Dear nature lovers,

Greetings from oikos !

There are creative ways of entertainment amongst tribal and rural people.

It is depicted through a variety of folk songs, dance forms and even type of instruments made by using locally available materials from nearby forests!

Tarpa is one such instrument made by using a wild variety of Bottle gourd, Bamboo, Leaves of Wild Date Phoenix and Bee wax to hold them together. It produces catchy hollow sound on the rhythm of which Warli people dance merrily with a great integrity. They form a beautiful human braid by holding hands and sync their footsteps to a great perfection. Sound of this instrument is kept at low pitched bass at the starting, which rises slowly with every changed step of the dance or vice versa. Ultimately it reaches the high pitch with maximum possible speed of the dance. It is a great stress buster. Tarpa is accompanied by Dhol, another rhythm instrument made by using skin of cattle and wood.

Various instruments are made all throughout Maharashtra namely Paraing, Kummul, Bhingri, Pawa, Ran-pawa, Daf, Pipani etc.

Diversity is also seen in the folk songs. It is very interesting that these songs are part of the daily routine of women working at home or in agricultural fields. It helps in forgetting the monotonous works. Many songs describe natural surroundings; many are sung at some specific festival like bhondala. Ovi is sung while working, specially while grinding grains on mill stones.

Most of these songs are not found in written script but only get passed orally from one generation to another. But as the life style is changing from rural / tribal to modern, these dance and music forms are also fading away.

Regards,

Ketaki & Manasi

With Team oikos !