Malnad · Deccan Inland Plateau
Origin accounts, clan genealogies, land boundaries and the deeds of ancestors, sung by elders to a small hourglass drum. In a community whose records were oral, these songs did the work a document does.
Sung at: Clan gatherings, festivals, funerals.
Sung at each stage of a wedding conducted by the elders of the two clans rather than by a priest — the songs carry the ritual, so getting them wrong is not a small matter.
Sung at: Weddings.
Blessing songs sung by the women of the household while the ritual proceeds.
Sung at: Weddings and naming ceremonies.
Dasa and Shaiva devotional repertoire worked through in a fixed order by a group that meets weekly for months. The point is participation rather than performance.
Sung at: Monsoon nights, in village bhajana mandali.
Work songs sung by lines of women bent over the gadde, timed to the rhythm of transplanting and incorporating whatever the day has produced to comment on.
Sung at: Paddy transplanting, in the wet fields.
Honey gathering, the forest and the settlement, sung within the community. Very little of the repertoire has been recorded, and the languages themselves are under pressure.
Sung at: Community festivals and forest work.
The folk songs of Malnad — what they are about, who sings them and when. (6)