Rural folk Songs in Maharashtra

Folk songs on nature are plenty and among the most common types of folk songs. The rural folk are dependent on nature for their life and livelihood and spend all their life in close connection with Mother Nature. Thus they are deeply attached to all the aspects of Nature, such as the trees, the seasons, birds, flowers, snow, rain, animals and the entire gamut. This love and attachment to nature is found reflected in all their folk songs. It has given birth to cycles of songs, for instance the Banbhajans of the Chhatisgarh areas of Madhya Pradesh or the Bangits of the Brahmaputra River Valley of Assam. These are really forest-songs; they are intimately connected with nature, and the feelings that nature gives rise to. Nature also provides emotive inspiration in love-songs.

Folk Songs on Seasons

There are various themes along which thee nature songs are based. The most common among all these are the songs on the change of seasons. Being a primarily agricultural lot, the seasonal changes signify great changes in the life and work of the rural folk and these changes are reflected in their songs. Thus there are songs sung welcoming and celebrating spring, songs that celebrate fertility and creation, songs that welcome the monsoon and songs on creation and new life. Most of these songs celebrate the fertility of the earth and request the Gods for a bountiful produce.

Folk Songs on Rivers

The river too forms a rather prominent theme of the folk songs on nature. These songs on the river celebrate the life and love of the river. A number of rural village folk have the river as their chief source of livelihood. A lot of their time is thus spent on the river and a number of happy, sad, mournful as well as romantic songs are composed on the river. The destructive power of the river too is sung of in these folk songs. When the rivers flood then crops are destroyed and cattle, life and property get washed away. These aspects too find reflection in the river folk songs.

Apart from this, birds, flowers, snows, hills and even tigers and grasshoppers are used as thematic material for the folk songs on nature. All these are representative of the beauty and power of nature, with which the rural folk lie in close connect. They are thus reflected in the folk songs on nature.