The oral and intangible heritage of South Asia: performances by dancers and musicians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan snd Sri Lanka
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| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | German |
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New York [u.a.]
UNESCO Publ. [u.a.]
2007
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Volltext |
| Physical Description: | 32 S. Ill. |
| ISBN: | 9789231040559 |
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Collection
Editions UNESCO
UNESCO GOODWILL AMBASSADOR MADANJEET SINGH
COMPRISING A DVD OF LIVE PERFORMANCES BY
40 SOUTH ASIAN DANCERS AND MUSICIANS
IN CELEBRATION OF THE
ON 1« OCCASION Of THF anNUa* mfftinG Of
UNESCO GOODWILL AMBASSADORS
PRESENTS
THE ORAL AND INTANGIBLE HERITAGE OF SOUTH ASIA
BY THE PERFORMING ARTISTS FROM AFGHAN-TAN, BANGLADESH.
BH iTAN INDIA MALDIVES NEPAL. PAKISTAN SRI LA· .If A
UNESCO HOUSE (ROOM I) - 125 AVENUE DE SUFFREN, PARIS 7
ON 16 MARCH 2006 AT 1900 hrs
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The UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador Madanjeet Singh thanks Mr.
Koichiro Matsuura for bestowing on him the medal (below) in
commemoration of the 60th Anniversary of UNESCO. Mr Mahendrajeet
Singh, a Trustee of South Asia Foundation is seen on the right.
Front cover picture: In a traditional ritual, a father and son offer holy
water to their ancestors as they worship the sun. — Published in The
Sun in Myth and Art by Madanjeet Singh (UNESCO 1993).
Madanjeet Singh
The Orai and Intangible Heritage of South Asia
PERFORMANCES BY 40 DANCERS AND MUSICIANS FROM AFGHANISTAN, BANGLADESH,
BHUTAN, INDIA, NEPAL, PAKISTAN AND SRI LANKA
Foreword
Koïchiro Matsuura
UNESCO
UNITED NATIONS EDUCATIONAL, SCIENTIFIC AND CULTURAL ORGANIZATION
IN COOPERATION WITH SOUTH ASIA FOUNDATION
OTHER BOOKS AND MONOGRAPHS BY THE AUTHOR
Indian Sculpture in Bronze and Stone (1951)
Etruscan Cave Painting (monograph, 1953)
India, Painting from Ajanta Caves (1954)
Indian Miniatures (1963)
Ajanta, Paintings of the Sacred and the Secular (1964)
Himalayan Art (1968)
The White Horse (1976)
madanjeet, The Early Sixties (monograph, 1986)
This My People (1989)
The Sun in Myth and Art (1993)
Renewable Energy of the Sun (monograph, 1996)
The Timeless Energy of the Sun (1998)
The Sasia Story (2005)
The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of
UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
The author is responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this monograph and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not
necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization.
The personal views expressed by the author in The Oral and Intangible Heritage of South Asia monograph are not necessarily of the South Asia Foundation and
do not commit the organization.
Published in 2007 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). 7, place de Fontenoy F-75352 Paris 07 SP, France
ISBN 9 789231 040559
© Madanjeet Singh/UNESCO 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without permission in writing from the South Asia Foundation.
Proofreading: David MacDonald
Layout: Celine Chiaramonte
Typeset, printed and bound in France on January 2007 by Imprimerie JPS - 10 rue Gautier Vignal - 06310 Beaulieu-sur-Mer.
PESCO
Director General
On the occasion of the annual meeting of UNESCO Goodwill Ambassadors and that of the South Asia Foundation, I would like to
express how much I appreciate their support for the safeguarding of the world s intangible cultural heritage, particularly through the
Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity programme. The three Proclamations issued by UNESCO since 2001
serve to draw attention to our fragile and perishable cultural heritage and highlight the broad spectrum of oral traditions in music,
theatre, rituals and cosmogonies across the world.
South Asian countries were among the large number of UNESCO Member States that were strongly in favour of incorporating
the oral heritage of developing countries within the History of Mankind, conceived by Julian Huxley in 1946. As a result, the
General Conference of UNESCO embarked in 1976 on a new and completely revised version to ensure that the traditional methods
of historical research, based on written sources, were used side by side with new critical methods adapted to the use of oral sources
and contributions from archaeology .
Since renamed the History of Humanity, the revised version was briefly directed in the early 1980s by the former Indian
Ambassador, Madanjeet Singh, then a director in the Culture Sector of UNESCO. It is against this background that, in his capacity
as a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, he has organized this unique performance of oral and intangible heritage in cooperation with
the chairpersons of the South Asia Foundation s chapters in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and
Sri Lanka. Over forty talented dancers and musicians playing on traditional musical instruments ֊ some of which can be traced back
to the Indus valley civilization - reaffirm South Asia s unity in diversity, which is deeply rooted in the oral and intangible culture
that blends with the mythology, history and geography of the region.
I would like to extend my particular thanks to the group of artists from Bhutan, who have come to UNESCO Headquarters to
perform the Mask Dance of the Drums from Drametse, and the musicians from Bangladesh, who will be singing traditional Baul
songs. These two Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity were included in the Proclamation issued by
UNESCO in 2005.
Finally, I would like to express my warm appreciation to Madanjeet Singh for his generosity, commitment and vision in
organizing this evening of spectacle and performance.
Koichiro Matsuura
Paris, 16 March 2006
The folk culture of Kashmir was kept alive by the coolie poet Aasi, an illiterate Muslim labourer doing menial jobs in Srinagar. With his secular poetry he
inspired people from all walks of life in forming a cultural front to resisit the brutal attack by Kabaili tribes who had invaded the Kashmir valley in 1948
— first published in the book This My People by Madanjeet Singh (1989).
-4-
The Oral am{Intangible Heritage of South Asia
Madanjeet Singh
It was in Kashmir that I first became aware of the prevailing
influence and power of oral folk culture. There, I met Aasi, the
coolie poet ֊ an illiterate Muslim labourer performing
menial jobs in Srinagar. His secular poetry had inspired all
communities, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs and
Christians, to form a cultural front against the tribal terrorists
who brutally attacked the valley in 1948 soon after India s
partition. Aasi was a devotee of Kashmir s patron Sufi saint,
Hazrat Nuruddin Nurani (or Nund Rishi), and often went to
pray in his shrine one floor of which was used as a temple and
the other as a mosque.
Aasi intoned his poetry like Vedas, lengthy oral teachings
which were composed in archaic Sanskrit by Indo-European-
speaking semi-nomadic Aryan herders who crossed the
Himalayas from the Asian steppes during the second
millennium BC before settling on the planes of the Indus and
Ganges Rivers. The roots of modern secularism can be traced
back to the animistic world-view of four Vedas they composed
and worshipped the Nature deities, such as the Sun, earth, sky,
fire, water, rain and storms. The great epics, the Mahabharatra
and the Ramayana give some clues to the thinking and way of
life of these Aryan settlers. The liturgical corpus which was
handed down from these early days is preserved orally even
today, as several of these hymns are invoked throughout India
with subtleties of intonation, tone and rhythm as recited in the
olden days.
The Vedic animist culture led to the notions such as
agnosticism and atheism. The agnosticism which Siddhartha
Gautama, the historical Buddha, preached as Theravada (Way
of the Elders), was not a conventional religion but observance
The four Vedas, orally composed in archaic Sanskrit (c. 1500-1200 BC), are inherently agnostic, extolling the elements of Nature.
The Vedas were proclamed by UNESCO as among the first Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity .
of certain norms of daily life for human salvation (Nirvana).
