Pratishtha Pandya

Series Curator

Rahul Ramanathan

Illustration

small_01_In_Kutch_a_lake_and_a_love_story.jpg

thumbnail_01_In_Kutch_a_lake_and_a_love_story.jpg

01_In_Kutch_a_lake_and_a_love_story.jpg

He is caught at the gate, killed at the crossroads, hullabaloo around the streets.  Oh! Hamiriyo is not here, not yet.

This song goes back 200 years. Based on a popular Kutchi folk story, it tells the tale of two young lovers, Hamir and Hamli. Their families disapprove of their love, and so the two meet secretly on the shore of Hamisar lake in Bhuj. But one day, while on his way to meet his beloved, Hamir is spotted by a family member. He tries to escape but is chased and murdered in the battle that follows. This song is one of mourning as Hamli waits by the lake for her lover who will never return.  Why do the families disapprove?The full lyrics of the song – in a form widely known as rasuda – suggest that caste may well have been a critical factor in the boy’s murder. However, most Kutchi scholars prefer to read the song as one expressing any woman’s grief on losing her lover. But that ignores the real references to the gate, the crossroads and the chaos that followed.This is one of 341 songs recorded by Soorvani, a community-run radio started by the Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS) in 2008. A collection that has come to PARI through KMVS, these songs capture the immense cultural, linguistic and musical diversity of the region. The collection helps preserve the musical tradition of Kutch, which is in decline, its sounds fading across the desert sands. The song presented here is sung by Bhavna Bhil from Bhachau Taluka in Kachchh. Rasuda is often played at weddings in the region. Rasuda is also a Kutchi folk dance, where women sing and twirl around a drummer who plays the dhol. When a girl gets married, her family incurs a huge amount of debt to buy the required jewellery. With the death of Hamirio, Hamli loses the right to wear these ornaments and the song here refers to her loss and her debts.

Type of song: Traditional folk songCluster: Songs of love, loss and longingSong: 2Title of the song: Hamisar talave pani haali chhori HamaliComposer: Deval Mehta Singer: Bhavna Bhil from Champar village in Bhachau taluka Instruments used: Harmonium, drum Recording year: 2005, KMVS studio Gujarati translation: Amad Sameja, Bharati Gor English translation: Pratishtha Pandya

A special thanks to Preeti Soni, Aruna Dholakia, secretary, KMVS, Amad Sameja, project coordinator KMVS for their support and to Bhartiben Gor for her invaluable help with Gujarati translation.

In Kutch: a lake and a love story

کچھّ: ہمیسر جھیل کے کنارے عشق و فراق کی کہانی

కచ్‌లో: ఒక సరస్సు, ఒక ప్రేమగాథ

ஒரு நதியும் ஒரு காதல் கதையும்

ਕੱਛ: ਵਿਯੋਗ ਅਤੇ ਝੀਲ਼ ਦਾ ਕਿਨਾਰਾ

କଚ୍ଛରେ : ଏକ ହ୍ରଦ ଓ ଏକ ପ୍ରେମ କାହାଣୀ

കച്ചിലെ ഒരു തടാകവും ഒരു പ്രണയകഥയും

ಕಚ್ಛ್:‌ ಒಂದು ಕೆರೆ ಮತ್ತು ಪ್ರೇಮಕತೆ

कच्छ: एक झील का किनारा और बिछड़े प्रेमी

कच्छ के झील अऊ प्रेम कथा

कच्छ: झील किनारे प्रेम आ बिछोह कथा

কচ্ছের সরোবরে দাস্তান-এ-ইশ্‌ক

কচ্ছৰ সৰোবৰ আৰু এটা প্ৰেমকাহিনী

કચ્છનું એક તળાવ અને એક પ્રેમકથા

Kachchh

At present, we can only accept donations in Indian rupees by Indian citizens. All donations made to the CounterMedia Trust are eligible for exemption under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961. Here is a copy of our exemption certificate.


India is bigger than New Delhi. And people need to know more about the rest of this vast nation.


Younger, media-saturated generations are growing up knowing little about their country, but a lot about the elites of a few metros and towns. For a narrowly-owned, commercially-driven media, the dumbing down of a nation is part of standard operating procedure. The last available data of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS, Delhi) show us that reports from New Delhi account for 66 per cent of news on the front pages of major dailies. The CMS data also found that just about 0.24 per cent of front page news came out of rural India. The TV channels are not much better.PARI exists to change that.We are a non-profit organisation. We publish under creative commons, and do not charge readers a subscription fee or put-up advertisements. Nothing is behind a paywall and we are completely free-to-access by anyone. We guard our independence and receive no direct grants from governments and corporations, nor any funding that could dictate our content. So, we are dependent on volunteer labour, donations from individuals, foundations and institutions that see value in independent and free media.PARI is changing the way Indian journalism reports and documents the rural.India is more than the elite of a few metros and towns. We report on rural lives and livelihoods, languages, communities, migrants and more. We need your help to pull off this most ambitious of Indian journalistic endeavours. The scale of this effort costs money. Donate generously - and spread the word about PARI.&nbsp;

Donate FAQs


Let’s get you acquainted

Welcome to PARI

All our content is, and will forever be free to consume. If you enjoy our work, you can support us by becoming a volunteer or by donating to help fund our work.

Want to republish this article? Please write to <a href="mailto:zahra@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">zahra@ruralindiaonline.org</a> with a cc to <a href="mailto:namita@ruralindiaonline.org" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">namita@ruralindiaonline.org</a>

In Kutch: a lake and a love story

Love and longing are captured in this Kutchi folk song set in Bhuj. This is the second in the series of Kutchi folk songs on PARI

Related stories

A rain-scented walk in Sivagangai

Living on ravaged land

Biswas and the bamboos on his bike

Recycling energy, Godda style

Bhadels of Goa

Pookadai: still throbbing with morning life

Koli Kadlas

Malnourishment high among children of migrants: study

Wheels of the rural Indian West

Living Under a Red Cloud in Bellary

Vedla – earrings of the Maher community

Dreaming of water, drowning in debt

Kali: the dancer and his dreams

Farmer's diet worse than a convict's

In Yavatmal, life goes on

Suicides are about the living, not the dead

Death of a carpenter

Hoisa Shigmo!

Women farmers: weaving a life in Anantapur

Defiant in Dhinkia

Spice and all that's nice

Kerala's Green Army

The ‘jugaad’ not-a-mobile

Health as someone else's wealth

Calibrating in a Kudumbashree assembly unit