THE PEOPLE

AMUSEMENT

All Hindu communities have traditionally a religious bent of mind in this district as in others and even their recreation and amusement are not free from a religious veneer or cover. Constantly tittering the name of Ram or Pandurang or Siva is a favourite pastime of elderly men and women. Attendance at religious discourses such as purana, pravacana, kirtana and bhajana delivered by professionals in their peculiar styles in which they are trained is common. These are a regular feature of rural and urban life during the rainy season called caturmasa, but even throughout the year these sessions are quite frequent for one reason or other. The professional readers and reciters of sacred books like the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Bhagvata are known as puraniks who are engaged either by a well-to-do person in a village or by a temple management to read purans. The readings usually take place in the afternoons. The pravacanas given by similarly trained people are usually held at night. They are learned religious discourses by men who are known as shastris. Another form of desirable amusement and instruction is the kirtana which is a musical discourse in which religious tenets are discussed philosophically and in the form of anecdotes by the kirtanakar. He makes a generous use of vocal music by reciting Sanskrit shlokas from the religious works and even other Sanskrit literature and also by drawing on the poetical compositions of Marathi poets and saints. A kirtankar is also known by the term haridas or haradasa meaning servant of Hari or Hara. This is a very popular form of amusement-Cum-adult education, enjoyed by men and women alike. Even children take lively interest in it.

There are two schools of kirtankars in Maharashtra, the Narada and the Varkari. The former is favoured by the sophisticated gentry and the latter by the more simple and devotionally minded masses of people.

In the Narada school, the preacher chooses as his text a Sanskrit saying or verse from some religious book or some lines from some work of one of the Marathi saint-poets for the first part of his performance which is called purvaranga. He makes a philosophical theme out of it and follows it up in the second part called uttararanga, expounding the principle by an illustrative story from the puranas or history and now-a-days even some recent event of our own times. In the varkari school, the technique of purvaranga, and uttararanga, is not necessarily observed. It is a freer style. The preacher quotes themes by way of reciting abhanga or ovi rhymes or songs of the saint-poets, one after another and immediately expounds them with illustrations and commentary. Off and on, he pauses and starts a bhajan in which not only his accompanists on the tal and zanj join but even his congregation. In the Narada style the congregation joins in such a chorus on the direction of the kirtankar only in the interval between the purvaranga and uttararanga. Lately, some of these kirtankars have attained considerable proficiency in what is called Hindustani and Karnatak vocal music styles and on that account Kirtana have tended to be good musical treats.

Bhajan is still another entertainment in which a number of people can simultaneously participate and derive what they consider spiritual happiness. Almost every village has a bhajan troupe, which consists of a leading reciter, called Buva, a mrdangi or drum-player, a harmonium player and several talkaris or cymbal-players. The buva is equipped with a vina, (lute) and a cipli (castanets). He recites a song, the mrdangi and the harmonium player provide rhythm and tune, the talkaris pick up the refrain and vociferate it in chorus clicking their tals in unison. Gondhal is an occasional amusement which has been previously described. Theatrical and circus troupes pay occasional visits to fairly populated centres all over the district and offer some entertainment.

Among the young males in particular, the tamasa is a very popular form of entertainment. It is a native species of folk entertainment which includes singing, dancing, dialogue etc. but whose distinguishing feature is the presence of one or two young, lively, vivacious girls in the tamasa troupe, which is known as bari. There are usually five or seven persons in it, who have a considerable histrionic and musical talent. In some troupes, a boy in his teens is dressed as a girl. There is a dancer, a drummer, a comedian or buffoon, two others to keep time, one with a tuntune (a string instrument) and the other with a pair of tiny cymbals. Sometimes a tambourine-player is also included. If a village possesses its own troupe, it is very proud of it. Tamasas are performed at annual fairs of local shrines, both Hindu and Muslim, where people congregate in large numbers and are in a gay mood especially after the harvesting season. Tamasas are usually performed at night and last till late hours in villages. In towns there are restrictions on time.

The following is a description of the traditional tamasa performance. As soon as the participants in the performance take the stage, they make an obeisance to the audience. A prayer in chorus is offered which is called arati; then follows a song in praise of Ganapati in the age-old practice of beginning anything by invoking his blessings. Then comes the gavlan in which the Krsna Gopi theme is enacted with characteristic repartees between the playmates of Krsna and the milk-maids headed by Radha. Krsna makes a dramatic appearance on the scene and at the conclusion are sung some songs by the maids with appropriate gestures and movements. Gavlan is followed by the farce which is a humorous, if not frivolous, presentation of a story in which the chief role is played by the comedian or buffoon, called songadya. The farce is followed by a sangit bari, an item of song and dance by the woman dancer or nacya porya, the boy dressed as a girl. Lavnis, jhagdas and modern songs from the films, and other popular ones are sung and tuned with dances. Members of the audience sometimes offer small amounts to a particular favourite player, because a particular performance has specially satisfied them. This extra collection is known as davlatjada. After this begins the vag or the dramatic presentation of a story. It is often taken from the Puranas or history. The vag has an indefinite duration from one to three hours. Generally the songs sung in the vag are sung by all the participants irrespective of their roles. A prayer is sung at the conclusion of the performance. Plays which have evolved from the tamasa on the Marathi stage have also kept up the mangalacaran and the bharatavakya. Tamasa as a form of popular amusement has deteriorated into a gross display of sheer vulgarity and obscenity. In order to rid this old art of such aberrations, the then Government of Bombay set up in 1954, a separate Board to examine the scripts and write-ups of lavnis etc.

Among the women, singing of devotional songs singly or in chorus and while working in fields and grinding grains to enliven and lighten the work is quite common. Nursery rhymes, ovis sung on the swing singly or in chorus and other devotional songs around themes from the Ramayana and Mahabharat show considerable imagery and skill in narration of minute details, but these are folk songs and have not been recorded in the printed literature of Marathi language. Of late a tendency among literary research workers is noticeable in this direction viz., having them collected and recorded.

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