Rajasthan Music and Dance
Music And Dance
Rajasthan is culturally rich and has extensive tradition in art and culture, which reflects the Indian way of life. The dance, music and art forms have been consciously cultivated and patronized by the erstwhile royal courts. An equally rich and varied folk culture from villages is both fascinating and mesmerizing. The music is of uncomplicated innocence and songs depict day-to-day relationships and chores, more often about the bringing of water. Rajasthan's cultural tapestry takes in simple folk to highly cultivated classical music and dance, in its own distinct style.
Music sung by women is mostly about water and the style is called panihari. It depicts daily chores and is centred on the well. In an arid area like Rajasthan, water is of immense significance. Some of the folk songs also talk about a chance encounter with a lover. Some are snipes at the incorrigible mothers-in-law and sisters-in-law.
Here too the music has a strong religious flavor and is sung in dedication to various deities. Some religious songs are folk idioms of Saints like Surdas, Kabirdas, Meerabai and others. These songs are mostly heard in nightlong soirées.
Entertainers like the Langas, Manganniyars, Mirasis and Dholis keep music traditions alive. Their education in music began early and passed down the generations. The folk musicians are accomplished in the classical tradition. Songs normally begin with an alap, which sets the tune of the song and then the recital of the couplet that is called the dooba. The songs also have the taan, the pitch and the tibias -the triplet, which lends variance to the tune.
The ballad traditions of Rajasthan are indeed appealing. Here bards sing about folk heroes like Tejaji, Gogaji and Ramdeoji. They sing and narrate heroic tales of battles and even of legendary lovers and their tragedies. Distinctive traditions falling into this class are the 'Phad' and the puppetry.
The accompanying instruments are various– percussion, string and wind; and even items of common use such as bells, thalis (metal dishes) and earthen pots.
Rajasthan has a rich tradition of cuisines – for this land of princes had some of the finest cooks in the palaces. The common-folk also took epicurean delight in the culinary art. Aptly has it been said that the royal kitchens of Rajasthan raised the preparation of food to the level of a sublime art. It is not surprising therefore that the 'Khansamas' (the royal cooks) who worked in the State palaces kept their most prized recipes to themselves. Some recipes were passed on to their descendants and the rest were passed on as skills to the chefs of semi States and the branded hotel companies.
One special feature of the Rajasthani cooking is that it has its roots in the lifestyle of the medieval Rajasthan when the chieftains were mainly at war. The focus was on edible items that could last for several days and could also be eaten without heating. Food was also prepared out of necessity rather than choice. It depended on the items available in particular regions. Furthermore, the scarcity of water as well as fresh green vegetables have had some impact on their art of cooking.
In the desert belt of Jaisalmer, Barmer and Bikaner, cooks use a minimum of water and prefer, instead, to use more milk, buttermilk and clarified butter. A distinct feature of the Maheshwari(a trading company) cooking is the use of mango powder, a suitable substitute for tomatoes, scarce in the desert, and asafetida, to enhance the taste in the absence of garlic and onions.
Generally, Rajasthani curries are brilliant red but not as spicy as they look. Most Rajasthani cuisine uses pure Ghee (clarified butter) as a means of cooking. A favorite sweet dish called lapsi is prepared with broken wheat (Dalia) sautéed in ghee and sweetened.
Perhaps the best known Rajasthani food is the combination of dal, and churma BATI (dal is lentils; BATI ball is cooked wheat and cereal powder churma sweetened), but for the adventurous traveler, willing to experiment, there is much variety available. In addition, each region is distinguished by its popular sweet - Mawa Kachori from Jodhpur, Alwar ka Mawa, Malpuas of Pushkar, Rasogullas of Bikaner, Jaipur Ghevar just to name a few.
Contrary to popular belief, people of Rajasthan are not all vegetarians. One of the unique creation is the Junglee maas. Junglee maas was a great favourite among the Maharajas and due to paucity of exotic ingredients in the camp kitchen, the game brought in from the hunt was simply cooked in pure ghee, salt and plenty of red chillies. However, now this dish has been adapted to the less controversial ingredients like kidlamb, pork or poultry.
The personal recipes of the royal Khansama still rotate around their generations and are the highlights of regal gatherings. Each princely State of Rajasthan had its own style of the recipes, and is still continued in the Rajput households. It was mainly the men folk of the family who prepared the non-vegetarian food. Some of the Maharajas apart from being great hunters relished the passion of cooking the ‘Shikars’ themselves for their chosen guests and the trend continues among the successive generations.
