The dress rehearsals for Aartis are in full flow as the stage is all set for Chovath or Ganesh Chaturthi in the state of Goa. Professionals and amateurs groups across the state are fine tuning their folk instruments Ghumot and Shamele accompanied by the zing sound of the Kasalle, besides honing their singing skills. Everyone is upbeat these days as Ganesh brings in fun and merry making as every house is turned into a temple. A festive atmosphere with music that is reverberated all around the praise of Ganapati, Parvati and Shankar through singing or playing the devotional Aartis have already begun.
By singing Ganesh aarti ‘Sukha Karta Dukh Harta’ one invokes his blessings for joy and happiness and to remove obstacles in life. In ‘Lavthavti Vikrala’, Shankar’s Aarti, one praises him for drinking the poison coming out of serpent god, Vasuki’s mouth during churning of oceans to save humanity and while singing Aarti of Devi Parvati, ‘Durge Durgat Bhari’ devotees ask to protect the distressed and orphaned and show compassion and remove all problems.
While preparations are already on, with children keenly awaiting the arrival of Ganesh idol at their home, their celebration have already started as they are stocking fire crackers in their armoury even as the sound of Aarti are making a buzz in the air. Chovath is awaited by not only every Hindu families, but also by hundreds of folk artistes across the state to present to the Lord the age-old Aartis in their own style and skills. In recent times, Aarti singing has reached a very competitive level with the formation of many singing groups composed of male, female and youths.
Amongst many, one of the youthful groups, Shree Anant Shiv Sai Ghumot Mandal from Britona is making quite a stir in Ghumot Aarti field of late. “We are a newly formed group which is composed of artistes from Penha de France and Salvador do Mundo with youngsters from different age group. Ours is mix of boys and girls that make up our group, a very rare one. People especially come to see our performance. We complement each other in every sense while performing without considering anyone as our competitor.” says a confident Vinisha Fadte, president of this musical group, full of enthusiasm.
She adds, “Our objective is to give platform to the youth to showcase their talent in folk music. We have kept our organisation open to everyone who wants to learn without sticking to only our villages.” These young performers are multi-talented having shown their prowess not only in Ghumot Aartis, but also in Fugdi dance, Dindi and dramas too.
Vinisha further says, “As of now, we have performed at number of places that include Panjim, Mapusa, Bicholim and others, but only performing on invitation. Chovath is a big moment for us to perform and we wish to take part in competitions later after gaining enough experience. Till now, wherever we have performed, we have received rave reviews for our performance, which is very creditable despite our limited experience. We have some outstanding performers with Achal Volvoikar being the mainstay of singing, whereas Manjusha Borkar, Yashasvi Chodankar, and Manashvi Borkar are very good at playing Ghumot.”
Boys usually play Shamele and Kasalle as sound beats of these instruments has to be perfectly matched to create the right rhythm. “Samir sir has given us the perfect training in that regards,” says Vinisha. There are more than forty ladies group in Goa with many of them concentrated in Ponda taluka.
Samir S Gadekar from Aldona is a very experienced folk music teacher, especially in Ghumot Aarti, who is trying to keep the traditional style alive. He is creating a pool of young talent in this field of music by building folk music groups with solid understanding of singing and playing the instruments.
Samir says, “I follow the traditional style of singing Aartis. While performing, it is important that the singer’s voice must not get lost in the cacophony of instruments, which is now a trend, but must complement each other and must never give the feeling of the instrument outsmarting the singer. The traditional compositions are missing nowadays with the emergence of new style of singing and there is often a disconnect between the singer and the instruments. There has to be a perfect understanding and blending such that there is no dominance by the instruments to make performance a pleasure to the listeners. It comes with experience, but what is important is the youth, who are showing interest in our culture as a result of competitions held at school, higher secondary and college levels.”
Ghumot, Shamele and Kasale form the base of any Aarti singing, but there are few artistes in the name of improvisation, they use tanpura which is not needed as Aarti singing is not based on classical style of music.
“The lyrics of the Aartis which were written centuries ago, there is not much variation from place to place, the way they are sung,” says Dr Pandurang Phaldesai, director of Thomas Stephen Konknni Kendr and former member secretary of Kala Academy. On the evolution of these devotional songs, Dr Phaldesai informs, “Aartis were earlier sung mostly in the temples, but in the 20th century as a result of development of democratic form of government in Portugal, liberal thoughts prevailed and celebrations became more common in people’s houses.”
In the temple, there is something called Suvari of god taken in a palanquin around the temple with accompanying of Ghumot Aartis, which is a folk tradition in Goa. He adds, “Aarti singing is quite uniform, although there may be some classical element with playing of Shehnai to bring in novelty as songs were presented by Pangad (village wards) in the festivals.”
Ghumot Aartis singing got a real impetus in the last 25 to 30 years. In the past, Aartis were sung only during Chovath. “When I was with Kala Academy, we had started a scheme to develop Goa’s various folk traditions in music. Later, Rajiv Kala Mandir started various competitions in the state that created impact in youngsters taking interest in singing Ghumot Aarti and other folk music,” Dr Phaldesai said.
While Ganesh Chaturthi is the best times to demonstrate one’s talent, making of Ghumot, the main instrument is still questioned by animal lovers as large number of monitor lizards (Varanua bengalensisis) are killed to harvest the skin that forms the membrane fitted on it. Although use of this membrane is banned as monitor lizard is protected under Wildlife (Protection) Act 1972, its use is still prevalent. Everyone, including a youngster knows the difference in sound between monitor lizard and goat skin that is now used as a membrane. The goat skin doesn’t match that powerful beats produced while playing Ghumot when one compared with monitor lizard skin. However, Samir agrees the importance of the animal to the environment as artificially made membrane could be a solution.
With the programmes and competitions organised around the year will help to retain Goa’s cultural heritage, the strong messages in the Aartis during Chovath one invokes regularly by singing the praise of god and seek blessings must pervade into the mind so that the celebrations remains till eternity with respect to all elements in nature.