Rich tradition, poor response

Dinesh Ray talks to Anjana Rajan about lesser known music traditions of the Koch Rajbongshi community

Dinesh Ray, a researcher and collector of ancient instruments of the Koch Rajbongshi people, is a treasure house of rare knowledge, while his daughter Anindita Ray plays a number of these instruments. She also sings and dances in performances of fading traditions such as Tukkha gaan, Jugi gaan and others.

The father and daughter, who live in Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, were in New Delhi recently along with their group to perform music and dance at a seminar on Koch Rajbongshi History and Cultural Tradition.

“I started recording these traditions for LPs and EPs in 1984,” says Ray. “Before this, Harish Chandra Pal was the only person who made such recordings. He died in 1982, and after him there was no one.”

It was hard at first to convince a recording label to sign him, as he was an unknown entity to them.

“They would say, you do the recording at your own cost, but I said I am an ordinary schoolteacher — how can I invest so much?” Finally, the recording company Kiran agreed to back him. “And I am still with them,” says Ray with satisfaction.

The albums do sell well enough to cover their costs, he notes. The village artists who perform are given a one-time recording fee.

The music is not tampered with to make it fit popular trends. “We keep it pure.”

The ancient Koch Rajbongshi kingdom stretched across a region that today is divided between India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan. In India, the Koch Rajbongshi community hails from places like North Bengal, parts of Assam, Bihar, Meghalaya, etc.

As his daughter demonstrates how to play the instruments in their collection, also singing along, Ray names them and explains how they may differ from similar ones in other traditions.

There are two types of dotara. One has four strings while the other has five strings.

“The four-string dotara is used in Bhavaiyya singing, and the five-string one is used in Baul singing.”

Then there is the khamak. “We use the one-string khamak in Tukkha gaan,” says Ray. This is a form from the Tantrik tradition. “The Bauls use a khamak with two strings.”

The reference to the Bauls is significant because, as Ray points out, there was a time when their music too was largely unknown to the world, whereas now they are popularly recognised in many countries. If people take similar interest in propagating the Koch Rajbongshi traditions, they too might become well known and prosperous once more.

Another rare instrument is the sarinja. Of its three strings, one is made of cotton while the other two are of steel. A bowed instrument, its body is made of jackfruit wood and is carved with Tantrik symbols that can be found in stone carvings in Jalpaiguri district, says Ray.

The bena is made of the body of a bamboo and its bowl too is made of bamboo. This too is a bowed instrument. The bena, remarks Ray, is known as the Ravana veena in South India, the pena in Manipur and the tendra in Purulia.

There are kartals made of bamboo, of which many versions can be found across India. But among the most intriguing instruments is the ancient jugi jantra, which looks like a narrow fret board resting on two fragile pumpkin gourds.

The jugi jantra accompanies Jugi gaan. Anindita is trained in both under Dinesh Debnath of Paanbaari village. “He is very old now and has no other disciples except Anindita. There is no one else who practises this art. No one patronises it, so the art vanishes,” says Ray.

Though he is a teacher of Bengali, he hails from a family of artists and was exposed to theatre and other arts from childhood. His wife Dipti too comes from a tradition of performers. “Dipti and Anindita are the only performers of Tukkha gaan,” he adds. Similarly, states Ray, they are the only known players of the sarinja.

It was a chance meeting with Masa Oki Onishi, a professor of linguistics, at the 1977 All India Folklore Congress in Calcutta that set Ray on the path of an archivist. “He encouraged me to collect these songs,” says Ray who also ran a Rajbongshi language paper for 15 years.

“In 1978, I started collecting various types of songs of the Rajbongshi community. There is Pala gaan, a drama form, Mantra gaan, Medir gaan — a female tradition — and various folks songs of the region. Many of them are vanishing. I have tried to store them in a hard disk.”

Dipti is an A-grade artist of All India Radio while Anindita is graded B. Nowadays, however, recordings on AIR are a vanishing tradition too, the oft-heard reason being the national broadcaster is strapped for funds. Is it surprising then that Anindita is pursuing a Masters degree in Bangla though she has studied classical music and would have like to take a degree in music? With Bengali she can at least get a job as a teacher, maintains the father, whose own higher studies were a casualty in the turmoil caused by the then Naxalite movement.

A Japanese and a Russian film have been made on the Koch Rajbonghsi traditions, says Ray.

In India though, beyond Jalpaiguri, the artists have been invited to perform only in Kolkata and Delhi. For a country that takes pride in its art and culture, India has certainly become adept at ignoring its heritage.

It is another matter that culture comes in handy to feed the fire, with differences in traditions used to enlarge the fissures within communities. But otherwise, art and artists are left to languish.

“The poor,” Ray is forced to conclude, “will always remain poor.”

In India though, beyond Jalpaiguri, the artists have been invited to perform only in Kolkata and Delhi.