Women of Garhwal
Role of Women in the hills has undergone many changes in the hills; Some of the important reasons are - Male migration, poor agriculture, illiteracy, gender based roles, shrinking natural resource base, outside interventions like Voluntary agencies and Panchayati Raj Act. Following collection represents some of these changing faces from old days to present times.
- Gaura Devi
- Devika
- Seven Sisters
- Brave Women of Khirakot
- Tilaka Devi
- Iccha Giri Mai
Gaura Devi (1925-91)
Forest is like our mother's home. We will defend it - come what may." After Gandhi's Satyagrah, this housewife, born in Lata village in Chamoli, gave he next weapon, in the fight against state oppression - Chipko movement. Women's natural environment, which provides, fuel, fodder & water is under tremendous stress. Chipko literally means to hug a tree and die with it, if need be ! A long series of forest movements over last two centuries in Himalayas have been an assertion of usufructuous rights of the community to the forest. The State has tried to curtail it ever since the Raj days. The battle is on..
Devika Chauhan was the first girl to graduate from Jaunsar hills in 1954. She, again was the first woman to become a Block Development Officer in the entire state of Uttar Pradesh. She later rose to the level of Asst. Director - tribal welfare. Played an important part in the survey of tribal communities in the UP hills and securing privileges from Government for them. Retired but comitted to women's cause, She is still working with voluntary agencies in Jaunsar Bawar. Currently lives in Dehradun with a number of children. Her Biography
hagirathi Seven Sisters adventure club represents a new breed of Garhwali women. Bachhendri Pal of this club, climbed Everest in 1984. Nine years later, she led an all women team to the same peak successfully. Women in the hills have always climbed steep cliffs and trees in search of fodder; Only now, they are proving, that they are no less than men, where technical skills and physical stamina are of vital importance.
A group of women faught against power & pelf of an industrialist, to save their fields and forest from mining near Almora. In 1982, government withdrew mining license and closed this mine forever. Their success inspired similar movements in neighboring Pithoragarh & Siroli. Many such movements have proved one thing: communities, particularly women have more committment to care for their natural resources than government.
Woman power :- In the early-1980s Khirakot village in the Almora district of then Uttar Pradesh (now Uttaranchal) was the venue of a remarkable fight against mining by the women of the village. A contractor from Kanpur had obtained a lease for soapstone mining in the hills here. As his operations progressed, the villagers, particularly the women, saw things going terribly wrong. The mine debris was destroying their carefully preserved patch of forest. Secondly the narrow bridle paths to the reserved forests were overrun by mules ferrying the stone, and village women had to wait for a long time for the lines of mules to pass before they could cross. And when the rains came, the dust from the mines swept down into the fields, forming a thick crust on the soil which made ploughing difficult. Soon the men stopped working in the mines and built walls to prevent the mules from using the paths. Even a criminal case filed against them by the contractor did not deter the women who collected money from each household and sent the men to fight in the court. They also started direct action, physically stopping work. Intimidation by the contractor followed. Houses of the villagers were stoned, a cloth shop in the village was burnt down and a reign of terror was unleashed in the village. Finally when nothing succeeded, the contractor even offered the women the bait of ownership of the mines. They refused. The district magistrate who visited the area was shown the destruction that the mines had caused. Moved by what he saw, he recommended that the mining lease be cancelled. Finally in 1982, the mines were officially closed. However, the work of the women of Khirakot was not yet over. They settled down to regenerating their forests and fields destroyed by the mines. They filled the ditches that had been created by the mining, built a protective wall to prevent the debris from destroying their fields and planted oak in the panchayat forests.Source: State of India's Environment 1984 - 85 The Second Citizen's Report. Centre for Science and Environment, New Delhi
URL: http://www.humanscape.org/
Tilaka was the kind and obedient daughter of a farmer in Yamuna valley - 400 yrs ago. On the eve of her marriage her six brothers died. She too disappeared mysteriously. Then, her father realised that he had forgotten to keep his promise to the goddess made years ago, even before Tilaka's birth. The goddess herself had condescended to be born as his daughter. Tilaka, has been loved and worshipped as a goddess since then. Many of the goddesses & gods have human origin & temperament. They accompany the bride to the village where she is married, to protect her. They join villagers in celebrations & fights.. (Jaunpur ke lokdevta - Surendra Pundeer)
Ichhagiri Mai alias Tinchari Mai (1912-92)
"Comissioner, send me to prison; I have burnt the liquor shop down. And I won't stop with this one..." The woman avenger - against liquor in Pauri Garhwal in 70-80s. Government earns considerable revenue by licensing country liquor shops in the hills. For men it is a cheap way of escapism. Finally it is women who have to pay the price in terms of violence, abuse and no money to run the household. Tinchari Mai was an illetrate sanyasini (nun).