When asked by some skeptics to prove that he had in fact
achieved Enlightenment, the Buddha did not point towards
the heaven but touched the earth as his witness.
Many Kashmiri poets were women, like Lai la, or Lai Ded
(fourteenth century), who wrote poems about the god Shiva.
Hubb Khatun (sixteenth century) and Arani-mal (eighteenth
century) were famous for their hauntingly beautiful love lyrics.
There is much poetic literature written by Muslims in
Kashmiri, commencing with the Islamic invocation of Allah,
which nevertheless betrays strong Hindu influences. Islam
was among the different religions and cultures that India
assimilated from abroad over the centuries. Historically, India
covered the whole of South Asia, the early inhabitants
of the subcontinent naming it after the mighty river
Sindhu, which in Sanskrit means like an ocean .
Later, the Greeks named it Indus , and in the
course of time the whole of South Asia came to be
known by the generic name of India.
The advent of languages in prehistoric times began
with verse rather than prose. This took place long
before a rudimentary script of 2,000-odd short
inscriptions was invented by the talented Harappans of the
Indus valley. Verse was easier to memorize orally and was
therefore better suited for transmitting information for the
benefit of succeeding generations. The addition of a rhythm
and beat aided memory and in this way music became an part
of oral traditions, even after writing became commonplace.
The musical rhythm of life, as it were, seems to have begun
with clappers: flat pieces of wood that were held in each hand
and beaten together. This was a more effective version of hand
clapping that accentuated the rhythm of the dance and the
song. The most ancient musical instruments are believed to
have been conceived by beating on common household
earthenware pots, a practice which can be traced back to the
terracotta toys of the Indus valley civilization. Known as
ghatam (symbolizing the womb), these instruments are still
played today, particularly in South Indian temples. In later
times, leather was stretched over the mouth of the pot and
probably fixed with wooden pegs.
Likewise, a rudimentary one-string instrument called an ek-
tara was invented by stretching a gut or a metal wire over a
dried melon sound box. A varieties of string instruments are
played all over South Asia such as the sitar, rabab, veena and
many other variations, as the lute was a favourite
musical instrument during the Gupta period (320 to
486). Sarangi, modeled after the lute is a popular
bowed instrument played during festivals such as
Holi, especially in Rajasthan. A short bow plays
over three or four stings made of gut, below
which thirteen metal stings serve as resonators. It
is amazing that these musical instruments are still
in use especially in rural areas.
The flute, originally made from a simple bamboo reed, is a
universally popular musical instrument, played particularly on
joyful occasions. Generally identified with fertility (symbolizing
a phallus), it is a regular accompaniment to love songs and
thought to exercise a lascivious influence upon the hearer.
South Asian bamboo flute is a very simple keyless instrument.
Two main varieties of flutes are currently used: Bansuri, which
has six finger holes and one blowing hole, is used
predominantly in northern regions of the Indian subcontinent
A terracotta pot with protruding breasts used in archaic Vedic rituals representing womb of the Earth Mother.
It was discovered at Ponga, a remote village in Kerala, India. The most ancient drums were common household earthenware pots,
a practice which can be traced back to the Indus Valley civilization (National Museum, New Delhi).
Vikku Vinakram is India s foremost traditional player of ghatam,
having started to beat on the clay pot at the age of 3 while learning
from his father, Harihara Sharma. He then played in several
southern Indian temples where his exceptional talent was
recognized and enabled him to perform at the United Nations in
New York at the age of 13. He has had many famous musicians in
India and abroad as mentors, accompanying them on his ghatam
in traditional and modern, avant-garde ensembles. He has played
with such great musicians and vocalists as Srinivasa Iyer, MS
Subhalakshmi, Balamurali Krishna, Bhimsen joshi and Hariprasad
Chaurasia. His unforgettable performances include Shakti, a fusion
of Indian music with acoustic jazz alongside guitarist John
McLaughlin, violinist Shankar and Zakir Hussain on tabla. In 1991,
he participated in the recording of Planet Drum as composer and
co-producer, together with Mickey Hart, the drummer of The
Grateful Dead. Planet Drum won the Grammy Award for Best
World Music Album.
Vikku s son, Vmayakaram Umashankar is now following in his
father s footsteps, keeping alive the oral and intangible tradition of
the ghatam. Together, they play their favourite rhythm, Saptakshra,
which comprises seven notes.
and Venu or Pullanguzhal, which has eight finger holes, is
mostly used in southern regions. Presently, the 8 holed flute
with cross fingering technique, is common among many
South Asian flautists. The quality of the sound from the flute
depends on the specific bamboo used to make it, and it is
supposed that the best bamboos are from the Nagarcoil area
in South India. In traditional folk societies, music is a necessity
in almost all festivals and rituals.
The singing accompanying the dances is tuned to local oral
traditions, and interprets the sentiments of common people in
a manner that it is related to their life and often critical of
current social and political issues. In this way, folk music takes
on a functional role; it is not only entertainment but an
accompaniment to other social activities. The words of folk
songs can serve as chronicle, newspaper and agent of
enculturation.
A group of rural folk dancers in Bangladesh enacting the legend of Krishna playing on his flute, while the gopis (wives and daughters
of the cowherds) dance ecstatically with him in the forest — published in The Sasia Story by Madanjeet Singh (UNESCO 2005).
-։։-
» *
In modern societies, folk music is perpetuated by ethnic,
occupational or religious minorities, among which it is thought
to promote self-esteem, self-preservation and social solidarity.
In South Asia, musical instruments are invariably played in
festivals such as Diwali, the festival of lights; Holi, where
people sprinkle coloured water on one other; and especially
Basant, which celebrates the onset of spring when clear blue
skies come alive with colourful paper kites. Lahore in Pakistan
celebrates the festival of Basant as nowhere else in South Asia.
Originally associated with a Hindu festival called vasant
panchami, it became a truly secular celebration as Indian
culture absorbed different religions and cultures from abroad.
Kite-flying recognizes no boundaries.
Festivals are celebrated with great enthusiasm all over South Asia, but
none equals the fervour and joy with which the Basant spring festival
is celebrated in Lahore, Pakistan, where men, women and children
unleash colourful paper kites and go dancing in the streets —
published in The Sasia Story by Madanjeet Singh (UNESCO 2005).
South Asian folk music and dances with their inexhaustible
variety of forms and rhythms are predominantly secular, as the
oral traditions have grown from elements of Nature mostly
preserved by tribal communities. There is hardly a national fair
or festival where these dances are not performed, differing
according to region, occupation and social status. Several
aboriginal tribes, such as the half-naked Adivasis and the
Murias, BhiIs, Gonds, Juangs and Santals are the most
uninhibited in their singing and dancing.
Bauls are the wandering minstrels of Bangladesh, itinerant
singers who do not belong to any religious denomination. The
lonely Baul roams places trying endlessly to find his identity
through music, devotion and love. Their songs invoke
The Rasleela folk dances are performed by women in Rajasthan,
recalling the legendary Rajput princess Mira Bai, as they sing and
dance in the streets around an imaginary Krishna, the divine lover
and flute player — published in The Sun in Myth and Art by
Madanjeet Singh (UNESCO 1993).
traditions that can be interpreted as a revolt against the
conventions and bindings of established society. They believe
that the spirit does not reside in an unknown heaven but
instead can be traced within us through love and compassion
for one other. Baul songs transcend religion and inspired poet
Rabindranath Tagore to write the national anthems of both
India and Bangladesh. In the Proclamation issued by
UNESCO in 2005, Baul traditional songs were included in the
Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity/
Both in the Indian and Pakistani parts of Punjab, the most
electrifying social folk dance is bhangra, the male harvest
Performing artists from Bangladesh playing on ek-tara (one string) and
wooden clappers. These were among the earliest of musical
instruments and remain popular today in South Asia.
dance. The dance is punctuated by singing while at the end of
every line a drum thunders. The final line of the song is taken
up by all the dancers in a chorus as they spring, bellow, shout
and gallop in a circle, in ecstasy.
