Banam

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Banam , also bānām, bānom, refers to a group of lute instruments bowed with a bow and played by male members of Adivasi groups in central northern India to accompany their own singing. It is difficult to classify the mostly single-stringed, in rare cases up to four-stringed banams according to structural principles; they are given different nicknames because of their ornamental or figural design.

Two groups can be distinguished according to their shape: The pike violins belonging to the ektaras have a long, thin string carrier to which a small, round body is attached. Banam are also called single-stringed fiddles, which embody a different type of Indian string instruments and, like the sarinda, are characterized by a waisted body that is open at the top.

Origin and Distribution

A general term for ancient Indian string instruments was vina . The ravanahattha is the oldest Indian string instrument , the name of which has been handed down since the 7th century and originally stood for a musical bow and a bow harp . Today a long-necked spit lute with two melody and several sympathetic strings is called this in Rajasthan and Gujarat . From the 3rd century on the reliefs of Buddhist stupas in Gandhara and from the 5th century on paintings in Ajanta stick zithers with an attached resonator made from a calabash and the Central Asian barbat appear similar pear-shaped short-necked lutes . The simplest Indian stick zithers with a small half-shell resonator are depicted on reliefs on Hindu temples up to the end of the 1st millennium and are only preserved today in the form of the rare tuila in a rural region in Odisha . They were replaced by stick zithers with a wide fingerboard and two larger calabash resonators. The spit lutes played today in regional Indian folk music are also completely different instruments than the long-necked lute with the bulbous body and wide fingerboard of classical music , such as the Sarasvati vina .

In several treatises in the 12th century and in the music theory Sangita Ratnakara , written by Sarngadeva in the 13th century , the single-string pinaki vina with bow ( karmuka ) is mentioned. When it was last described in 1810, it was practically extinct. The Mayuri vina , possibly made in the 17th century and recognizable by its peacock's head, lives on to this day. In the 11th century, the saranga vina must have been a popular string instrument with which Jains accompanied their religious chants. This is related to the name of the sarangi , which was played in street music from the 16th century , a forerunner of the most famous Indian string instrument that is now used in North Indian classical music . The sarangi and the related sarinda could have originated in India or derived from similar strokes in the Persian-Central Asian Islamic area.

This second type of Indian stringed instrument with a strongly tapered body at the side also comes in a simple version with one string under the name banam . The Sarinda type is related in form to the ghichak in Central Asia and related in name and form to a number of other strokes of the Islamic-Indian area from Afghanistan ( sarang ), Sindh ( surando ), Rajasthan ( surinda ) to northeast India. There are in Assam the SaReGa and in Manipur the sananta known.

Banam are called spit violins by the Munda , whose main settlement is in the state of Jharkhand , and by the Santal in Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar . The Santal and other Adivasi groups in Bihar understand banam to be a fiddle corresponding to the sarinda . The banams - although of different designs - are described together because of their similar use and distribution, but are distinguished from the three-stringed fiddle bana with a box-shaped body, with which musicians of the Pardhan caste in Madhya Pradesh accompany their epic songs.

In other parts of India one- to three-string spike violins are also known: the single-string pena in northeast India, the three-string kingri played by the Pardhans in Andhra Pradesh , also kikir of the Sarinda type, the gauntlet koka in Maharashtra and kinnari in southern India. In the southern Indian city of Kerala , the Pulluvan caste plays the single-stringed pulluvan vina in possession rituals in which snake deities are invoked in songs ( pulluvan pattu ). Kendra refers to several regional string instruments, including bamboo zithers and pike lutes, and single-stringed fiddles in Jharkhand and Odisha. Some adivasis in this region call any bowed string instrument banam .

Design and style of play

Spit violin

Most of the spit violins mentioned do not have pegs ; their strings are tied directly to the truss rod with a cord wrap. The body of the banams is carved out of a piece of wood or made from a turtle shell and covered with a blanket of animal skin. The string runs from its movable attachment point on the upper area of ​​the neck over a bridge set up on the skin to the end of the string support protruding at the bottom of the body or to a cotton cord that continues in a V-shape from the top to the lower end.

In Jharkhand's Munda, the banam's turtle shell has a diameter of 10 to 15 centimeters and is covered with lizard or goat skin, which is nailed to the edge with wooden or bamboo pins. Occasionally there are two small sound holes in the lower part of the membrane on either side of the string. The length of the string carrier made of bamboo is 48 centimeters; the wire or horse hair string is tied directly at its upper end with a cotton cord. The bridge set up in the middle of the membrane is 1.5 centimeters long and one centimeter high. The pitch can be adjusted using a cotton cord that is moved around the neck. A wooden or bamboo stick is used as a bow, which is strongly curved at the outer end, so that there is a distance between the horse hair covering of about eight centimeters to the bow stick. The hairs of the bow are rubbed with resin and the string with wax. Occasionally, a few bells are attached to the end of the bow stick, which add a rhythmic rattle sound when moving quickly.

