Karma geetGondi, Baigani and Chhattisgarhi
The karma tree, the rains, and the young men and women dancing around it. Sung in short cycles that repeat for hours, because the song is a metronome for a dance that lasts until dawn.
कब गाया जाता है: Karma Ekadashi and the monsoon nights.
RelaGondi
Courtship, teasing and village incident, improvised over a fixed refrain that the line sings back after every couplet.
कब गाया जाता है: Weddings and fairs.
Lingo gathaGondi
The freeing of the Gond gods from the cave and the founding of the saga divisions. Performed by Pardhan bards to the bana; it is a legal text as much as a poem, since it fixes who may marry whom.
कब गाया जाता है: Clan rites, over several nights.
Saila geetGondi and Chhattisgarhi
Harvest, cattle and the return of the young men from wage work, sung to the beat of struck sticks.
कब गाया जाता है: Post-harvest, Dashera to Magh.
FaagBundeli and Bagheli
Krishna, colour and open erotic teasing, sung by men in chorus to the nagariya drum in the Narmada belt villages.
कब गाया जाता है: Phagun, up to Holi.
DadariaChhattisgarhi
A two-line improvised couplet thrown between men and women at work or at a fair. It crosses the Maikal into Balaghat and Dindori and is the shortest song form in the region.
कब गाया जाता है: Any working gathering.
Mahua ke geetGondi and Baigani
Sung at the collection itself, before dawn under the trees. The songs are about the tree, the sweeping and the sharing of what falls, and they exist because the work is done in the dark and in company.
कब गाया जाता है: The March and April collection.