Ritual songs and folksongs of the Hindus of Surinam

The Songs and their Function

The songs of the Surinam Hindus can be divided into the following categories.

A. Songs inherited from India

1.	The ritual songs and folksongs without a written text. These are the main subject of the present study.
2.	The traditional songs from printed books: i) songs of a religious character by authors such as Tulasīdāsa, Sūradāsa, Kabīr and other saint-poets (not included here), ii) songs of a less religious nature, the epics and ballads of Gopīcand, Ālhā etc.; of these The Ālhā is almost as popular as Tulasīdāsa's work is in the religious context (n. incl.).
3.	Relatively modern songs of devotion, such as various collections of bhajans published in India (n. incl.).

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4.	The songs of the Ārya-samāj movement, used by the followers of the same among whom they replace all other categories of song almost completely^1 (n. incl.).

B. Local Surinam compositions, inspired by the folksongs and other types of songs mentioned above; a few examples of these are given.

1 These are mostly from books published in India with the exception that some Ārya-samāj songs have been locally composed in the traditional folk tunes such as birahā and cautāl. In fact the only authentic Ahīr nagāṛā player (vide p. 9) of Surinam is a member of the Ārya-samāj movement and his group sometimes sings these Ārya-samāj birahās and cautāls. As the members of this movement observe only the Vedic ritual, the ritual song in vernacular languages associated with the folk ritual has been totally rejected.

The Ritual and the Song

The reason why authors like de Klerk have failed to take full cognisance of the ritual songs is that they have not differentiated between various levels of the ritual. Even though de Klerk does make a passing reference to the growth of a body of folklore which has become interwoven with the ritual ('51: 126), in his record of the various stages of the ritual he nowhere makes a distinction between the following levels: (1) (a) The Vedic and classical ritual in which the brahmin priest officiates and chants the ritual formulae in Sanskrit without any accompanied singing by women, and (b) where there is such singing by women in colloquial languages while the brahmin priest is at the same time chanting the Sanskrit formulae.² (2) The ritual where only women and śūdras officiate and sing appropriate songs as ritual formulae in their own language.³

2 The Sanskrit formulae for (1) (a) and (b) have been adequately recorded and translated by de Klerk. The ceremonials under (b) are chiefly these: (i) some of the stages of the janëū ceremony (d.Kl. '51: 101-119); (ii) in the wedding, silpohanā (see p. 108) kanyā-dāna (d.Kl. '51: 163), lājā-homa and parikrama also called bhą̄var (Ibid: 169) and perhaps sindūra-dāna (Ibid: 177) which does not always include a Sanskrit mantra.

3 Few instances of this type of ritual are described in the earliest Sanskrit works on domestic ritual, the gṛhyasūtras, for example, in taking the bride, after the main wedding ceremony, to a private chamber, ‘anuguptāgāre’ (PGS. 1.8.10) now known as kohbar (vide de Klerk '51: 140 etc.).
Most of the folk ritual seems to have been developed by women and śūdras themselves, perhaps out of non-Aryan sources, as the study of the Vedas was forbidden to them. This form was allowed to exist side by side with the Vedic ritual. PGS. (1.8.11, 12) enjoins that in marriages and funerary rites the instruction of the village folk should be followed. According to AGS. (1.7.1) ‘there are various customs from village to village and from country to country; one should observe these in the wedding’. ApGS. (1.2.15) directs that marriages should be performed according to women's instructions. Several sūtras repeat, ‘at this point they (those who are performing the ceremony) do as women direct’ (AgGS. 3.5.4; BPS. 1.3, 5, 7, 12, 13, 16; HkPS. 1.8). What were the directions given by women is now not known. The later Sanskrit works of ritual, the paddhatis, composed after the 14th century A.D., assimilated much of the folk ritual into the main body of the classical ritual.

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Most ritual accompanies some set formula expressing the thoughts, wishes or devotion of the performer of the ritual; this is especially so in the case of the gṛhya, the Hindu classical domestic ritual. Is it then possible that the numerous stages of the folk ritual [(2) above] recorded by de Klerk without any set formulae are observed silently? According to our observation they are invariably performed with songs which are thus placed almost in the same category as the Sanskrit formulae of the classical ritual.

These songs, like any other sacred formulae, serve to enhance the meaning of the ritual in several ways. Where they are sung while the priest is chanting the Sanskrit formulae [(1) (b) above] they are expressive of the thoughts and feelings of the women singers which are not the same as those of the officiating priest. For example, in the janëū ceremony, it must be a moment of a particular sentiment for a mother to see her son for the first time begging for alms (de Klerk '51: 114), of which song No. 13 is an adequate expression and for which no appropriate Sanskrit formula exists. Similarly the Sanskrit formulae for giving away the bride (de Klerk '51: 164 ff.) are statements of the sacred intention and the declaration of giving, but song No. 37 describes the heartfelt emotion of the father at that occasion, the trembling of hands, and the final reconciliation of the mind to a duty to which he is bound by the rules of dharma. Even more striking is the occasion of bhą̄var (de Klerk '51: 169); song No. 38 expresses the thoughts of a bride while she is going around the fire - which every singing woman must remember from the day of her own marriage - her affection for her own relatives and the old relationships finally sundered as she declares in the song with the seventh round, ‘now I belong to another’. It is thus clear that without the songs, important thoughts of a large segment of the participants in a ceremony would remain mute; the singing by women and chanting by the priest together complete the ritual. The songs cannot be

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dismissed as ritual formulae on the grounds that they express human emotions instead of a religious sentiment: much of the wedding ritual in Sanskrit also expresses human emotions, for example the touching of the heart (de Klerk '51: 176) of the bride; for these occasions there has been no need to develop women's song formulae in the vernacular.