The national social folk dance of Rajasthan is the ghoomar,
danced by women in long full skirts and colourful chuneris
(headscarves draped over shoulders and tucked in front at the
waist). These dancers are performed during festivals.
The kacchi ghori dancers of this region are also spectacular. In
this dance, the men are arrayed in the traditional attire of a
bridegroom and equipped with shields and long swords.
m-
/ court jester playing on string instrument known as the sarangi.
Eighteenth-century Mughal miniature painting (Clive Album, Victoria
and Albert Museum, London).
They ride brilliantly coloured papier-maché horses built up
on bamboo frames and enact jousting contests at marriages
and festivals. The Bawaris, a tribe that lives on the fringe of
society, are generally expert in this form of folk dance.
The kolyacha is among the better known examples of folk
dance traditional to fishermen indigenous to the Konkan coast
of western central India. The kolyacha enacts the rowing of a
boat. Women wave handkerchiefs to their male partners who
move with sliding steps. For wedding parties, young Kolis
dance in the streets carrying household utensils for the
newlywed couple who join the dance at its climax.
The Lambadi gypsy women of Andhra Pradesh wear mirror-
speckled headdresses and skirts and cover their arms with
broad, white-bone bracelets. They dance in slow, swaying
movements, while the men acting as singers and drummers.
Their agnostic dance is imbued with impassioned grace and
lyricism and is more subdued than that of gypsies in other
parts of the world.
Of the endless variety of ritualistic folk dances, many have
magical significance and are connected with ancient cults.
The karakam dance of Tamil Nadu state is mainly performed
at an annual festival in front of the image of Mariyammai (the
goddess of pestilence) to deter her from unleashing an
epidemic. Tumbling and leaping, the dancer precariously
balances on his head a pot of uncooked rice, which is
surmounted by a tall bamboo frame. People ascribe this feat
to the spirit of the deity, which is believed to enter his body.
Masked dances as cultural objects of oral tradition have been
used throughout world history since the Stone Age and have
been as varied in appearance as in their use and symbolism.
The essential character of hiding and revealing personalities or
moods is common to all masks. Many masks are associated
with ceremonies and rituals that have religious or social
-1
There are several varieties of string instrument played in different
regions of South Asia. The sarangi in Rajasthan is similar to the rabab,
played here by a musician in the Hans Bhawan Palace, Jodhpur,
Rajasthan.
I-
Kathakali, also known as Kutiyattam, is the most ancient Sanskrit
theatre of Kerala, India. In 2001, UNESCO proclaimed it as among
the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity .
significance or are concerned with funerary customs, fertility
rites or curing sickness.
Kathakali is indigenous to southwestern India, its subject
matter taken from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata, and
stories from Saiva literature. The faces of the dancers are
made-up to look like painted masks. The costume consists of
a full skirt, a heavy jacket, numerous garlands and necklaces,
and a towering headdress. The presentation is an all-night
show during which voices chant the story as mimed by
dancers accompanied by drumbeats. Stylized gestures and
facial expressions follow the rules of the Bharata-natya
treatise. The gestures are wide and strong by pointing of a
finger and rolling of the eyeballs from side to side, being preceded
by a sweep of the body and a great circling of the arms.
The entire Himalayan region from east to west is well known
for its fantastic masked dancers. In the yak dance in the
Ladakh section of Kashmir and the eastern fringes of the
Himalayas, the dancer impersonating a yak dances with a
man mounted on his back. In sada tapa tsen, men wear
gorgeous silks, brocades and long tunics with wide flapping
sleeves. Skulls arranged as a diadem are a prominent feature
of their grotesquely grinning wooden masks, representing
spirits of the other world. The dancers rely on powerful, rather
slow, twirling movements interspersed with hops.
The chhau, a unique form of masked dance, is preserved by
the royal family of the former state of Saraikela in Bihar. The
dancer impersonates rainbows, night or flowers. He acts out a
short theme and performs a series of vignettes at the annual
Chaitra Parva festival in April. Chhau masks have
predominantly human features slightly modified to suggest the
aspect they portray. With serene expressions painted in
simple, flat colours, they differ radically from the elaborate
facial makeup of kathakali or the exaggerated ghoulishness of
the Noh and Kandyan masks. His face being expressionless,
the chhau dancer s body communicates the total emotional
and psychological tensions of the character. His feet have a
gestural language; his toes are agile, functional and
expressive, like those of an animal. The dancer is mute; no
song is sung. Only instrumental music accompanies him.
The tradition of masked dances has flourished in particular in
Bhutan. Among them, the Drametse Ngacham is the most
popular and is performed at the festival, Drametse Tshechu in
honour of Guru Padmasambhava - the saint who brought
Tantric Buddhism to the country in the eighth century AD. A
variety of religious dances are performed during the festival
when people from neighbouring villages and districts come to
renew their faith in Buddhism and to obtain blessings. For
over four centuries, the Drametse community has been the
sole custodian of this cultural event which represents their
social and religious identity.
The Therayattam festival in Kerala is held to propitiate the gods
and demons recognized by the pantheon of the Malayalis. The
dancers, arrayed in awe-inspiring costumes and hideous
masks, enact weird rituals before the village shrine. A devotee
makes an offering of a cock. The dancer grabs it, chops off its
head in one stroke, gives a blessing, and hands the bloody gift
back to the devotee. This ceremony is punctuated by this
prolonged and ponderous dance. Such traditional dances are
no longer as popular as in the olden days.
Drametse Ngacham dances are performed annually during the Dramese Tshech festival, held at the famous Thegchog Ogyen Namdroel
Choeling monastery in Bhutan. The monastery was founded in the sixteenth century by a Buddhist nun, Choeten Zangmo. The spectacular
masked dances of Vajrayana (Tantric) Buddhism are performed all the way along the high Himalayan regions of Ladakh, Nepal, Sikkim and
Bhutan — described in the book Himalayan Art by Madanjeet Singh (UNESCO 1968).
-T3-
A bas-relief stone sculpture of a dancing girl carved on a wall in the
fourteenth-century temple of Kanchipuram, India — published in
Indian Sculptures in Bronze and Stone by Madanjeet Singh (ISMEO 1951).
The men and women of the Muria tribe in Madhya Pradesh
exist on equal terms and perform the bison horn dance
together. The men wear a horned headdress with a tall tuft of
feathers and a fringe of cowry shells over their faces, while
carrying a log-shaped drum slung around their necks. The
women s heads are surmounted by broad, solid-brass chaplets
and their breasts are covered with heavy metal necklaces,
while they carry sticks in their right hands like drum
majorettes. Fifty to a hundred performers dance at a time. The
bisons attack and fight each other, spearing up leaves with
their horns and chasing the female dancers in a dynamic
interpretation of nature s mating season.
