Marathwada · Deccan Inland Plateau
Two-line couplets improvised by women turning a hand quern — about brothers, in-laws, the village, the deity and the work itself. The metre is set by the stone's rotation, which is why the lines are the length they are.
Sung at: At the grindstone, before dawn. More than a hundred thousand of these couplets have been recorded and transcribed from Maharashtra by the Grindmill Songs Project, making it one of the largest single collections of women's oral poetry anywhere.
Devotional argument delivered in the voice of a drunkard, a snake-charmer or a possessed woman, so that the audience laughs first and understands afterwards. Written by Eknath at Paithan.
Sung at: Kirtan and stage performance.
Invocation of the goddess and recitation of her deeds, sung standing, to sambal and tuntune.
Sung at: Weddings, and vows to Bhavani or Renuka.
Cradle songs sung at the fifth or twelfth-day naming, addressed to the child by the name being given.
Sung at: The naming ceremony and the cradle.
Battle narrative, delivered at speed with a daf, in a metre built for a standing crowd.
Sung at: Fairs, public meetings.
The Karbala elegy in the Deccan register. In several Marathwada villages the Muharram taziya procession draws participation from Hindu households as well, a pattern documented across the Deccan.
Sung at: Muharram.
Songs on Ambedkar, the conversion and the Buddha, performed by shahirs and jalsa troupes. A large modern folk repertoire with a known origin date and a continuously growing corpus.
Sung at: Dhamma Chakra Pravartan Din, Ambedkar Jayanti, weddings.
Sowing, seeking a husband, and the road — Banjara songs still carry the vocabulary of a caravan economy that ended a century and a half ago.
Sung at: Teej and Holi.
The folk songs of Marathwada — what they are about, who sings them and when. (8)