Fishing in the troubled waters of the Rann
Another installment in the series of occupational folk songs from the rann of Kachchh
September 13, 2025 | Pratishtha Pandya
T
SANGUR, PUNJAB
|THU, JUL 20, 2023
Songs of the Rann: archive of Kutchi folk songs
This multimedia archive on PARI, in collaboration with the Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan (KMVS), is a rich collection of folk music from Kachchh. The 341 songs reflect themes of love, longing, loss, marriage, devotion, motherland, gender awareness, democratic rights and present the abundant diversity of the region through their images, languages and music. An informal collective of 305 percussionists, singers and instrumentalists from Gujarat play a variety of musical forms and bring to life the once thriving oral traditions of Kachchh which are in decline. It becomes especially important to preserve them, as their sounds slowly fade across the desert sands
Series Curator
He beats, she sings
A folksong in the voice of Juma Vagher from Mundra, Kachchh, sings of the violent realities of a pastoral woman’s life in a patriarchal society
January 31, 2025 | Pratishtha Pandya
We will save our ports
A fisherman of Kachchh sings an energising song to motivate his fellowmen as they all prepare to go to sea. A song from the ongoing series of folk songs from Kachchh
November 03, 2024 | Pratishtha Pandya
A pair of kunjal birds
A folk song of love and longing from Kutch, a song of migratory winter birds
March 24, 2024 | Pratishtha Pandya
Green parrot of evergreen Kutch
A song from the desert that sings of the endless splendour of its summers, with colourful fruit trees and feathered creatures singing of love
February 18, 2024 | Pratishtha Pandya
And Odho Jam weeps…
This is a song of grief and separation from a loved one, based on an old celebrated folk tale from Kachchh of Odho Jam and Hothal Padamani
January 6, 2024 | Pratishtha Pandya
On the wings of a winter bird
A popular folk song from Kachchh sung at the time of weddings, compares the life of a woman with that of a migratory demoiselle crane
November 9, 2023 | Pratishtha Pandya
The hidden treasures of her heart
A folksong about the plight of women in Indian countryside, where their labour is visible, but their dreams and aspirations remain buried in their hearts
October 8, 2023 | Pratishtha Pandya
A season of love in the desert
A Kutchi folk song about love, rains, and longing
July 15, 2023 | Pratishtha Pandya
Of intimate enemies
A gloomy song about a young girl from Kachchh who is estranged from her family after marriage, or perhaps because of it
June 21, 2023 | Pratishtha Pandya
Kachchh: minars of faith and fraternity
A folk-song from a region that has preserved its syncretic traditions in music, architecture and culture, despite political upheavals. This devotional song carries the unique flavour of this desert
May 25, 2023 | Pratishtha Pandya
A courtyard, a home, a village
Listen to the feelings of a young girl who is leaving her parents’ house after her wedding in this Kutchi song
May 14, 2023 | Pratishtha Pandya
Where freedom is a song women sing
This folk song captures a defiant, new voice of rural women in Kutch demanding equal property rights
April 8, 2023 | Pratishtha Pandya
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
February 25, 2023 | Pratishtha Pandya
Sweet waters of Kutch: songs of the Rann
A song from this north-western region of Gujarat celebrates the people and culture of Kutch
February 6, 2023 | Pratishtha Pandya
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