Many families of artists with complex family lines continue to live in the villages of the spread-out desert of Thar, with an ancestral sphere of influence that knew both the sparkle from precious stones in ancient palaces and the harshness of desert rocks.

Nats acrobats, song from the jogis women, dance chakri of the knajars, pabuji pad of the storytellers byopas nayaks from the castes of the bhats, dance neru dedicated to the snake Naga of the nayks, all let us discover the virulence of artistic expression from another time. This journey will continue until we reach Romania with song and dance from the last “ursaris”, or ancient bear leader.

The good king of Persia, Bahram Kjour, agitated from complaints from the most deprived of his royal subjects who ask for music in order to be able to party like the wealthy, was supposed to get from his father-in-law, the king Shankal de Kanauj who lives in the upper valley of the Gange, the shipment of twelve thousand musicians. When they arrived, the king Bahram gave them enough to live on and to cultivate the land: a donkey, an ox, and one thousand loads of wheat for each individual. However, shortly after one year, they found themselves living completely famished because they had been content simply with eating all of their oxen and wheat. Irritated, the monarch advised them to put silk threads in their instruments, to get on their donkeys, and to go live from now on with their music.

Peddlers, craftsman, small traders, genealogical poets, acrobats, puppeteers, blacksmiths, dancers, and musicians were once educated from a nebula of small castes who were connected to the higher castes of warriors, kings and religious dignitaries and who, at the same time, were their owners and protectors (jajmans). Defeat, invasions, successive hunger famines will cause the fall of these royalties and will push them to wander into the gypsy musicians and the roms of today. From the 5th century on, they will be encouraged to join the great historic migration and exiled to the Near East, later to reach Europe in the fifteenth century. Others such as the Rajputsdu Trajasthan who follow dethroned nobility, will find themselves living a rural lifestyle and surviving until today in the vast regions of India.

We are an ocean of knowledge, the light of the castes, mediants of the kings, hereditary bards of our leaders, poets of the Sikhs, storytellers of the Sufi saints. Everyone knows that we are the bards and poets of the well-to-do and respected.

The doms (or dum or domra) celebrate today for being the caste that is responsible for the cremation of the gnats of varanesi (benares), and who are often considered as the descendants of the gypsy musicians called the “doms” (from the origin “drum”) and which would have given birth to the term “rom” under the influence of foreign languages.
Among the castes (jats) of artists presented in this show, we can discover the following :

THE NATS ACROBATS

The nats, who are at the origin of acrobat (from “natya” meaning dancer; in certain regions of India they are also called “baziger,” from “bazi” or “player” in Persian) represent a very important part of popular art and cover a vast area of artistic and religious expression. The Jogis Nats and the Jogis kalbelyas are particularly related to this group. The God of the nats is obviously Hanouman, the monkey god, because of his acrobatic skill.

THE JOGIS NATS WOMEN (from « yogi » and nats, acrobats)

Those who we call the jogis in Rajasthan are actually a family branch of famous nats, acrobats, entertainers, and jugglers.
Effectively, certain nats had chosen to follow the ascetic reasoning of the jogis or yogis in becoming disciples of the saint Gorakhnath (Gorakshanath) in order to justify their wandering. He later becomes their guru and patron saint. Gorakhnath lived in the tenth century and was the disciple of Matsyendranath, the militant saint for the equality of castes, just like the other famous spiritual Master of Rajasthan, Ramdevji or Ramdeo.
However, this family line called “jogi nat” has little to no relationship with those we call “yogi,” or the heirs and disciples of the shiva cults who nakedly practice asceticism and who cover themselves in ashes, holding a trident in hand, all in the image of Siva. One family line of the jogis nats is especially known for its relationship with the cobra (naga) that they were chasing in the past from villages and who would venerate like a God as if with the jogis saperas (from “sanp”, or snake) of Jaipur (from where the dance Gulabi originates) or with the jogis nats of Jodhpur who are famous in the film “Latcho Drom” by Tony Gatlif and also present in this show. This particular relationship will give birth to the dance recently known as “kalbelya,” a dance practiced by the jogis kalbelys women. This dance is the black dress dance (from kali, or black) that imitates the enchantment exerted by the cobra.
In this show, for the first time ever, both the original and traditional singing from the women of the jogis kalbelyas community and the other traditional dance, the Kachhi Ghori dance (or “dance of the horse”) will be presented.

THE CHAKRI DANCE OF THE KANJARS

The chakri dance (from “chakkar,” to turn) and ancestor of the famous dance kalbelya, is practiced either by the kanjars or by impersonators who dance the dance on their knees. The kanjars live in the Chhipa Barod district in Rajasthan.
In the past, the kanjars were part of criminal tribes that had been determined by the British in 1871. Indeed, the British colonization imposed more and more financial pressures, and in order to fight against such injustices, many native tribes and nomad clans revolted and thus ended up relying on the degrading statue of criminals they had had since birth.
This law ended in 1952 after the independence, and these tribes became officially “de-notified.” The kanjars who were now village guardians now possessed their proper dance: the young women reject the advances of the dancer and player of dholak in an intense swirling of dresses.

