The Bhawaiya Song : Place of Woman in Bhawaiya; part 2 - The Sensual Love

In Bhawaiya love is not presented in an unworldly, supernatural or heavenly way. Here love portrays the hard-working real life situation of the common people of North Bengal. The hero and heroine meet in the extensive bounty and boundless solitude of nature for a moment only. Love through mutual understanding between them acts like touch stone in the midst of the fatigue of hard labour. And this immediately relieves the pains and stress of everyday life.

Hemanga Biswas observed that the songs of North Bengal are much more life-oriented than those of East Bengal. Here the river Torsha has not become Yamuna of Radha-Krishna, Chilmarir Bandar has not become Vrindabana; here the composers and singers have not yielded so much to the feudalism. According to Kali Dasgupta, the North Bengal songs are much more down to earth; here Kala (the hero) does the works of tilling lands, rowing boat and grazing cows and does not behave like Krishna with the flute in hands. There is no kind of hypocrisy in Bhawaiya.

In Bhawaiya songs the woman is the central character. She absorbs the feeling that she can move forward through any kind of difficult path if she gets the man as her companion and comrade.The feelings of love, passion, sorrow and pain of woman are mostly seen in Bhawaiya. The woman senses the feeling of love in mind right from the beginning of her budding youth. She feels the necessity in her life of a man who will meet her mental and physical needs and make her life fulfilling. If however, the hard realities of life do not make this possible and she does not get anybody after her mind she feels frustrated, dejected and all her hopes and aspirations of womanhood remain unfulfilled. The simple illiterate young girl at that moment has nothing to rely upon, except for putting blame on God. We get the expression of feelings and emotions of such a woman in most of the Bhawaiya songs.

This is a very old and the first printed Bhawaiya song which expresses the feelings and emotions of a young girl :

Prathama jauvaner kale na hail mor biya,

Ar katakal rahim ghare ekakini hoyya re Bidhi nidaya.

Haila pail mor sonar jauvan maleyar jhare

Mao bape mor hail badi na dil parer ghare re Bidhi nidaya

Bapok na kao sarame mui maok na kao laze,

Dhiki dhiki tusher aghun jaleche dehar majhe re Re bidhi nidaya….

Emon man mor karere bidhi emon man mor kare,

Moner matan chyangra paile dhariya palao dure Re bidhi nidaya.

In this song the woman in the bloom of youth has not been given to marriage in her prime of youth, which is gradually being withered away. Her parents are not in a position to arrange the marriage. The youthful woman is unable to express her mental feelings to anybody out of shame and fear. She feels like running away with a man of her choice marrying him and spending the conjugal life in peace and happiness. She won’t mind even if people speak ill of her and despise her for this act.

The feelings and emotions of the woman for Garial (cartman) and Maishal (buffalo-keepers) is another popular theme of Bhawaiya song. In some of the Bhawaiya songs the woman expresses her love towards the Garials and Maishals. 

This is an example of Bhawaiya song which expresses the feelings and emotion of the woman for the Garial (cartman) :

 

The feelings and emotions of the Garial (cartman) and Maishal (buffalo-keepers) for their wives and ladyloves can also be expressed through Bhawaiya songs.

Reference (text):

1. Bhawaiya____  Dr. Sukhbilas Barma

 Reference (video song): 

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOhgriPCnMk

The Bhawaiya Song : Place of woman in Bhawaiya ; Part 1

Woman has played predominant role in the folk based religion that has evolved out of the effects of interaction of various religious groups and speech groups. The role of woman in the society has been well recognized particularly because here woman is the companion of man in his economic pursuits of labour intensive agriculture and related activities.

Woman plays important role in socio-religious activities too. Woman is accepted as the priest of the rituals to agriculture. Agriculture-based folk society is controlled by the mother figure who is the source and abode of fertility and reproduction. This is why there is tremendous influence of folk goddess on Kamrup’s social life and lots of songs have evolved based on the glory and greatness of these deities.

The physical, mental and emotional life of the people here has been largely influenced by the bounty of nature. The singer and the composer of Bhawaiya intoxicated by the feasts of nature have sought inspiration from woman, the like figure of nature.

All the three forms of woman – mother, daughter and lover are reflected in Bhawaiya, although it is true that the lady love predominates as in other forms of folk in Bengal. Love has placed women to the realm of dream distant from the hard realities. Union, separation, grief and sorrows, and happiness on the other hand accompany love for either of both the sides.

In Bhawaiya, the mother form of woman we get mainly in the songs relating to the worship of deities and rituals – Shaitol Gaan, Bishahara Gaan, Tistaburir Gaan, Subacanir Gaan, Biyar Gaan etc. These folk deities are adored as mother goddess.There are, of course, a few songs reflecting the eternal love between mother and son or mother and daughter.

For example:

O mor kaga re kaga;

Jakhan mao mor rande bare patra na dyan kaga mayer haste

Mairbe mao mor agunot pariya re.

O mor kaga re kaga,

Jakhan mao mor anja kote, patra na dyan mayer haste,

Mairbe mao mor galat katari diya re…

Jakhan mao mor bichinat sote patra dyan kaga mayer haste.

Mairbe mao mor bichinat sutiya re.

Here the daughter form of woman in distress and grief is communicating her tales of sorrow through a letter to be carried to her mother by the crow. She is in such abject poverty and distress that the mother will commit suicide as soon as she knows the content of the letter. The daughter is asking the crow to deliver the letter in an appropriate time so that she can die in piece. The most appropriate time will be when she goes to bed after completing her day’s works.

In spite of this example, the predominant theme of Bhawaiya is the passionate love of the singer for his ladylove. The woman as ladylove and the stories of their eternal love have occupied the major portion of the domain of Bhawaiya.

The deep pangs of the heart of a woman is so touching in Bhawaiya that it overtakes the boundary of land, time and environment and creates an ever-lasting appeal. The expression of her feelings is very straight and simple without any hesitation and fear. The depth of man-woman relationship gives an extra-ordinary glory and prestige to Bhawaiya.

Reference (text):

1. Bhawaiya____  Dr. Sukhbilas Barma