BENGALURU: A life without songs sung to the beats of drums is probably unimaginable for the Kudiya people of the Western Ghats. “We sing about the plants and trees in the forests, the roots, stones, snakes, and elephants… There is a rhythm to each song, and we play the drum to that rhythm,” Kudiya musician Sharada Somaiah says in an interview with Bengaluru-based Gobal Kulture, which is taking the first steps towards building an archive of tribal music in Karnataka.
On April 13, Global Kulture released a 2.50-minute video titled “Hidden Sounds: Who are these Kudiyas?” on its YouTube channel. They’ve started with the Kudiya community, but Arun Sivag, percussionist and founder of Global Kulture, says the idea is to collect audio and video recordings of songs, interviews and dances of artistes from 40 communities (the state government lists 50 Scheduled Tribes), and compile it into the Budakattu Music Archive, a partial multimedia ethnography of tribal music and culture.
“It took one-and-a-half years of research to figure out how to go about this,” says Arun. This includes conversations with several people – including playback singer and co-founder of Global Kulture, Sangeetha Ravindranath, and Sumanto Mondal, who is editorial and communications partner at the organisation. However, the idea of the archive comes from Arun’s own experiences, and thoughts about music and musicians. “I always saw musicians on the street, and wondered why they weren’t on stage. Folk artistes are not given a stage, but they are the torch-bearers of music,” says the 29-year-old.
In 2019, he began visiting government offices looking for a list of tribal musicians, and realised that the government didn’t really have one. But the idea stuck, and he came in contact with folk and tribal art expert Srinivas Murthy, who worked with Sharada’s father decades ago. With the little footage they collected in February at Sharada’s house in Tora village (Virajpet, Kodagu), they know they’ve barely scratched the surface. “One would need a whole life to understand their music. We are doing what the government is supposed to do,” says Arun.
The Kudiyas’ culture is oral — their songs and stories are the historical record of their existence. “They sing songs while working, after getting back from work, when there is a birth or a death, during festivals… They even have a song about the daughters of the tribe and how they wish the best for them,” says Sangeetha, who is working on translating the songs from Kodava to English.
The archive will also have interviews of the artistes, such as the one in which Sharada talks about the community’s origin story, and why they call themselves Kudiyas, says Mondal, who is translating her interviews from Kannada to English. They are looking for institutional funding that will allow them to retain creative independence. But for now, they are using their own resources to fund the project. Arun put in the stipend he got from OneBeat, a US government fellowship.
A part of that was used as honorarium for the artistes. “We are artists too. We want to pay them for their work. Right now, the only opportunities they have are annual performances at Vidhana Soudha and Ravindra Kalakshetra (auditorium in Bengaluru). When the government calls, these are the people who get the peanuts,” Arun says. Sharada’s earnings are paltry and not steady, like many artistes.
She pretty much kept the music of her community alive by teaching younger generations, but knows survival is at stake without economic opportunity. In the trailer, Sharada talks about her “biggest dream”. “...If our art is to survive, the government and other organisations must help us get a good platform, give us respect. Only if this happens will our music become a livelihood for us and for our children, and only this way will our art survive.”
Arun too has big dreams. He eventually wants tribal musicians to get the recognition and remuneration they deserve. “We want to build a not-for-profit artist management system for them. They should be treated just like any other artiste.”
Preserving history
Global Kulture aims to collect audio and video recordings of songs, interviews and
dances of artists from 40 communities and compile it into the Budakattu Music Archive,