The songs sung with much of the non-Sanskrit ritual performed by women alone are even more serious in character, with less appeal to human emotions and a more evidently religious sentiment. The sohars, for example, though expressive of the emotion of joy at the occasion of childbirth, are more of a thanksgiving to the deities than a mere celebration. The maṭkor (song Nos 19-22) songs are formulae for the worship of the Mother goddess embodied as Earth and in other forms. The song at silpohanā (song No. 25) invites ancestral and other spirits to accept offerings and to participate in the wedding. If all these songs were excluded, the meaning of the ritual would be obscured, if not totally lost.

The Sanskrit authors as well as the singers are aware of the ritualistic power of these songs as they refer to them as maṅgala (Vīramitrodaya, Saṁskāra-prakāśa: 828) (song No. 1), auspicious, which means that the songs are capable of bringing well-being, spiritual and material, to the singers, sacrificers and participants of the ceremonial, by the power inherent in the word as is the case with any other ritual formula such as, for instance, the comparable Sanskrit maṅgala-śloka to be sung by women at the sindūra-dāna according to Saṁskāra-gaṅapati (: 287).

Outside the domestic ritual, the songs such as pacrā (Nos. 61-64) are the only form of dedication to little godlings and village deities such as Ḍīh, to whom no invocations and stotras are addressed in Sanskrit. The pacrās sung to Durgā or Kālī also are justifiable as ritual formulae in the vernacular on the ground that to feel the full hypnotic effect leading to a trance (Vide p. 26) the singers must sing in their own language even if Sanskrit stotras, inaccessible to these people, are known elsewhere. Nor do these stotras always embody or emphasize certain aspects which are very meaningful to the folk mind. For instance, there are no stotras to the terrible aspect of Gaṅgā comparable to our song No. 57.

That to the folk mind many of these songs in the spoken languages are indeed equivalent to mantras, as stated above, is not

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debatable. Some of the magical ceremonial such as jādū ṭonā (Song No. 65) is also known as jantar-mantar (S. yantra, a ritualistic design; mantra, a sacred formula). To cure a malady by the application of such formulae is called chū-mantar karnā, from the exclamation chū (a syllable similar to the tantric bījas without a lexicographical meaning) at the end of the incantation;¹ although we translate it there as ‘touch!’, it is not always applicable.

1 Other authors are aware of this mantra nature of similar songs elsewhere, for example T.L. Śāstrī ('62: 68-71) gives ‘mantras’ in Maithilī for curing snake bite and exorcising ghosts etc.

The Cauk

The ritualistic nature of the songs becomes still more evident when we consider them with reference to the cauk designs.

The symbolic design (S. yantra or maṇḍala) has been studied in detail by authors like Avalon, Tucci, Pott etc. but only in the context of yoga and tantra tradition. That the gṛhya ritual has its own designs seems to have escaped their attention.

The cauk (song Nos. 23, 24; cf. de Klerk '51: 35, 214) is referred to in the sūtras as caturasra sthaṇḍila, a square raised spot which must be smeared or plastered with cowdung - gomayena ... upalipya (JGS. 2.8; AgGS. 1. 7.1; PGS. 1.1.2) - from which the Surinam Hindu term aipan (S. upalepana) must have originated. Sketching of marks or signs is referred to: ullikhya (PGS. 1.1.2), lakṣaṇam ullikhya (AgGS. 1.7.1.) and these marks are called maṇḍala;² in AgGS. 2.6.7 it also appears that square, triangular and circular designs were known.

Since the ceremonial under examination is not identical with that of the sūtras it is difficult to state whether the cauk designs related to our songs are descended from these gṛhyasūtra traditions or from the Śakti cults of Mother worship. It is, nevertheless, certain that like any other maṇḍala they are graphic representations of a deity, supposed to generate a mystic force drawing the deity to accept the singers' invitation to come, accept worship, and

2 In popular terminology they are not called maṇḍala but only cauk. The closest we come to the term maṇḍala is in māṛo (song Nos. 24, 26, 40; cf. de Klerk '51: 140, 146 etc.). The connection seems obvious: maṇḍapa, the temporary canopy for a ritual (also the hall of a temple), [mandira (temple)], maṇḍala, a sanctifying and decorative design such as the ground plan of a māṛo, maṇi, a jewel, that which decorates. Song No. 26 says that the māṛo has been inlaid with the designs made in jewels.

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abide with the worshippers until given a visarjana, bidden leave. They also sanctify the ground, converting it into a sacred place for the duration of the ceremony.

i)

Some designs are drawn while the singing is in progress. These are: a) Chaṭṭhī kā cauk (the design of Ṣaṣṭhī)^1 (see fig. 13), for the ritual of which see de Klerk ('51: 98-99) and p. 20 on sohar. b) The cauk drawn at maṭkor which may be square (fig. 14) or merely a circular spot plastered with cowdung. It is called Sītājī kā cauk or sometimes Gangājī kā cauk. See also pp. 27, 36 and de Klerk ('51: 138, 139).

The clay lamp, seven ṭīkās and offerings as described by de Klerk for both (a) and (b) are placed in the designs.

ii)

The silpohanā song is sung after the design (fig. 13)^2 has been drawn. The offerings for the spirits are placed in the design.

iii)

The designs not drawn with a song but mentioned in the songs and sanctifying the areas where much of the ceremonial and singing takes place: a) The design of the māṛo, i.e., the ground plan of the wedding tent (fig. 15) (song Nos. 24, 26, 40). b) The designs drawn on the wall in the kohbar, the private chamber (de Klerk: '51: 140). There are two types of kohbar designs (figures 16 and 17): one has a triangle on a square and the other is a square with decorative triangular patterns all around it. Inside these basic designs various pictographs are drawn, such as navagrahas, a couple, various household objects, flowers, trees, even the name of the local village shop, and a hąsulī, a kind of necklace, symbolising the bond of loyalty between the couple. These signs of happiness and prosperity are, so to say, drawn to the home of the newly wedded pair by the sheer force of the design which probably also represents the home, with stairs leading into it.

