Music, Body and Sexuality in Bihu Songs of Assam

UTPOLA BORAH

At the advent of spring when nature changes its colour and wears her glorious attire, the people of Assam welcome their most cheerful and joyous festival Bohag Bihu or Rongali Bihu. Literally the term “Bohag” means the first month of the Assamese New Year. “Rangali” meaning festival of colour and the suffix “Bihu” is both genre and the festival in large. Held annually (between mid-April to mid-May) Rangali Bihu and the month of Bohag in beginning of the new agricultural cycle and marks the Assamese New Year. Pastoral singing and dancing dominate the Bohag or Rangali Bihu celebration with great enthusiasm amongst the people.

Primarily a festival of rural folks and performed in a lonely place or on the river bank, Bohag Bihu reached the status of national festival of Assam under the patronage of the legendary Ahom monarchs (AD 1228–1836). The Ahoms are the Shan group of Mongolian invaders. They entered the Brahmaputra valley in the beginning of the 13th century AD from the Upper Burma and ruled Assam for more than six hundred years. It is during this time that Bihu became a public performance. An amusement palace was built by the royalty and the nobles at the Rupahipathar near Sibsagar (the royal capital of the Ahom kingdom). The neo-Vaisnavite movement of Sankardeva (AD 1449–1559) influenced Bihu songs and dance, wild jubilant expression got blended with prayer and invocations for the welfare of the family and community.

In the early part of 20th century Bohag Bihu songs were termed as a vulgar tradition with erotic tone and note by some of the elites of Assam. In 1952 Bohag Bihu performance was brought to Guwahati, the present capital of Assam and performed on stage under the banner of Guwahati Bihu Xanmilan (a formal Bihu function). Crossing the barriers of caste, creed, community, tribes and even religion, Bohag Bihu today is not just a secular festival, it has given oneness to the multi-ethnic and poly-cultural region of Assam. It has become a national identity of the Assamese.

To understand the nature of music, body and sexuality in Bihu songs, I will discuss types of Bihu performances, Rati Bihu song and Bongeet or Bonghoxa in the following parts of the article.

Bohag Bihu performances can be divided in two broad categories: Xamajuwa Bihu (community performance) and Mukoli Bihu (free perfor-mance). Husori, a community performance, is performed only by the men folks of all age groups for seeking blessing on the New Year. It is a custom for Husori band to first sing and dance in the village Namghar (Vaisnavite community prayer hall), then visit houses of respectable persons. The songs of Husori performance are ritualistic, and carry social appeal. The Husori dance is ring or circle dance, dancers move their body with a graceful gesture.

The Mukoli Bihu is an affair of youthful expression of various moods, such as love, separation and union. Mukoli Bihu has various events according to gender, space and age groups of the participants. They are Deka Bihu, Bon Bihu for adolescent boys, Gabharo Bihu or Jeng Bihu for maidens, Chuwali Bihu for pre-puberty girl, Maiki Bihu or Buwari Bihu for married women and Aitar Bihu for old ladies. Every village has different rules and regulations of Bihu performances and to certain extent it also applies as per caste and community. In some areas of Sibsagar and Dibrugarh districts young males are dressed as female dancer to perform Bihu dance. In those villages maidens are not allowed to dance together with male dancer, only young girls (pre-puberty) dance and sing Bihu during the day within the village premises. In general higher class Ahoms and Kalitas, the dancing of marriageable girls takes place in private, or inside a house or shed, and men are not allowed to watch it. These restrictions are probably imposed by Hinduism, and are well in keeping with Hindu ideas of women’s modesty and behavior.¹ Jeng or Gabharu Bihu and Maiki or Buwari Bihu are entirely women performances held mostly in the afternoon in an open area away from their home. Dry branches are planted as fence to mark a space for the performance and also to prevent men. Following song is an example of women Bihu performance:

Bihure birina pate, xamonia
gabharu chuwali nace jume jume
sotor Bihu lagiche gat

(Birina grass of Bihu, o dear friend,
young girls dance in clusters;
they have had a touch of Sotor Bihu).