THE PABUJI PAD BY THE BHOPAS NAYAKS OF THE BHATS CASTE

The bhats are known in Rajisthan for their theatre puppets (kathputli) and were essentially at the origin of the genealogical bards (as is the case for many castes of artists). They once had a vital role in the traditional society because, not only were they singing praise of castes they were serving -- of princes from long ago and proud rajputs warriors, of important traders and of noble peasant families -- but they provided memories for these castes since they were capable of orally quoting the genealogy of each family spanning several centuries.
Among the number of roles the bhats storytellers of who the bhopas, bards or devins are affiliated, we find the bhopas of the pabuji pad.
On the pad, or “le rideau (curtain),” we tell the beautiful story of Pabu. A cotton cloth (rezi) meticulously painted unfolds itself and tightens itself on bamboo with around 60 or so drawings that form a real comic strip, telling the achievements of the cowherd Pabu.

Pabuji was born in 1256 in village of Kolu in the district of Jodhpuf. From the age of 24, the brave Pabuji Rathore was supposed to marry Phoolamde, the daughter of the chief Rajput Amarkot, Sosha Rajput of Sindh. The preparations started. As a present from the noble Deval Charni, Kesar Kalmi, Pabuji received a mare as a present, reputed for its beauty and its feats, but on the condition that Pabuji come back immediately if Deval’s herd of cows was in danger. Pabuji’s good manners made a very good impression on the Sodhas and Phoolamde was impatient to seal this union. The wedding ceremonies arrived. The bride and groom to-be started to turn around the fire ritual (saptapadi), one, two, three times…..But on the third turn, the procedure was interrupted by the brutal arrival of Deval. In fact, the Khenchies of Joyal had taken away his cows. What was Pabuji going to do? Wait and finish his wedding ? Send someone in his place in order to savor the blessing that would bring him this marriage...
Of course not, because Pabu was supposed to honor his promise. Hastily, he quitted the ceremony with his half-married fiancé to battle the cattle thieves and then perish in combat...

The complete legend of Pabuji is composed of 52 poetic compositions (panwaras). The bhopas function in pairs. The man is dressed in a magnificent red flamboyant costume (jaama), with bells on the feet, and sings in a narrative manner each panwara, accompanied by quaint rawanhattha. The rawanhattha is made of coconut and the neck of bamboo, which possesses one cord raising up 3 to 16 others. They say this instrument is the instrument of the God Ravana. The little bells on the neck mark the recitative rhythm of the epic. The woman, who in the present case is a disguised man, enhances each pad scene by dancing or following the singing with a lamp (pala).

THE DERU DANCE OF THE NAYIKS FROM THE VILLAGEOF ASPALSAR IN THE REGION OF SEKAWADAH

The snake charmers, tied to the ancient shivaite cults and often to the jogis, occupy a dominating place in India and in a lot of other countries, from Sri Lanka to Egypt. Their real function is to chase snakes from villages during the harvest time and rainy season, and to cure snakebites that represent an important mortality rate in the villages in India. The snake “naga” is considered to be godlike by these castes and by the rural population, and is the subject of different religious cults. Out of respect, one never kills it.
The Madaris are the muslim branch of this specialty, their spiritual master being Bawi-ul-Din Shah or otherwise known as Zinda Shah Madar. He was born in Alep in 1050, and we find his disciples, the Halabs clans (from Alep) and the Masalibs, reaching as far as Egypt.
The jogis nats, kalbelyas and saperas, also present in this show, form another family line with this same tradition.
The famous Kerala Pulluvans, bards and poets are also followers of the Naga God. They are specialized in exorcism rituals that have to do with the snake, at which time they produce the magnificent “kalam” or short-lived paintings that are paintings painted on the ground with grains of rice during trance ceremonies.
During their dance, the nayiks maintain the enthusiasm and stay awake until the venom hasn’t spread too quickly in the sick body and until they can be cured with the help of specific plants. The derun, dhaak or hurukka, who give the name to this tradition, is a little drum in the form of an hourglass, with the pressure of its two skins changing through the tension of a leather cord.

NAPOLÉON AND NADIA CONSTANTIN (ROMANIA)
The tradition of gypsy musicians Ursarii, the ancient bear leaders – Romania

In the village of Gratia, situated in the Romanian plain of the Danube, live two kinds of roms. The first are the lautarii musicians, claiming to be gypsy musicians. They live in the center of the town among Romanians of whom they have adopted a language, customs and music.
Taking themselves to be gypsy musicians of the elite, the musicians are beware of other roms of the village — the ursarii, the bear leaders. The ursarii are very few in numbers. They live an excluded life outside the village and live in very modest but clean houses. They have established themselves there since a few decades. A woman remembers the arrival of her parents from Russia during the Second World War, deported to Transistrie (a region that is today part of Moldavie.) They speak a Romanian dialect and only get along with other usarii.
The men negligently repair metal objects because they are ancient blacksmiths. They meet up as often as possible to have a drink, play cards or to have a dispute. The women, during summer days, get together in the streets to chat or gossip until late in the night with children all around them. Everyone is very poor but without stress. Money is only useful for buying many-colored long skirts. In this little district lives the married couple Napoleon and Nadia Constantin. Around them live the mother-in-law and the children: Clinton, Securitatea, and Terminator…
Napoleon sings every time that he feels like it, accompanied by two little hand-made drums made out of recovered material which he energetically hits with either two stones or two superimposed spoons. Nadia dances like an Egyptian queen, staring into the eyes of her husband.

TEXTS : ALAIN WEBER