Magadh · Middle & Lower Gangetic Plain
Addressed to the setting and rising sun and to Chhathi Maiya. Sung on the walk to the water, at the ghat, and through the night vigil, by families who have often travelled a thousand kilometres to be there.
Sung at: Chhath, Kartik and Chaitra.
Work, rain, and the absent husband, sung antiphonally by women standing in flooded fields — the metre follows the movement of the planting.
Sung at: Paddy transplanting.
Blessing and congratulation, sung by the women of the household and neighbourhood.
Sung at: After a birth.
Invocation of the village goddess, sung to summon possession in the medium.
Sung at: Goddess shrine gatherings.
The twelve months of a woman's year, each with its own weather, work and longing — a form shared across the eastern plain.
Sung at: Year-round.
Songs of the formless divine, in the Kabir tradition, sung at cremations and at all-night vigils — the region's most sober repertoire.
Sung at: Death rites and night gatherings.
Love, work and the season, sung in circling dance form and shared with the Jharkhand plateau.
Sung at: Monsoon and harvest.
The folk songs of Magadh — what they are about, who sings them and when. (7)