Kangra & Dhauladhar · Western Himalaya & Trans-Himalaya
The arrival of spring and the naming of the household — sung door to door by hereditary singers who are paid in grain rather than coin, and who name each family they sing to.
Sung at: The month of Chaitra, at the turn of the year. Among the clearest surviving instances of a calendar announced by song rather than by a printed almanac.
Praise and petition to the goddess at the Kangra Shakti shrines, sung in long night sessions.
Sung at: Navratri and the pilgrimage season.
The women's wedding cycle — the bride's bathing, her dressing, her departure — sung in sequence over several nights and keyed to the ritual step it accompanies.
Sung at: Weddings.
A woman's longing described month by month through twelve changes of weather. The same scheme is the subject of an entire genre of Kangra painting, which is unusually direct evidence of song and image sharing a text.
Sung at: Sung through the year, and painted.
The crossing of the passes, the count of the flock, and the wife left below the snow line for five months of the year.
Sung at: Departure for and return from the high pasture.
Teasing and satire aimed at the groom's family, sung by women only, and licensed to say things nobody would say in daylight.
Sung at: The wedding nights.
Fixed dance cycles attached to particular villages, learned by ear and named after the place they belong to.
Sung at: Fairs and devta gatherings.
The folk songs of Kangra & Dhauladhar — what they are about, who sings them and when. (7)