Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Music from the blue mountains

Photo: M. Periasamy

Nilgiri nostalgia: Badaga musicians performing at a programme in memory of victims of landslips organised by Nilgiri Documentation Centre in Coimbatore. –

COIMBATORE: They came down from the hills. To tell the plainsmen haunting stories of their beloved home. To see if they could touch a chord in their hearts. To make them aware of their homeland.

They had come as part of an initiative of the Nilgiris Documentation Centre (NDC) to take part in programme called Nilgiris Nostalgia organised at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan to pay homage to the victims of the recent devastation caused in the hills. The unprecedented rain had left many dead and homeless and had caused huge damage to property.

Welcoming the guests for the evening, DharmalingamVenugopal, the director of NDC drew their attention to the fragile state of the Nilgiris thanks to irresponsible land development and a total disregard to environmental norms. He reminded them of the fact that the water and good weather the Coimbatoreans, enjoyed was thanks to the Western Ghats, and they had a responsibility to ensure the protection of the fragile environment there.

S. Palanisamy, General Manager Indian Overseas Bank, and N. Sundaradevan, Commissioner of Revenue Administration reiterated the importance of nurturing and protecting the Nilgiris and stopping its ruthless exploitation that had become the order of the day.

The musical tribute began with Badaga elders rendering songs. The indigenous people of the Nilgiris have a rich oral tradition. Their history and literature has been preserved and handed down from generations by word of mouth. That evening, they shared some of that with the audience. Beginning with an invocation to goddess Hette, their main deity, who clothes their hills with verdant vegetation, the different seasons, and magic, they then sang not just about the beauty of their land but also of past hardships. They kept time with nothing more than hand claps and the simple Buguri, a cane flute.

The ode to mother nature continued with Toda activist Vasamalli. She gave a moving account of her tribe’s reverence for the mountains. She told simple stories of Nature’s benevolence to her people, and how there were grave retributions for those who transgressed Her laws. She spoke of how alien species of trees had usurped the native vegetation. The ‘foreigners’ grew thirty times faster than the indigenous plants which had led to their decline and extinction.

The younger singers then took over with a combination of Badaga and Tamil songs. Led by Swami Tathvana Chaitanya the young group sang with fervour and feeling.

The evening concluded with a dance from the women of the Kota tribe. They tread lightly and moved and swayed gracefully to wonderfully robust music from their male counterparts with drums, curving horns and cymbals. They were followed by a rousing dance from the Badaga men.

The evening was a lesson in environment, history, culture and literature, all in one. It celebrated the sense of community, simplicity, dignity and harmony the hill people shared. It was clear that they knew how to co-exist with nature, take from her bounty and yet not exploit her. The Nilgiri musicians demonstrated pride in their land, their unity in diversity and their love, respect and reverence for their traditions. And, through their music all they asked for was for concern, sensitivity and awareness for their beautiful land, whose very existence hung in perilous balance.

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