Chola Nadu · Eastern Coastal Plains
Shaiva devotion in the pann melodic modes, composed between the sixth and ninth centuries and sung by hereditary oduvars at fixed points in the temple day. Sambandar, one of the three principal authors, was born at Sirkazhi in this delta.
Sung at: Daily temple ritual and the Margazhi month.
Andal's thirty Vaishnava verses and Manikkavasagar's Shaiva counterpart, sung before dawn through the coldest month, street by street, by groups walking a fixed route.
Sung at: The thirty mornings of Margazhi, December–January.
Call-and-response work songs timed to the rhythm of transplanting a bunded field, sung by the women who do that work. The tempo is set by the task, which is why the songs shorten as the field fills.
Sung at: Transplanting and harvest.
Improvised sung lament performed by women at a funeral, addressing the dead directly and cataloguing what they did and failed to do. Professionally performed in some communities and entirely domestic in others.
Sung at: Death.
Cradle songs whose texts are frequently not about the child at all but about the singer's own household and marriage, which is what makes them a durable folklore source.
Sung at: Putting a child to sleep.
Clapping and stick-dance songs sung by women in a ring, with the beat carried by the hands or the sticks rather than by a drum.
Sung at: Amman festivals, Pongal, weddings.
Narrative ballad performed by a lead singer who beats a large strung bow as his percussion, with a chorus answering. Strongest in the southern districts and performed across the delta's coastal villages.
Sung at: Village festivals and temple fairs.
The folk songs of Chola Nadu — what they are about, who sings them and when. (7)