In the dindi and kala dances of Maharashtra, the dancers
revolve in a circle, beating short sticks (dindis) to keep time
with the chorus leader and a drummer in the middle. As the
rhythm accelerates, the dancers form two rows making
geometric patterns by stamping their right feet and bowing
and advancing with their left. The kala dance features a pot
symbolizing fecundity. A group of dancers forms a double-
tiered circle bearing other dancers on their shoulders. On top
of this tier a man breaks the pot and splashes curds over the
naked torsos of the dancers below. After this ceremonial
opening, the dancers enter the main square and start the battle
dance by feverishly twirling sticks and swords.
The garaba is a folk dance that takes its name from garabi or
decorated votive pots . Although categorized as religious, the
dance has strong secular connotations and forms a very
popular part of the Gujarati festival. During this celebration, a
group of fifty to a hundred women dance together in honour
of the goddess Amba Mata, known in other parts of India as
Durga or Kali. Men move in a circle, bending and turning and
clapping their hands, as they sing in praise of the goddess. The
oral and all embracing character of folk culture comes into
At UNESCO, the Drametse Ngacham dance was performed Pema Samdrup (Dancer / Musician), Khandu (Dancer /
by: Nim Cyeltshen (Lead Dancer), Penjor (Dancer / Musician), Wangchuk (Dancer / Musician), Tsagye (Dancer /
Musician), Dung Norbu (Dancer / Musician), Ap Dodo Musician), Tshering Tashi (Dancer / Musician) and Senge
(Dancer / Musician), Sonam Chogey (Dancer / Musician), Cyeltshen (Dancer / Musician).
-IS-
focus as it is carried around the world on the wings of
traditions and blends with the mythology, history and
geography of different countries.
As the great Indian epics the Mahabharata and Ramayana
fanned throughout Asia, they became interwoven with
indigenous myths. Until recently they were recited by
Indonesian Muslims at the roadside - a practice which has
long disappeared in India. Interpreted by the master
puppeteer (dalang) and using the three-dimensional wooden
puppet (wayang klitik or golek) the singers and musicians play
melodies on local bronze instruments and beat on gamelan
drums. The puppets are also made of flat leather (wayang kulit)
and played as shadows on the stage by performing artists who
sing, dance and mime.
The puppet carries a sense of universality that springs from its
impersonality and the unreality imposed upon it by its own
limitations. The art of puppetry justifies itself when it adds
something to nature by selection, by elimination or by
caricature. Some of the most effective puppets are the crudest:
the Rajasthani puppets of India have no legs at all. India
provided the models for the more stylized, birdlike profiles of
the Indonesian shadow figures, and the intricately shaped
leather cutouts of Thailand. It is precisely among these most
highly stylized types of puppets that the art reaches its highest
manifestations. In the Javanese puppet theatre, a grotesque
giant is a personification of the destructive principle, while an
elegantly elongated local deity is a personification of the
constructive principle. Here the puppet theatre reveals its
close relationship with the whole spirit of oral folklore and
legend. Unlike Western music, modal concepts permeate all
manifestations of Oriental music, representing a synthesis of
well-established systems both of scalar constructions and a
variety of melodic formulas. They are essentially derived from
the folk music of many tribal societies and show well-
organized scalar and modal patterns. The amalgamation of
these elements yields specific melodic types imbued with
ethical and emotional connotations.
South Asia s social, cultural and religious landscape
underwent a radical transformation with the ascendancy of
the Mauryan Empire. By about 260 BC Emperor Ashoka,
accepting the Buddhist philosophy of nonviolence,
proclaimed his policies of tolerance, truthfulness and
compassion. During his reign and after, the simple secular
tenets of Theravada, preached by the historical Buddha (born
c. 563 BC), interacted with the metaphysical notions of
Mahayana Buddhism and the ignominy implicit in
representational art began to decrease. It recreated the art
tradition of the Indus valley civilization representing animal
figures such as tigers, buffaloes, crocodiles, elephants, deer,
trees and flowers. It encouraged the rendering of Bodhisattvas
by symbols borrowed from animistic nature cults while the
Buddha was represented by symbols such as the Bodhi Tree
and his footprints. This taboo of representing the Buddha in
person continued until the First century AD.
Music became fashionable during the golden age of the
prosperous Gupta dynasty from 320 to 486 AD. King
Kumaragupta, noted for his musical accomplishment, had a
golden coin minted showing himself as a musician. An
account of a day in the luxurious life of a Gupta king was as
follows: He woke up early in the morning and the bards
started their music. Then he adorned himself with splendid
clothes... The king and his companions drank wine out of
ruby cups while lutes were strummed; there was dance and
music. In the evening the king returned to his palace and
attended musical performances and dramatic shows. The
Gupta rule led to a great flowering of Indian literature,
architecture, sculpture, painting and science.
The nascent Hinduism during the Gupta Empire was tolerant
towards Buddhism. Their way of life is reflected in the cave
paintings of Ajanta that illustrate the lavish lifestyle of
courtiers. The imposing images of Bodhisattvas
radiating wisdom and earthly splendour, reflect
the secular message of religious
agnosticism embodied in the Theravada
doctrine preached by Siddhartha
Gautama. His followers continued to
propagate his doctrine after his death (c.
483 BC), as they built numerous cave
monasteries along the trade routes. These
cultural stopovers became important
adjuncts to oral tradition where local
scribes, painters and sculptors gathered
to immortalize the Buddha s message
through paintings and sculptures.
Jataka tales of the Buddha s previous lives
illustrate a vast panorama of daily life: landlords and peasants,
hunters and fishermen, saints and priests, merchants and
shopkeepers, thieves and mendicants, gamblers, animals and
a variety of birds. Among the masterpieces is the famous
painting of Dancing Girl with Musicians. This depicts the tale
of a queen who invited 700 dancing girls and musicians with
flutes, cymbals and drums in a futile attempt to persuade her
Buddhist husband to abandon his ascetic lifestyle —
illustrated in the first volume of the UNESCO World Art series,
INDIA, paintings from Ajanta caves (1954).
The Jataka stories are said to derive from another storehouse
of Indian oral and intangible heritage, known as Panchatantra
- Sanskrit for Five Chapters . The original Sanskrit work, now
lost, may have originated at any time between 100 BC and AD
500. The Persian royal physician, Burzo, translated it into
Pahlavi (Middle Persian) in the sixth century.
Although this work is also now lost, a Syriac
translation has survived, together with the
famous eighth-century Arabic translation of Ibn
al-Muqaffa known as Kalilah wa Dimnah,
after the two jackals that figure in the first
story. The Arabic translation led to various
other versions, including a second Syriac
translation and an eleventh-century
version in Greek, the Stephanites kai
lehnelates, from which translations were
made into Latin and various Slavic
languages.
The seventeenth-century Turkish translation,
the Hilmayun-name, was based on a
fifteenth-century Persian version, the Anwar-e-
Suhayli. In Europe, a version was written in Latin hexameters
by the fabulist Baldo, probably in the twelfth century, and in
the thirteenth century, a Spanish translation was made on the
orders of Alfonso X of Leon and Castile. It was the twelfth-
century Hebrew version of Rabbi Joel, however, that became
the source of most European versions. First translated into
Latin by John of Capua as the Liber Ketilae et Dimnae, it led
to various European versions including another Latin version,
the Liber de Dina et Katila by Raimond of Beziers in the
fourteenth century, and the Buch der Beispiele der alien
Weisen by Antonius von Pforr in the fifteenth century.
The Indian Gupta dynasty (320-486) governed a prosperous realm where arts and commerce thrived under their rule. They were great
patrons of music. The pear-shaped string instrument played at the time anticipated the lute and several other string instruments worldwide.
-17-
The Panchatantra stories also travelled to Indonesia through
Old Javanese written literature and possibly through oral
versions.
