Rural Folk Songs in Madhya Pradesh

The heritage of folk music and community dances continues to be an integral part of the rural and tribal inhabitants of Madhya Pradesh. Despite the changing values of life and growing industrialization the people of this state have been so far able to retain most of their genuine folk music and the dance-forms in their pristine beauty.

As a good deal of repository of old traditions and rituals, the bulk of folk music of Madhya Pradesh comes from the tribal areas. Bastar, the land of the famous Murrain and the Sing Maria tribes, is known for its haunting melodies. While touring with Dr. Elwin, in Bastar, Walter Kaufmann happened to write man f the dance-songs and drum rhythms of the Muria Gongs, in 1941. In the music of the Muria, he foung a sort of purity and intergrity. To him the tunes were ' straight, delightful, impressive and very old'. He also noticed in the Muria Music Mengolian affinities and ' the curious yodel of the Real chorus reminded him of Tibetan songs and even of those of the pacific Islands'. Dr. Verrier Elwin states : ' The Music seems to distinguish tunes and songs mainly by the different rhythms of tier choruses, when the songs are sung antiphonally, one party keeps the tune going and the author sings the words. " One sings the tune, the other follows sowing the seed. " Sometimes the Muria called the theme of a song the Lekan and the chorus, which is generally a variation of the word Res. Is called the ruche or tech. The Reel chorus, for all its apparent cereal monotony, is capable of much subtle variation in tune and rhythm."