The Cultural Newsletter of IISER Pune
April 2021
Embedded Files
Bihu Dance - An Indigenous Folk Dance
- Prince Kumar Sah
Bihu dance is not only an indigenous folk dance from Assam but also a source of happiness during the Bihu festival. This joyous dance form is performed by a group of young men and women. It has been performed since the Ahom Dynasty. The signature step of this dance form is characterised by rapid movements of the hips, arms and wrists in rhythm to the instruments' beats.
Bihu is celebrated in three different seasons, so these three Bihu have a different name based on their respective seasons. Out of them, the most famous and colourful Bihu is “Rongali Bihu" or “Bohag Bihu", which is celebrated in spring in the months of April-May. In this Bihu, many live shows are organised at different places by some clubs, student unions etc. Some stage shows are also organised for special guests like politicians, celebrities, etc., in large district-amphitheatres.
This form is performed by a group of men and women in their traditional dresses. The traditional dress for men is the Dhoti-Gamocha. Many dancers wear two Gamocha. Out of these two, one Gamocha, which is popularly known as “Assamese Gamocha", is used as a headband, and the other one is red and is tied in the waist. To cover the upper body, they wear the Assamese kurta, which is made from pure silk. The traditional dress for women is the Mekhela-Chador. They wear Mekhela as a lower-body garment and wear Chador as a saree. The Chador is also made from pure silk. Along with these traditional dresses, the women wear traditional ornaments like earrings (Lokaparo, Keru, Thuriya, Jangphai, Long Keru); necklaces (Golpata, Satsori, Jonbiri, Bena, Gejra, Dholbiri, Doogdoogi, Birimoni, MukutaMoni, Puwal Moni, SilikhaMoni, and Magardana); rings (Senpata Horinsakua, Jethinejia, Bakharpata, etc.). The most popular ornament is Gam-Kharu. They are bracelets worn by both men and women. The women tie their hair in a bun and ring it with flowers. The instruments used in Bihu are Dhol, Taal, Pepa, Toka, Baanhi, Xutuli, which are used by men and one instrument Gogona used by women.
Source: Wikimedia Commons
A Bihu performance starts with the men’s entry. They enter playing the instruments and making a circle spanning the entire stage. For 2-3 minutes, they continue to sing and dance in a rhythm. Then the women enter — dancing along with the rhythm of music with rapid movement of their hands and swaying their waists. They also first form a circle and subsequently take their position. They then begin singing while rhythmically clapping their hands and playing the Gogona. Then, they hold their pose with one hand on their waist and the other on their head and continue to sing. In the background, the men dance with hands raised above their head and move their wrists in a clockwise-anticlockwise motion. The men continue to play the instruments, and the women dance along. The signature step is where the women swing their waist in a to-and-fro movement.
During the Ahom dynasty, Bihu was performed at a large amphitheatre, i.e. at Rong-Ghar, where many young men and women danced in the large field of Rong-Ghar. The King and ministers enjoyed the view from Rong-Ghar, while the ordinary people did so from the ground. Along with Bihu, many events like bull-fights, food festivals etc., were also organised.
Nowadays, Bihu is famous not only in India but also in the entire world. In 2017, the famous singer Papon sang a Bihu song with a few Bihu dancers at the Royal Stag Mirchi Music Awards, which contributed to the popularity of Bihu outside Assam. Last year, in IPL, many cricketers tried the Bihu Dance along with Riyan Parag and revelled in it. Many times, Bihu dancers are invited to institutions outside Assam and sometimes, even outside India for Bihu performance. This dance form bestows pleasure and happiness to people during the Bihu festival.
Sushruta’s Story
- Sneha Jain
Sushruta was an ancient Indian physician and surgeon known for his pioneering operations and techniques, and he was the primary author of the treatise The Compendium of Suśruta (Sushruta Samhita). Sushruta is considered the “Father of Plastic Surgery”. He lived in India sometime between 1000 and 800 BC and was responsible for advancing medicine in ancient India. His teaching of anatomy, pathophysiology, and therapeutic strategies were of unparalleled luminosity, especially considering his time in the historical record. He is notably famous for nasal reconstruction, which can be traced throughout the literature from his depiction within the Vedic period of Hindu medicine to the era of Tagliacozzi during Renaissance Italy to modern-day surgical practices.
