Dholak, sarangi and shehnai: On revival path

Ranchi/Jamshedpur, May 27: For MTV generation, junjhur, majira, rapha, kendra among others may sound foreign.

But these are all musical instruments played by tribal artistes over several generations in this part of the country. To fight the onslaught of western culture, urbanisation and modern musical instruments over art and culture of the tribals, the state government has decided to preserve such instruments, which have reached the verge of extinction.

One of the initiatives in this direction by the state art and culture department is to collect all the famous instruments of the tribals from different districts and preserve them in a museum in Ranchi.

This ambitious project will be completed through public contribution — both on donation and purchase. Sources in the department said there are more than 20 instruments, including dhak, dholak, mandar, nagera, narsingh, bheira, shehnai, murali, tohila, ghughur, ghaghar, kartal, junjhur, jhanjh, rapha, dhechka, kendra and tirio, which are widely used by the tribals in festivals.

As per the notification by the department, those who will provide instruments free of cost, will be given a citation while others who propose to sell their musical instruments have to submit a quotation mentioning its name by June 30 to director Prakash Chandra Mishra.

Harendra Prasad Sinha, the assistant director of the department, said that after collecting the instruments, the department would organise an exhibition for people to take a look. “Besides, we have also decided to retain many musical instruments at Jharkhand Tribal Welfare and Research Institute for researchers,” he said, adding that sports and youth affairs minister Bandhu Tirkey had directed to move further with the idea.

“The department also carried out a survey at Khunti and Sonahatu and found two instruments, tohila and kendra, are on the verge of extinction as there are only one or two artistes can play these traditional instruments found only in some villages.”

“To provide a boost to the dying art, we arranged a workshop for those who were willing to learn to play the musical instruments and we were surprised that many had come up. In future, we will organise similar types of workshop by inviting the musicians who are apt in it. We are also in touch with the Sangeet Natak Academy, New Delhi, which can take the initiative and provide all necessary help and sponsor the programme,” Sinha added.