Folk-Songs in the Karnataka

(Census Superintendent in Mysore, Bangalore)

One of the most important directions in which literary work is going on in the Karnataka is the collection and publication of the folk-song of the country. A group of workers in Dharwar has, within the past year, published a valuable collection of three-line pieces sung generally by women grinding corn in the northern parts of the country. These pieces are perfect specimens of folk poetry. Their words are simple, their imagery is natural, their thought pure and innocent. There is hardly one mood of woman's heart which does not find easy and graceful expression in one or another of these pieces. Translations of selected pieces are given below to give readers of Triveni an idea of this folk-poetry. Comment has been deliberately kept at a minimum in order that the reader may dwell over the pieces for himself.

The following pieces invoke God at the beginning:

1. Mahadeva, I have no other God but you; nor do I think that it is myself that shall do this and that; O Strong One, do Thou conduct every thing

2. I desire no other and have no wealth. O Kariranga of Kalloli, O Venoba, I greatly desire you all the moments of my life.

The following piece shows a daughter making up a quarrel with her mother:

3. Who will settle a dispute between mother and daughter? Has the pearl become heavy to the ear-ring, my mother? And O my mother, who bore me, do you think I meant what I said?

A daughter describes how she enjoyed her visit to her mother's house:

4. I went to my mother's house and ate all that tongue desired. I ate of the dishes all I wanted. I saw my mother's face and, in doing so drank, as it were, her breastmilk again as when a child.

The following verse compares the mother's and mother-in-law’s houses:

5. Even if you drink only gruel, the husband's house is the proper place. Even if you are in a palanquin with servants holding whisks on left and right, do not stay in the obligation of the mother's house.

The mother's house is no good without the mother:

6. Go not to the mother's house, my Heart, when the mother is not there; as the calf comes to a tank in which there is no water and turns , so will you feel the pain of it.

The simile is beautiful; so too is the affectionate reverence for the mother expressed in this piece:

7. Why do you want so many days to go to Benares? My mother's house is an hour's way; and there sits my Benares–my mother who gave me birth.

The great pride of a sister in her brother is expressed in these pieces:

8. I was feeling I had no one of my own; then I learnt that, like the young moon of the bright fortnight, a brother to me was born–Sunny child.

9. When that Sardar my brother comes, the jasmine blossoms drop on him. The ears of cardamom bend down to my prince-like brother and sprinkle their juice on him.

The daughter's longing for her mother's house is expressed

10. It is six months since I came to my mother-in-law's house and the moonlight had become to me as the sun; and now my strong young brother has come to take me.

A brother's sorrow in sending away a sister whom he has brought up, is described here:

11. He has sent away his sister and is standing on the mound looking where she is going. My brother is wiping his eyes with the end of his coat and saying, "My sister from today belongs to others."

A mother speaks on a similar occasion:

12. My daughter, I send you away and go up to the roof of the house. Presently the mango tree hides you, my child, and you are no longer ours belong to others.

The daughter of the house finds that her brother's wife make it no home for her:

13. I came running up thinking my mother was there; but hearing within the voice of my brother's wife, I turned near the door.

14. Are the eyes and the nose strangers to each other, sister-in-law? Are my brother and I strangers? O my brother’s wife it is because of you that my brother has become a stranger to me.

A girl is accosted:

15. Whose daughter are you, O my pretty doll with the eyes of a gazelle? My sister with the curling hair and of fine teeth, whose daughter are you, O good one?

A present of some fruits is sent for a friend:

16. Large bere fruit had come for sale in the market. Brother going to the village, pray take some of this for my friend in the neighbour's house who will soon be a mother.

Life in the mother-in-law's house is described in these pieces:

17. When my husband abuses, I shed no tears; but when his brother abuses, it is as if it rained without any clouds at all.

18. A husband like a prince, a brother-in-law who is earning and a mother-in-law who bears with me; what difficulty is there in looking after this household?

A young woman's self-respect finds expression in these pieces:

19. I am not a disgrace to my father who begat me. I have not stood in a crowd and laughed, nor brought a bad name to my relatives.

20. The Sardar my brother called me and said to me, "Do not enter neighbours' houses, my sister; otherwise, people will gossip and spoil our name."

This is her pride in her husband:

21. How does it matter if he works for wages or carries packages? My husband is not cheap to me. I feel as if we had a weight of gold in our house.

