Dasari Rangaiah has dedicated two decades of his life to the documentation and preservation of folk songs and ballads pertaining to rural Telangana. His research on agricultural folk songs and Kinnera ballads gives us insight into the village life of Telangana. We interacted with him to know more about these folk songs and the communal life they depict
HYDERABAD: Dasari Rangaiah, who originally hails from Wanaparthy district, has dedicated two decades of his life to researching and documenting the folk songs and art forms of Telangana. He is also responsible for bringing Padma Shri to Kinnera artiste Darshanam Mogilaiah, whom he had discovered in deplorable conditions in Avasalukunta village in Nagarkurnool district years ago.
Taking a deep dive into the melody and rhythm of these folk songs, which is a massive collection of nearly 1200 songs under the title of ‘Shrama Jeevana Saundaryam’, translating to ‘the beauty of hard work,’ Ranga says, they deal with the life of farmers and the hard work involved in the agricultural activities. “Both men and women sing these songs. These songs talk about each and every aspect of agricultural work: right from tilling the land, sowing the seeds, threshing the hay, cutting the harvest and finally, celebrating the abundance of the crop. Since the farmers depend on five natural elements or the panch bhuta, that are earth, water, air, fire and space, whenever there is a problem, they would sing songs for that particular element in nature. For example, when there is no rain, they would sing praises to Varuna Deva,” said Rangaiah.
Joy, pain and romance
The researcher says that the beauty of these songs is that they are composed spontaneously, depicting the hard work and tedious work involved in agricultural activities. More than that, it is the emotions such as joy and sadness, difficulties and disappointments, that take the form of songs. With this, he breaks into a poetic expression of Manasu pongi napudu pata pani tho putindi shrama which is a song about immense joy seizing the hearts of the farmers which bursts forth in the form of a song. “It is always related to the work. We sing a song to forget our tiredness and the difficulty of the work. We sing a song to forget the tears and forget the pain,” he explains.
Adding, he says that there is a whole section of songs dedicated to household activities, such as the process of grinding pulses and spices. It is an element associated with household chores which actually required the songs to help with the process. As an extended family would include around 15-20 members, it was necessary for women to prepare huge quantities of food, which would include hours of grinding. There would be days when all the women in the family would grind pulses for hours and to fasten the process, and keep the energy going, they would sing these songs. The speed of the song also delineates the intensity of the labour involved. If the pulses are needed to be ground finely, the activity requires a lot of hard work and patience. The songs would then be sung slowly to associate with the tedious nature of the work involved.
Besides agriculture and homes, the songs also allude to rituals associated with puberty, songs sung during functions, during Mangalarti, etc. “There was a purpose to these songs, as they beautifully integrated different aspects of village life. Work led to the rise of folk. However, in modern days, all the electric devices have made the task easier and have actually made the songs disappear too. The activities that the community itself was engaged in, such as a Jatara or a marriage, or any auspicious occasion, all had songs dedicated to them,” said Rangaiah.
While the labour of the work is complemented by folk songs to alleviate the tiredness caused by it, there were also moments of leisure and pleasure. “There is a section of romantic songs as well. Just to make the farmers feel lighter and reflect the social life of a village,” he said.
Dasara says that a lot of folksongs depict the changes that came with modernisation. “During the earlier period village life was simple, the competition was limited and the resources were also sufficient to support the communities. Hence, songs were sung as they talked of the manual labour they put in. As modernisation came in, there were changes in the songs too. Old songs have many versions written by many songwriters. For example, there is a song where a potter was making a livelihood from his pots and now, thanks to modernisation and urbanisation, the utility of his products has decreased and his sales have reduced. Similarly, in agriculture, the tools used to sow the seeds have become obsolete with time and have been kept at the Salar Jung Museum for display,” said Rangaiah.
Kinnera Ballads
According to Rangaiah, a farmer is a selfless worker who depends on nature but also takes inspiration from elevated levels of his own self, depicted in the form of ballads that sing praises of heroic figures who might be rulers, politicians, social workers, etc. His PhD on ballads, called Janapada Katha Geyalu contains folk stories dealing with the heroic life of people. “There are different kinds of ballads. They were first discovered by a Westerner, a historian named Charles Philip Brown.
Later, a heroic song based on the life of Sarvai Papanna, was found in the collections of J A Boyal Mahasaya, who lived in 1874 in the Rayalaseema region as a politician and was immensely impressed with Telugu literature,” he said. These ballads were sung with the accompaniment of a stringed musical instrument called Kinnera. Burra Katha is also another folk art form where the life of a hero is narrated and it also has a moral in the end.