The Sushruta-Samhita
Source: Wikimedia Commons
A Statue of Sushruta
Source: Wikimedia Commons
समदोषः समाग्निश्च समधातुमलक्रियः |
प्रसन्नात्मेन्द्रियमनाः स्वस्थ इत्यभिधीयते ||४१||
To Sushruta, health was not only a state of physical well-being but also mental, brought about and preserved by the maintenance of balanced humours, good nutrition, proper elimination of wastes, and a pleasant contented state of body and mind. Sushruta has described surgery under different heads: Chedya (excision), Lekhya (scarification), Vedhya (puncturing), Esya (exploration), Ahrya (extraction), Vsraya (evacuation), and Sivya (suturing).
For Sushruta, the concept of Shalya tantra (surgical science) was all-encompassing. His operations and techniques were varied in different fields and body parts like rhinoplasty, removal of a dead fetus, lithotomy (surgical incision into hollow organs). He also developed many unique and practical techniques to dissect the human body and study its structure. His works are compiled as Sushruta Samhita. He describes 60 types of upkarma for treating wounds, 120 surgical instruments and 300 surgical procedures, and the classification of human surgeries in eight categories.
The influential nature of the Sushruta Samhita, the compendium documenting medicine, is supported not only by anatomical knowledge and surgical procedural descriptions contained within its pages but by the creative approaches that still hold today. Sushruta considered surgery the first and foremost branch of medicine and stated that surgery has the superior advantage of producing instantaneous effects by using surgical instruments and appliances. Hence, it is the highest in value of all the medical tantras. It is the eternal source of infinite piety, imports fame, and opens the gates of heaven to its votaries. It prolongs human existence on earth and helps humans successfully complete their missions, and wear decent competence in life.
Rabindra Sangeet
- Ananya Joshi
Music and songs composed by the polymath Rabindranath Tagore are popularly known as Rabindra Sangeet. Predominantly written in the Bengali language, these songs form an essential part of Bengali Music in India and Bangladesh. These songs are identifiable with every possible mood or situation that a person encounters in life. Rabindra Sangeet, at its heart, is incredibly powerful poetry. It merges fluidly into Tagore's literature, most of which was lyricised. They include a significant amount of ornamentation like meend, murki, etc. and are full of romanticism. Lyrics and music both hold equal importance in Rabindra Sangeet. To do justice to the lyrics’ seamless narrative, Tagore created six new Taals inspired by the Carnatic Talas.
Rabindranath Tagore (right) and Indira Devi Chaudhurani (left) in Valmiki-Pratibha opera
Source: Wikimedia Commons
Rabindranath Tagore mixed Hindustani Classical Music, Carnatic Classical Music, the Folk Music of Bengal and Western Music in a near-perfect balance. “I have always felt puzzled why there are such great differences in musical form in different countries. Surely music should be more universal than other forms of art, for its vehicle is easy to reproduce and transmit from one country to another.” Tagore said. He drew influence from sources as diverse as traditional Hindusthani Thumri (“O Miya Bejanewale") to Scottish ballads (“Purano Shei Diner Kotha" from “Auld Lang Syne").
Indian music focuses intensely on Bhava. There are different Raga and Raginis befitting different periods of the day and year. The chief objective of Ragas and Raginis in Indian Music is to express Bhavas. Rabindra Sangeet is based on this traditional principle. Word and tunes blend to depict different Bhavas.
The lyrics of the songs transcend the mundane to the aesthetic and express all ranges and categories of human emotion. They cover topics like humanism, structuralism, introspection, psychology, romance, yearning, nostalgia, reflection, and modernism. The poet gave a voice to all — big or small, rich or poor — the poor Ganges boatman and the rich landlord air their emotions in them.
