A popular folk lore suggests that when Maratha warrior Shivaji killed the Adil Shahi dynasty’s commander Afzal Khan in 1659, his mother Jijamata appointed Agnidas to write a powada or ballad in his praise. When the singer narrated the heroic ballad, Afzal Khanacha Vadh , Jijamata gifted him a bracelet and the title of sahir , the singer of ballads or powada , which in old Marathi means ‘to glorify’.
In Maharashtra, the tradition of ‘Shahiri’ dates back over 1,000 years and it is this history that Aashit Sable’s sprawling, three-hour-long documentary, Shahiri , captures. “The performance of a sahir has had great influence on Marathi history, religion, culture, society and literature. While the history of Marathi ‘Shahiri’ is primarily from Shivaji’s time, the 13th century Marathi scripture Dnyaneshwari mentions a powada in praise of the gods,” says Sable, who embarked on the project as a post-graduate student and worked on it for three years.
Unique lyrical style
Sable’s film explores the intertwined relationship between folklore, culture and language. Written in a unique lyrical style that narrated historical events in an inspiring manner, a powada would be performed by a lead singer joined by a chorus. “The sahir is accompanied by musicians on sambal (wooden drums), tuntuna (one-string instrument) and taal (pair of clash cymbals). Often, harmonium and dholaki (two-headed hand-drum) are also used,” says Sable.
The songs are mostly about gods and their ardent devotees such as Bhakt Prahlad and Sati Savitri. “Most sahirs came from tribes such as Gondhali, Bharadi and Dangat, and developed it as their own art form,” says Sahir Vijay Jagtap of Maharashtra Sahitya Parishad in Kolhapur.
Sahirs , says Sable, are considered credible chroniclers of contemporary Maratha history, and the era of Shivaji (1630-1680) was their golden age. Of the collected powadas , however, only half a dozen are from Shivaji’s era; and around 150 are from the Peshwa era. Notable ones on Shivaji include Shivaji Avtari Purush , Shiv Pratigya and Pratapgarhacha Ransangram .
“In the sahir ’s ballads, instead of spirituality, we see contemporary society. The sahirs roamed about during the day and in the evening, in the village square, they would tell people what had happened during the day in the form of a ballad,” says Sable. “So if Kamaladevi was arrested for selling salt, their song would go like this: ‘Kamaladevi while selling salt got arrested and left her only child behind. The unkind government imprisoned her for nine months.’ That’s why they are called people’s poets.”
Sable’s documentary also looks at Maharashtra’s Dalit movement, which has time and again reinvented Shahiri tradition to protest social injustice. Almost all sahirs belonged to the backward castes, but with the increase in popularity of Shahiri forms, even upper-caste and Brahmin poets became tamasha artistes. The film talks of how the Peshwas, more interested in erotic entertainment, stopped the patronage extended to Shahiri by Shivaji. To make a living, the sahirs began to sing on various subjects.
Galvanising force
Modern sahirs then adapted the old framework to contemporary social and political issues. Around the 1920s, Ambedkari Jalsas came into being. These gained more popularity and relevance after Ambedkar’s death and have become part of the Dalit movement. In 1956, the powada became a central force again, during the Samyukta Maharashtra Movement, which called for a single State based on a common language and used Shahiri to spread its message.
Sable’s film, although over-long, is an earnest attempt to record a folk history. But the filmmaker believes the length is essential to tell the map the story. “This is an art form where the suppressed and the wronged raise their voices. The sahir unites society while expressing its sorrows and sufferings.” That’s the legacy the film wants to record.
The Mumbai-based freelance journalist writes on films, food and everything in between.
