The major contributors of goalparia lokogeet
Born in 1905, Niharbala was commonly known as “ Baro Rajkumari” (eldest princess) among the local people. From the very early days of her life, she closely observed the ethnic culture of the low caste people, especially the Koch Rajbongshis, the mahouts, the cultivators, etc. The literate and elite people of those days considered the culture of the people as low standard. Beggars and poor proplr often came to the Raj Mahal for help and food; they sang and danced for the enjoyment of the royal people. Little Niharbala listened raptly to their songs and followed their dance moves. “Nihar, What are you doing/ these are not part of the royal family’s culture. Give them up.” (Chakraborty, 2015) She was admonished. But she continued practising. Her efforts later gave Goalparia culture its identity among the literate and elite classes. She proved that low caste people may be poor and illiterate, but they are definitely not uncultured. They have their own unique culture, which has been handed to them down the generations. Its original and closely related to their lifestyle.
Niharbala spent a lot of time in Santiniketan, where she met Kaviguru Rabindranath Tagore and the noted academician Sukumar Sen. With their advice and encouragement, she started writing articles on Goalparia Cultural aspects in reputed journals like Desh, Parichoy and Biswabharati. Later, she even wrote a book Prantabashir Jhuli, which is a collection of her articles regarding the cultural aspects of the undivided Goalpara district. Till date, it is considered a valuable document of Assamese folk culture.
Niharbala was the paternal aunt of Pratima Barua Pandey, the noted goalparia folk singer of Assam who learnt Goalparia songs from her Niharbala Pehi at a very early age. Pratima Barua Pandey was born on October 3, 1935, in Calcutta. She pursued her early education in the city’s Gokhale Memorial School, after which she came to Assam to study at the Girls’ High School, Gauripur, home of the royal family. She mostly spent her early years in between the din of Calcutta and the soothing environments of riverside "Gadadhar" at Gauripur. Although she learned Rabindrasangeet at school, but she never took any formal training or teaching in music except the encouraging words from her father Prakritesh Chandra Barua (Lalji). The most crucial point in her life came when Dr. Bhupen Hazarika visited Gauripur in 1955 and attended a jalsa organised on a social occasion, the shy young Pratima, though tongue-tied with fear, let her voice and the lyrics of the lokageet in Goalpariya dialect flow in tune with the strings and rhythms of the dhol, junuka, dotora, darinda, dhuluki and Bashi which are musical instruments in Goalpariya culture. Dr. Hazarika was highly impressed and predicted that this voice would definitely take Goalpariya lokageet to great heights. Indeed, he first presented Goalpariyafolk song in his filmEra Bator Sur. Besides the mahout songs, Barua Pandey used to sing Paul Robeson’s evergreen hit We are in the same boat brother in stage shows. She married to Gauri Shankar Pandey, a retired principal of the Gauripur P. B. College.
Pratima Barua Pandey was awarded the Padmashree and Sangeet Natak Akademi for her pioneering efforts in popularising Goalpariya lokageet. A documentary film made on her life and works by noted filmmaker Prabin Hazarika, Hastir Kanya, won national award for best biographical film in 1997, earned great appreciation and created waves at the South Asia film festival in 1998. (Wikipedia)
Our music has been over-looked", Barua's brother told us, as the musicians took a short break, "The tourism industry favours upper Assam; and television never comes here."
It was Bhupen Hazarika, the great doyen of Assamese music, who discovered Barua and gave her the moral and publicity boost she needed to make her art sustainable and reach beyond
her region. (Batabyal)
The year 1955. Legendery music maestro Dr. Bhupen Hazarika went to Gauripur, the heartland of Goalparia music, on invitation by Alokesh Barua, son of Legendary Pramtesh Barua. A musical evening was organised at Rajbari. Bhupen Hazarika and several other local artistes sang songs. Then father of Pratima Barua Pandey asked her to sing some Deshi songs. She got nervous because she was quite unknown at that time. However, she sang a few songs. Hazarika got spell bound to hear her voice and amazing songs. He decided to use her voice in his forthcoming coming debut film “Era Bator Sur”. Then came “Mahut Bandhure” which made her singing star. Thus Bhupen Hazarika’s contribution in establishing her talent and the beauty of Goalparia Folk song was immense.
Other whose contributions are worth mentioning are Siben Mondal, Dr. Birendranath Dutta, Rudra Barua, Purusattam Das, Nikhilesh Barua and many others.