1 For other designs of Ṣaṣṭhī, see Briggs ('20: figs. 1 and 2, opp. P. 66), Fuchs ('50: 109); and a different representation of Ṣaṣṭhī, Sūryavaṁśī ('62: 90), Mookerjee ('46: plate XVII).

2 These designs are now very rare; a few older women were able to draw these for us, full of complaint against the ‘ignorant younger generation’.

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The designs are drawn with white flour with the following exceptions: The kuṇḍa sarvatobhadra vedi and the navagrahas¹ have appropriate colours filled in with coloured rice grains. The kohbar basic design is drawn in red or yellow; there are no rules about the colours of the pictographs inside.

For the sanctity of the tattoo designs see p. 26.

1 For these classical designs the reader is referred to Sarvadeva-pratiṣṭhā prakāśa of Caturthīlāla Gauḍa and the ritual text books listed by de Klerk ('51: 126).

Songs as Ritual Formulae

The songs, because of many factors, differ in ritualistic value as ritual formulae.

I) First there are those which invariably accompany a particular ritual action, for example those sung at silpohanā (song No. 25), imlī ghǫṭā̈ī (No. 29) or bhą̄var (No. 38) (also see note on No. 38). They are never sung on any other occasion and are not replaced by any other song on the specified occasion. They directly convey the meaning and purpose of the particular ritual.

II) (a) In the second type there is a greater choice: for example there are numerous sohars expressing various ideas connected with childbirth; any of these may be sung as the fancy takes the singers, much like bhajans in a devotional session, or hymns in a Christian service. They may be sung before, during, and after the ritual action and convey the general mood of the occasion. They are not sung on any other occasion, for example a sohar is never heard at a wedding.

(b) Some songs may be sung on a particular ceremonial occasion much like the (a) but without any ritual action whatsoever. For example a sohar ulārā has no accompanying ritual action but serves as a transition from the ritual sohar proper to caṭnī.

(c) Some songs may be sung on a specific ritual occasion but also on other occasions, for example a caṭnī which serves as a transition from the seriousness of the ceremonial mood to the frolicsome aspects of ordinary life and may be sung on occasions other than childbirth, such as a wedding.

III) Then we come to those songs which, or whose predecessors, at one time may have had a ritualistic significance but now are not sung with an action consciously accepted by the participants as

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a ritual. For example the swing, jhūlā (song Nos. 55, 56), was of great importance in some rituals¹ (Gonda, '43: 348 ff.), it is now only a form of frolic and sport. The cautāls also seem to be connected with the vasanta rāga songs sung at the worship of Rati and Kāma in ancient times (see Varṣakṛtyadīpaka: 288-289). Because these songs are sung at those festivals, which are of religious importance, with fixed rituals, in the annual cycle of life, they may be safely called ritual songs for all practical purposes.

There are also some types of songs which remain on the borderline, for instance the songs sung, with much shedding of tears, at the farewell of a bride (song No. 42), or the spontaneous outburst of women in singsong while crying around the bier of the dead. Even though marriage and death are serious ceremonial occasions, how ritualistic is the crying cannot be determined. Once again because of the nature of the occasion and a fixed place assigned to the song in it we regard it as a ritual song.

There is a similar problem about the tattoo songs. The tattoo design is ritualistic and sacred (see p. 26) but the songs accompanying the action of tattooing, only one of which is printed here, seem to be only work songs shedding no light on the sanctity or otherwise on the meaning of the design.

The degree of ritual sanctity of a song may also be indicated to a certain degree by the type of tune or style of singing and the attitude of the singers. For example (I) and (II) (a) are sung in a serious tune, almost like a chant, with a grave attitude not interspersed with laughter and jokes, but as the singers move towards (II) (b) and (c) the tunes become more lyrical and the mood more frolicsome.

There is, however, one exception to this: the gālī songs which have a deprecatory or openly sexual theme, or are parodies of other songs. These are the ‘impudent’ and ‘improper’ songs Speckmann must have had in mind (see p. 2). Even though they are accompanied with much laughter and, sometimes, perhaps, gestures of a sexual nature, they remain sacred ritual songs as

1 Kosambi ('62: 80) says; ‘At Athens, the Vintage Festival was marked by girls swinging from the branches of Erigone's pine tree on rope swings; this should explain how Urvaśī appeared to Purūravas as antarikṣa-prā (ṚV. x.95.17) just before the end. Her swinging high through the air was as much part of the ritual fertility sacrifice as the chant and the dance’.

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they have a fixed place at certain stages of the ritual. Also, in the view of anthropologists such songs in other cultures not only serve the purpose of cementing kinship (Greenway, '64: 61)-appropriate for the occasion of a marriage - but their singing is also a form of fertility rite (Gonda, '43: 351-352; Kosambi '62: 10).

