Telangana · Deccan Inland Plateau
Gauri, the tank, the flowers, and a married woman's account of her natal and marital households. The refrain uyyalo carries the beat and lets an untrained circle join a song it has never heard.
Sung at: The nine nights of Bathukamma. Sung only by women, only outdoors, and only around a built flower stack.
The lives and quarrels of the shepherd deities, narrated over a full night by their own hereditary priests.
Sung at: Jataras of Mallanna, Beerappa and Yellamma.
A war fought over grazing rights between a cattle chief and a king — a pastoral epic with a land dispute at its centre.
Sung at: Cattle-keeper gatherings.
Work songs whose metre is set by the pestle. They disappeared with the hand mill and survive mainly in collections and in stage revivals.
Sung at: Grinding and husking, before dawn.
Laments for Hasan and Husain sung around the village alams by singers who are frequently not Muslim. The tunes are Telugu folk tunes and the vocabulary is Urdu.
Sung at: Muharram, in villages.
Percussion rather than song — a Hadrami Arab ensemble absorbed into the wedding economy of the old city.
Sung at: Weddings and processions in Hyderabad.
Seasonal and marriage songs in an Indo-Aryan language spoken in tandas across a Dravidian plateau — the clearest audible evidence of the caravan migration that brought the community south.
Sung at: Teej, weddings, Holi.
The origin narrative of the Madiga community, performed by its hereditary bards for its own audiences. It is a caste's own account of itself, and it exists only in performance.
Sung at: Chindu Bhagavatam performances.
The folk songs of Telangana — what they are about, who sings them and when. (8)