We are thankful to:
Mr. Sachin at :
http://education.vsnl.com/phalguni/faces.htm
Visit the site
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Interview with Narendra Singh Negi
Q. Negiji, you are the one of the pioneers and most famous singer of Uttarakhand who have sung numerous songs related to almost all social and cultural aspects of Uttarakhand and have spread the culture of Uttarakhand through your songs. Do you believe that the new generation of singers would continue to make efforts towards preserving our cultural identity and traditions in this century of fast and hip-hop music.
Ans. Yes, I believe that they would continue to flourish our culture and I am pleased to see that many of the new singer are making sincere efforts to rekindle the aroma of the Folk Music and traditions of Uttarakhand through their songs. However, if they fail to do so, I would take it as a personal defeat being one of the pioneers in the development of our Music. When a child makes a mistake his parents are equally held responsible because of their inability to inculcate good habits and manners in their children.
Q. Do you believe that through the Cultural Programmes and Musical Confluence we can unite the culture of Garhwal and Kumaon? What role do you think Music can play in filling this cultural gap?
Ans. Kumaon and Garhwal were divided basically because of the ancient Rajas who have administrative control over the two divisions of Uttarakhand and now the issue of difference between Kumaon-Garhwal is nothing but a political conspiracy. However, I personally feel this tactic yields little results for such politicians who still try to cash upon by creating a cultural rift between the two communities. Definitely, through music we can fill this gap and bring together both the People of Kumaon and Garhwal.
Q. You are one of the pioneers in the field of Music of Uttarakhand and a senior artist. What suggestions / advice would you like to give to the new generation of Uttarakhandi singers?
Ans. I do not know how many singers would follow my suggestions but I believe that many of the youth artists are making songs which do not reflect upon the true nature of our Folk Music and culture and traditions. I would request them to bringforth the true nature of our culture through their Music CDs and the portray real pictures of our traditions and daily life through their Video CDs. These steps are necessary to propagate in a decent and true manner, our culture and traditions to the people living outside the State of Uttarakhand.
Q. There are rumors that the latest release your of Musical VCD "Nauchami Narayan" has upset the Chief Minister Shri N D Tiwari. Would you like to comment on that?
Ans. Whenever the truth is revealed it is apparent that those affected by it would show their anguish. What I have communicated through song are the feelings of the people of Uttarakhand which they were otherwise unable to express openly. By doing so, I don't feel like I have done anything wrong and it is only the truth which I have communicated through this song. Yes, Some ministers of the the Tiwari regime have raised objections on the song but on the other hand it is a fact that most of the appreciations I have got are from the Congress Camp itself. Even though I have raised voice against mal-administration under the Government of Shri Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, he has come forward to congratulate me on the release of this song.
Q. Can we expect more songs like "Nauchhami Naryan" from your pen and do you believe that this would effect the mindset of the Politicians of Uttarakhand.
Ans. Definitely. Now I am a free bird and the public would soon find my music CDs in the market including songs on such social / political issues. And if the politicians won't learn their lessons, they would find no place left for them to beg for votes from the public. I have no personal rivalry with any individual but one who does wrong would have to repent and only such persons would be hurt by my songs.
Q. Do you believe that our Cultural Programs and Music would soon capture International Markets too?
Ans. If we continue to get support of dedicated Uttarakhandis such as the Team members of the YU Group, we would soon take over the World Market.
Credits : Mr. Sachidanand Semwal
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RESEARCH
The Woman and her Song in Himalayan Garhwal
Anjali Capila, Reader and Head of the Post-graduate Dept. of Community Resource Management and Extension at the Lady Irwin College New Delhi, teaches development communication. She has been a consultant to UNICEF on several projects. Here she presents a paper based on her doctoral thesis 'Socio-Cultural Images of Women in the Folk Songs of Garhwal Himalayas U.P.'
In Garhwal, the phrase 'mother nature' is no mere cliche. Every individual sees nature as his/her mother, friend and inspiration and loves it as such. The trees, the rivers, the mountains are all inextricably bonded to the life of the people; every Garhwali participates in the changes of seasons - celebrating and laughing with the blooming of flowers in the spring, and crying with their withering in autumn. It is for this reason that in Garhwali folk songs one finds abundant references to the forests, rivers, mountains, birds and animals.