Date and Authorship

The tradition of singing on ceremonial occasions goes back to the earliest period of the Vedic Ritual.¹ In the mahāvrata ceremony (Taittirīya Saṁhitā VII.5.10.1) circa 1,000 B.C. women sang and danced (Gonda. '43: 346 ff). Likewise in the Vedic sīmantonnayana saṁskāra (PGS. 1.17) the singing of songs of praise, gāthās, on the banks of a river was required. The singing at childbirth is described in some manuscripts of Vālmīki's Rāmāyaṇa² (some time between 300 B.C. to 200 A.D.). Kālidāsa (Kumārasambhavam 7.90) in the 4th centry A.D. mentions singing in vernacular languages at the marriage ceremonial. Similarly the Bhāgavata Purāṇa (X. 15. 5, 12) refers to songs at Kṛṣṇa's birth. The Śiva Purāṇa (Rudra Saṁhitā 3.50) describes that after bringing the newly wedded Śiva and Pārvatī into the house from the wedding canopy, and performing the popular customs, lokācāra (verses 13-25), women sing songs addressed to Śiva which are teasing and lascivious in character, like the present-day gālīs. Svāhā, the consort of the fire-god, Agni, justifies this (verse 37): sthiro bhava mahādeva strīṇāṁ vacasi sāmpratam; vivāhe vyavahārosti purandhrīṇāṃ pragalbhatā ‘Be steady, Mahādeva, regarding these verses of the women; it is customary for women to become immodest at wedding times’.

The paddhatis (vide note 3 on p. 11), while assimilating much of the folk ritual with the classical Ritual, enjoin folk singing especially by women as part of their traditional ceremonial; e.g. brāhmaṇāḥ sūryā-sūktaṁ paṭheyuḥ; striyo maṅgalagītīḥ kuryuḥ (Vīramitrodaya, Saṁskāraprakāśa, 828). ‘Let the brāhmaṇas recite the sūrya hymn and let the women (at the same time) sing maṅgala, auspicious, songs’, and (Saṃskāra-ratna-mālā pt. 1: 545) dvijā mantrapāṭhaṁ purandhryo maṅgalagītāni kuryuḥ ‘Let the twice-born recite mantras and women sing maṅgala songs.’

1 For details, see Gonda: Zur Frage nach dem Ursprung und Wesen des indischen Dramas.

2 Note 509 on Bāla Kāṇḍa I.17.10 in the Baroda edition.

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Tulasīdāsa in the 16th century recognised this singing coupled with popular customs, loka rīti (Rāmacaritamānas: Bāla Kāṇḍa 103; 263.I; 319; 320; 322-324; 326; 327 etc.). It is possible that he incorporated some of the folk material in his own work and gave it a literary polish; otherwise we cannot account for an isolated work like Rāmalalā Nahachū in sohar metre not found elsewhere in the literary tradition. Similarly Sūradāsa, his contemporary, took account of this type of singing (Sūrasāgara: 9.449; 10.658 etc.), calling it maṅgala singing (ibid.: 9.461, 468; 10.642) and also refers to gālīs (10.622). Even Kabīr speaks of the maṅgala singing by women on the occasion of marriages (Padāvali 1; Kabīra Granthāvali P. 78).

Can the authorship of individual songs be ascertained? After the bhaṇita verses of Jayadeva, the author of the Sanskrit Gītagovinda in which each poem includes the author's name in the last or the penultimate verse, there has been a tradition in Indian literature to include the author's name in a similar way. In our ritual songs there are some examples of this: for instance where the theme is based on Kṛṣṇa's life, especially in a sohar, the author is said to be Sūradāsa and where Rāma's life is the theme the author is said to be Tulasīdāsa. These songs, however, are not found in the works of these authors. It has been a practice of many less known Indian authors to attribute their works to more celebrated names and in the case of current singers the habit is a form of dedication to Tulasīdāsa and Sūradāsa. This dedication also gives the song more prestige and the ritualistic power of maṅgala. In general, however, the authors of most songs are not known except for a few modern non-ritual songs (see song Nos. 45, 90, 99, 100) The songs are a product of gradual growth in an oral tradition.

The Types of the Ritual Song

The ritual songs are divided according to the ritual occasions on which they are sung. This division is traditionally followed by the singers also.

The Songs of the Life Cycle

The sohars: sung by women at childbirth. When a birth is announced in the community the women come round in groups and start singing as they approach within the earshot of the house.

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The ritual on that occasion (de Klerk pp. 98-100) and the drawing of the chaṭṭhī kā cauk (vide p. 15 above) is invariably accompanied by singing. The sohar tells a story of, or describes a situation generally with a theme woven around, Rāma, Kṛṣṇa, Śiva, Gaṅgā etc., or a divining of an auspicious dream, or some other legendary or supernatural subject. Together with thanksgiving to the deity concerned, there is often a description of how the child is obtained through the grace of a god or a goddess, or through the observance of some form of ritual, worship, fast or ascetic practice. The singing goes on up to the sixth or, in some families, the twelfth day after the birth.

Sohar ulārā: Although these are lyrics also with themes woven around Rāma, Kṛṣṇa, and other legendary figures, the emphasis here is not so much on the religious aspect as on the simple human sentiment and the celebration. They are sung after the sohars to change the mood, as a transition to the sohar caṭnīs (vide p. 16 above).

Sohar caṭnī: are also lyrics but of a saucy or romantic nature, perhaps to celebrate the union of the lovers which has brought forth the child. These complete the round of singing at childbirth (vide p. 16).

