Garhwal · Western Himalaya & Trans-Himalaya
The genealogy, history and grievances of a local deity — Nagraja, Narsingh, Bhairav, Nanda — sung to summon it into the body of a medium. The text is functional rather than decorative, and length is part of the point.
Sung at: Night-long deity invocation.
Heroic ballads of local figures — Madho Singh Bhandari, Tilu Rauteli, Jitu Bagdwal — sung to a driving rhythm. These are the region's history as it was actually transmitted before it was written down.
Sung at: Fairs and gatherings.
A married woman's longing for her natal village, sung while grass-cutting or grinding. Khud means precisely that ache, and the genre exists because village exogamy sent women over a ridge they could then rarely cross.
Sung at: Sung by women at work.
A sung exchange between a young man and a young woman, each verse answering the last, named after the armlet offered as a token. The form is competitive and improvised, and the audience judges the answers.
Sung at: Courtship, at fairs and grazing grounds.
Blessing songs tied to each ritual stage, sung by the women of the household without instruments.
Sung at: Weddings.
Seasonal song danced in a circle, with texts about flowering, separation and the return of men who have gone down to work.
Sung at: Spring.
Songs for the turning of the year, sung by children going door to door and by women at the first flowering of buransh and peach.
Sung at: Chaitra, the spring month.
The emptying of the villages — the road that came, the school that closed, the house locked in the pines. Narendra Singh Negi's are the versions most people know, and they function as social commentary in a place where the census has been recording abandoned villages for decades.
Sung at: Modern, recorded.
The folk songs of Garhwal — what they are about, who sings them and when. (8)