PARI GSP Team

Sharmila Joshi

Editor and Series Editor

Bernard Bel

Photographs

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Yashoda Umbre sings about the grinding to be done early in the morning so that the children can eat
 
 
 
 
 Yashoda Umbre and her family were landless farmers in Rajmachi village of Mawal
 
 taluka
 
 in Pune district, when the Grindmill Songs team met them in 1997. It was not clear if they were agricultural labourers or tenant farmers. Her house was large. &quot;My mother-in-law threw my husband and me out of our ancestral [joint family] home,” she said. “My husband and I built this house [where we now live] with our own labour.”
 
 
 By the 1990s, because of its famous fort, Rajmachi has come under the spell of homestay-tourism. Villagers had built large houses to accommodate tourists, using their own skills of masonry and carpentry.  Yashoda and her husband had also built a bathroom with a proper door for the convenience of tourists. She was rather proud of her bathroom as well as the large house. One of her sons gave us a visiting card.
 
 Yashoda’s eldest son was mentally challenged. The other three were students; one was away at college in Mumbai, and the two youngest sons were studying in the village school.
 
 Yashoda, then 46, learnt grindmill songs from her mother, who lived in Dudhivare village in Mawal
 
 taluka
 
 . When we visited her, she was reluctant to sing. She said her brother’s daughter had died after being poisoned by her in-laws – and according to custom, women then don’t sing for at least a year.

Grindmill_with_two_women.jpg

In the eight
 
 ovi
 
 here, four in each audio clip, Subhadra Umbre accompanies Yashoda in the singing.
 
 
 Audio 1:
 
 In the first audio, Yashoda sings about the grinding to be done early in the morning so that the children can eat breakfast. She sings about waking up her son’s “queen” – her daughter-in-law.

Ovi 1
 
 
 पहाटेच्या पार्यामंदी, कोंबडा आरवला
 
 बाळायाची राणी, झोपची जागी झाली
 
 राणी झोपची जागी झाली, दुरडी दळण झाल पायली
 
 pahāṭēcyā pāryāmandī, kōmbaḍā āravalā
 
 bāḷāyācī rāṇī, jhōpacī jāgī jhālī
 
 rāṇī jhōpacī jāgī jhālī, duraḍī daḷaṇa jhāla pāyalī
 
 At the hour of dawn, the rooster crows, my son’s queen wakes up
 
 The queen awakens up from her sleep, she grinds a basket filled with one
 
 pāyalī
 
 
 
 Note:
 
 
 Pāyalī
 
 
 
 is a traditional measure, slightly less than one kilo. It consists of four seers – 12
 
 pāyalī
 
 make one
 
 māṇ
 
 , and one
 
 māṇ
 
 is equal to 37 kilos.
 
 
 Ovi 2
 
 
 बारा बैलाचा गाडा, माझ्या शेता जायाचा
 
 दुरडी दळायाण, तान्ह्या बाळांची, यांची न्याहरी
 
 bārā bailācā gāḍā, mājhyā śētā jāyācā
 
 duraḍī daḷāyāṇa, tānhyā bāḷāñcī, yāñcī nyāharī
 
 A cart of twelve bullocks is used to go to my field
 
 A basketful of ground flour, the little children’s breakfast
 
 
 Ovi 3
 
 
 दुरडी दळण, हाये माझ्या ना गं दैवाचं
 
 दुरडी दळण, हिनं दुरडी गं हेलावली
 
 duraḍī daḷaṇa, hāyē mājhyā nā ga daivāca
 
 duraḍī daḷaṇa, hina duraḍī ga hēlāvalī
 
 A basket of grain to grind, this is my fortune
 
 A basket of grain to grind, I shake the basket of grain
 
 
 Ovi 4
 
 
 दुरडी दळायाण, हिनं दुरडी गं हेलवली
 
 बाळाच्या राणीला, मी रागानी बोलले
 
 duraḍī daḷāyāṇa, hina duraḍī ga hēlavalī
 
 bāḷācyā rāṇīlā, mī rāgānī bōlalē
 
 I shook the basket of grains to grind
 
 And I spoke angrily with my son’s queen
 
 
 Audio 2:
 
 In the second audio clip Yashoda and Subhadra sing an
 
 ovi
 
 about a lazy woman who is angry at having to toil at the grindmill at dawn. Another
 
 ovi
 
 speaks of how it befits a mother and daughter to work at the grindmill together.

Ovi 5
 
 
 
 पहाटेच्या दळणाचा, येतो आळशीला राग
 
 बाई माझ्या तु उषाबाई, उठ भाग्याच्या गं, दळू लाग
 
 pahāṭēcyā daḷaṇācā, yētō āḷaśīlā rāga
 
 bāī mājhyā tu uṣābāī, uṭha bhāgyācyā ga, daḷū lāga
 
 A lazy woman gets angry about grinding at dawn
 
 My dear fortunate Usha, get up and start grinding!
 
 
 Ovi 6
 
 
 दुरडी दळायाण, कोण्या राजाला गं लागायातं
 
 बाळा ना याच माझ्या, घर गं गोकुळी नांदयतं
 
 duraḍī daḷāyāṇa, kōṇyā rājālā ga lāgāyāta
 
 bāḷā nā yāca mājhyā, ghara ga gōkuḷī nāndayata
 
 
 Which king requires a basketful of ground flour?
 
 In my son’s house, a
 
 gokul
 
 , people live happily
 
 
 Note:
 
 
 
 Lord Krishna’s childhood was spent in a
 
 gokul
 
 , a community of cowherds who lived together in harmony.
 
 
 Ovi 7
 
 
 पहाटंच्या दळणाला रात, कुणाच्या वाड्यावरी
 
 मायलेकी दळतात, सात खणाच्या माडीवरी
 
 pāṭhacyā daḷaṇālā rāta, kuṇācyā vāḍyāvarī
 
 māyalēkī daḷatāta, sāta khaṇācyā māḍīvarī
 
 
 In whose mansion that grinding, at dawn, at night?
 
 Mother-daughter grind on the floor of a seven
 
 khan
 
 
 
 Note:
 
 
 Kha
 
 
 ṇ
 
 
 
 is a unit of measurement in indigenous architecture – it is the distance between two wooden pillars, usually 4x5 or 10x12 feet. A house of seven
 
 khan
 
 would be  huge.
 
 
 Ovi 8
 
 
 सयाना सया पुस, कायी अबदुल वाजयतं
 
 पहाटंचं दळयाण, मायलेकीला साजयतं
 
 sayānā sayā pusa, kāyī abadula vājayata
 
 pāṭhaca daḷayāṇa, māyalēkīlā sājayata
 
 
 Women friends ask each other where is ‘Abadula’ playing (the flute)
 
 The grinding together at dawn befits mother and daughter
 
 
 Note:
 
 At dawn, ascetics and other mendicants play on the flute, and ‘Abadula’ is used here to describe the sound of the flute (and not as the name ‘Abdul’); it may also be used to rhyme
 
 abadula-gabadula
 
 colloquially – signifying the singer’s term for the sound she is hearing.
 <hr/>

Village: RajmachiTaluka: MawalDistrict: PuneGender: FemaleCaste: Mahadev KoliAge: 45/46Children: 4 sonsOccupation: Landless farmerDate: March 15-16, 1997Poster: Shreya Katyayini and Sinchita Maji<a id="2593" linktype="page">Read</a> about the original Grindmill Songs Project founded by Hema Rairkar and Guy Poitevin.

Morning songs on making flour

আটা ভাঙার প্রভাতী গান

पहाटेचं गाणं अन् जात्यावरची दळणं

Rajmachi

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Morning songs on making flour

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