Mūṛan (S. muṇḍana): the women start singing as they come near the place of the ceremony of shaving a child's first hair which is often done at home but sometimes by a river or by the sea. The singing continues while the barber shaves the child's head.¹

1 Even though the gṛhyasūtras (e.g. GGS. 2.9.10 ff.) enjoin the recitation of mantras, the ceremony is now performed - as de Klerk also notes ('51: 100) - without a priest and consequently without Sanskrit formulae. Nāpita, the barber, alone is the ‘priest’ of this cermony. De Klerk describes his special duties in the various stages of the entire Hindu ritual ('51: 35, 97, 100, 104, 137, 138, 141, 142 etc.). Speckmann ('65: 139) confirms our own observation that in Surinam the persons carrying out these duties are no longer of the barber caste as such but belong to a new professional group, still called nā̈ū. The greatest custodian of the women's ritual songs is näunī, the barber woman. She directs and guides the women in the matter of their ritual and the attendant song, and receives some gifts in return (see song No. 32). In the same song she carries out the invitations (cp. de Klerk on newtā, '51: 137) for a ceremony. In song No. 15 the nāpita is referred to as ‘näüā brāhmaṇa’ as he goes to negotiate a marriage with the family of a prospective bridegroom on behalf of a client with an unmarried daughter. For his position as a journeyman see Wiser ('36: 37-40) and Lewis ('58: 56-59). There is ample material to explain the history and causes of the barber's rise to a semi-priestly position but that is a subject for another paper.
It is essential to include Beidelman because his work on the Hindu Jajmani System is now recognised as more authentic and up-to-date.

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The Wedding Songs

Sung by women; these have been recorded for thirty-four out of the sixty stages of marriage ceremonial enumerated by de Klerk ('51: 124-200) and summarised by Speckmann ('65: 136-146). (See pages 62-95).

The Death Songs

These are of two types. First are the dirges or lamentations sung by women, who come around the house in groups upon hearing the news of the death. They start crying as they approach the house, and burst into singsong which becomes louder and more hysterical around the bier. For obvious social and aesthetic reasons these dirges could not be recorded. They are forms of address to the dead in a manner somewhat like this: ‘Oh my brother, why have you gone away, leaving me alone? On whom shall I lavish my affection from now on? Whom shall my children now call their māmū (maternal uncle)¹?’ - and so on, together with the good qualities of the person remembered with great exaggeration. Then there come the songs sung by men during the night of keeping a ‘wake’ (jagrātā) after the burial.² These, mostly of religious nature, are as follows (i) Nirgun (S. nirguṇa), sung before midnight, stating the transience of the world and affirming the need for devotion to God. These songs are in Kabīr tradition. (ii) Caubolā, sung around midnight, dealing with some legendary theme of a death, for example the story of Hariścandra, the truthful king who had to become a cremation ground assistant. (iii) Sargun (S. saguṇa),³ the songs of a general religious nature, with a little less pessimism about the transient nature of the world but still a continued need for devotion - sung after midnight. (iv) Parātī (S. prabhāta or prātaḥ), sung at dawn. These are calls to wake up, usually addressed to a god such as Kṛṣṇa, somewhat like the suprabhātaṁ stotras of the Sanskrit ritual with which a day starts in a temple.

The time periods of the night for singing the nirgun etc. are

1 O hamār bhayavā, tu ham ke chori ke kāhe cal gayelo. Ab ham ke kai itana pyār karį̄. Hamār larikan ab ke kai apan māmū kahi kai pukārį̄.

2 Cremation is not practised among the Surinam Hindus.

3 Their theme is not necessarily confined to the subjects of the Hindi saguṇa literature; they are, in fact, difficult to define.

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only tentative and are not strictly followed. All these songs may also be sung on other religious occasions such as kathās (vide de Klerk '51: 62).

The Songs of the Annual Cycle

During the Phagwā festival songs are sung mainly by men but sometimes, separately, by women, to celebrate the coming of spring, with the themes of colours, youth, love and romance especially with reference to Kṛṣṇa and a little less to Rāma. Other religious or jocular themes may also be rendered. The singing begins on the day of vasanta-pancamī in the month of māgha (January-February) and continues throughout phālguna (February-March), until the days of holī, and dhuląhḍī or dhūriwār on the 1st of the caitra (March-April) month. Although the priests describe the holī to be in memory of Prahlāda's godly triumph through the ordeal of burning, the songs preserve the character of the spring festival and have hardly any reference to the Prahlāda story. De Klerk ('51: 218-221) has described the ritual on this occasion in satisfactory detail but with an undue emphasis on the priest's role in the matter of singing. Apart from the singing processions visiting various homes, the singing takes place in any home or in a temple or any place available, usually in the evenings. Although there are many types of songs sung at this time the singing is referred to collectively as cautāl because the cautāl is the most prominent of all the songs of the phagwā festival. The singing party divides itself into two lines, facing each other, with a great many ḍholaks, jhą̄jh, majīrā, kartāl etc. The same line is repeated by both parties several times and the singing is full of great gusto. One cautāl may take up to half-an-hour to complete. Then comes a jhūmar or an ulārā - the lyrics with dance rhythms - thus completing the cycle, when another cautāl begins. This may go on for hours and perhaps the whole night through. The other types of songs at this time are horī or holī, cäitā, dhamār, rājpūtī (with a theme of bravery), belvāṛā, baisvāṛā, bhartāl, lej etc. They differ from cautāl mainly in length, rhythm, rhyme, the style and tune of singing but not in subject matter.

Special mention must be made of the kabīrs (not related to the saint-poet of that name), which are short two-line pieces, sometimes even dohās borrowed from literary authors like Tulasīdāsa, in-

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troduced with a singing shout of suna lo merī kabīr (Hear my kabīr!) and closed with jai bolo ramaiyā bābā kī (Shout ‘victory’ to Rāma!).

The jogīṛā is very similar to the kabīr except that it is introduced with jogījī sa ra ra ra.

These may be sung at any time during the festival but especially after the burning of the holī and on the day of dhuląhḍī. They are not necessarily obscene songs as de Klerk states but may express anything in a short and pithy form (vide song No. 54).