During the middle ages, a devotional movement emerged that
believed in the intense emotional attachment and love of a
devotee toward his personal god. This led to a large number
of Bhakti (devotional) cults that mushroomed all over the
Indian subcontinent that eulogize the
mythology of Krishna, the black . He is
credited with having composed Bhagwat
Gita, the holiest of the Hindu scriptures while
he served as the charioteer of Arjuna of the
Pandava clan in the great battle of the
Mahabharata. Later In the Chandyog
Upanishads during the Vedanta period
(around the second century), he is described
as a learned man , articulating the
resentment felt by his own growing pastoral
community against the dominant culture of
nomadic Aryan masters and their god Indra.
This was the start of a mythology that
developed around Krishna that caught the
imagination of people over the centuries. He
became widely renowned as a youthful
divine lover; the sound of his flute attracting
the gopis (wives and daughters of the
cowherds) to leave their homes and dance
ecstatically with him in the forests. His
favourite among them was the beautiful
Radha, the wife of another cowherd, thereby invoking the
morality of the liberated female cultures of indigenous
matrilinea! societies. Matrilinea! way of life encouraged music
and still practiced by many tribal communities, such as the
Khasis in the Indian state of Meghalaya, and in Kerala where
the inheritance of property and succession runs through the
female line.
Thereafter, the popularity of the Krishna cult grew rapidly
throughout the Indian subcontinent. In southern India, the
Alvar and Nayanar hymnists who roamed the countryside
from the seventh to the tenth centuries orally
promoted the devotional fervour of the
Bhakti. In northern India, the ideals of divine
love inspired the thirteenth-century poet
Jayadeva to write Geeta Govinda, which
invokes the love of Krishna and Radha. They
also inspired the fifteenth- to sixteenth-
century Bengali mystic Chaitanya to eulogize
a woman s yearning for her beloved, and his
contemporary Valabha s delights in the
exploits of Krishna as the divine lover. In
Assam, Bhagwata Purana was the basis of
Bhakti cult of Krishna which was propagated
by Shankaradeva, a charismatic personality.
The Bhakti poet-saints hailed from all parts of
the Indian subcontinent and from all sections
of society, irrespective of gender, class or
caste - ranging from mendicants like
Namdev, Tukaram, Tulsidas, Surdas,
Gorakhnath, Chandidas and Mira Bai, the
Rajput Princess of Jodhpur in Rajasthan.
Bhakti cult was practiced almost entirely
without images and devotees participated in congressional
singing, preferring the use of their own locally spoken
languages rather than Sanskrit. Mira Bai, a Rajput Princess,
Silk embroidery of Krishna s image in silver thread (Sawai Man Singh Museum, Jaipur, India).
-in-
Among the second-fifth century AD paintings in the caves of Ajanta is the Dancing girl with musicians playing on flutes and drums . Models
such as this masterpiece inspired generations of artists to keep alive the oral and intangible heritage of South Asia — published in the first volume
of UNESCO World Art scries, INDIA, Paintings from Ajanta Caves by Madanjeet Singh, with a Preface by Jawaharlal Nehru (1954).
became famous for her Bhakti poems, her day-long prayers in
Krishna Temples, dancing in the streets and her wanderings.
Her spiritual peers were the Bhakti saints Tulsidas and the
blind Surdas.
However, it was not until the Bhakti notions interacted with
the Islamic mysticism of Sufism that a South Asian
renaissance flourished, inspiring superb poetry and literature
in regional languages. There are texts that proclaim Krishna as
part of the line of Islamic prophets, and as a teacher of the
unity of God. The origins of this literature can be found in the
accommodating character of early Indian Sufism. Foreign
influences included classical Sufi mysticism ascribed to an
A large number of Bhakti (devotional) cults mushroomed across the Indian subcontinent during the Middle Ages that eulogized the mythology
of Krishna, widely renowned as a youthful divine lover. The favourite among Krishna s admirers was the beautiful Radha, wife of another
cowherd, thus invoking the morality of the liberated female cultures of indigenous matrilineal societies (National Museum, New Delhi).
NEPAL
I
I
There are two forms of Chacha
dances: one is performed
wearing costumes and masks
and the other in everyday
dress, the dancer representing
a particular deity during the
ritual. Chacha dances are
performed by practitioners as
well as travellers along the Silk
Road.
.*/ -
*■’
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_ ,Vsscrir f,՛
- ; -V՜ }· ;՛
Prayer to the Lord of Dance:
This dance is performed by a
lyapuni dancer, a girl from a
Newar farming community
who becomes a devotee and -
through the medium of dance
- prays to obtain boons for the
poor and the perfection of
dance. Using medieval
classical Newari music, this
dance is choreographed both
for male and female dancers.
The mostly Hindu culture of Nepal has continued to be influenced by
Buddhist oral traditions of music and mythology ever since Gautama,
the Buddha, was born at Lumbini, a grove located on the India-Nepal
border.
Chacha Pyakhan (Chacha dance): The Chacha dance enacts the legend
of Bodhisatwa Manjushree, a Tantric guru, who manifested himself
with his two wives; created the Nepal Mandala (Kathmandu valley) by
draining the lake; and then retreated to He-Vajra Nairatma. The dancer
transforms himself into the personality of the deity and, in conformity
with oral tradition, symbolically tells the story by using different hand
gestures (mudras), postures and facial expressions. The style of dance,
which dates from about the sixth century, is accompanied by a vocalist
and traditional musical instruments - a lute, two kinds of drum (kota
and damaru), two kinds of cymbal (ta and babu), five trumpets (ponga),
and more recently, harmonium.
layapunee Pyakhan: This rhythmic dance is accompanied by the drum
(khin and ta). It is performed by a dancer who, as a nymph, calms an
angry man-lion deity - an incarnation of Vishnu. The theme is derived
from Katty Pyakhan, a sixteenth-century classical theatre that
originated at the Malta ftlace, Ritan, and is very popular with both
Newari men and women.
Kala-Mandapa (the Institute of Nepalese Performing Arts) was
established in 1981 for the purpose of preserving traditional
performing arts as well as creating contemporary works. The Institute is
concerned with developing the artistic quality and integrity of its
performers. Here, Nepalese music and dances are performed by well-
known artists: Mr. Rajendra Shrestha, Miss Roopkamal Chetri, Mr.
Shrecram Achartya, Mrs. Krishna Devi and Mr. Rames wor Mahajan.
Iraqi woman from Basra, Rabiah al-Adawiyah (who died in
AD 801), as well as others originating from Egypt, Iran and Turkey.
The oldest Bengali book, Gorakhavijaya, was written by Abd-
ul-Karim, just as Muslims were authors of many padyavalis -
poems celebrating the love of Krishna and Radha. Bengali
culture in particular emphasized the element of love, which
altered the notion of asceticism to mysticism. Several religious
sects attempted to harmonize Hindu and Muslim religious
traditions at different levels. The story of the Rajput heroine
Padmavati - originally a romance ֊ was beautifully recorded
in Hindi by the sixteenth-century Sufi poet Malik Muhammad
Jayasi, and later by the seventeenth-century Bengali Muslim
poet Alaol. The synthesis between Bhakti and Sufi elements
from Islam also incorporates aspects from Buddhist literature,
such as certain Ismaili texts like Umm al-kitab. The Kalachakra also
speaks of Mecca and introduces Islamic formulas into mantras.
