Folk song in Bastar

इली रे धुंदी धुंका
मरनी पानी,खमिंक फुटिला ब्योरे
राजा गेहिले दंतयरा ,
मवलो चेघिले घोरा ,
अड़े बो लेब्री-लेब्री बजेसे चंपा मोंगरा छो जोरि

The above lines are a part of folk song being sung by tribal in the Bastar district in Chhattisgarh. The English translation of the song goes like this;-

With the storm comes the
Welcome rain,
mushrooms flower in the
forest,
the king goes to
Dantewada, the goddess rides a horse
the pair of flower Champa and Mongra bloom play like the
music of the flute

This is called Bhawar folk song. There are many songs like the one mentioned above is sung by the tribal. Every day in the evening one can come across women on their way back home after day long tiresome work spotted crooning songs. Here is a lyric of another folk song;

 सूरा सूरा छाती ओकरिला
माटी पदम घुरिया गोटी
संद गेली हांडा कसत गेली
रे, सोना के छिवला माटी
"The tiny ant has dug up the earth, pebbles, stones,
working hard, bearing pain, making gold of what is mud"

Men, women and children are having great fun while they sing such song. They keep dancing at a peculiar number. They are seen in round shape. The song mentioned above is called Dhanmali folk song.
Here is another folk song composed in the local dialect called Gondi. I am giving to the translation of it since I could not record the song in dialect

" Long, long ago the sky and earth were very close to each other,
In those times in the area which is now Bastar, there lived an old woman.
Every day when she would pound the husk in the "Okhli" (Mortar)
the bamboo with which she would grind the grains would hit the sky
and restrict her movement.
One day she got really irritated and angrily pushed the sky upward and held it there.
The sky got scared and has remained there ever since
The Gond tribe is the descendant of the gutsy old woman."

To read more about my region Please click the link below;
 A Trip to Jagdalpur