Wax Cylinders and Tribal Music

from India and Nepal

Naga Peoples

Nagas are various ethnic groups native to northeastern India and northwestern Myanmar. The groups have similar cultures and traditions, and form the majority of population in the Indian state of Nagaland and Naga Self-Administered Zone of Myanmar (Burma); with significant populations in Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Assam in India; Sagaing Region and Kachin State in Myanmar. The Nagas are divided into various Naga ethnic groups whose numbers and populations are unclear. They each speak distinct Naga languages often unintelligible to the others, but all are loosely connected to each other.

Folk Song and Dance

Folk dances of the Nagas are mostly performed in groups in synchronized fashion, by both men and women, depending on the type of dance. Dances are usually performed at festivals and religious occasions. War dances are performed mostly by men and are athletic and martial in style. All dances are accompanied by songs and war cries by the dancers. Indigenous musical instruments made and used by the people are tati, bamboo mouth organs, bamboo flutes, trumpets, drums made of cattle skin and log drums.

Madia Gonds

Madia Gonds or Madia or Maria are one of the endogamous Gond tribes living in Chandrapur District and Gadchiroli District of Maharashtra State, and Bastar division of Chhattisgad State India. They have been granted the status of a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups by the Government of India under its affirmative action or reservation programme. The Madia Gonds are strongly affected by Naxal activities. The Madia Gond use the self designation Madia, and call the area where they live Madia Desh. They speak the Madia dialect of Gondi. The shifting agriculture of madia is known as jhoom.

The Muria

The Muria are an indigenous Adivasi, scheduled tribe Dravidian community of the Bastar district of Chhattisgarh, India. They are part of the Gondi people. Traditionally, they are economically homogeneous and strive to work as a collective. They have mixed-sex dormitories where adolescents are sent to practice premarital sex, sometimes with a single partner and sometimes serially. They have an omnivorous diet, with liquor (Mahuva and salfi) playing is a polutry fighting key role in their society.

Pokhara (Nepal)

The Nepali word "Pokhari " (Nepali: पोखरी, Nepali pronunciation: [ˈpokʰʌɾi]) means "pond". Pokhara is a metropolitan city in central Nepal, which serves as the capital of Gandaki Province. It is the second most populous city of Nepal after Kathmandu, with 599,504 inhabitants living in 120,594 households in 2021. It is the country's largest metropolitan city in terms of area. The city also serves as the headquarters of Kaski District. Pokhara is located 200 kilometres (120 miles) west of the capital, Kathmandu. The city is on the shore of Phewa Lake, and sits at an elevation of approximately 822m. The Annapurna Range, with three out of the ten highest peaks in the world—Dhaulagiri, Annapurna I and Manaslu—is within 15–35 mi (24–56 km) of the valley.

The Nagas

The Nagas (Sanskrit: नाग, romanized: Nāga) are a divine, or semi-divine, race of half-human, half-serpent beings that reside in the netherworld (Patala), and can occasionally take human or part-human form, or are so depicted in art. A female naga is called a Nagi, or a Nagini. According to legend, they are the children of the sage Kashyapa and Kadru. Rituals devoted to these supernatural beings have been taking place throughout South Asia for at least 2,000 years. They are principally depicted in three forms: as entirely human with snakes on the heads and necks, as common serpents, or as half-human, half-snake beings in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Nagaraja is the title given to the king of the nagas. Narratives of these beings hold cultural significance in the mythological traditions of many South Asian and Southeast Asian cultures, and within Hinduism and Buddhism. Communities such as the Nagavanshi Kshatriyas and Eelamese claim descent from this race.

(Source Wikipedia)

3 Collections

Featuring 3 Collections of Music.

- A Selection of Wax Cylinder Field Recordings from Nagaland - John Henry Hutton Collection 1914-19

- Tribal Music of India: The Muria and Maria Gonds of Madhya Pradesh (Folkways Records) (1983)

- Selected Field Recordings from India and Nepal - Naga Worship Ceremony, Pokhara, Nepal

Links:

Folkways Recordings

Recirculating Recordings in NE India

(MP3 Googledrive Access)