The Sufi ideals seem to have inspired the great Mughal
Emperor Akbar (1542-1605) to created a new religion, Divine
Faith (Din-e İlahi), in the hope that it would unite all his
subjects in the belief in one God, and thus promote cultural
interaction among all communities. Himself an illiterate,
Akbar designated eminent scholars, poets, painters, architects
and musicians, called the Nine Jewels of his court. Among
them was also the legendary Hindu musician, Tansen, whose
miraculous music was believed to ignite fire and draw rain clouds.
Persian was the official court language of the Mughal
emperors. But the language used by the common people was
Urdu, literally a bazaar language which originated as a result
of oral interaction between the Persian-speaking Moghul
soldiers and the commonly spoken eastern Punjabi and
Haryani languages of north-western India. Based on Bhakti-
Sufi court culture, Urdu literature began to develop in the
sixteenth century in and around the courts of the Golconda
and Bijapur rulers in central India. Variously known as Gujari,
Hindawi and Dakhani, the Urdu oral tradition flourished at
frequent gatherings of poets, called Mushaira, at which a poet
was required to spontaneously compose a couplet on a given
theme as an oil lamp was placed in front of him.
Mir Bulleh Shah (1680-1758) was among the great Punjabi
Sufi poets of the Qadiri Shatari sect. His writings and
philosophy have been compared with those of Rumi and
Shams-i-Tabriz. He became the disciple of Inayat Shah, a low-
caste gardener. To accept a menial worker as his Master in the
social conditions of his times shook society to its core,
especially as he traced his descent from the Prophet
Mohammad. His philosophy was in tune with Sufi-Bhakti
mysticism in which the guidance of a Master is indispensable
for spiritual realization. He became known as the sheikh of
both worlds as one of Bulleh Shah s kafis (Fana-fil-Sheikh)
gives a detailed account of how the disciple s soul is fused
with that of the Master.
Folk cultures also embrace architecture, with traditionally
constructed houses, palaces and shrines incorporating the
diverse designs and decoration of building styles, techniques,
and arts and crafts. The Moghul Emperor Akbar tried to
harmonize Hindu and Muslim architectural styles in his new
capital in Fatehpur Sikri, a project which begun in 1570 and
abandoned in 1586 for want of water. Within tangible and
oral folklore lie a wide cultural spectrum of custom, ritual,
myth, festival, folk drama and dance. To these verbal and
material elements are added group behavioural traits that vary
between different individuals and societies.
Musicians invariably accompanied the poet-saints. Mardana,
a Muslim player of the string instrument, rabab, and his
PAKISTAN
Now aged f 0, Saeen Zahoor started singing at the age of 5. I dreamt
of a hand calling me to Baba Bulleh Shah s dargah (shrine) , he recalls.
‘There I met Ustad Sain Raunka Ali of Ratiala. My first lessons in the
Sufi kalams were under his guidance.՛ With his robes, beads, tightly-
bound turban and ektara, Zahoor delivers kalams by poets like Balia
Bulleh Shah with focused and flamboyant joy. Zahoor was born and
raised in a rural peasant family and for decades performed exclusively
at dargahs and melas in Okara, his native district of Pakistan.
Qawwali is well known and documented throughout the world, but
Zahoor is among the more obscure breed of street singers who still
practice the art at the shrines and festivals of Pakistan and Northern
India. In 1989, Zahoor was invited to the All Pakistan Music
Conference to give his first ever performance on a concert stage. This
was a great success, arousing repeated emotional applause from the
2,000-strong audience. He now tours the world, often accompanied
by harmonium and dholak players, creating the same blissful feeling in
devotees as the oral tradition invoked by Mir Bulleh Shah. It is
interpreted here by the lead singer Saeen Zahoor and his companions
Ranjha (tabla and dholak), Qaiser Ali (harmonium), Riasat Ali
(dholak) and Mohammed Ijaz (flute).
The culture and history of South Asia is interwoven with
Afghanistan since for thousands of years it existed at the
crossroads of the trade routes between India, Iran and Central
Asia. The Greek principalities in India, Afghanistan and the
Kushan sovereignty, thereafter, further strengthened the
historical bonds. The magnificent Bagram Collection included
discoveries made at a Kushan fort in 1939 that held 1,800 pieces
of sculptures and coins, mostly from India.
The art of music and dance also flourished during the pre-
Islamic period and Afghanistan s deep-rooted folk music
heritage has survived largely because it is cherished and closely
linked to its traditional ethnic groups - Dari, Pushto, Tajik and
Hazara. Songs are mostly monophonic with the recurrence of
melodic phrases and an emphasis on marked rhythms relate to
the frequent role of music as an accompaniment to dance. The
musical instruments are closely related to those of central and
south Asia, but specific forms and playing styles are purely local.
There are numerous variants on the long-necked lute, with
names derived from the Persian tanbur or dutar, small spike
fiddles, various horizontally-held flutes and two basic drum
types: a single-headed vase-shaped drum of pottery or wood and
a large single-headed frame drum, or tambourine. Even the
Taliban s brutal suppression of dance and music could not
^completely uproot Afghanistan s traditional art and culture even
though secretly performed folk music was limited to solo playing
and singing in small private ensembles.
It was with a great deal of effort that the Ministry for Culture and
Information of the present government of Afghanistan succeeded
in assembling a talented group of musicians, some of whom,
like Nouria Mehryar, live abroad. She is accompanied by
Shapariy Naghma, Mohammad Zafar, Masroor Omid and
Ghulam Sakhi.
24-
BANGLADESH
Manipuri dance is predominantly ritual-based and although it has of Manipuri dance in Bangladesh, performing both locally and
evolved through the centuries, has preserved its ancient musical internationally.
vigor and rhythmic variations. Manipuri dance movements are ‘Bangla is one of Bangladesh s leading young bands. They have
uniquely soft, graceful, delicate and lyrical. The dance is also very successfully popularized the Baul tradition with the country s
famous for it’s colourful costumes. The song of the dance is a Kirtan- younger generation. This event gives them an opportunity to present
based Bangla song. The musical instruments are the traditional performances of the Manipuri and Folk dances of Bangladesh. The
flute, sitar and Mridanga (Rung) as percussion. group comprised Anusheh Anadil (lead vocalist), Subrata Kumar
Das and Faizan Rashid Ahmad (lead instrumentalists) and Shafiq
Manipuri, indigenous to Manipur, is one form - others being Mia (lead percussionist).
hharata natayam, kathak,
and kathakali. They are
based on the Natya-Sastra
of the sixth century BC.
Themes are generally taken
from episodes in the life of
Krishna, the pastoral god.
A narrator who chants
dialogue and describes the
action interprets the dance
during the performance.
The manipuri was popu-
larized throughout India
when, in 1917, the poet
Rabindranath Tagore saw
demonstrations of the art
and brought back teachers
to serve in his Visva-Bharati
(arts university) at
Shantiniketan.
Tamanna Rahman performs
Manipuri and Folk dances.
Trained in Bangladesh and
India, Tamanna has revived
successfully the lost glory
companion Bala, a Hindu, invariably accompanied Guru
Nanak Dev as they walked around the countryside singing
verses composed by the founder of Sikhism. Together, they
reached as far as Mecca and Medina. The foundation stone of
the holiest of Sikh shrines in Amritsar was laid by Mian Mir, a
Sufi ascetic and its inner sanctum is named Harmandar after
the Hindu god Shiva. Nanak and Kabir were devotees of a god
whom they were unwilling and unable to delimit by sectarian
description. The fifth Guru, Arjun Dev, who compiled the holy
book, Adi Granth, specified the music (raga) in which each
verse had to be recited.