The young maidens express their feeling of joy and love in spring, yearning for her beloved, enjoy singing and dancing with friends. In some cases, newly wedded daughter-in-laws also join the maidens while going to fetch water from the nearby river or pond. In Maiki or Buwari Bihu, women get-together during afternoon after completing their day-to-day activities and perform Bihu in near by field. These women express various moods of marital life through the songs, and some time even having a young lover boy as the following song describes.

Khabor mane gol bagihah ejoni
subabo nuwaro theng
jabor mane gole piliga dekaloi
batate bagorir jeng

(I felt like eating a white duck,
I cannot chew its legs.
I felt like going to a young lad,
but on the way are thorns of the plum).

Rati Bihu or Bihu at Night

One of the prominent events of Mukoli Bihu performance is Rati Bihu performance. The Rati Bihu was performed in the month of Sot (mid-March to mid-April) for a month, exactly before the month of Bohag. It is also popularly called as “Sotor Bihu.” In the month of Sot, the soil hardens up and is not fit for agriculture. So, the village folks invoke the weather God’s blessing by performing Bihu dance and song by beating drums. For the farmer community, this performance is a marriage between thunder clouds and mother earth. Rati Bihu starts at the night falls and continues till mid-night or early morning. The performance was held in the countryside, under the shadow of a Banyan/any big tree or on the bank of river or in only paddy field.

Rati Bihu was performed only by the youth, both boys and girls were accompanied by two elderly men as guardians; known as Deka Bora (for boys) and Gabharu Bora (for girls). Specially, the Gabharu Bora was responsible for bringing and leaving the girls from home like their own father. The performances were conducted under their guidance in a common area but separately for boys and girls. Usually, no audiences were allowed to witness the Rati Bihu performances. The songs are erotic in nature and free from all kinds of inhibitions in expressing love. The language of these songs are colloquial Assamese, but is saturated with deep sincerity. The bonding of love is well brought out in a song like this:

Piriti nabhage piriti nichige
piriti najay au pari
jimame khuwaba ximane mere khaba
piriti premare jari

(Love does not break,
love does not die,
love is the string of attachment,
the more you twine it, the more it gets twined;
love is the thread of attachment).

Rati Bihu was a call and response performance, begins with an invocation and as the night falls, expression of the songs go deeper in meaning. They are accompanied by musical instruments such as dhol (drum), pepa (buffalo horn pipe), gogona (jew’s harp), xutuli (ocarina), toka (bamboo clapper). Since both performances go side by side, there are times when while singing Bihu songs or playing dhol, pepa, etc., boys try to attract the girls with their talents. Sometimes, even to win the heart of one girl, men try their best to be superior to each other by singing Bihu songs or playing drum or horn pipe. While exchanging their feeling through songs, if by chance a man gets a hint that the young lady whom he likes is responding, then they propose each other by exchanging gifts in the following day or later during the month. Usually man brings a Kapau flower (an long spring orchid which also symbolized male sexual organ) for decorating her hair and the young lady brings a Bihuwan (a traditional white towel with red border) woven by her. The entire process of exchange of feelings happens in hiding from their fellow performers. Since, physical relationship without marriage is not allowed by the society, most often they get married in the month of Bohag. For most of the rural Assamese, Bohag Bihu is an occasion to choose life partner, and this season of the year when runway matches are most common, especially in villages of Upper Assam.

Kumalia kakalti ciya ai maina
kulalia kakalti ciya
tumi kumaliya maino kumaliya
pati jao bahagot biya

(Your tender waist is slim, dear,
your tender waist is slim,
you are tender,
I am tender,
come let’s marry this Bohag, dear).

