Folk Music and Folk Songs of India: Exam Notes

The correct answer is A, Rajasthan. Lotia takes its name from the lota, the small metal water pot that women carry on the head in the procession with which it is performed, and it belongs to the folk tradition of Rajasthan, alongside Maand, Panihari and the Banna-Banni wedding songs. Option B, Tamil Nadu, has its own folk forms, chiefly Villu Pattu, the bow song, and Kavadi Chindu, but Lotia is not among them. Option C, Punjab, is the home of Tappa, Mahiya, Jugni and Boliyan, sung to the tumbi and the algoza. Option D, Assam, is known for Bihu geet sung at the spring festival, the Borgeet of Sankardeva and Zikir. The water pot in the name is the clue that points to the dry country of the west.

The correct answer is B, West Bengal. The Bauls are wandering singers of Bengal who reject caste and ritual and sing of the man of the heart, accompanying themselves on the one-stringed ektara and the small drum called duggi; their songs were inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008. Option A, Odisha, is the home of Dalkhai, Jhumar and Chaiti Ghoda, which are quite separate traditions. Option C, Assam, is known for Bihu geet, Borgeet and Zikir, and its characteristic instruments are the pepa and the gogona. Option D, Bihar, has Sohar, Bidesia and the Chhath songs made famous by Sharda Sinha. Bengal's own river songs, Bhatiali and Bhawaiya, are often set in the same question as Baul.

The correct answer is B, Maharashtra. A powada is sung in a loud, declamatory style by a shahir, who narrates a battle or an act of courage, and the deeds of Chhatrapati Shivaji are its favourite subject; Lavani, Bharud, Gondhal and the devotional abhang also belong to Maharashtra. Option A, Gujarat, is known for Garba, Garbi, the storytelling form Dayro and the Bhavai theatre. Option C, Karnataka, has Bhavageete and Sugama Sangeetha, and the Yakshagana theatre with its own singing. Option D, Madhya Pradesh, has Faag and Alha, the last being a ballad too, which is what makes this option worth a second look; Alha, however, narrates the deeds of Alha and Udal in the Bundelkhand region and not those of Shivaji. Keep one more Maharashtrian pair in mind: Lavani is sung and danced to the dholki, while the abhang belongs to the Varkari saints Dnyaneshwar and Tukaram.

The correct answer is A, Chhattisgarh. In Pandwani a single performer tells the story of the Pandavas in song and speech, holding a tambura and acting out the scenes, and Teejan Bai, who received the Padma Vibhushan, carried the form from her village to audiences across the world. Option B, Odisha, has Dalkhai, the harvest song of the western districts, and Chaiti Ghoda, in which a dummy horse is used. Option C, Jharkhand, has Jhumar, Domkach and Paiki, which accompany dance more than narration. Option D, Telangana, does have narrative traditions, namely Burrakatha and Oggu Katha, which makes it a fair distractor; but those are Telugu forms, and the Mahabharata narration in the Chhattisgarhi language is Pandwani. Pandwani is sung in two styles, the Vedamati in which the singer stays seated and the Kapalik in which the singer rises and acts the scenes.

The correct answer is B, the ektara. The name means one string, and the instrument is a single string stretched over a gourd with a bamboo neck that the player presses to change the pitch; the Baul holds it in one hand while singing and dancing, often with a small drum called duggi tied at the waist. Option A, the sarangi, is a bowed instrument of many strings used in Hindustani classical music and in the folk music of Rajasthan, not by the Bauls. Option C, the shehnai, is the double reed wind instrument played at weddings and in temples, raised to the concert stage by Bismillah Khan. Option D, the nadaswaram, is the long wind instrument of temple music in Tamil Nadu, usually played with the thavil drum.

The correct answer is B, Assam. Bihu songs are sung at Rongali or Bohag Bihu, the spring festival that marks the Assamese new year in April, and they are accompanied by the dhol, the pepa made from a buffalo horn and the jaw harp called gogona. Assam also has the Borgeet, the devotional songs composed by Srimanta Sankardeva, and the Zikir. Option A, Manipur, is known for the songs of the Lai Haraoba festival and for the pena, a bowed instrument; its Sankirtana was inscribed by UNESCO in 2013. Option C, Tripura, has its own tribal song traditions, among them Hojagiri, which is better known as a dance. Option D, Meghalaya, holds the Shad Suk Mynsiem and Wangala festivals, which carry their own music. The three Bihus of the Assamese year are Rongali in April, Kongali in October and Bhogali in January, and the songs of Rongali are the ones meant here.