A Tale of Two Durgas
- Ashwin Bhandarkar
Differences in the structures and interpretations of the same raga between the various khayal gharanas are a well-known phenomenon in Hindustani Music. For example, Raga Bibhas/Vibhas is sung with the shuddha dhaivat by khayaliyas owing allegiance to the Atrauli-Jaipur gharana whereas the default version sung by performers from all the other gharanas is the one with the komal dhaivat. Another type of variation, though not necessarily one between gharanas, is seen in the instances of ragas that have the same names but that cannot be more different from each other in terms of their melodic structures. A good exemplar of this, and a very appropriate one for citation during this week when we are celebrating Navaratri/Durga Puja, is the existence of two ragas that go by the name of Durga. One of these namesakes belongs to the Bilawal thaaT, while the other is from the Khamaj family.
Raga Durga of the Bilawal thaaT could be termed the default Durga because of her popularity compared to the other Durga, who is unknown to most music-lovers. She does not need the qualification of belonging to the Bilawal thaaT to be stated for her to be recognised. Unlike the daraavani, albeit dayaalu, Devi Durga, this default Durga is of a delightful demeanour, and she drives away all depressing and doleful thoughts in the dimaags of all those who listen to her. It is no wonder that she is the dominant Durga and very well known. Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande states in the fifth volume of his monumental work, Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati – Kramik Pustak Maalika, that this Durga was most likely an import from Carnatic Music, its Carnatic scale-equivalent being the Raga Shuddha Saveri.
Here are two recordings of this Durga that I cannot get enough of, even after listening to them a gazillion times over the past four decades and more.
Raga Durga by Narayanrao Vyas
Raga Durga by Bhimsen Joshi
Now let us take up the other Durga. She belongs to the Khamaj family and has a very different personality compared to her more famous namesake; unfortunately, though, she has been fated to spend her days in relative obscurity over the past century. In fact, there are no recordings of performances of this raga on YouTube, save for a 1:36 minute performance on the keyboard*. We will have to make do with just a glimpse of this doosri/durlabh Durga in the following bandish on Goddess Durga, rendered by Malini Rajurkar. The interesting thing about this bandish in the context of this article is that it contains segments in both Durgas – the prefatory alaap and the mukhda of the sthaayi (Durga mata dayani devi) are in Durga of the Khamaj thaaT, while the segment Durga devi in the antara is in the Durga of the Bilawal thaaT.
Ragamala by Malini Rajurkar
At this point, I would like to bring another fascinating aspect of the world of Hindustani ragas to the attention of my readers. This aspect, which applies to both Durgas, is the existence of what I like to call raga-doppelgangers. By this term, I mean raga-pairs, raga-troikas, or even raga-quartets, the constituents of which are superficially similar to each other yet differ from each other because the same melodic material is treated differently in each raga constituting the doppelganger set.
Let us begin with the doppelgangers of Durga of the Bilawal thaaT. They are Raga Shuddha Malhar and Raga Jaladhar Kedar. Much like the Durga of the Khamaj thaaT, both these ragas languish in obscurity, although the former is the ancestor of all the Malhars, including the popular Miyan-ki-Malhar and Gaud Malhar. This fact is stated by Lalith Rao, the Agra gharana veteran, in this recording.
Raga Shuddha Malhar by Lalith Rao
Durga and Jaladhar Kedar by Vishwajeet Ringe
A demonstration of the differences between the default Raga Durga and Raga Jaladhar Kedar
The well-known ragas that come close to the other Durga in terms of melodic content are Raga Khambavati (in the variant encapsulated by the Aali main to jaagi bandish of the Atrauli-Jaipur khayal gharana)** and Raga Rageshree. I conclude my post with renditions of these ragas sung by two of the greatest exponents of khayal.
Raga Khambavati by Kesarbai Kerkar
Raga Rageshree by Kishori Amonkar
* The video titled Raag Durga | Thaath Khamaj | Eastern Classical | Acoustic Guitar is actually a performance of Raga Durga of the Bilawal thaaT!
** This double qualification is necessitated because (a) this variant is different from the default Khambavati sung by the other gharanas, which is very similar to Jhinjoti, and (b) to make matters more confusing, the Atrauli-Jaipur vocalists have been known to sing this default Khambavati on occasion!
(Reproduced from a post published by the author on his blog ‘PunMadMan’s Musings’ at https://ashwinbhandarkar.wordpress.com/ on the occasion of Navaratri/Durga Puja)
Page updated
Report abuse