Rockstar Gourd

The humble gourd that sculpted the culture and traditions of rural India for ages is falling out of favour.

- Deepanwita Gita Niyogi

A MELLIFLUOUS TUNE breaks the silence as I trudge through a forested hill in the Baiga heartland of Dindori district in Madhya Pradesh. At places the music fuses with the gurgling sound of Burner, a tributary of the Narmada river, and becomes even more enchanting. Entranced, I start following the melody and reach a hut where a hermit sits enveloped in the stillness surrounding him, his fingers plucking at the strings of a lute. The shape of the instrument is unusual— swollen, organic and gourd-like. As the last notes recede, he turns towards me and greets with a warm smile.

Motilal has three wives. But some 14 years ago, he renounced all his attachments to the world and chose to live in the forest that has been home to the primitive Baiga tribe for millennia. “The soft, mellow sound of tambura helps me unite with divinity,” he says, as he offers me the three-stringed, long-necked instrument. Its base is made of the dried shell of a flat gourd and remains partly covered with the monitor lizard skin; a hollow shaft of bamboo with finger holes and strings attached to it pierces through the gourd shell. “Together, they create music that has a soothing effect on the brain,” Motilal asserts.

Could his passion for tambura be the reason for his renunciation? A folk song on gourd made famous by Bangladeshi playback singer Runa Laila flows: Sadher laau banailo morey boiragi (the humble gourd has made me a wanderer). The song refers to the wandering mystic minstrels or Baul singers of Bangladesh and eastern India who swear by ektara, a one-string musical instru-ment made of gourd with a round base.

While the deep, overtone-rich resonance created by the larger, perfectly-shaped gourds has inspired musicians and minstrels alike from time immemorial, the smaller varieties with awkward shapes have enriched the lives of rural people like the Baigas who still live in harmony with nature.