Badan Sarma
Spring is pregnant with beauty and bounty, and flowers. The all-pervading fragrance of numerous flowers, the melody of the singing birds, the greenness of the forests, the blue sky and the vast open fields – all exhibit a fresh and lively feeling that captivates one and all during this time.
The folk songs, music, dances, the rituals related to agriculture, the religious customs prevalent in the family and socio-economic life of a community or nation – all embody the cultural tradition and heritage of a country or community. These various aspects of culture are the genuine semblance of a nation’s identity in the world.
The springtime festival of Assam, Rongali Bihu, is an illuminating record of the socio-cultural heritage of the people of Assam that has come through age-old traditions down to our present times. Every indigenous aspect of nativity, stuck firmly to the soil of Assam, finds its full expression in this much celebrated festival, observed amidst gay abandon by people of all descriptions irrespective of caste or creed, rich or poor. Spring being the maiden season of the year heralds in a new era of joy, peace and prosperity amid Nature’s beauty and bounty. With ecstatic feelings of joy, the people of Assam feel naturally enthused during this time, to reinvigorate their lives with deep yearning for happiness, peace and prosperity in the days ahead.
Spring is pregnant with beauty and bounty, and flowers. The all-pervading fragrance of numerous flowers, the melody of the singing birds, the greenness of the forests, the blue sky and the vast open fields – all exhibit a fresh and lively feeling that captivates one and all during this time. The Assamese people embrace this season as a harbinger of peace, happiness and prosperity. The Rongali Bihu is primarily related to the rustic village folk and traditionally connected with cultivation. The Assamese cultivators, at the advent of Bohag, prepare themselves in advance for the ensuing season of agriculture with new hopes and enthusiasm.
With this end in view the ploughman in Assam, on the first day, celebrates the traditional rituals by giving a clean bath to the cows, especially the pair of bullocks meant for cultivation. They pray for their sound health, vigorous and long life. They are offered new ropes and given balls made of rice powder mixed with jaggery. Besides this, the village folk arrange for smoke to drive out flies and mosquitoes from the cowshed. Thus they are readied for the ensuing season of cultivation.
The second day is marked for man. On this day the household is ready for refreshment and refinement. The first day of Bohag is the new day of the Assamese calendar. The day is celebrated as a holy occasion by every family member wearing customary Assamese handloom clothes and observing religious rituals at home and the namghars. Paying respect to the elders and love and affection to the young ones, people embrace each other to strengthen the bond of love, harmony and integrity and offer gamochas (hand-woven towels) as a token of love and respect. The cheerful young girls wear strings of the ‘Kopou flower’, an orchid, around their hair in conformity with the beauty and colour of the season. They wear homespun mekhela-chador and look jovial, smart and lovely. Even the most destitute feels enthused to welcome this season of the year. The clarion call of the Nature is responded well by the people from all walks of life. The melodious cuckoo birds usher in a new era of endless and spirited joy and gaiety all around, captivating the mind and heart of the people.
Now begins the ceremonial demonstration of Hoochari Bihu in public. The enthusiastic and cheerful young girls and boys gather in groups to sing Bihu songs and dance. The old and the young alike wholeheartedly participate in Bihu Hoochari and thus express their ecstatic feeling of joy by singing and dancing amidst the beating of dhol (a local percussion instrument) and whistling pepa (a hornpipe instrument) and flutes. The Bihu songs are the spontaneous expression of a powerful feeling of ecstasy and agony, love and despair, smiles and tears of life. These songs – the invaluable treasures of Assamese folk culture – are the rhythmic and lyrical composition of unknown and illiterate village poets. The enchanting melody of the songs captivate one and all alike irrespective of caste or creed.
The beginning of the Assamese New Year is celebrated all over Assam with sanctity and joviality. The villagers, young and old, visit in groups the family of the elderly villager first to perform Bihu Hoochari. They sing hymns from books of religion and pray for the health and happiness of the family. The cheerful youth then sing and dance attuned with drum beating and whistling music of flute and pepa. The elderly people gather at the village namghar to offer religious prayer for the peace, happiness and prosperity of the village community in the days to come.
The traditional Assamese Rongali Bihu has in modern times lost most of its sanctity and austerity owing mainly to the inroads of popular modern cultures into the very fabric of Assamese folk culture. The mushrooming of cheap and easily available Bihu audio cassettes had degraded the traditional austerity of the Bihu songs which are directly related to the life of the rustic village folk. So is the case with Hoochari Bihu, which has now been brought from the fields and forests to the modern stage where they are meant for competition. Prizes are awarded for the best Hoochari group, best dancer, best drummer, etc. The music of modern songs has affected the traditional Bihu songs debasing it of its precious Assamese folk character. The impact of modern mass culture is felt in every sphere of this folk culture at present times.