Kumaon · Western Himalaya & Trans-Himalaya
The love of a Katyuri prince for the daughter of a Shauka trading family from the high valleys, and the journey he makes over the passes to find her. The ballad follows the trade route exactly, which is why it is also a document of the trans-Himalayan economy.
Sung at: Sung over successive nights by hurkiya bards.
The genealogy, wrongs and powers of a local deity — Golu, Kalbisht, Airy, Haru, Saim — sung to bring it into a human vehicle so that it can be questioned. Functional text, sung for as long as it takes.
Sung at: Night-long deity invocation.
Separation and longing, in a high unaccompanied line named after a hill bird.
Sung at: Sung alone while grazing or cutting grass.
Improvised competitive verse between two singers, each answering the other in metre until one runs out. Subjects range from love to theology to the failings of the other singer.
Sung at: Fairs.
A heroic ballad sung by a drummer standing in the flooded field, with the transplanting crew answering the refrain and working to the beat. The labour and the song are one performance.
Sung at: Paddy transplanting.
Courtship, sung and danced as a duet with a mirror and a handkerchief.
Sung at: Fairs and celebrations.
Circle-dance songs in call-and-response, whose texts move between seasonal description, teasing and local news, and which lengthen as more dancers join.
Sung at: Fairs and village festivals.
A young man's song of longing, built on the contrast between the wild fig that fruits all year and is not eaten and the kafal that ripens for a few weeks and is. Arranged for the stage in the 1950s and now the region's unofficial anthem.
Sung at: Originally courtship, now everything.
The tale behind a bird's call — a girl left to guard the kafal, beaten by her mother for eating what had in fact only swelled overnight in the dew, who dies and returns as a bird crying that the kafal ripened and she never tasted it. The bird is heard for exactly the weeks the fruit is on the tree.
Sung at: Told and sung in the kafal season.
Children's calls to the crows, sung while offering the fried dough necklaces made for the day. A rhyme with a job — the crow is being invited, and the winter is being sent off.
Sung at: Uttarayani, mid-January.
The folk songs of Kumaon — what they are about, who sings them and when. (10)