Raja Nal and the Goddess: The North Indian Epic Dhola in Performance

3. Dhola as Performed: Two Singers

3 Dhola as Performed: Two Singers Performance is essential to Dhola because it is through the voices of the singers that the characters are brought to life, usually through the voice of a solo singer. That Dhola is about transgressing norms is given even greater impact because, despite the existence of the chapbook versions, the epic lives through performance. One of the principles of performance is identification with characters , the sharing of circumstances. Oral performance is based not on rhetorical deliberations but rather on engaging the sympathies of the audience with the very real human problems encountered by the characters whom the singer brings to life. That Dhola turns the world on its head, and then turns it back again, leaves the audience, and performer, continually questioning reality and attachment: when Raja Nal is a low-caste Oil Presser, beaten and continually insulted by the kings of the land, sympathies are engaged, sympathies that remain even when he eventually reverts to kingly status. The success of the tale being told ultimately depends on the abilities of its singers. No two of the Dhola singers whom I have heard over the past thirty-five years have performed Dhola in the same way. A variety of stylistic features function both to add texture and symbolic depth to the singers’ renditions of Dhola and to keep the attention of audiences, who may be sitting far into the night after a hard day of field labor. I feature two of these singers here: Ram Swarup Dhimar of Karimpur was my initial guide to Dhola and a consummate performer who manipulates his cikara and the traditional folk song genres of Dhola to add enormous richness and complexity to his performance. His career as a youthful runaway who sought numerous gurus marks one tradition of learning Dhola. The second singer featured here is Matolsingh Gujar of Kama District, Rajasthan, renowned not only as a singer of Dhola but also as a writer of chapbook versions. Educated through the tenth class, though from a rural farming family, Matol shifted to Dhola singing when in his thirties. Matol, who died in 1991, sang while playing a harmonium, and his concern for a Dhola more accessible to middle-class urban audiences led him to compose what he defines as the real Dhola as well as to train his troupe in a mode of singing that borrows from light classical styles while retaining many of the traditional folk song genres of the region. Both men were extremely knowledgeable , indeed passionate, about Dhola. While the performance styles of Ram Swarup and Matolsingh differ, their venues and audiences were similar. Dhola is most commonly performed on 66 Dhola the outer verandah of its sponsor’s house, a semi-public space adjoining the village lane. The family sponsoring Dhola may be celebrating an auspicious event, such as the birth of a son, or may be entertaining a marriage party, or perhaps have called the Dhola troupe to gain merit with their neighbors. Performed at night and lit by kerosene lamps, the singer needs only a small space for his troupe—perhaps a half circle twenty feet in circumference. Men and children, mostly male, arrive as the music fills the night air and word of the event spreads through the village lanes, from one man’s verandah to another. As his audience of men and children expands to several hundred, with a few women on the fringes, in a separate side section for women and children only, or on nearby rooftops, the singer seems charged by the energy of the crowd. He and his drummer and steel tong player need no costumes, only their voices and instruments. Every hour or so the troupe stops for a break, perhaps to drink tea or smoke a cigarette. When the episode winds to a close, usually at midnight or later, the singers send their remaining audience off to their cots, for the farmers must be up by 5:00 a.m. to begin their labors once again. At exciting points in the songs, members of the audience will offer donations and are rewarded by a brief verse sung in their honor. While the sponsor will provide a substantial sum plus food and drink for the evening, the troupe often garners an equal amount in donations from the audience. As demonstrated below, each troupe has its own aesthetics, its own style of singing, some emphasizing music, others humor, and still yet others focusing on the story...