DESERT WEDDING

MUSIC FOR MARRIAGE, BIRTH AND LIFE

BY THE TRADITIONAL CASTE MUSICIANS OF RAJASTHAN

Enter the festively decorated Courtyard at Riverside Theatres and imagine you have been invited to the biggest Indian wedding of the year. The traditional folk musicians have arrived and this is the music you would hear – the soundtrack of life’s great celebrations which has been played for hundreds of years.

Rajasthan is the largest state in India, encompassing vast deserts and mountains, bustling cities and ancient temples. Here, one of India’s greatest traditions is carefully preserved through the Rajasthani folk performing groups. For centuries, these professional hereditary caste musicians have been supported by the jajmani system. The musicians are essential to their wealthy patron family’s way of life, paid to play at all of life’s important ceremonies, and to act as caretakers of the family’s history which is orally passed down through the generations. They are the Wedding Singers of the desert, and the musical equivalent of the Office of Birth, Deaths and Marriages.

The Rupayan Sansthan institute in Jodphur was founded in 1960 by the late ethnomusicologist Komal Kothari to preserve the folk songs and tales of Rajasthan. Parramasala has worked with Kothari’s son Kuldeep to bring three Rajasthani groups to Australia for a unique celebratory concert event – the Manganyars, the Langas and Kamad performers of the ancient Teratali dance.

MANGANYAR

The caste musicians and singers of the Manganyar community are found in the desert regions of Jaisalmer and Barmer. While Muslim, they are invariably supported by Hindu patron families, and often seek the blessing of the Hindu God Krishna before any recital.  Renowned for their complex, rhythmic music, the Manganyars play the kamaicha, a fascinating bowed string instrument carved from a solid piece of wood, as well percussion instruments, the khadtal and dholak. During a wedding, there is a particular song for every stage of the ceremony.

LANGA

The Langas live in the western districts of Rajasthan including Jodhpur and Badmer.  Blessed with powerful singing voices and masterful improvisatory skills, the Langas also explore rhythms on the khadtal and dholak. Their musical services to the Sindhi Sipahi community include performing on the occasion of any childbirth, where songs will be used to wish a long, healthy life to the baby and a different stanza will be sung to honour each and every member of the family.

TERATALI

Teratali is a beautifully complex dance performed by women from the Kamad caste group. Singing and dancing in a seated position, the women play manjiras - small cymbals tied to different parts of the body. They strike out hypnotic rhythmic patterns with elaborate movements, rotating and swaying their bodies or even lying on the floor. The head is covered with a veil, and at times a small sword is clenched between the teeth and an ornamental pot balanced on the head. The women are accompanied by men playing the stringed tandura and the dholak drum. Drawing on the repertoire of devotional songs, Teratali celebrates the life of the fourteenth century folk deity, Bab Ramdev.

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