Mira Bai, Rajasthan princess, was born about 1500. She was a
talented Bhakti poet who became famous for her lifelong devotion to
Krishna. After her husband s premature death she left the palace and
began her lifelong wandering. She is believed to have died around
1550. (18th century Pahari Painting in National Musem, New Delhi).
Oral interactions and folk legends also inspired and laid the
foundations of some of the most magnificent monuments in
South Asia. This is illustrated by a series of sun temples all
built on the premises of identical mythologies.
One legend has it that Samba the son of Krishna cured himself
of leprosy by spending twelve years in Mitrabana, the forest of
Mitra, which is found on the bank of the river Chandrabrabha.
In so doing, he appeased the sun god Surya and in gratitude,
Samba built the great sun temple at Sambapura (modern-day
Multan in Pakistan) in the early centuries of the Christian era.
Long after the Multan shrine was destroyed, the
Weaver Saint Kabir (1440—7518) at his loom, with a disciple. Born
to a Hindu widow in Varanasi who abandoned him, Kabir was
brought up by a Muslim weaver. His poetry reflects the life and
concerns of common people, invoking his secular ideals and
promoting harmony among Hindus and Muslims. (National Museum,
New Delhi).
26-
Guru Nanak Dev receives Gorakhanath and his disciple Gugu (who
later converted to Sufi Islam), while Mardana plays a rabab for
another companion. Nanak and Kabir were devotees of a god whom
they were unwilling and unable to delimit by sectarian description.
They did not subscribe to Gorakhanath s practice of magic and
miracles. (18th century miniature painting in National Museum, New
Delhi).
■2
Guru Nanak Dev (1469-1536) devoted all his life promoting Hindu
Muslim unity. Accompanied by Mardana, a Muslim rabab player and
a Hindu disciple Bala, he traveled long distances in India and abroad
and preached his doctrine of equality, fraternity and peace by singing
the verses he composed (17th century miniature painting, Sheesh
Mahal Museum, Patiala, India).
In common wilh South Asian folk dances, Sri
Lankan oral tradition and rituals invoke the power
to heal and bless. The folk dances can be broadly
classified in three styles following their
geographical area of origin: the Kandyan, Low
Country and Sabaragamuwa dances. All begin with
traditional chanting and ceremonial drums that
invoke blessings.
The art of Kandyan dance is wholly based on the
healing ritual of Kohomba Kankariya. Tradition has
it that the benedictory ritual was performed to
exorcise evil influences. Wearing sixty-four
ornaments, the Kandyan dancers beat the drum
known as the Udarata Beraya or Ceta Beraya.
Low Country dances are based on four main
traditional benedictory rituals associated with the
southern coastal belts of Sri Lanka. These dances
are the only ones to use the famous masks that
portray the faces of evil demons, each mask
exhibiting the distinctive features of the character it
represents.
The Sabaragamuwa dance is derived from both the
Kadyan and the Low Country forms of dancing. The
՛ drum used is known as doula. The musician plays
the drum with one hand and beats it with the other
using a stick called a kadippuwa.
Ravibandhu Vidyapathi hails from a family of
l renowned Sri Lankan artists. He was trained as a
W
child in the Kandyan dance form and has been an
eminent student of Chithrasena and Vajira, the
foremost dancers of Sri Lanka. He has studied in
India, specializing in the Kathakali dance form at
the Kerala Kalamandel and also trained in Indian
classical music.
Ravibandhu Vidyapathi, performing the Kandyan dance with his talented group of artisits from the State Dance Ensemble, Colombo, of which
he is the director. He is a member of the Sri Lankan National Commission for UNESCO.
Kum Kum Mohanti and her companions performing a Sun Dance on the ramparts of the magnificent Surya temple at Konarak. This shrine was
inspired by folk legends and oral interactions between cultures stretching from Central to South East Asia — described in the book, The Sun in
Myth and Art by Madanjeet Singh (UNESCO, 1993).
-TO-
Chandrabrabha myth continued to spread though traditional
folklore. The legend travelled as far as Indonesia where a fifth-
century inscription, attributed to Samba by the Indonesian
King Purnavaman, mentions the river Chandraprabha.
Curiously, the myth does not stop in Indonesia and returns to
Kanarak in India, where a magnificent thirteenth-century
Surya temple was built and the river Chandraprabha identified
with a pool of water in a nearby forest called Mitrabana —
described in my book, The Sun in Myth and Art (UNESCO,
1993).
This trend of religious syncretization appears to have
continued as late as the nineteenth century, when Raja Pratap
Singh Judeo of Chhatarpur attempted to translate the Bhakti-
Sufi spirit into temple architecture. In one temple (on the
UNESCO List of Cultural Heritage), the traditional domes on
the top of a shrine represent a Hindu shikara, a Buddhist stupa
and the dome of a mosque. The Raja wanted the shrine to be
open for worship to everyone, irrespective of sex, class, caste
or religion, much like the Sufi shrine in Kashmir, where one
floor was used as a temple and the other as a mosque.
Folk culture thus embraces architecture, houses and shrines
constructed in traditional ways as also with the design and
decoration of building styles and methods, arts and crafts.
Between the tangible and oral folklore there is a wide
cultural spectrum of custom, ritual, myth, festival, folk
drama and dance. To these verbal and material elements
are added group behavioral traits that vary for individuals
and societies. But essentially folk cultures are democratic
by virtue of their local and participatory nature and
dependence on acceptance by a community as a whole.
Notwithstanding that each country has its own cultural
repertoire and stylistic features, South Asia s unity in
diversity is deeply rooted in the oral and intangible heritage
of the region, reaffirming South Asia s ancient wisdom that
civilizations represent a people s dream, their imaginative
interpretation of human existence, and the perception of
the mystery of human life.
On the list of UNESCO Cultural Heritage is this unique nineteenth
century shrine at Khajuraho, India, with its three cupola, representing
a Hindu shikhara, a Buddhist stupa and the dome of a mosque.
Invoking the Bhakti-Sufi beliefs, the shrine was open for worship to
all, irrespective of religion, caste, sex, class or creed.
W M lUth.l-l.Ill Ilillll.till ill III·.’,
South Asia Foundation (SAF) is a secular, non-profit and non-political organization, founded in 2000 by UNESCO Goodwill
Ambassador Madanjeet Singh. The cardinal objective of the organization is to sustain a movement, in particular involving
youth, to promote regional cooperation and peace through education, cultural interaction and mutual understanding among
the people of South Asia.
SAF has been admitted into official relationship with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO), and recognized as an Apex Body of South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC). The aims,
objectives and activities of SAF are in conformity with the spirit, purpose and principles of the two international organizations.
THE GOVERNING COUNCIL OF SOUTH ASIA FOUNDATION
Chairpersons of the SAF Chapters
Afghanistan: Hon. Dr. S. M. Raheen, former Minister, Information and Culture, Kabul.
Bangladesh: Dr. Kamal Hossain, former Minister of Law, Foreign Affairs, Dhaka.
Bhutan: Hon. Lyonpo Sangay Ngedup, Minister of Agriculture, Bhutan, Thimphu.
India: Hon. Mani Shankar Aiyar, Minister, Ranchayati Raj, Youth Sports, New Delhi.
Maldives: Hon. Ahmed Shaheed, Foreign Minister, Male.
Nepal: Dr. RitaThapa, Senior Advisor, Ministry of Health, Kathmandu.
Pakistan: Prof. Salima Hashmi, Dean, School of Visual Arts, BNU, Lahore.
Sri Lanka: Hon. Chandrika B. Kumaratunga, former President of Sri Lanka, Colombo.
