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TIIE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
interesting volume well deserves a place in the library of every one who can read English. A. H. B.
GOVER'S FOLK SONGS.
THE FOLK SONGS OF SouthERN INDIA. By Charles E. Gover, Member of the Royal Asiatic Society and of the Society of Arts, Fellow of the Anthropological Society. Madras: Higginbotham and Co.
THIS is one of the most attractive and instructive
books, relating to the social life of the people of India we have ever read. We think we can safely predict that it will be a favourite in the drawing room as well as in the study. The introductory remarks, criticisms, &c. are well written, and the many songs rendered with great spirit and in every variety of metre. Some of them have already ap peared in the Cornhill Magazine, and others were read before the Royal Asiatic Society but have not yet been published. The Dravidian languages have hitherto been too much overlooked by Orientalists. The Rev. W. Taylor remarks, “It is desirable that the polish of the Telugu and Tamil poetry should be better known in Europe; that so competent judges might determine whether the high distinction accorded to Greek and Latin poetry, as if there were nothing like it in the world, is perfectly just.” And Dr.
Caldwell remarks, that Tamil is “the only vernacular literature in India which has not been content with
imitating the Sanskrit, but has honourably attempted to emulate and outshine it.
In one department, at
least, that of ethical epigrams, it is generally main tained, and I think must be admitted, that the Sans krit has been outdone by the Tamil." But we must let Mr. Gover speak for himself:-
“There is,” he says, “a great mass of noble writing ready to hand, in Tamil and Telugu folk-literature, es pecially in the former. Total neglect has fallen upon it. Overborne by Brahmanic legend, hated by the
Brahmans, it has not had a chance of obtaining the notice it so much deserves. The people cling to their
songs still, and in every pyall-school the pupils learn the strains of Tiruvalluva, Auveiyar, Kapila, Pattunat ta and the other early writers. To raise these books
in public estimation, to exhibit the true products of the Dravidian mind, would be a task worthy of the
ripest scholar, and the most enlightened government. I would especially draw attention to the eighteen books that are said to have received the sanction of
the Madura College, and are among the oldest speci mens of Dravidian literature. Any student of Dra vidian writings would be able to add a score of equally valuable books. If these were carefully
[JANUARy 5, 1872.
describesit, “to fathom the real feelings of the masses of the people, by gathering and collecting the folk songs of each family of the great Dravidian nation. It has been the pleasant labour of years to make this collection—in the plains, where dwell the Tamil and Telugu peoples : on the Maisur plateau, the home of Kanarese : among the hills and valleys of the Nil giris and the Western Gháts, sheltering the stal wart tribes of Kúrg, and the humble Badagas of Utakamand : along the narrow strip of low-lying coast that parts the sea from the western Ghâts and gives a home to the Malayalim tongue.” And lovingly and honestly has he done his work, and we
feel that the vista he has opened up is a picture of reality of no common interest. Before proceeding to the songs let us quote this picture, so well drawn, of the dasas –“ Their ser vice was first of all poverty ; secondly, singing ; thirdly, forgetfulness of caste. Their reward lay in human honour and the certainty of a living. None dared to dispise the “slave of God,' none could re fuse him a handful of rice or a couple of oppams or chapatis. At weddings and feasts, at fasts and funerals, at sowing and harvest, at full moon and sankranti (the passing of the equator as the sun
changed its tropic), the dasa must be invited, lis tened to and rewarded. At weddings, he must sing of Krishna ; at burnings of Yama; before maidens of Kāma ; before men, of Rāma. As he begs he sings of right and duty ; when he hears the clink of copper in his shell, of benevolence and charity. . . “There can be few more pleasant scenes than when in the cool of the evening, the dasa enters some quiet country village, to find and earn his food and quarters for the night. Marching straight to the Mantapam or many-pillared porch of the pagoda, he squats on the elevated basement, tunes his vina, places before him his huge begging shell. The vil lagers are just returning from the fields, weary with their labours, anxious for some sober excitement. The word is quickly passed round that the singer has come, and men, women and children turn their steps towards the Mantapam. There they sit on the ground before the bard and wait his pleasure. He begins by trolling out some praise to Krishna, Vishnu or Pillaiyarswami. Then he starts with a pada or short song, such as those with which the book commences. There is chorus to every verse. If the song be well known before the bard has finished the
long-drawn-out note with which he ends his verse, the villagers have taken up their part and the loud chorus swells on the evening breeze. If the song be new they soon learn chorus, and every fresh verse bears a louder and louder refrain.
Then the shell
Norought we to pass over the author's history
is carried round and pice are showered into it. When darkness closes in, the head-man of the vil lage invites the singer to his house, gives him a full meal and then leaves him with mat, vina and shell
of his book—“the result of an attempt,” as he
to sleep in the pyall. In busy towns the singer
edited, they would form a body of Dravidian clas sics of the highest value.”
