Efforts on to revive Lahaul’s dying music

Tribune News Service

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Shimla, May 7

Shibu Baringba and Devi Singh, the two surviving octogenarian music maestros from Lahaul, will be seen playing the legendary ragas on flute nagaras of Lahaul-Spiti at the historic Gaiety Theatre during the music festival commencing here on May 9.

It is Lala Meme foundation’s first and last-ditch effort to revive an otherwise dying 950 year-old music legacy.

It aims at striking a cultural connect with new and modern generation of the tribals.

Convenor of the foundation, Mangal Manepa and coordinator, Dr Chander Mohan Parsheera yesterday said Lahaul boasts of over 100 ragas on flute and nagada practiced by the traditional masters down the centuries.

“But today just 50 such ragas have survived the tide of times and this legacy is dying as new generation has lost cultural connect with it,” they said.

“The music festival is an attempt to revive ragas through the two surviving masters and about a dozen of amateur artistes in the valley,” Parsheera said. Lahaul is the only area in the country where ragas are performed when a child is born, attains adulthood and marries and during the last rites, religious rites of deities and tantric rituals, he said.

“The rich music is dying as there is no mechanism devised by the musical community to pass the legacy from generation to generation and to the new artistes,” Parhseera said.

Lahaul’s unique flute legacy is traced to Raja Gepan, he observed.

Lahaul tribals keep the DJ off from marriage celebrations as the hearts of brides and grooms beat only for the flute and the nagada, he said.

To revive the music legacy, the two masters along with a battery of officers from Lahaul who would play the flute and nagaras to make it appear attractive for the new generation, he added.

Manepa said NGO Layul Sur Sangam, Lahaul Spiti Students’ Association Kullu and Shimla are preparing a complete movie of the event through a movie company Pixel Dhaba.

“The movie will help in teaching ragas, original dance steps and the rhythm of nagada and style of folk songs to the young artists,” he said.

The masters along with other artists have reached Kullu by helicopter as Lahaul valley is cut off from the outside world. The Rohtang Pass still remains closed for traffic, Parshseera said.