During the Rainy Season: the month of śrāvaṇa (July-August) is the occasion for singing jhūlā (swing) and kajrī songs celebrating the season which is also the traditional time of a married woman's visit to her parental home, or meeting with her brother if he visits her in her marital home. All these themes are clearly depicted in the songs. The jhūlā songs also refer to the swing of Kṛṣṇa which he enjoys with Rādhā and Rukmiṇī. Sometimes the swing of Rāma and Sītā is also mentioned. The jhūlā songs may also be sung to rock a child's cradle, then the theme may be the child Rāma or child Kṛṣṇa.

Marsiyā and jharrā songs are sung at the Muslim festival of muharram in which the Hindus, especially women, also participate (vide de Klerk '51: 221; Speckmann '65: 30-34). The marsiyās are dirges or lamentations commemorating the martyrdom of the brothers Hasan and Husain at Qarbalā in 680 A.D.¹ The women make offerings of lapsī, a semiliquid sweetmeat, and other sweets as well as money, placing these in the tāziā, a stylized and very elaborately adorned representation of the bier of the martyrs; at the same time they make a manautī, a wish. The jharrās, also on the same topic, are sung with the jharrā dance which is similar to daṇḍa-rāsaka except that in the place of sticks the dancers hold broom-like objects made of the fibre of a tree. The dancers move in a circle, singing and keeping the beat by each dancer hitting his ‘broom’ on that of his neighbours on both sides.²

1 For further details see Pelly (1879).

2 Not only does the similarity of the jharrā with daṇḍa-rāsaka show a Hindu influence but a comparison of the songs with some of the Hindu songs also confirms this, for example, see notes on song Nos. 59A and 60A. It would appear that some Hindus converted to Islam adjusted the Hindu motif to the context of their new religion. The homage paid to the pīrs (Muslim saints and paigambars (prophets)) in sumirans (song Nos. 80G, 99A) is another example of mutual exchange between the two religions.

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Other Ritual Songs

These may be sung at a fixed time of the year or at any other time whenever the relevant worship is performed by the devotees. The occasions for some of these have been listed by de Klerk but his description of some of the details being somewhat incomplete we give it here in greater detail.

Gangā-snāna: on the full moon of the kārtika month (October-November) (de Klerk '51: 215-218) as well as on any Monday or Friday people, especially women, go to bathe in, and worship, a river or the sea as a form of Gangā. Several tīrthas, places for sacred baths, have been built in Surinam. Before leaving the home for the worship and the bath a woman may make her wish, manautī, in sentences such as: ‘Oh Mother Gangā, I am making this offering and worshipping you. Do fulfil my wish’, which may be a wish for a son or some other form of happiness or comfort. On reaching the river or the seashore they throw some copper coins in the river, together with flowers and a piyarī, yellow headscarf which must be five, seven, nine or any odd number plus a quarter yards long. Wooden slippers, khaṛā̈ų̄, may also be offered and a pitcher is repeatedly mentioned in the songs (vide song No. 3). The songs are sung all the while to adore both the terrible (song No. 57) and the benevolent aspects of the deity (vide p. 36). After the worship a story regarding the powers of Gangā is told by an older woman.

The Gangā-snāna alone of the vratas - women's special days of fasting and worshipping a particular deity - seems to have survived in Surinam.

Pacrā songs are sung at the worship and in honour of the godlings described by de Klerk ('51: 86-88), particulary Ḍīh, Śītalā and, when worshipped by non-brahmins, Kālī Mā̈ī or Durgā. Any person reputed to have the power of communicating with the deity may act as a priest, called ojhā.

The Ḍīh or Ḍeohār is worshipped by taking subscriptions from the entire village, as a communal, pancāyatī, and not a personal worship because he is the guardian of the entire village.¹ The usual time is the month of caitra (March-April) during the bright

1 He seems to be connected with the Persian dehāt. See also Crooke (1894: 88). It is said that not even wind may pass in and out of the village without his permission.

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fortnight after Rāma-navamī, the birthday of Rāma, but the rite may also be performed at the times of plague, cholera, smallpox, floods etc. An area under a tree, preferably a pīpal, by the road leading into the village is cleared. A square raised spot, cautrā (S. catvara) is plastered with cowdung and mud. Four red, triangular flags are placed in the four corners and a white canopy is tied to the flagpoles. Under the canopy a swing or a hammock is tied symbolising the seat or the chariot of the deity. Since Ḍīh is said to have no form, there are no images. The person acting as a priest or a priestess prays like this: ‘Oh Ḍīh Bābā, may there be no suffering accruing to the people of this village. Be gracious unto us and guard and protect us. Keep watch over this village.’ Then the worshippers, led by the ojhā beat the ḍholak and sing pacrā songs while offering lapsī, milk, betel nut, betel leaf, nutmeg, flowers, rum or other intoxicants, eggs etc. A cock, a pig or a he-goat - but never a female animal - may also be sacrificed. After the worship the four flags are taken and made to fly on the four corners of the village to ward off the malevolent forces and spirits.

Sometimes the worship of Śītalā and her other six sisters¹ may also be combined with that of Ḍīh, and then the pacrās are sung in their praise. Sometimes the worshippers, after making the animal sacrifice to Ḍīh, may proceed to a bloodless sanskritised worship, a sāttvikī pūjā of Durgā or Kālī performed by a brahmin priest; otherwise an ojhā officiates. Then the animal sacrifice is compulsory.² There are four singers and one dancer, a man or a woman. The ojhā hands a metal plate (thālī) for āratī (worship with light) to the dancer. The thālī contains saffron-coloured (with turmeric) or plain rice grains - called akṣata -, sugar, yoghurt, vermilion (sindūr), betel nut, betel leaf etc., and burning camphor or a lighted cotton wick in a clay lamp full of oil. The dancer dances and does the āratī, moving the thālī clockwise around the visage of the image. At the same time a male animal, such as a pig or a

1 According to our informants the names of these, a little different from those enumerated by de Klerk ('51: 87), are: Sītalā, Chuṭkī or Khelnī Kūdnī, Phūlmatī, Dhamsā, Ākāsgāminī or Jogjatī, Masānī and Koṛhiniyā. It is said that a king had seven daughters who suffered from these forms of afflictions and were deified.