Women sing in praise of the natural beauty of Garhwal. The following song, sung by the women of Chamba, reflects an innate sense of pride in their land :
In our heavenly land of Uttarakhand !
Himalayan peaks are like the Brahmi Kamal
A symbol of spiritual and religious sanctity.
The Himalayan mountains laden with dense Deodar forests
The peaks of Badri and Kedar
The rivers Ganga and Jamuna,
And Gaumukh the source of river Ganga
Adorn our beautiful land
Simple people,
The abode of Sadhus
This land has been purified thus.
Pilgrims from various lands
Throng to the Himalayan shrines
The multi coloured flowers in the meadows
The snow on the high peaks
Shimmering like gold
With the sun's rays
Make this land heavenly !
The fog creeps up the hill side
playing hide and seek with the Deodar trees
The monsoon rain covers the hillside with wild flowers
This Himalayan land is beautiful !
As beautiful as the Brahmi Kamal
The Lotus amongst lotuses.
The visual images created by this song get reaffirmed when one is sitting amongst the Deodar trees, looking at the Himalayan peaks covered with snow. How true each word in the song is; how completely representative of the natural environment of Garhwal :
We are Garhwali, This is our Garhwal
These mountains are ours
This is our land of birth
Our home, our family
Our lush green fields have abundant grain
The sounds of our bangles
The sound of the sickle cutting grain
creates music, resounding in the hill side.
This is Gandhiji's beloved land
He spun yarn on a Charkha,
And gave us a Message for our lives
In an another song the woman lucidly describes the environment in which she grows and lives :
The water is cool in the mountains,
Do not go away to a strange land my lord !
The Gods abide in this land
Do not go away to a strange land !
The fields are lush and green
The Himalayan peaks high and covered with snow
The forest is dense with tall Deodar trees
The water is cool and clean
My Lord do not go away to a strange land
The above song not only describes the natural environment, but also makes a reference to the presence of the sacred and the intense longing of the woman for her husband.
The following song describes the natural environment of Garhwal, with the socio-cultural practices prevalent in the society and their influence on the lives of the people, particularly women :
My Garhwal has beautiful forests
Groves of banana plantations
And tall Deodar trees
'Santelu' Pradhan makes money
In exchange for his daughters
And gives 'daan'
To attain salvation !
The beauty of the land serves as a canvas against which the image of the woman of Garhwal is painted. Nature is a close friend and comforting mother with whom troubles can be shared and the burden and hardships of everyday life alleviated. The folk songs of Garhwal highlight the link between two significant aspects of the woman's life; relating her socio-cultural environment to the description of the land.
In terms of the ecology of the Garhwal Himalayas, the following songs about trees reflect the close linkages between human and natural environment :
The Rhododendron trees laden with flowers
Decorate the mountains,
Like jewels studded in a crown !
The 'kafal' fruit is ripe
Come dear friend - Let us go to the forest
To eat the fruit of the 'kafal' bush
The leaves of the Oak tree have turned green
There is water in the roots of the Oak
Come, quench your thirst !
Pluck the Rhododendron flowers
But do not break its branches
Cut the dry branches of the Oak
But do not cut it from roots !
Cut grass, but not the branches
of the Deodar trees.
Women have an inherent knowledge about the ecology of their region. Their lives are deeply linked with the forest. According to Dr. Veer Singh (Associate Professor in the Hill campus at Ranichauri, Tehri Garhwal) "every woman in Garhwal is an eco-philosopher. She has implicit knowledge about the flora, cropping pattern and the vegetation of her region. For example, the Oak tree is known to contain water in the roots. In Manjyar village in Chamba block, the Oak forest had been protected by the combined efforts of women of three villages on the hillside. The rain water harvest tanks located here were filled with water, and women did not have to walk long distances to get water. Here one can see the relationship of the song and the actual life experiences of the women. The songs about trees reflect the women's concern about their environment, new context is added to them all the time related to issues concerning their lives."
The following song speaks about the importance of growing more trees and caring for them :
Dense forests look beautiful !
Grow more trees in the front yard and
Backyard of your house and your fields
The yield from crops will increase
Grow garlic, onion, and cumin seeds
Our land Garhwal, is the land
of Gods and Goddesses,
Keep your land beautiful
Grow more trees !
Trees give you fruit
The sound of swaying branches
Will fill you with joy !
Keep vigil around your trees
Garhwal, our land is Parvati's birthplace
From Lord Shiva's hair roots
Emerges the mighty Ganga !
