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Pala, a dying art form!

Correspondent

Advent of cinema, TV pushes it to brink

BHUBANESWAR: Sandwiched between lack of State support and dwindling public patronage, pala, Orissa’s 400-year-old folk theatre form, is fast losing ground.

The uniqueness of the form lies in its classic contribution for a harmonious existence of Hindus and Muslims during the Moghul era. Pala troupes worshipped ‘Satyapir’ – Satyanarayan of the Hindus and Pir of the Mus lims. The ‘Satyapir’ cult is believed to have been evolved for strengthening the Hindu-Muslim unity.

The form originated in Bengal but flourished better in Orissa. A popular poet has scripted 16 different stories in verse form about the worship of ‘Satyapir’.

“One of these verses is being rendered by a band of singers accompanied by ‘mridangam’ and cymbal players, which is known as pala,” said eminent scholar and former Orissa Sangeet Natak Akademi president D.N. Patnaik.

As the folk tradition gained popularity on Orissa soil in the course of time, it had a transition from the pure musical genre to an ideal combination of music and literature, thereby enhancing its mass appeal, he said.

A pala troupe comprises the principal performer who is known as the gayak or gahan, a drummer (bayak) and four palias (chorus singers who also play cymbals< /p>

Though pala continued to rule as the most potent mode of entertainment and education in Orissa for centuries, it was marginalised with the advent cinema and television, besides changing taste of people with rapid urbanisation.

At present, government organisations like the Song and Drama Division, Doordarshan and All India Radio invite the troupes to perform at times that is inadequate for its survival. “The government must draw a policy for survival of these age-old art forms. While it spends a lot on Odissi dance , it hardly cares for the dying art forms. Even cultural organisations of the State have turned a blind eye,” Orissa Pala and Daskathia Gayak Sangh president Sudarsan Mohapatra says.

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