2 We were informed by an ojhā that some years ago when it was suggested that a pumpkin may be cut instead of an animal there was a great deal of opposition to the suggestion.

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he-goat, is sacrificed. While the dancer dances, the four singers lead the worshippers in singing pacrā, and beat the ḍholak. The ojhā falls into an hypnotic trance, and is now said to be possessed by the goddess. He throws his limbs about, shakes his head, dances, jumps and shouts. When the singing has thus shown its effect, that is to say, the goddess has arrived in response to the worshippers' invitation, it stops and those present gather around the ojhā who sits down and serves as an oracle, answering questions and granting wishes. Slowly the effect wears off. The meat is shared among the devotees.

Jādū ṭonā: these are incantations for various magical purposes such as a headache, fever, jaundice, snakebite etc., finding lost property, gaining someone's love, or power over a person, destroying an enemy, brushing off the effects of evil eye (song No. 65) and so forth (vide p. 14). The ritual action for each of these is peculiarly its own, handed down among the ojhās in an oral tradition. Several of these incantations have been recorded.

The bhajans: these may be sung at any religious or social occasion without a fixed time. Much like hymns, they address or praise various aspects or incarnations of God. They may also be religious exhortations to follow the way of God in order to terminate the painful cycle of birth, death and karma-saṁsāra.

The godnā or tattoo song comes into a special category. Strictly a work song of the manihār or naṭuā who used to go around the village shouting the offer of his services, it is connected with a marriage ritual. Almost all the women singers, especially the older ones, had tattoo designs on their arms, and sometimes chest, as well as little spots on the cheeks or the forehead etc. It was stated that in their young days, no one in the husband's home would receive food or water from their hands if they were not tattooed. After the marriage, the bride accompanies her husband only for a few days and then returns to the parental home. It is then that the bride's mother took her on to her lap and had a design tattooed on her right arm; on her return to the husband's home the tattoo was done on the left arm. It was believed that if the mother has her daughter thus tattooed in her lap they would meet again in heaven. There are many kinds of tattoo designs, such as the elephant with a howdā, a crown, and so forth but the most ceremonial one is known as Sitājī kī rasoī, Sītā's kitchen (fig. 18). Perhaps this design

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symbolises a woman's role in the home although why the design as such (see fig. 6) is given this name is not clear unless it has some connection with Sītājī kā cauk (vide p. 15), meaning to express that the purpose for which the mother goddess had been invited in the form of the earth at the beginning of the wedding ceremonial has now been fulfilled and that she now leaves her stamp on the newly married woman. The songs sung while tattooing are of several types; some are gālīs, perhaps as an aid to the newly wed woman's fertility while others (see song No. 75) tell a story the theme of which is the irrevocability of a marriage at any price, which makes the tattoo, again, something like a stamp of marriage, to sanctify her womanhood so that food and water may be accepted from her hand in the husband's home.

The Caste Songs and Work Songs

As we have now seen, the songs in this collection, with a few exceptions (see note 3 on p. 11), are those of the non-twice-born (the śūdras and women) and belong to their forms of ritual, professions and activities. In fact, singing and dancing were two of the professions allowed to the śūdras from very early times (vide Kane, II, 1, p. 121)¹ and all singing and dancing castes are still subdivisions of the śūdras. There were, however, few members of these castes among the Indian immigrants to Surinam, for in the four shiploads studied by de Klerk ('53: 98-101) there were only two bhāṭs, two bhāṇḍs, and four naṭs. Singing was, nevertheless, a common trait of all immigrant caste groups.

The greatest contribution of a single caste group to the song of the Surinamese has been that of the Ahīrs, a migrant people, perhaps originally of non-caste vrātya mercenary and ‘republican’ origin, who, as Ābhīras, at one time ruled over large tracts of India and contributed much to the Indian music tunes such as Ābhīrikā and others. Much of the cowherd aspect of the Kṛṣṇa legend² has been attributed to them (Bhandarkar '13: 36-38), as

1 The folk tunes of cowherds and cultivators were recognised, collected and tabulated by authors like Mātaṅga (Bṛhad-desī 1.2) who incorporated them into the classical music under the title of deśī.

2 By the time of Sūradāsa, Kṛṣṇa had been commonly called an Ahīr and the gopīs are Ahīrnī (Sūrasāgara, 10th skandha, 1922, 1925, 2596, 3063, 3156 etc.; Bhramaragīta songs 58, 118, 234 etc.).

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they are par excellence the dairy-keeping caste.¹ Among the four shiploads of immigrants studied by de Klerk ('53: 99), out of 599 persons of what he calls the higher middle castes, 400 were Ahīrs and of related clans as follows: Ahīr proper - 209, Goālā or Gwālā - 31, Gūjar - 4, Kurmī - 156. The Ahīrs seem to have created the Indian birahā which was for long particularly their form of song but has now become the vehicle of creative poetry for all the Hindus of Surinam (vide p. 29). Song No. 88 is also a fair example of their Kṛṣṇa lore.

1 For further details on the Ahīrs, see Bhagwānsingh Sūryavaṁśī (cf. p. 173).

The Work Songs

Apart from the songs in general which in many places refer to the work and duties of various castes, trades and professions (e.g. song No. 2 on midwife, the gardener's wife and others) there are special songs sung by various ‘professional’ castes, and by women, while performing their work, to lighten the burden or the monotony, to add some joy to their labour, and so on. These songs are of five types.