Keep this sacred land beautiful
Grow more trees.
The last four lines reinforce the notion of the sacred, which permeates the very fabric of the life of the people of Garhwal. The message of growing more trees is beautifully linked to the sacred and to the natural environment. Since women go to the forest for fuel and fodder twice a day, these songs are created by them, for them :
Dear sisters, do not cut trees
If you cut trees, the soil, mud, earth
will disappear
No fields, nor houses will remain on the hillside.
Trees give us fodder for animals
Keep our environment clean; the air pure
Nurture and care for the trees
Like your own children
Look after them, raise them with care.
There is a great sense of ecological preservation in the women. They understand the value of the forest and its relationship to their lives. These songs are sung by women when they are in the forest, or when they get together in groups at their Mahila Mandal meetings. Ecological awareness and preservation of the forest is not only a concern of the power elite who give a voice to these issues at seminars and conferences. It is very much a day to day concern of the women of Garhwal. They create songs to express these issues, and this simple form of communication has tremendous impact on the community :
Do not cut trees
Protect them !
Trees keep the mud intact on the hillside
The mountains look beautiful with dense forests
Even the seasons are dependent on trees
The rivers Ganga and Yamuna are dependent,
On the trees of the Himalayas.
The life of animals is linked to trees
Do not cut trees
Protect them !
At an environment camp at BudaKedar organised by the NGO - Lok Jeevan Vikas Bharati, 300 men and women representing 11 NGOs from Tehri Garhwal gathered to express their ideas and concern about environmental issues. Surja Devi, head of the Mahila Mandal of village BudaKedar, said, "we are made of mud, with mud we have a deep relationship. We have knowledge about every tree, fruit and leaf in our environment. Our lives and our songs are deeply linked to them".
The following song describes the beauty of the wild berries growing in the forest. When women go to collect fodder and fuel-wood, they eat these berries and quench their thirst :
Your black skirt
And your beautiful golden yellow blouse
makes you look so beautiful dear 'Hissar' (berry)
I cannot find words to describe your beauty.
You quench the thirst of people
by the juice of your fruit
Other fruits and berries in the forest
cannot match your beauty !
You beckon people to come near you,
From far and near
Dear Hissar you are indeed special
I cannot find words to describe your beauty.
The relationship of the women of Garhwal with each and every bush in the forest is special. About four to five hours in a day are spent in the forest with friends. These songs are composed and sung by the women to express this relationship and a sense of oneness.
A number of the songs cited above were recorded in the forest where women give voice to their concern. They asked me to accompany them to the forests of Buda Kedar. It was here that one experienced the silence, the 'hum' behind the words, the total communion of the woman with nature. The forest - trees, birds, flowers and animals are very much an integral part of her life.
Vishweshwar Dutt Saklani whom I met at a meeting of NGOs in Chamba, remarked that women are the back-bone of Garhwal. Each folk song composed and sung by them reflects their knowledge, concern and relationship with the entire eco-system. He sang the following song which his mother had composed on the deep and intense relationship of the people of Garhwal with the trees and the forest :
Trees are my parents, trees are my God,
Trees are my friends, trees are my children
Trees are my body, Trees are my soul,
Trees are the wealth of Garhwal !
Grow more trees and make this earth beautiful !
From the dust of my being/body, may trees grow
Let humanity learn a lesson from trees
They give food to the hungry
Water to the thirsty
Shelter to the tired and homeless
Let us learn to be selfless, grow more trees
And make the world a beautiful place.
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PRIMAL ELEMENTS : THE ORAL TRADITION
Perception of Bhutas in Garhwal
D. R. Purohit, Poornanand & Richa Negi
The folk beliefs of Garhwal, on the basic constitution of man, differ from the Pauranic tradition. Two origin myths of Garhwal narrate the constitution of man and the cosmos. The first myth, found in Lata village on China border in the lap of Nanda Devi range, is the most plausible of all Nanda myths of Garhwal.
