AMUSEMENTS

Holidays and religious festivals are occasions of social entertainment. Various types of dancing activities, generally of the nature of folk dances are current among the people, the occasion for them usually being the religious festivals occurring in the months of Shravana, Bhadrapada and Phalguna. On the dark night of the 8^th day in Shravana and the day following are celebrated the festivals of Gokulashtami and Dahikala which are occasions for the display of the spectacular goph and tipri and the boisterous kala and govinda dances.

In the same month among Brahmans and other advanced classes, young women dance a variety of folk dances known as phugadis on the occasion of the Mangalagouripuja, which is done by newly married maids for five successive years. After the bright 4^th of Bhadrapada come Ganesha and Gouri festivals. In towns at the public Ganesha celebrations are held mela processions and performances, but in the village, the agricultural classes, enthusiastically observe Bharadi Gouri festival with singing, dancing and merry making. Holi or Shimga festival, declaring the advent of the spring is in boisterous activities and there are performances of tamasha troupes.

Some dances are performed out of religious ecstasy and fervour to give expression to any artistic feeling. The dindi dance which devotees or bhajanis of the Varkari cult engage in while going to the temples of Vithoba or taking part in a religious procession belongs to this kind. Another dance of this ecstatic kind is the Mahalakshmi dance better known as ghagar phunkne perhaps exclusively practised by Chitpavan Brahman women at the time of Mahalakshmi worship in the bright half of Ashvina. But this Brahman sub-caste is to be found in Bhandara in very small numbers as they are recent emigrants.

Gond Dancing

Dancing and singing by way of accompaniment to dancing constitutes social amusement and recreation of the Gonds who are very fond of it. The principal dance is the Karma dance in celebration of the bringing of the leafy branch of a tree from the forest in the rains. Men and women from two long ling opposite each other with the musicians in the centre, advancing and retreating alternately, bringing one foot forward and the other up behind it, with a similar movement in retiring. At a mixed dance, all the time they are dancing, they also sing in unison, the men sometimes reciting one ling and the women the next or both together. The songs generally are erotic, but there are other also.

Folk Songs

In the rural areas, there would arise a number of occasions for the cultivating classes to entertain themselves with folk songs to be sung individually or in a group. Of these lavni and povada songs, replete as they are with humour and commonsense from a popular source of entertainment for the village folk. There are professional exponents of the art and a contest between the lavni singer arranged at a jatra or a fair attracts many, but it is the lavni of the female dancer-cum-singer at a tamasha that really delights the audience. Folk songs known as bhaleri are sometimes sung to encourage reapers working in the fields, at the harvesting time, farmers sing special songs to enthuse, as it were the bullocks treading corn. In the repertory of folk songs of the villager may be included songs set in ovi metre which are often sung by women in the early morning while grinding corn: auspicious songs such as sung by suvasinis at the haland and ghana ceremonies at marriage; palne or lullabies and cradle songs which are soothing to the ear are sung to put a child to sleep; propitiatory songs song to appease the wrath of deities like small pox; artya in praise of gods and goddesses and ukhane which are riddles set in rhymes and also ditties composed for the use of women to utter their husband's names in an involved way.

Bhajan, Bharud, Gondhal, Kirtan, Lalit, Tumbadi and Tamasha are the other forms of community entertainments based on folk songs found current in the district. Of these bhajan-singing which aims at a religious communion to be achieved by chanting devotional songs in chorus, is widely popular. Occasionally bhajan-saptahas or non-stop sessions of bhajan-singing for seven successive days are held in temples. The traditional topic of the spiritual uplift of man is delineated in bharud songs, delightfully spiced with humour. Gondhal is a semi-musical performance given by a professional gondhali and his troupe in praise of gods and goddesses such as Malhari, Bhavani, Rama and other legendary heroes. A kirtan a musical discourse given by a kirtankar or kathekari in which God and religion are discussed and expounded in poetry and prose. Lalita as the probable precursor of Marathi drama is a form of crude theatrical art which has for its plot an incident from the Puranas. Tumbadis are musical satires on social problems. Tamsha which is perhaps the most popular and alluring recreational activity in the rural areas consists of a bari of five or seven artistes of histrionic talent and musical skill. The nachya or dancer in an amateur tamasha troupe is generally a boy dressed as a girl. In a professional tamasha, a female dancer or singer is the main attraction. Ganga, gavlan and vag are the principal components of the tamasha and the ruling sentiment maintained throughout by means of dialogues and lavnis is usually crude and sensuous humour.