PHOTO CREDITS: MADANJEET SINGH (FRONT COVER); UNESCO/ N. BURKE (FRONT COVER OVERLEAU; FRANCE MARQUET (FRONT COVER OVERLEAF); MADANJFET SINGH (PAGE 4), UNESCO/ICNCA (PACE 5);
NATIONAL MUSEUM, NEW DELHI (PAGE 6); UNESCO/ N. BURKE (PAGE 7); ABDUL MALIK BABU/DRIK (PAGE ft); NASEEM AKHTAR (PAGE 9); MADANJFET SINGH (PAGE 9); SAF-BANCLADESH (PAGE 10j; ROLAND
SABRINA MICHAUD (PAGE 10); ROLAND SABRINA MICHAUD (PAGE 11); KERALA HOUSE, MW DELHI (PAGE 12); SAF-BHUTAN (PACE 13); MADANJEET SINGH (PAGE 14); UNESCO/ N. BURKE (PAGE 15); MATHURA
MUSEUM, INDIA (PAGE 17); MADANJEET SINGH (PAGE 18); MADANJEET SINGH (PAGE 19); NATIONAL MUSEUM, NEW DELHI (PAGE 20); SAF-NEPAL (PAGE 21); CHRISTIAN LHUILLIER (PAGE 23); CHRISTIAN LHUILLIER
(PAGE 24); CHRISTIAN LHUILLIER (PAGE 25); NATIONAL MUSEUM, NEW DELHI (26); NATIONAL MUSEUM, NEW DELHI (26); NATIONAL MUSEUM, NEW DELHI (27); SHEESH MAHAL MUSEUM, PATIALA, INDIA (PAGE
27); UNESCO/ N. BURKE (PAGE 28); SAF-SRI LANKA (PAGE 29); MADANJEET SINGH (30); MADAN IEET SINGH (31); UNESCO/ N. BURKE (BACK COVER).
Back cover picture: The Director-General of UNESCO Mr. Koichiro Matsuura and the Goodwill Ambassador Madanjeet Singh with some of the 40 artists
who performed at UNESCO House in Paris on 16 March 2006. Songs and dances representing the oral and intangible heritage of South Asia met with
repeated, thunderous applause from over 1,600 spectators who clapped in rhythm with the musicians and dancers.
IN CELEBRATION OF THE 60TH ANNIVERSARY OF UNESCO AND ON THE OCCASION OF THE ANNUAL MEETINGS OF
UNESCO GOODWILL AMBASSADORS AND SAF GOVERNING COUNCIL, SOUTH ASIA FOUNDATION ARRANGED
PERFORMANCES OF 40 OUTSTANDING SOUTH ASIAN DANCERS AND MUSICIANS AT THE UNESCO HOUSE, PARIS.
r
DANCERS AND MUSICIANS
- AFGHANISTAN -
NOORIA MEHRYAR - SHAPARIY NAGHMA
MOHAMMAD ZAFAR - MASROOR OMID
GHULAM SAKHI
- BANGLADESH -
TAMANA REUMAN - ANUSHEH ANADUIL
SUBRATA KUMAR DAS FAIZAN RASHID AHMAD - SHAFIA MIA
- BHUTAN -
NIM GYELTSHEN - PENJOR - DUNG NORBU AP DODO
SONAM CHOGEY - PEMA SAMDRUP Kl IANDU
WANGCHUK ֊ TSAGYE - TSHERING TASHI SENGE GYELTSHEN
- INDIA -
VIKKU VINAKRAM
VINAYAKRAM UMASHANKAR
- NEPAL -
RAJENDRA SHRESTHA - ROOPKAMAL CHETRI
SHREERAM ACHARTYA KRISHNA DEVI - RAMESHWOR MAHAJAN
- PAKISTAN -
SAEEN ZAHOOR
RANJHA - QAISER ALI
RIASAT ALI - MOEIAMMED IJAZ
- SRI LANKA -
RAVIBANDHU VIDYAPATEII
VIDYAPATHY SAMANTHI RADHANIKA
JAYASURYA ARCHICHINGE SUNETU GEETHADEVA PERERA
MEEPAGALAGE AJITH JAYASHANTHA PERERA
MERAGALA PADIGE SAMAN KUMARA
KANKANIGEDARA ASANKA JAYAMAL GUNAWARDANA
LIYANAGA RUVINI THAREENDRA
☆ ☆ ☆
L
The background folk music played on traditional kashmiri instruments
(Rabab, Sarang, Note, Tumbaknar, Flute) by
MUHAMMAD MAQBOOL BHATT - ABDUL MAJEED SHAH
MUHAMMAD ABDULLAH SHAKHSAAZ - ZAHOOR AHMAD BHATT
BILAL AHMAD MIR - MUHAMMAD AMIN
MUHAMMAD RAMZAN LANGOO - FIRDOOS AHMAD BHATT
DIRECTED BY
MADANJEET SINGH
UNESCO GOODWILL AMBASSADOR
In cooperation with
IULIEN ODORICI - LAURENT METTERIE
DAVID MCDONALD - HÉLÈNE PIERRE
CLAUDIO BRUNO MONTEIRO - CÉCILE MENÉTREY-MONCHAU
|
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| spelling | Singh, Madanjeet 1924-2013 Verfasser (DE-588)115519718 aut The oral and intangible heritage of South Asia performances by dancers and musicians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan snd Sri Lanka Madanjeet Singh New York [u.a.] UNESCO Publ. [u.a.] 2007 32 S. Ill. txt rdacontent n rdamedia nc rdacarrier Weltkulturerbe (DE-588)4402277-3 gnd rswk-swf Südasien (DE-588)4058406-9 gnd rswk-swf Südasien (DE-588)4058406-9 g Weltkulturerbe (DE-588)4402277-3 s DE-604 KOBV Fremddatenuebernahme application/pdf http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=017446710&sequence=000001&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA Volltext |
| spellingShingle | Singh, Madanjeet 1924-2013 The oral and intangible heritage of South Asia performances by dancers and musicians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan snd Sri Lanka Weltkulturerbe (DE-588)4402277-3 gnd |
| subject_GND | (DE-588)4402277-3 (DE-588)4058406-9 |
| title | The oral and intangible heritage of South Asia performances by dancers and musicians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan snd Sri Lanka |
| title_auth | The oral and intangible heritage of South Asia performances by dancers and musicians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan snd Sri Lanka |
| title_exact_search | The oral and intangible heritage of South Asia performances by dancers and musicians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan snd Sri Lanka |
| title_full | The oral and intangible heritage of South Asia performances by dancers and musicians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan snd Sri Lanka Madanjeet Singh |
| title_fullStr | The oral and intangible heritage of South Asia performances by dancers and musicians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan snd Sri Lanka Madanjeet Singh |
| title_full_unstemmed | The oral and intangible heritage of South Asia performances by dancers and musicians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan snd Sri Lanka Madanjeet Singh |
| title_short | The oral and intangible heritage of South Asia |
| title_sort | the oral and intangible heritage of south asia performances by dancers and musicians from afghanistan bangladesh bhutan india nepal pakistan snd sri lanka |
| title_sub | performances by dancers and musicians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan snd Sri Lanka |
| topic | Weltkulturerbe (DE-588)4402277-3 gnd |
| topic_facet | Weltkulturerbe Südasien |
| url | http://bvbr.bib-bvb.de:8991/F?func=service&doc_library=BVB01&local_base=BVB01&doc_number=017446710&sequence=000001&line_number=0001&func_code=DB_RECORDS&service_type=MEDIA |
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