Tribal Dance And Songs

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The book Tribal Dance and Songs presents a panoramic view of the classical world of the performing arts and folk literature of tribals. It gives some details about the traditional tribal theatre and exposes the cultural contents of the songs which are composed and sung spontaneously on community level. The whole community participates in it. The book includes a study of four prominent tribes from Maharashtra and one nomadic tribe. These are the Gonds, Pardhans, Kolam, Korku and the Banjara.

The aesthetic beauty of the tribal dances and sentiments contained in their songs give some idea of the tribal genre. Most of these have been studied by the authors while working among the tribes included in this book. The dependence of the tribal communities on Nature and their perception about the visible as well as invisible powers pervading Nature are also discernible in the folk-songs. The study shows an undercurrent of a unity of culture, not only amongst the tribes studied but between the tribals and their counterparts in the so-called mainstream culture.

Dr. S.G. Deogaonkar a retired Reader in Political Science, holding Master Degrees in Political Science and Public Administration and a Ph.D. degree in Social Science. He also holds an LL.M. degree in Constitutional Law. A scholar of repute, he has completed about ten post-doctoral research projects and has about fifteen books to his credit based on his research, mostly based on field-work.

Dr. Deogaonkar specialises in Political Anthropology and Tribal Development. For the last fifteen years he was a Non-official Member in the Governing Council of the Tribal Research & Training Institute. Maharashtra State (Pune) and for ten years was Member of the Zonal Advisory Council for the Western Zone of the Life Insurance Corporation of India. Till recently, he was Member of the Expert Committee appointed by the Maharashtra State for re-verification of entries of Tribal communities in the State Governments Resolution of 1985.

Some of his reputed books include. The Madia of Bhamragad, The Korku Tribals. The Banjara, The Hill Korwa. Tribal Exploitation, Tribal Development Plans: etc.

Dr. (Mrs.) S.S. Deogaonkar holds a Masters degree in Language and a Ph.D. in Tribal Linguistics and Folk-literature. She has been teaching degree classes in Colleges affiliated to the Nagpur University on contributory basis. She specialises in tribal linguistics and tribal folk-literature and was awarded Best Literature Award for the year 1990-91 by the Maharashtra State for her book on the Madia dialect. She has collected and documented tribal folk-songs and folk-tales and has published many books in Marathi and English. She was a member of the State Level Committee on District Primary Education Programme (DPEP) and a Resource person for Training Programmes for teachers working in tribal area organised by the State Council for Educational Research and Training.

Many monographs and books on different tribal communities have come out during the last fifty years. The present authors have also contributed quite a few titles to the series. Very often the contents are ethnographic and give information about the tribe, its culture, social organisation, developmental status, economic problems including exploitation and so on. However a very important part of tribal culture and tribal genre, namely their folk-literature is often neglected. It may hardly be covered in a chapter or so, which is also rarely done. Due to development and modernisation, the new generations from the tribal communities are forgetting their tribal dialects, folk-literature etc. very fast.

A few old persons, the 'learned informants', may also become extinct in near future. Like the tribal knowledge of the traditional herbal medicine, the folk literature mainly consisting of tribal folk-songs-may also slowly pass out into obscurity. This indicates the need for collection, documentation and preservation of this rich treasure of tribal literature which is also in a very true sense the mirror of tribal culture. Audio as well as Video Cassettes may be used for this purpose, however so as to know the pronunciation of the words and to know the meaning of the words, it is essential to put it in print form. Our mentor and guide in studies on tribal populations, late Prof. Christoph Von Furer-Haimendorf had opined at our U.G.C. Seminar held in a Gond village Wangepalli (near Aheri in Gadchiroli district) during 1978-79 that for the transcription of all Indian tribal dialects, Devnagari is the only perfect script. Though we adopted this view for reducing the songs collected from tribal dialects to print, with a view to reach this treasure of traditional tribal folklore to international audience we have tried here to present the folk literature of tribes in Roman script, in a collective and rather comparative form.

The pages that follow will show that the literary values of tribal folk literature are really very high and may be compared to that found in languages of advanced communities. The sentiments expressed and the relationships discernible in all tribes (maybe ethnically distant) are not only similar but are closer to our sentiments in our modern world. We hope, this evidence of a common undercurrent of sentiments and culture running through all the so-called primitive and modern people will serve the cause of national integration.

We are extremely grateful to all those who helped us during our fieldwork in different tribes but would like to mention a few names like late Mr. Vasantrao Patwardhan, his son Mohan, Miss Nanda Kulsange from Ahberi, Shri Kawdu Nanaji Khapne from Etapalli, Shri Bodanga Kando, Manohar and Bajirao Hichami and Katia Patel from Krishnar (Etapalli), Shri Gogga Pungati, Gaita of Gotpadi (Bhamragad) (all Madias), Shri Arjun Jade Patel alias Arjun Guruji - a Korku Bhumka from Dahenda (Dhami-Melghat-Dist. Amravati), and Shri Sonare of Toranwadi who worked as our investigator. Shri Shriram Zode, a young Kolam graduate and his Kolam friends helped in our fieldwork in the Yavatmal and Chandrapur districts among the Kolams and Pardhans. Shri Laxman Rathod and his Banjara friends helped in collecting folk literature from the Banjaras in Yavatmal district. We thank all of them for their cooperation.

Before we end we must thank Shri Sandeepsingh Thakur who did the work of assistance in preparing the manuscript and drew figures and Shri Genulal Dohade who typed the script.

Last but not the least we thank the Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi for publishing this book in an attractive form.

**Contents and Sample Pages**