In the case of runway matches, it is customary to legalize the matches by securing consent from the Gaon panchayat (village court) and offering a feast to the community. To avoid forestall relationship, which is not allowed by society, the young men and women of the same village are not expected to dance together.

Rati Bihu performance was very popular until few centuries ago, however, with the colonial interruption of the British during India’s independent movement; the colonial army used to hunt freedom fighters in the villages or nearby forests, and often punishment was meted out to innocent youth celebrating Bihu at night. Today it is very rarely performed, in few villages in Sibsagar and Dibrugarh districts of Assam.

In the following paragraphs, I will examine lyrics of some of the Rati Bihu songs and Bongeet or Bonghoxa songs connected to agricultural activities. The Rati Bihu song represents the joy of love, hunger for compa-nionship or yearning and wound caused by separation and frustration. In the following song, youthfulness is justified in various ways and love is attributed to divine origin:

Prathame isware prithibi srajile
lagate carajile jiwa
sejan isware piriti karile
amiba nakarim kiya

(God created the world
and he created the creatures
the same God created love
why should not we love my dear)

The colour red, which is colour of fertility, appears frequently in Bihu songs. Usually, female dancers wear muga silk (golden silk) in mekhela-chadar (long skirt and shawl worn around the skirt), woven with red motif, which women weave on their loom.

Bongeet or Bonghoxa

Another variety of love songs, which are sung through out the year by mainly the youth are Bongeet or Bonghoxa, which literally means “songs of the wild.” According to folklorist Lila Gogoi “Bonghoxa or Bongeet is passionate lyrical outburst of young unfitted lovers exploring their own unknown depths of their hearts. These expressions becomes fruitful during spring with the awakening of nature and with the rhythm of Bihu music.”²

These are sung mostly by young men while gazing cattle in the forest. Other than these songs, there are some love songs connected to agricultural activities sung by the young men while ploughing or sowing in the field. These songs are sung by young ladies, while planting, reaping in the field or weaving or spinning on the loom. These compositions are unique and have raw physical expression:

If you were cucumber
I would have chewed you up….

or,

I dreamt of you last night
my hand was on your breast….

or,

My body has been burning like mustard seeds in fire
since I saw you at the river bank….

Music

The Bihu songs and Bongeet are kind of communication of feeling between youths. The Bihu songs are available in a couplet of four lines and often sung antiphonally. The antiphonal character of these songs are seen when a young man sings a song and then begins to beat his drum while his opposite, the female, dances. When the female sings and dances her partner plays on his drum. Usually, Bihu songs are sung by one person while other takes up the refrain and plays on their instruments. They are spontaneous in creation, dance is closely associated with the music and the song meters controls the rhythmic movements. Bihu songs are mainly restricted to high-pitch scale; these songs have unique feature indicating an extremely skillful and usual way of vocalization. The musical refrain consisting of meanings syllables like bohona, lahari, chenai, ohoi, haioi, hey, etc. is functionally important for making the performance more exciting. Different types of melodic patterns are used in a performance and normally a performance contains repetitions of the same melody yet, not competitive.

Unlike any other folk songs, Bihu songs are transmitted through oral tradition by imitating master to pupil, friends to friends, sometime even from parents and relatives and currently from recorded music. Since, they are transmitted orally, the rendering of songs varies from place to place and even popular songs also changes in to different tunes or lyrics according to their need.

Body and Sexuality

The expression of body and sexuality in Bihu songs are well described through songs lyrics and dance movements. Bihu songs are ostensibly symbolic, where women’s body is often the important subject right from attaining puberty to youthful body. Beauty of women is always compared with nature, like her face with full moon, breasts with budding flower or ripe oranges, arms with lotus stumps, etc.

Buku bahal kari kakal ciya kari
tomar man xuwani nai
tomar ai kakalti atkaiye lahi
khojat hali jail jai

(With your broad bosom and thin waist,
none is your equal in beauty.
your waist is so slim,
it sways as you walk).