According to this myth, in the beginning there was only water, and water everywhere — having an a priori existence. From the whirls of water originated Shakti, the goddess. She longed for a companion, and started churning the waters. First came up twelve seeds of grain, then twelve species of grasses and plants which were kept safe in patal Lok, the underworld. Next came up the Kapila cow, then Kalp Vriksha, Dev Kanya, the pitcher of nectar, and the pitcher of poison. It was followed by Brahma. The Goddess wanted to woo him as her husband, but he refused saying that he was borne of her. Then came Vishnu, who also rejected her on the same grounds. She then rubbed her thighs, and out came Ishwar Raja, Siva. Siva also rejected her prayer, but with a concession that they could marry after an interval equal to twelve generations. Shakti became so infuriated on his refusal that she spit upon his thighs and up grew his genital from there. It continued growing up to sky with such a speed that the Goddess had to stop it by creating dense smoke around and above it. It stopped but the sweat which seeped down in the process gave birth to two cells of algae on the right and left of the genital. The cells were broken and inside them were found two frogs, Dendkhi and Mendkhi. The frogs started woozing out saliva at an enormous speed, giving birth to bubbles. The goddess then created a fish of silver, put life into it and asked it to break open the bubbles. Out of many bubbles broken, the two bubbles revealed two celestial beings, Nal and Nalini, the brother and the sister. In order to test their celestialness, she threw upon them her agni-patt sara (the fire cloth), and hasanda jyundal (smiling sacred rice). The test was successful.
Nal and Nalini grew as adolescent. But they started having an amorous relationship. The goddess then separated and sent them to far north and south. There they planted their incestual sin upon the cows, buffaloes, wild animals, birds and natural vegetation. The remaining sin was left upon a stone. After twelve years they returned and decided to marry. Nalini started bearing children now.
When the first child was born, it slipped to Naglok and got transformed into various parts of Naglok. Its head was transformed into sky; its eyes, the stars; its bones, mountains and valleys; and its flesh, the soil.
The same was repeated with the second issue which slipped into Martya Lok. There Nal found that Ishwar Raja was the king. Ishwar Raja loved to have human beings as his companions/subjects. Therefore Nal wanted to create man. He first tried to make the body of man with various metals, but failed. Ultimately, he made it of ashes, phlegm, dust, and mud and succeeded. But the man would not hear. So ears were planted on his body. Many words were tried to get a response from this man. At last he answered to the word ann, food. Nal thus created everything that was needed for human existence — grains, oxen, fire, wind, cow, sleep, measurements, insects, etc.
The third issue was lost into Swarg Lok, the ether, which was ruled by Anchali Raja; Nal created nine planets, yagya, etc.
In this way the myth provides explanation for every object of the universe. But it does not explain the constitution of the human soul and the five bhutas separately. On the basis of the myth and popular beliefs and practices, the following points have been explained.
The Gross and Subtle
Folk myths of Garhwal nowhere give the mathematical details of the constitution of each bhuta (elements of nature). However, a recognizable pattern of the gross and subtle is found in the form of the concrete matter and the all powerful souls of gods, goddesses, man, animals and birds. All such souls are believed to be the subtle forms of the pancabhutas. Finding expressions in their human vehicle, they assume all powers of a gross form. The case of ran bhuta (soul of man dying at battle), and gharya bhuta (soul of a man dying prematurely with wishes left unfulfilled) is an evidence.Thus all Bhumyals, Bagdwal, Latu, Heet, Khetrapal, Bheldeo, are the subtle forms of earth. All goddesses and Dropadi, Jakh, Narsingh are the subtle forms of fire. Bayal, an invisible procession of divine spirits represents air. Shankar and Nad-Budh Bhairav are the subtle forms of sky as they are the presiding deities of dhol, Garhwali folk drum. The myth of the dhol also says that in Dwapar, Vam Dass Drummer of Mandhata had a dhol called gagan, sky. Chhaya is the soul of water.
Characteristic Features
The beliefs of the folks of Garhwal about the cosmos and the human world are strongly patterned. There is incest among the human, animal and vegetal world because Nal and Nalini did it first. Ishwar Raja’s agreement with Shakti is the cause of not marrying into the same clan for at least twelve generations. Strikingly, not a single act of the universe exists which has no explanation in the myth.
Ritual and Social use of Bhutas
When souls of gods and goddesses are invited to the community, they are given a gross forms of ensigns animated with the help of the following: sacred ashes of the shrines of Trijugi-Narayan and Kalimath (fire), soil of the all sacred shrines, like Tholingmath, Mathyana, etc., and soil under the bed of a lion (earth), water from Ganga at Hardwar and Vasudhara, Gangotri, Yamunotri, etc. (water). The sky element is omnipresent in the form of aerophonic and membranophonic instruments. Besides, there is a practice of fire and water rituals. Jal Jatra (water procession), is a common ritual of tree worship. The bonfire in the dance arena is for ritual worship, and is later used as a test for the powers of gods who jump into it for the purpose. In profane rituals, the use of all four elements is a must without which the spirits cannot be aroused.
