Dhemsa geetDesia
Short repeated verses on courtship, the season and the village, sung by the dancing line and answered by the drummers, extended as long as the dance lasts.
Sung at: Chaita Parab, weddings and village gatherings.
Koraput–Kalahandi Uplands · Central Highlands & Forest Belt
Folk songs
Kui marriage songsKui and Kuvi
Praise, refusal and the settling of terms between two households, sung in formal alternation.
Sung at: Marriage negotiation and the wedding itself.
Guar songsSora
Addressed to the dead person directly, as one side of a conversation. The rite ends with a stone set upright in a field or a village row, and the song is what makes the stone that person's.
Sung at: The planting of a memorial stone for the dead.
DalkhaiKosli
Love, separation and mockery, every line closing on the refrain "dalkhai bo". Sung by women in the lowland with drums answering.
Sung at: Bhaijiuntia, in Aswina.
Karma geetKosli and Desia
The karam branch, the brother's welfare and the coming harvest, sung all night around the planted branch.
Sung at: Karma Puja, in Bhadraba.
RelaDesia and Parji
A refrain form built on the repeated word "rela", carried across the forest belt into Bastar, where the same device organises whole song cycles.
Sung at: Dancing nights.
Ghumura songOdia and Kosli
Invocation of Manikeswari and of the drum itself, sung between rounds of drumming rather than over it.
Sung at: Dussehra and the Kalahandi jatras.
The folk songs of Koraput–Kalahandi Uplands — what they are about, who sings them and when. (7)