Compare to women’s body, there are very few songs describing the masculinity:

Bahar agaloi caino pathiyalo
bah kodali pon
cenaitir phalalai caino pathiyalo
jene purnimare jon

(I caste my glance at the bamboo clumps
to see which one is the straight;
I caste my glance at my lover,
he is as it were the moon is full).

Unlike some of the other Indian Spring time love songs, the nature of Rati Bihu songs is also mating calls. The male and female physical union is explained in the following songs:

Gaje pani khale haiyange daiyange
ghorai pani khale rai
dhane pani khale piriti nijarat
thiya garat khopani lai

(The elephant drunk anyway it liked,
the horse drunk standing,
my lover drunk the spring of love
by planting his feet on the steep bank).

Tomare tinikhani amar tinikhani
chakahani kaporar jap
tomar tinikhani lowa bachi bachi
kukurai diche hi dak

(Yours three and mine three,
six cloths made up our fold;
pick out your three.
Listen, the cock is crowing).

Kukura kukura agjati kukura
bhukuwai marime tok
rati naupuwatei kiya dake dili
dhane eri jay mok

(Oh, you cock, outcaste cock,
I would kill you with a blow;
it is hardly dawn and you crow out,
my darling has to leave me).

The union of men and women often happens during Rati Bihu performance, while dancing at night few pairs disappear in the dark to fulfill their desire of being together. Other than that, it also takes place when lovers meet in the lonely field or in the forest in different time of the year. The most important point to note is that these songs are restricted only to Rati Bihu event and never sung in the public performances.

Bihu dance is a group dance; drummer beats the drum and also sings. Solo playing of hornpipe with enticing tune invites the girl dancers to the dancing floor and then all male dances begin to move around them in circle or alongside then break into two parallel lines. There are certain fixed patterns with sexual connotations. The female dancer at first keep her hands on hips, then sway her waist in circle, gradually opening and pushing out the pelvic region as well as the breasts. While making these gestures she takes short steps and moves laterally both to her left and right and also forward and backward in a line. The male dancer exhibits the same gestures but in slightly vigorous form. In some places young men dance opening out their knees and raising both hands upwards and thereby making a froglike expression. There is some variation in dance steps from place to place but the basic patterns are more or less same in every village.

There are specific musical rhythms for moving parts of the body. In the sound of hornpipe, the female dancer practically bends her upper body keeping her hands in her waist or hips, gracefully pushing out the pelvic region as well as the breasts in a circular motion and gradually shifting from seating to standing position while looking all around her sides. The drummer is the natural leader and he keeps moving in and around female dancer and often paired with female dancers by closely bending his body towards the dancer. This kind of male and female pairing gesture is also common with other instrument holders – those who play flute, gogona and xutuli. Dancers change their rhythmic movements according to the drum beats. At times female dancers whirl around stretching both hands like birds with the rhythm. When a song ends, the drummer finished with a series of uniform beats culminating in a final flat beat.

Bihu song and dances are two major factors of Bohag Bihu festival. It is a fertility festival and a basic objective of the performance is to have abundant crops. So, in order to achieve this and make the earth fertile, erotic songs and dances are performed. According to an ancient Assamese belief, during the spring if young boys and girls perform dance and songs with sexual connotations in the paddy field, then the earth get fertilized and yield abundant crop. The fundamental reality of Bohag Bihu song and dance is attuned with juvenile stream of human life. For a good harvest the land should be fertile, the bullocks should be healthy. The cattle play a vital role and first day of Bohag is dedicated to the cattle welfare. A good harvest, the emotional and sexual desire of youth and marriage are fundamental to an agricultural society. They constitute both the functional and philosophical dimension of social existence in such society. Bohag Bihu is wonderful example in practice and symbolism of an agricultural society and its nature. Though primarily a song and dance performance, it exemplifies as a folk art, which signifies the basic characteristic of Assamese culture and society.