1. The first are those whose content has a direct bearing on the calling, for example the song No. 72 of the water-carriers, the kahārs.

2. The second type of work song not only refers to the professional work but has also a suitable rhythm to serve as accompaniment to that particular work, for instance the dhobiyā birahā (song No. 73) of the washermen. Some of these may also accompany a mimic dance such as hathelā of the washermen.

3. The songs of the third type do not refer to caste and professional work at all, but they are sung only to the rhythm of the work, for example song No. 71 sung while the potter, kumhār, turns his wheel. These songs may narrate a story, express devotion to God or show a sentiment of fondness for a beloved's beauty.

4. Those of the fourth type are sung after rendering a professional service, e.g., song No. 74 of the entertainers, bhāṭs, at a wedding, demanding their fees often in abusive terms shaming or coercing the client into giving more. An example of haggling over the fees has also been recorded but is not printed here.

5. The Women's Work songs are called titillās. They almost

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invariably tell a story with a theme of the woes and tragedies of a woman's life, for example ill-treatment by the in-laws as in song No 77. They are usually long, sung to the rhythm of the work. They may (as in song Nos. 76, 77) or may not (as in song No. 78) refer to the work. The following two types of titillās have been recorded.

a) Jątsār or pisaunī: sung while grinding grain on a handmill, ją̄ṭā or cakkī, the handle of which is sometimes turned by a single woman as in song No. 77 or by two women sitting opposite each other as in song No. 76. In the case of the latter the song may record a conversation.

b) Ropanī (planting rice) and nirā̈ī (weeding the field or transplanting the bibit). These may be sung by an entire group working in the field.

Other Songs

The birahā deserves special attention. It is a topical song, sung by both sexes, like the calypso of Trinidad. It may be composed instantaneously by any person on any subject. It may break all bounds of propriety and social rules. It may protest against any practice, custom or person, or may praise these. The author has heard long birahās composed on the spot to celebrate an occasion, for example the presence of an honoured guest. (See also p. 9 under nagāṛā). It may be sung on a ḍholak or without any instrument at all. There are, now fewer and fewer, all-night competitions of birahā composition and singing in which two parties may compete with questions and answers (see song Nos. 81, 82) or discussions on any topic, in a challenging manner (see song No. 82) until one party accepts defeat. The competitors address each other as joṛā (companion). The fame of a good birahā expert travels far and wide. For a definion of the birahā see song No. 79.

A birahā is divided into three parts: firstly, Dohā or sumiran, which may be a verse from Kabīr, Tulasīdāsa or any other celebrated author, but most often it is a folk composition, commemorating God, a favourite deity or many deities, one's own parents, husband, or guru, Sarasvatī, the goddess of speech, whose blessing is sought in the difficult undertaking of an instant composition or the rendering of the song, asking them to grace the singer with inspiration and, in the case of Sarasvatī, to abide in his throat

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or on his tongue. It may also be only a reminder of a moral precept. Faster in beat is the second part known as lacārī or alcārī, the main composition on any topic. The finale, variously referred to as jācanī or bisarjan, rounds off the song by (a) referring back to, or thanking one or more of, the deities of the sumiran, even repeating a line or two of the same, (b) giving another moral precept in a dohā, or (c) by the singer introducing himself.

In reciting a long chain of birahās, or in a competition, the sumiran comes only right at the beginning, the lacārīs or main portions of the birahās continuing without interruption. The performers round off with the finale only at the end of the recital or the session. There is no fixed length to the birahā; it may end in a two-line stanza (e.g. song No. 79) or go on more than thirty lines (e.g. song No. 88).

The rasiyās, originated from the pachą̄h, are in the dialect of Braj where the birahā was not so well known. Though their proponents claim them to be topical songs equal to birahās, in our experience they deal mainly with the themes of love and romance, often with reference to the romantic and heroic exploits of Kṛṣṇa.

The Women's Miscellaneous Songs such as caṭnī (cp. sohar caṭnī, p. 16), nakaṭās, the songs of general complaint in love or ridicule of a rival, ulārās, the vigorous lyrics (cp. sohar ulārā, p. 16) - all of a saucy and lighthearted nature dealing with situations in love, family relationships, romance or neighbourhood events, differ from each other only slightly in tune or theme. The author has had to take the singing ladies' word for placing a song under any one of the titles in the text.

There are also songs without special titles, such as the song of invitation (No. 95).

The modern songs on socio-political themes have been composed in several of the styles listed above, such as birahā (song Nos. 97, 99), bhajan (song Nos. 96, 98, 100) etc. In the earlier period the singers were more concerned with their migration, for example song No. 97A gives caste oppression in India as the reason for it. Then came the question of whether or not to return to India as in song No. 97B. Later the singers were concerned with the need for social reform both in India and, inspired by its success there, in Surinam, together with the Indian struggle for independence (song Nos. 96, 98). But slowly Bhārat, that is India, was replaced by Su-

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rinam and the singers sang of the problems of the Surinam Indian community as in song No. 100 which is the most popular song on this theme; several versions of this song have been recorded. The conflict of loyalties divided between India and Surinam has been resolved by the modern singer by paying homage to the Indian deities in religious terms and to the land of Surinam in patriotic terms (song No. 99) and by adapting Hindu ideas to a Surinam geo-political context, for example ‘mukti (spiritual salvation) by bathing in Cola Creek’. There are also songs in praise of various Indian political parties of Surinam and their leaders - not included here - together with appeals for unity between the Hindus and Muslims of Surinam (song No. 98) also in order to keep them from becoming converts to Christianity.