22. As my husband went out, I looked at his gait. That Lotus, his heel, was prettier than the evening moon.

The following pieces describe the love of husband and wife:

23. The wife is not moving about the kitchen. The food is not good to the tongue. Mother, the wife has gone to her father's house.

24. The quarrel of husband and wife is as rubbing sandalwood, as pouring water on the image of God, and as the swift flow of the river.

The woman asks the husband who is going on a journey:

25. When will you come , my sweet-scented lover? My lover with the head-dress so full of fragrance, tell me, my lover, when you are returning.

He replies:

26. O lotus! I cannot live without seeing you, nor, O jasmine! Can I get free of your witchery. Mypure petal, I cannot stay away from you.

A husband beats the wife for wishing to go to her father's house:

27. He beat the wife and was sorry at heart and, when alone with her, took hold of her cloth and asked: "Am I more to you or is your mother's house more?"

A wife remonstrates when the husband proposes to marry

28. Is it good, my husband, to wear coat over coat? When one wife is alive, if another wife comes, and then another, will there be good in the household, my husband?

The mother's love for her child is described in the following pieces:

29. When the child is crying, his lips are as the tendril of coral, his eye-brows as the long leaf of the margosa, and his eyes shine with the sheen of the falchion in Shiva's hand.

30. Let him cry if he likes, sister, but let me have the child. It matters not if the work of the household is spoilt. Let my house be full of children like this.

31. Cry not, O little one, cry not, my sweet jasmine. Do not cry, my wealth of gold, my boy heavy as gold to carry.

32. Go to your play and come , my child, and I shall wash your feet. I shall take the clear water of the cocoanut and wash your dear face that shines like gold.

33. A pillow the height of my arm, and a bed the length of my body, and the jewel, my boy, sleeping before me; why, after this, shall I trouble about my husband?

The familiar feeling that a girl is less desirable than a boy, comes out here:

34. Do not send word that a girl has been born. He will dislike to hear that it is a girl. My daughter, it is no girl to us but a piece of gold.

35. I have no care for the King and his men, for in my house is my son who brings the half share from any king and men of them all.

A daughter-in-law is welcomed:

36. Let the flower that my bright son has worn rise high in people's eyes! May the flower which my brave son has brought drop into my lap!

A son who has been provoked is addressed:

37. Eyes like Cupid and eyebrows like Hercules, and a waist that is slim as Apollo's, my son, who provoked you, O Lion?

A childless woman is described:

38. What kind of life is the childless woman's life? It is like the hired bullock's labouring and labouring and, when it has laboured, lying down one day and dying.

Children make all sorrow bearable:

39. The daughter of the Emperor, to swing her children, tied the cradle in the wilds. Royal Sita swung her children in the woods and spent her exile smiling.

Love of Nature and of other Life comes out in the following pieces:

40. The millet is ripening white in the field in the valley. Eat without noise, O parrot; and, my brother, the stone will come, go aside.

41. One tree is beautiful among all trees–the mango tree. The parrot is beautiful among birds and, among stars in the sky, the moon is most beautiful.

The following pieces record a conversation:

42. O you with the ear-rings of gold, cutting fodder for your cattle, have you no care whatever? Your husband was smiling with another woman there!

43. Let him smile if he will, my mother, the smiling Kedige. The fragrant flower which I own and wear, let her see for a moment.

The following piece gives expression to the thought of many a poor mother when she is told that she has too many children:

44. Mine be poverty and mine many children and, in addition, my God's Grace; and my God, be yours the thought of my poverty.

A man with a handsome wife casting eyes on a dark beauty is addressed:

45. Gallant of the dark eyebrows, casting your eyes on the crow, with the mango in the house why are you gazing at the jambolan?

Unequal marriage is thus condemned:

46. Like mixing dhall in mud is giving a young girl to an old man. Shameless are the parents that do this.

This is a piece with which the grinding closes:

47. Our grain is finished but not our song. We do not want your mill-stone any longer, mother. It wears the rings on our fingers.

The quiet humour of the complaint about the mill-stone is worth noting.

All lovers of Literature should be grateful to the workers of the Geleyara Gumpu (Association of Friends) of Dharwar who, under their leader, Mr. D. R. Bendre, have brought their poetry of the sitters in the sun out to a larger world.