The land sings

	The land sings West Bengal Project: Rakhi Banerjee


Festival songs		Gaajan From the first day of Chaitra (around mid-March) we hear a slogan from the gajan-sanyasis "Baba Taraknather charanes seba lage, Mahadeb-- Bom bom" The sanyasis start their brata from the first day of Chaitra and continue it till the end of the month that is Chaitra Sankranti. That time they do not use hair oil. They wear yellow cloths and yellow threaad chain in their necks and copper bangles. Whole day they beg from door to door. A week before sankranti they start taking fruits and continue to be on fruits till the end of the month. On the day of sankranti they don not take anything. nor even water. People call them Bhokta. In the evening they celebrate Gajan-Utsav in Gajan-tala. They worship Lord Shiva. Charak-mela (fair) is organized during this time. They consider Lord Shiva as the deity for Space and his wife Parvati is considered as the deity of Land.
		Gambhira Gambhira is a type of Gajan.
Religious Customs
		Bhado
		Jari
		Tusu
Laborers’ song		Chhadpetar song Before fifties people made terrace of their buildings with lime, stone-chips, Khayer and Mehendi-pani. They fixed wooden bars then tiles. On the top they put the mixture. When the mixture became dry the labors took a heavy wooden piece and hit with it. They sing with the beat of this rhythm of beating the wooden piece. Sometimes they used to spread water on this and beat. They used to make two rows one with male labor and the other with females. A man among them leads the song. He sings a line and others repeat it. The song helps to bring in enthusiasm in the work.
Morning songs		Bratageet
		Kunjabhanga
		Namgaan
		Naukavilas
		Nidrabhanga
Regional songs		Bhatiali [click to listen to a brief demo] Bengal is a land of rivers. The rivers like Damodar, Ganga, Tista, Subarnarekha, and others flow through this land. In rivers the boat is a media of transport. So boating is rhe occupation of a specific group of people. They are called Majhi. Majhi-s are pilots of the boats those transport the passenger and goods from one place to another. During the time of sailing they sing songs. These songs are known as Bhatiali. Small boats are piloted by single Majhi. These Majhi-s sing Bhatiali in loud and open voice with rhythm of Baitha.There are two types of songs. One group is based on philosophy of life and, the other on the human relations and daily life. Here the boat is the symbol of human body and the boatman or Majhi is our mind and the river is the symbol of the way to God. There are times when a Majhi had to stay on a boat for a long time. These are the times when they sing love songs remembering their wife or lover. Some songs are based on tala-s and some are without tala structure that may be mukta-chhanda. Bhatiali style has become widely popular in the urban society and the folk singers widely sing this style in their performances. They use Dhol, Manjira, Dotara, etc. as rhythm instruments with this style of songs.
		Bhaiwa
		Chatka
		Jhumur
		Karma Manbhum is the land of forest. The people of this place are very simple in nature. Most of them are farmers. These tribes are known as Bhua and Mahato. On the day they work in the fields and in the evening they enjoy through songs and dances. In the Shukla Ashtami in the month of Bhadra (in September) they celebrate Karma-pooja. The tree known as Kadam in Bengal is known as Karam in Manbhum. This tree is widely indicated as the love spot for Radha and Krishna and the people of Manbhum consider this tree as a symbol godly love. The unmarried boys and girls observe this festival. They put a branch of Kadam tree in from of their house. They sing and dance around this. Manbhum has strong influences of tribal culture. This festival is especially popular in Manbhum but not observed in other parts of Bengal.
		Khed Bichched
		Shari
Miscellaneous varieties		Ghumparanir gan Everyday mothers sing songs for her child to sleep. This type of songs are called Ghumparanir gan. Mothers express their love through these traditional poems those are also melodious. They put their babies in their laps and pat while singing these songs.