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):
- Bhawaiya____ Dr. Sukhbilas Barma
Reference (video song):
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOhgriPCnMk
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