| WOSAS : F1020 |
WOSAS/CD323/track1 R1063.wav |
|
Pandavani
|
|
| an Indian Mythology story; Hindu Mythology story; Mahabharata story | |
|
|
|
| Sound recording, story and song; Pandavani epic singing, sections of the epic cycle the Mahabharata, from Indian and Hindu mythology told by Tijan Bai and musicians at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, July or August 1988 or 1987. | |
|
|
|
| A section of Pandavani epic singing in Hindi, sung and told by Tijan Bai with musical accompaniment | |
|
|
|
| Pandavani means, literally, 'The singing of the story of the five brothers' and is the popular central indian traditional form of telling the epic Mahabharata. In India, pandavani singers all have day jobs, but if they are called to perform somewhere they have to go. Their payment was traditionally one piece of cloth, one coconut and one nutmeg, but today a contribution of Rupees is also given according to the generosity and wealth of the patron. The performers bicyle from village to village. Performances tend to start between eight and ten o'clock in the evening and last until three or four the following morning. The full Mahabharata takes eighteen evenings to perform, but usually stories from the epic are requested by the patron for one or two nights only. The storyteller has to be ready to respond to a call for any story from this epic. A section from programme notes describes, 'Of the many epic singing traditions to miraculously survive in a rapidly modernising world, central Indian Pandavani is perhaps the most dramamtic and accessible. A singer, wielding a single stringed Tambura emblemtically adorned with peacock feathers, delivers episodes from the great Hindu epic over the tremendously energised accompaniment of four backing musicians. The telling is in a mixture of prose and song rendered dramatic by a very rich style. One of the musicians takes the role of 'ragi', a ritualised audience representative, urging the story forwards with interjected questions and supportive vocal approval.' | |
|
|
|
| audience:- | adult |
| language:- | Hindi; English |
| recording quality | |
| condition:- | fair; good |
| completeness:- | complete |
| duration:- | 0 hours, 53 minutes, 47 seconds |
|
|
|
| storytelling; singing:- |
storyteller: Tijan Bai female / Indian / Madhya Pradesh |
|
|
|
| storytelling; singing:- |
musician; singer: Mangesh Kumar male / Indian |
|
|
|
| storytelling; singing:- |
musician; singer; ragi male / Indian |
|
|
|
| storytelling; singing:- |
musician; singer male / Indian |
|
|
|
| origin:- |
India
Hindu |
|
|
|
|
| Tijan Bai performing in the grounds of the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford. | |
|
|
|
| Click to enlarge images | |
| storytelling; singing:- |
Oxford, England: Pitt Rivers Museum
Jul 1988 Jul 1987 Aug 1987 Aug 1988 public performance: Pandavani museum event: Pandavani |
| gift from:- |
storyteller: Ben Haggarty |
email to The LCIS