Most of the Indian spit-fiddles are held by the musicians like the ravanahattha with the body against their stomach, with the neck protruding diagonally upwards and forwards. The strings are directed towards the musician, who shortens them with the fingers of his left hand by touching them on the side without pressing them down, and strokes them with the bow in his right hand. The santal and munda hold their banam upside down with the body against the left shoulder, the neck down and the strings outward away from the body, much like an Indian violin is played. The fingers of the left hand press the string onto the fingerboard just behind the cotton cord. You always stay in the first position .

Made from one piece of wood long-necked lutes occur in the Munda in two sizes, the larger banam hot haram banam (from haram , "large", "hard"). The wooden banams of the Munda and Santal have a long rectangular body with rounded edges, which measures 6 × 15 centimeters for small instruments and is covered with nailed goat skin. The body gradually merges into the neck, which, if present, tapers to a blocky pegbox. Otherwise, the horsehair or brass string is tied with a cotton cord at a distance of five centimeters from the end of the neck. The total length is 48 to 61 centimeters. There can be a three to four centimeter sound hole on one side of the body. In the middle of the membrane sits a two centimeter high bar. Due to its curvature at the outer end, the arch made of wood or bamboo brings the covering about five centimeters away from the support rod. The playing position is directed downwards in a similar way to the spit violin.

For the Munda, the banam is part of the social tradition of the youth house ( giti 'ova' , corresponding to the ghotul of the Muria). In old songs it is often sung about together with the bamboo flute rutu . Men accompany their singing with the banam . The repertoire of the Banam songs also includes songs for dances, but the fiddle rarely plays with a drum during dances. Even if the banam has become rare today, it is respected for its importance in traditional culture.

Sarinda type

Three-string sarinda with anchor-shaped body from East India

With the Sarinda type, the body, which consists of a single piece of wood, is divided into two by deep side incisions. The lower half can be pear-shaped or rectangular and is covered with a membrane glued or nailed to the edge. The adjoining bowl-shaped part is open on its upper side. One to three playing strings made of cotton or gut lead over a movable bridge along the narrow finger board to a pegbox. The seated musician holds this type vertically with the strings facing outwards and the body supported on the foot or the floor.

With the Santal, the shape, which differs from the Sarinda type due to elaborate decorative motifs, is called dhodro banam ("hollow string instrument"). The single-stringed instrument, about 70 to almost 100 centimeters long, consists of an almost long rectangular body, a relatively short neck and an expansive headboard decorated with figures. The lavish decorations - up to notches on the pegs - of the very revered instruments made of dark hardwood were partly of cultic significance. According to legend , the wood ( guloic ) used for construction originated from a person. As with similar string instruments of the Gaine, a Nepalese musical caste, body parts are associated with the instrument. The lower, closed sound body symbolizes the stomach, the open part the chest, the neck corresponds to the human neck and the pegbox is equated with the head. The mouth is where the string leads into it and the vertebra protrudes from it as an ear. The museum works of art come in a wide variety of shapes thanks to their figural decorations. The figures mostly represent people, animals only appear in connection with people, for example as mounts. In contrast, there are numerous examples of musical instruments decorated with animal figures from northeast India and the Himalayas. The headboards of the dhodro banams often show groups of women dancing. In some dance scenes, the accompanying musical instruments are also shown: the double-headed tubular drum dhol , the kettle drum nagara , the double-reed instrument shehnai and the dhodro banam itself. The dancers and musicians gathered in several rows are rounded off by two stylized, mostly female figures, the von Christianized Adivasis can be reinterpreted as Adam and Eve. In the Muria of Bastar , a woman carrying a naked man represents the bride and groom. The sun symbol has a magical meaning. It embodies the sun god Bongo, who, together with chains, metal rings, coins and other appendages, is supposed to ward off evil.

The string of the dhodro banam is shortened by touching it with stretched fingers on the side. If other strings run next to or under the melody string, they serve as resonance strings.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Bigamudre Chaitanya Deva, p. 103
  2. ↑ Monika Zin : The ancient Indian vīṇās. (PDF; 3.1 MB) In: Ellen Hickmann, Ricardo Eichmann (Hrsg.): Studies on Music Archeology IV. Music archaeological source groups: soil documents, oral tradition, recording. Lectures of the 3rd symposium of the International Study Group Music Archeology in the Michaelstein Monastery, 9. – 16. June 2002, pp. 321-362, here p. 322
  3. ^ Joep Bor: The Voice of the Sarangi. An illustrated history of bowing in India. In: National Center for the Performing Arts, Quarterly Journal , Vol. 15 & 16, No. 3, 4 & 1, September – December 1986, March 1987, pp. 40f
  4. ^ Geneviève Dournon: Bana . In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Volume 1. Macmillan Press, London 1984, p. 119
  5. ^ Geneviève Dournon, Carol M. Babiracki: Kendra . In: Stanley Sadie (Ed.): The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Volume 2. Macmillan Press, London 1984, p. 375
  6. ↑ Carol M. Babiracki, p. 119
  7. ↑ Bengt Fosshag: The Lutes of the Santal bengtfosshag.de
  8. ↑ Bengt Fosshag, 1997, p. 293f