Database (EN)

(Page en français)

SingerWelcome to the on-line database of grindmill songs of Maharashtra!

The following links are examples of entry points into this database described on page https://hdl.handle.net/11041/sldr000735/database-en.htm. You do not need to read explanations nor being a specialist of Maharashtrian culture and language to enjoy reading song texts, their translations, and listen to their recordings when available. The database also contains information about performers, the places in which songs have been collected, and a detailed semantic classification scheme designed by Guy Poitevin and Hema Rairkar.

This database contains the entire data collected by the team of CCRSS between more than thirty years, with support by UNESCO, the Netherlands Ministry for Development Cooperation and the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation for the Progress of Humankind between 1993 and 1998. Translation and editorial work is currently supported by People’s Archive of Rural India (PARI) and all data is being transfered to their website.

Following links on pages will make it possible to display songs associated with a semantic content, a village (or hamlet) or a performer. There are also a few links leading to photographs.

A search page is available for queries on names of people and places, or text in Marathi transcriptions and English translations of songs.

Typographic errors are highlighted by the mechanical sorting out of information. Fixing errors and inconsistencies is one of the goals of the present project, along with completing English translations of song texts. (Please contact us if you wish to take part in French translations…)

General entry points

The source database…

Note that the display of these pages may take a while because of the amount of information that they content. Handle these links with care if your network connection is slow!

Examples of detailed pages

You may follow links on these pages to display related information, either for pleasure or for an analytical purpose.

  • Village Rajmachi
  • Performer Umbre Renuka
  • Villages Barpe, Gadale and their three hamlets
  • Songs by Landge Ravu
  • Songs in class “Paṅḍharpur pilgrimage / Along the road / Halts on the way” (all translated)
  • Songs in class “Ambedkar / Ramābai, the first wife” (translated and partly recorded)
  • Songs in village Mogra (all translated and recorded)