The correct answer is B, the monsoon. Kajri is sung in the month of Shravan, when the clouds gather, and its verses speak of dark skies, the separation of lovers and the longing of a woman for a husband who is away; Mirzapur and Banaras are its best known homes. Option A, spring, is the season of Faag or Hori, sung around Holi in the same region, and of Chaiti, which belongs to the month of Chaitra, so both are the right answers to different questions. Option C, winter, has no comparable song form in this belt, which is why it is the weakest option. Option D, the autumn harvest, is marked by its own songs elsewhere in India, such as Dalkhai in western Odisha, but not by Kajri.

The correct answer is C, Tamil Nadu. In Villu Pattu a large bow is set over an earthen pot and struck as a percussion instrument while the lead singer narrates a story from mythology or local history and a chorus answers him; the form is strongest in the southern districts of Tamil Nadu and in the neighbouring parts of Kerala. Option A, Kerala, has Sopana Sangeetham sung on temple steps, the boat song Vanchipattu and the Mappila Pattu of the Malabar coast. Option B, Karnataka, has Bhavageete and the sung theatre of Yakshagana. Option D, Andhra Pradesh, has Burrakatha, which is also a narrative form with a drum, so it is the closest trap; the difference is that Burrakatha uses the tambura and the burra drum, not a bow.

The correct answer is A, Goa. The Mando is a slow song in Konkani, sung by couples at weddings and gatherings, whose melody carries the mark of three centuries of Portuguese presence; the quick Dulpod usually follows it, and Dekhni is the third well known Goan form. Option B, Maharashtra, which surrounds Goa and shares the Konkani-speaking coast, is the obvious distractor, but its own forms are Powada, Lavani and Bharud. Option C, Kerala, has Sopana Sangeetham, Vanchipattu and Mappila Pattu, which also absorbed outside influence, in its case Arabic. Option D, Puducherry, was a French possession and does carry a European trace in its culture, which is why it is offered here, but the Mando is not from there. Goan folk music is sung in Konkani, which is also the official language of the state and one of the languages listed in the Eighth Schedule.

The correct answer is B, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. In Burrakatha a main narrator holding a tambura tells a story in song, verse and prose, while two companions play the burra, a small drum shaped like a skull, and interrupt him with questions and jokes; the form was widely used to spread social and political messages in the twentieth century. Option A, Odisha, has Dalkhai and Chaiti Ghoda, which are tied to particular seasons and rituals rather than to long narration. Option C, Karnataka, has Gee-Gee Pada and the Yakshagana theatre, where the story is acted as well as sung. Option D, Tamil Nadu, has Villu Pattu, which is also a narration with percussion and a chorus; the instrument, a bow on a pot, is the way to tell the two apart.

The correct answer is B, the Kalbelia folk songs and dances. The Kalbelia are a community of Rajasthan traditionally associated with snake catching, and their women dance in black swirling skirts while the men play the been and the khanjari; the tradition was inscribed by UNESCO in 2010. Option A, Maand, is the most refined singing style of Rajasthan, in which Kesariya Balam is sung, but it has no such inscription. Option C, Pabuji ki Phad, is the narration of the epic of the folk hero Pabuji before a painted cloth scroll, a famous tradition that is likewise not on the list. Option D, Panihari, is the song of women going to fetch water. Remember the Indian entries in order: Baul songs in 2008, Kalbelia in 2010 and the Sankirtana of Manipur in 2013.

The correct answer is B, Manipur. The pena is a single-stringed instrument with a bamboo rod, a coconut shell resonator and a bow, and the pena khongba, the singer who plays it, performs at the Lai Haraoba festival and narrates the legends of the Meitei people. Option A, Nagaland, has rich choral singing of its tribes and log drums, but no instrument of this name. Option C, Mizoram, is known for the khuang drum and the bamboo dance called Cheraw. Option D, Sikkim, has its own monastic and Nepali folk music, including the madal drum. Keep a further Manipuri fact with this one: the Sankirtana of Manipur, which joins singing, drumming and dancing, was inscribed by UNESCO in 2013. The pena is played seated, with the instrument held upright against the shoulder, and the singer narrates while bowing it.