Every morning, Maruti Ganachari and his father Channappa go around the streets of Belagavi singing ‘Dasara Pada’ and Marathi ‘Abhangas’, seeking alms. The harmonium and tabla are their accompaniments.
While Channappa’s style is distinctly folk, Maruti’s is a cultivated voice typical of a classical singer. If you delve further, you will learn that Maruti holds a certificate in classical singing from the famous Veereshwara Punyashrama Music School at Gadag, where he also learnt to play the tabla and harmonium.
But this does not seem to have changed his fortunes. Maruti belongs to the Bahurupi family, who are traditional artistes who dress up as characters from mythology and perform in villages during Dasara, Deepavali, harvest season, and so on. But the once-respected community finds no place in today’s world.
Though a career in music was his dream, Maruti was forced to join his father in beggary. “I could not afford to pay fees for a guru. I had to start working to support my family,” says Maruti, who occasionally gets invited to sing in temples and at Ganesh mandals. “But, unlike established singers, we never get paid much,” he adds.
Maruti also says that he lacks networking skills. “In most of the musical events, the artistes are chosen on recommendations by fellow musicians. They tend to recommend their friends and acquaintances. As we don’t move around those circles much, we don’t get recommended often,” he says.
The Ganacharis belong to Telugu-speaking families from a backward community hailing from Lakshmeshwar village in Gadag district. In Belagavi, the family of six lives in a tent in a public park in Shahapur. They all go around the localities singing every morning.
The State government has not been of much help to the Ganacharis either. “Kannada and culture officials have sponsored only one of our programmes till now,’’ says Channappa who is in his late 50s. They say I will not get any pension or financial assistance till I turn 65. He has no documents as he never went to school. He does not have a below poverty line ration card as he does not have a stable address. However, the family members have got Aadhaar during a recent drive by the Belagavi city corporation.
“Of my six sons, three learnt to sing. The others began selling fruits and plastic covers for bikes. Now they have moved to the big cities, while we put up tents in Belagavi,” says Channappa. Though illiterate, Channappa has learnt to sing in Kannada, Marathi, Telugu, and Hindi.
Every winter, all the members of the family shift to their native village to take part in dance dramas. Farmers will be free as the sowing season has ended. “We go around 11 villages. Some pay money to Bahurupis, while others give away rice and wheat. We go back to begging by the end of January,” Channappa says.
