South Konkan · Western Coastal Strip
Invocation of Ganapati, the village deity and the ground itself, sung standing, before any performance is allowed to begin. Nothing is played in a temple forecourt until it has been sung.
Sung at: The opening of a Khele or Dashavatar night.
Comic, satirical and often obscene verses about village life, marriage and local authority, sung between dance items to the dholki. Licence to name people is part of the form and expires with the festival.
Sung at: Shimga.
Krishna blocking the milkmaids on the road to the market — a fixed comic interlude with a fixed argument, performed between the invocation and the main episode.
Sung at: Within Dashavatar and Naman evenings.
Episodes of the Ramayana and Mahabharata in local recension, sung to the ektari and huduk while the painted sheets are turned. The versions differ from the standard texts, which is why the surviving pothis matter.
Sung at: Village performance, historically for a fixed annual payment in grain.
Women's couplets on a woman's parents, her brother, the mango season and the husband who is in Mumbai — which in this region is a very large share of the repertoire.
Sung at: Grinding, before dawn.
The pull of the rampan net, the price at the auction, and the men who did not come back.
Sung at: Hauling the shore seine, and at Narali Purnima.
The Varkari devotional repertoire, sung here without the pilgrimage that carries it on the plateau — the songs came down the ghat, the walk did not.
Sung at: Ekadashi, and through Chaturmas.
The folk songs of South Konkan — what they are about, who sings them and when. (7)