Following the Indira Gandhi Centre for the Arts thesaurus project, a number of words concerning the five elements have been collected for understanding the folk aesthetics of Garhwal. Since the work is still in progress, I have presented in the Appendix, by way of example, a few related words, such as smell (an attribute of earth), sound (an attribute of sky), burning (an attribute of fire), etc.
Appendix
Thesaurus of Folk Aesthetics
The Garhwali dialect, according to Grierson, is a later growth of Khash or Darad language (Linguistic Survey of India, 1914). Dr. Suniti Kumar Chatterjee in the Origin and Development of Bengali Language also supports Grierson’s view. This view was held for a long time till Govind Chatak came up with a more convincing theory in this Garhwali Bhasha, Aik Bhasha Shastriya and Vyakaranic Adhyayan (1959), where he propounds that Garhwali dialect originated from Shorseni Apabhransh.
Nothing has so far been written on the folk aesthetics of Garhwal. While serious efforts have been made on the dictionary of Garhwali words. The first work of Jazat Chand Ramola, considered to be comprehensive, is available only with ‘a’ and 'aa'. Next, the dictionary prepared by late Baldev Prasad Nautiyal could print only 'a' and 'aa' alphabets. This work is still thought to be the most comprehensive and authentic. Unfortunately it is still lying unpublished in the custody of his son. The only dictionary which has so far been published is by the late Jay Lal Verma’s Garhwali Bhasha ka Shabdkosh (1982), published posthumously.
Since all critical works on folklore of Garhwal have been either in Hindi or English, no pattern of poetics in folk idioms has emerged so far. The scholars have only been using the tenets of Sanskrit poetics to the folk literature. However, the corpus of this folklore is so rich with aesthetic words, motifs, symbols, metaphors, idioms, proverbs and mythic structures that a sustained and concentrated effort alone will be able to document it completely.
This chapter has only tried to collect random words under the following broad categories : mythopoetic, sensory, figurative and emotive.
The first characteristic feature of aesthetic words and idioms of Garhwal is its synthetic quality. It suggests its growth from the intimate interaction of the humans with the objects of nature. Still holding the passion and energy of natural symbols, just word or expression is capable of drawing a complete metaphor. Thus a sensitive being is a kafuwa shareel, like the consciousness of a kafee bird, and a heart is a neeli paraan, the heart of a neeli bird.
The second feature is the multiplicity of synonyms, homonyms and homographs. For example, there are scores of words for a single expression of smell:
kikran is burning of woollen stuff.
kutran is burning of cotton.
kumran is burning of human hair.
kaunkhan is smell of rotting of grains.
khikraan is burning of chilly.
chiraan is smell of urine.
bhujyaan is smell of roasting grains.
kachyaan is smell of half-cooked things.
mankhyaan is smell of humans.
The same richness is found for the expressions of temperature, taste, touch and sound. Dozens of words are used for various sounds:
araat is sound of being smothered.
kaklaat is sound of noise.
kanaat is sound of light groaning.
kiraat is sound of crying of a baby in pain.
kilkanu is sound of shrieks.
khaklat is sound of water.
khikchaat is sound of free laughter.
gablaat is sound of gutteral speech.
gamgyaat is sound of fast water current.
gumnaat is sound of whispers.
ghungyaat is sound of fast wind or engine.
Homonyms are also found in plenty. The word bathaun is used for air, telling, talks and a vegetable.
The most striking feature is the use of motifs in structural unit of the sentences. The motifs work with force and efficacy on the reader/audience. These words serve the purpose of imparting an aura of the past to the present in rituals and dance and in mythifying the present.
rui ki gholyansi, sutalya doodh : coziness of cotton, milk feeding with pot
chalaunya si teer, pathaunya si beer : like a ready arrow, and ready warrior
wonsi ku jharwalu — bata ku gadhwalu : flapper of dew and pioneer of journey
mati jaise ann — dhungyun jaise dhann : grains plenty as soil and riches plenty as stones
alu khaye mass — chhale peene khoon : ate hot flesh and drank unclotted blood
rang si dhalaki — fool si alasi : transformed like a colour and withered like a flower
chaukhamba tiwari — chhatish awash : an arched palace and multiple of chambers
bara gaun tai lagai dheet — bhanja tai lagai peeth : feast dozen villages and discard your own nephew
A major portion of the words is onomatopoetic. The sound of the words brings in the association of the theme. Words like humankar, dumankar, jalankar, udankar, are redolent of the sounds of Vedic mantras.
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