Born in 1905, Niharbala was commonly known as “ Baro Rajkumari” (eldest princess) among the local people. From the very early days of her life, she closely observed the ethnic culture of the low caste people, especially the Koch Rajbongshis, the mahouts, the cultivators, etc. The literate and elite people of those days considered the culture of the people as low standard. Beggars and poor proplr often came to the Raj Mahal for help and food; they sang and danced for the enjoyment of the royal people. Little Niharbala listened raptly to their songs and followed their dance moves. “Nihar, What are you doing/ these are not part of the royal family’s culture. Give them up.” (Chakraborty, 2015) She was admonished. But she continued practising. Her efforts later gave Goalparia culture its identity among the literate and elite classes. She proved that low caste people may be poor and illiterate, but they are definitely not uncultured. They have their own unique culture, which has been handed to them down the generations. Its original and closely related to their lifestyle.
Niharbala spent a lot of time in Santiniketan, where she met Kaviguru Rabindranath Tagore and the noted academician Sukumar Sen. With their advice and encouragement, she started writing articles on Goalparia Cultural aspects in reputed journals like Desh, Parichoy and Biswabharati. Later, she even wrote a book Prantabashir Jhuli, which is a collection of her articles regarding the cultural aspects of the undivided Goalpara district. Till date, it is considered a valuable document of Assamese folk culture.
Niharbala was the paternal aunt of Pratima Barua Pandey, the noted goalparia folk singer of Assam who learnt Goalparia songs from her Niharbala Pehi at a very early age. Pratima Barua Pandey was born on October 3, 1935, in Calcutta. She pursued her early education in the city’s Gokhale Memorial School, after which she came to Assam to study at the Girls’ High School, Gauripur, home of the royal family. She mostly spent her early years in between the din of Calcutta and the soothing environments of riverside "Gadadhar" at Gauripur. Although she learned Rabindrasangeet at school, but she never took any formal training or teaching in music except the encouraging words from her father Prakritesh Chandra Barua (Lalji). The most crucial point in her life came when Dr. Bhupen Hazarika visited Gauripur in 1955 and attended a jalsa organised on a social occasion, the shy young Pratima, though tongue-tied with fear, let her voice and the lyrics of the lokageet in Goalpariya dialect flow in tune with the strings and rhythms of the dhol, junuka, dotora, darinda, dhuluki and Bashi which are musical instruments in Goalpariya culture. Dr. Hazarika was highly impressed and predicted that this voice would definitely take Goalpariya lokageet to great heights. Indeed, he first presented Goalpariyafolk song in his filmEra Bator Sur. Besides the mahout songs, Barua Pandey used to sing Paul Robeson’s evergreen hit We are in the same boat brother in stage shows. She married to Gauri Shankar Pandey, a retired principal of the Gauripur P. B. College.
Pratima Barua Pandey was awarded the Padmashree and Sangeet Natak Akademi for her pioneering efforts in popularising Goalpariya lokageet. A documentary film made on her life and works by noted filmmaker Prabin Hazarika, Hastir Kanya, won national award for best biographical film in 1997, earned great appreciation and created waves at the South Asia film festival in 1998. (Wikipedia)
Our music has been over-looked", Barua's brother told us, as the musicians took a short break, "The tourism industry favours upper Assam; and television never comes here."
It was Bhupen Hazarika, the great doyen of Assamese music, who discovered Barua and gave her the moral and publicity boost she needed to make her art sustainable and reach beyond
her region. (Batabyal)
The year 1955. Legendery music maestro Dr. Bhupen Hazarika went to Gauripur, the heartland of Goalparia music, on invitation by Alokesh Barua, son of Legendary Pramtesh Barua. A musical evening was organised at Rajbari. Bhupen Hazarika and several other local artistes sang songs. Then father of Pratima Barua Pandey asked her to sing some Deshi songs. She got nervous because she was quite unknown at that time. However, she sang a few songs. Hazarika got spell bound to hear her voice and amazing songs. He decided to use her voice in his forthcoming coming debut film “Era Bator Sur”. Then came “Mahut Bandhure” which made her singing star. Thus Bhupen Hazarika’s contribution in establishing her talent and the beauty of Goalparia Folk song was immense.
Other whose contributions are worth mentioning are Siben Mondal, Dr. Birendranath Dutta, Rudra Barua, Purusattam Das, Nikhilesh Barua and many others.
Where can I get lyrics of the songs by Pratima Baruah?
ReplyDelete