each of those instruments from different teachers, and despite so many years of learning, he feels unfulfilled and hopes to learn more instruments and new music forms. He says that music is a vast, infinite ocean and the deeper one dives into it, the more there is left to learn. The one quality which has helped him master so many arts is restlessness, which he calls fakiri – not to settle and not feel content or satisfied.

He attended and learned for a while Prayag Sangeet Samiti and received a certificate from Rashtriya Kathak Sansthan in Lucknow. Aside from music and performing, he also writes poems and songs under the pen name “Anjaan”. He writes in his native language of Awadhi and Hindi, Urdu and Bhojpuri. He uses many Farsi and Arabic vocabulary in his writings, taking inspiration from famous literary figures like Prem Chand, who wrote about the common folk but used a highly literary language to narrate their stories. He writes on religious and social issues. The song he has composed in Chanaini is also about migrants from the state who move to the cities and other states in search of employment but end up coming back disillusioned with life and not having made many financial gains. He draws attention to the fact that Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have the highest rates of emigration amongst all the states of India, which has created a lot of distress for the people.

Other group members also come from around Jaunpur. One of them is Pradeep Vishwakarma, a student of Vijay Kumar and an aspiring singer. Kamlesh Kumar was a former employee at the shipyard in Mumbai but is now retired and performs alongside Vijay Kumar as a hobby and for personal satisfaction. Harischandra is also a student of Vijay Kumar and has performed with him for about 15 years. Vijay Kumar and his group are committed to preserving the Awadhi folk songs, culture and language and have performed in many places over the years, including on TV and radio.

They also perform other folk forms of Uttar Pradesh, like Kahruwa, the Awadhi variant of Kaharwa. Kaharwa is a genre native to the Kahaar people, who historically served as palanquin bearers to the maharajas and other lords. Kahruwa in particular was performed by the Gond people, as the Kahaar people are known in the region, at occasions and events of the Prajapatis, the landlords. These songs describe the experiences of a pair of lovers and feature elaborate descriptions of beauty. Of the nine classical rasas, sringaar rasa is most prominent in Kahruwa songs.

The fascinating tale of the mythical warrior Aalha

Delivered in khari boli of rural Bundelkhad, Aalha is a beloved ballad performed for hours at a stretch.

Asothar Fort is a lesser-known, dilapidated fort complex about 20km from Fatehpur in Uttar Pradesh. It is pretty challenging to navigate to it, even using Google Maps. The fort and its surrounding village lie in a very fertile region of the Gangetic plain, sandwiched between the Yamuna and the Ganges rivers, not significantly from Prayagraj, where the two rivers confluence. Fatehpur is named after Babu Fateh Chandra, a warrior who fought the British troops alongside Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi. The great poet and Gandhian freedom fighter, Sohan Lal Dwivedi, was also from Fatehpur, and hence, the town is significant in the making of the modern nation of India.

At Asothar Fort, Chhotelal Pal and his group perform Aalha, a traditional ballad native to Bundelkhand, which celebrates the heroism of the legendary medieval warriors Aalha and Udhal. It is befitting they chose this location for their performance, for in glorifying the warriors and their bravery, the Aalha songs not only pay tribute to the two warriors but to the spirit of the nation to defend herself and assert her own identity.

Aalha and Udhal were two legendary warriors who fought on behalf of Parmal against Prithviraj’s armies, and their strength and valour astonished the enemies. Though the king eventually lost his territory, Aalha and Udhal’s bravery persisted in public memory. It later concretised into a folklore that pays homage to the bravery and pride of the Bundeli people. The tales are filled with mythologised anecdotes to pay tribute to the bravery and courage displayed by the warriors and an ode to all the other warriors who lived and fought for Bundelkhand. The songs celebrate the martyrs’ sacrifice for the nation’s building. The genre is also an ode to Bundelkhand, praising its many places of historical importance – from Jhansi to Chitrakoot to Fatehpur – and the important people who lived there. Written in the chaste Bundeli language, Alha is the traditional folk music of the region.

Chhotelal Pal belongs to the Pal Gadariya community, a traditional sheepherding caste of the Bundelkhand region. He comes from a very poor family of landless labourers who work as farmers and labourers outside of sheepherding to sustain themselves. Unlike most folk musicians in rural India, his was not a family of musicians. Instead, he chose to explore his inspiration by himself, watching Aalha’s performances in his village as a child and then reading books about them. He memorised the entire ballad and was especially fond of attending performances by Lalu Bajpai, a renowned Aalha artist.

For many years, he did not have a fixed group of his own and toured around with different people performing all around the region. He slowly established his team of musicians who have been performing together for about 15 years. Ramsharan is the oldest and has played alongside Chhotelal for about 35 years. They both started together. Ramsharan’s grandson, Abhishek, also learns to play the Dholak from his grandfather and accompanies him as part of the group. Deepchandra is a young musician currently pursuing a diploma in music from Prayagraj Sangeet Samiti and wants to be a good musician. For now, the group doesn’t earn much money through their performances and instead relies on other work to support themselves.

Aalha typically involves only one singer, who narrates the ballad and builds a rhythmic tempo slowly to sustain the narration. Dholak, Jhika and Manjhira, all traditional percussion instruments, accompany the singing. A little unique to Chhotelal’s group is that they even use melodic instruments in their orchestration – the organ and the clarinet. The clarinet is a European wind instrument popular in jazz and military bands. It is rare to see it used in an Indian folk form.  Indian folk music usually employs flute or a been for melodic wind instruments, but the clarinet is an off-beat-inspired choice. Mahaveer has played the Clarinet for over 20 years and can also play other wind instruments.

The group has even recorded with local labels like Kanhaiya Cassette in Jhansi and Anjali studio in Fatehpur. They have even performed in Mahoba, Maihar and Chitrakoot. Still, due to their remote location and rural upbringing, they need help to network with artists and event planners outside their region, resulting in their being restricted to Bundelkhand. Maihar is their favourite place to perform. They were at Maihar just the day before they presented in Asothar. There is a famous temple in Maihar dedicated to Sharda Devi, to whom Aalha and Udhal were deeply devoted. Hence, Maihar’s Aalha performances are very renowned.

Chhotelal believes that the folk form’s popularity has been waning in recent years, threatened by pop and contemporary music composed in urban India. His children are not quite interested in learning the folk form and instead choose to work as labourers and workers at construction sites. Chhotelal teaches two students in Fatehpur, but he laments that not many are as interested in Alha because of dwindling financial prospects. Outside of music as well, finding work has been difficult for Chhotelal. Outside of the harvest season, when work is plenty, he mostly just manages to meet his needs in most months. He hopes the government will come up with a solution to support the singers, especially the ones like him who come from a very poor background and rely on other work to support themselves.

Despite its declining popularity, Aalha captures the spirit of Bundelkhand. Chhotelal uses exaggerated body language and mannerisms to convey the emotions of the ballad, which are so unmistakably vivid that even someone unfamiliar with the language can comprehend them. Pride, valour, magnificence, and an unending sense of awe and allure for Bundelkhand are what the performance primarily intends to convey. It is a folk form that instils pride and duty towards the nation. Hence, Chhotelal wants to keep this tradition alive for the coming generations despite his difficulties at present.