Jogi Community of Rajasthan and Raja Bharthari-ki-Katha
00:13:15

Jogi Community of Rajasthan and Raja Bharthari-ki-Katha

in Video
Published on: 31 August 2018

Madan Meena

Madan Meena is a visual artist and researcher. He has worked extensively with artists and craftspersons from local communities in Rajasthan. His doctoral dissertation from University of Rajasthan was on the subject 'Art of the Meena Tribe'. He continues to work as a researcher with the women of the Meena tribe and has documented and exhibited their Mandana wall paintings. He has published two books on the subject, 'Joy of Creativity' and 'Nurturing Walls'. As a curator, he has designed an exhibition on brooms for the ‘Arna Jharna: The Desert Museum of Rajasthan’ of Rupayan Sansthan in Jodhpur. He has been regularly recording oral traditions among the Gurjar, Meena, Jogi, Mali, Merati and Jat communities. Madan has received a grant from Cambridge University under the World Oral Literature Project to document Tejaji Ballad sung in south-eastern Rajasthan. His interest in languages has led him to start his work on the secret language of the nomadic and de-notified tribes. For this he received fellowship from the Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research, USA. As a state coordinator for Bhasha Research and Publication Centre, Baroda, he edited the Hindi and English volumes of Rajasthani languages under the People’s Linguistic Survey of India project. Madan has received Senior Research Fellowship from CCRT-Department of Culture, to extend his work in folklore studies in Marwar region. He is an Executive Member of Kota Heritage Society.

Interview of Antar Jogi and the ballad 'Raja Bharthari-ki-Katha'

Antar Jogi rears goats in the nearby forest everyday. In the interview, Antar says that he learned singing from his elders when he was very young. His father passed away very early when he was a child. While grazing the goats he used to memorize the ballads. He has closely observed the Jogi musicians by attending jagarans and learning from them. He sings ballads of Raja Gopichand, Raja Bharthari, Ramdev Peer and Shankar Biawala. This particular video shows excerpts from the Raja Bharthari-ki-Katha.