Jatragaan in Bengal: A Study in Musical Traditions

This paper seeks to engage with the musical journey of Jatra until today. The archetypal Jatra consisted of high-pitched voice modulations with numerous songs which essentially embedded an auditory factor, eg. listening (to) Jatra (Jatra shona). Hence Jatra and gaan (song) are synonymous co-factors in any critical study. The extinction of Juri, Vivek, Niyati from the Jatra stage paved the way to the modern orchestra. With time, eventually the professional theatre (with proscenium setting) deeply affected the innate musicality in Jatra. The later decades of the 20th Century saw lesser number of song narratives and an extinction of Juri singers; especially, to create theatrical and climactic affectations, much emphasis was laid upon dialogues and prose narratives. Jatra that consisted of 40-45 songs and numerous other interspersed instrumental pieces saw a slow rejection among the masses. The songs rather hindered in between the dialogues and started taking a toll upon the patience of the audience. The present paper inquires the old conventions and evaluates their influence in modern Jatra.