Pandvani is one of the most celebrated forms of folklore from Chhattisgarh. Before it became a professional performative genre , the Pandavani consisted of different forms of oral lore in circulation in this region. Initially there were lores that belonged to the Gond adivasis of this region. They sang of Bheem as a Gond hero who played the bana and brought rain. There were also stories that linked Pandavas to this region. These narratives belong to the pre history of the Mahabharata and may well have fed into it. Later, there were episodes from the epic that travelled and were transmitted, mostly amongst ‘lower caste’ communities from this region, becoming part of bardic narratives. The Vasudevas and Satnamis, amongst other communities from this region, regularly narrated episodes from the epic in versions that reflected regional identities.
This content has been created as part of a project commissioned by the Directorate of Culture and Archaeology, Government of Chhattisgarh, to document the cultural and natural heritage of the state of Chhattisgarh.
