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Music, Songs and Stories: Archival Selections from India > Women’s Voices from the Mountains

Music, Songs and Stories: Archival Selections from India

- CD6
- Women’s Voices from the Mountains
- The women performing here are not professional musicians. These songs are part of the everyday life of women. Women’s songs are often work songs sung while grinding, threshing, and pounding, as a way to while away the tedium of long laborious tasks and provide a rhythm as well as companionship. Women play a key role in rituals, singing narratives and ballads as well as life cycle songs for events such as birth, marriage, and death. Wedding songs form a large part of the repertoire of women in India. This important part of the intangible cultural heritage of India is disappearing with urbanization and migration to cities, and with mechanization that takes away the need for grinding and pounding. Moreover, recorded music and television are taking the place of song. Thus, the recording and documentation of these traditions becomes more important. Namely, recordings of the voices of the woman in the home and in the fields, who carry out the rituals for their families and the gods who protect them, hold

immense value. This is a compilation of women’s songs from the foothills of the Himalayas, Kangra in Himachal Pradesh (the “land of the snows”), and from high up in the Garhwal Himalayas in Uttarakhand (the “northern land”). Though not connected, there are similarities in the themes between the ghasyari songs and khuder of Garhwal and the pakaharu of Kangra. Women sing about their hardships, such as their daily struggles with marriage, absent husbands, and about the friendship among women. These songs do not have any instrumental accompaniment. The songs are from the research conducted by two wo men researchers: Kirin Narayan and Ragini Deshpande. The songs from Kangra are those recorded and collected by Kirin Narayan, who has worked in Kangra, studying women’s songs and stories for many years. The selection presented here is from 1990 to 1991. Ragini Deshpande recorded and collected women’s songs in Chamoli, Garhwal, from 1981 to 1989. As Sangita Devi says quoted by Kiri Narayan, “Everyone can sing, but only when you know pain can you understand the song.”

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SOUND LIST
1	Saguna bola Performer: Umati Devi and her daughter Date of Recording: January 1983 Place of recording: Tilphara, Chamoli, Garhwal, Uttarakhand Language: Garhwali	03'05"
2	Chal Rupa burasa Performer: Rekha Unyal Date of Recording: January 1983 Place of recording: Negwar, Chamoli, Garhwal, Uttarakhand Language: Garhwali	02'53"
3	Pandav puja Performer: Phindi Devi Date of Recording: 1st May 1982 Place of recording: Pauri village, Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand Language: Garhwali	06'33"
4	Bārahmāh Performer: Nirmada Upadhyay and others Date of Recording: 18th February 1991 Place of Recording: Saliana, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh Language: Pahari	05'33"
5	Ambe dia daliya koyel bole Performer: Veena Dhar Date of Recording: 18th February 1991 Place of recording: Saliana, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh Language: Pahari	05'57"
6	Nanda Trishuli Performer: Rekha Negi Date of Recording: January 1983 Place of Recording: Negwar, Chamoli, Garhwal, Uttarakhand Language: Garhwali	01'40"
7	Asu Ghasyari Performer: Rekha Unyal Date of Recording: 12th September 1982 Language: Garhwali	01'56"
8	Suhāg song-ek sone salai Performer: Srimati Devi Singhora Date of Recording: 20th September 1990 Place of Recording: Dattal, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh Language: Pahari	02'04"
9	Phula burasa Performer: Vajanti Unyal Date of Recording: 12th September 1982 Language: Garhwali	02'02"
10	Barsāti Performer: Judhya Devi Date of Recording: 14th August 1991 Place of recording: Andretta, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh Language: Pahari	05'54"
11	Jhumelo Performer: Group of Tolchha women Date of Recording: 13th September 1982 Place of recording: Lata, Chamoli, Garhwal, Uttarakhand Language: Garhwali	02'53"
12	Unchi unchi ridiya Performer: Anita and Nisha Sharma Date of Recording: 18th September 1990 Place of recording: Banuri, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh Language: Pahari	02'04"
13	Rali songs and explanation Performer: Jnanu Bhandari and Urmil Sud Date of Recording: 19th March 1991 Place of recording: Dattal, Kangra, Himachal Pradesh Language: Pahari and Hindi	08'12"
14	Meri Albela Performer: Satya, Dineshwari Negi and others Date of Recording: 1st May 1982 Place of recording: Pauri village, Pauri Garhwal, Uttarakhand Language: Garhwali	06'28"