The Kota way of life
S. A. K. DURGA
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An ethnographic study of the musical life of Kotas focussing on the interdependencies that link music and ritual
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THE BLACK COW'S FOOTPRINT — Time, Space and Music in the Lives of the Kotas of South India: Richard K. Wolf; Permanent Black, D-28, Oxford Apartments, 11 IP Extension, Delhi-110092. Rs. 795.
A black cow leads the Kotas (tribal people of Nilgiris) and with its hoof indicates the villages. Its footprint is a moral centre of gravity, an important place for music making, dancing and rituals. This book is an ethnographic study of the musical life of the Kotas and the interdependence that links music and ritual. It is not a storybook but is about the musical life of the tribal community Kota in the Nilgiri hills.
The author is fascinated with the community's cultural life and the link between ritual and music in their life including the dirge ceremony of their community and the music associated with it. It is a book on ethnomusicology, which would be appreciated by ethnomusicologists, folklorists, anthropologists and those who are interested in space-time theories. The sub-title of the book, "Time, Space and Music in the lives of the Kotas of South India," captures the essence of the book.
Rituals and music
This work treats the subject in detail in eight sections giving the musical compositions of the Kotas and photographs of their ritual and musical life, and also pictures of the Kota musicians. The jacket features the Kota musician, Mundan, playing the oboe type musical instrument.
In the introduction, the author speaks of Kotas and cows wherein he writes about this tribal people, their major ceremonies, Kota music, their culture and life. He describes the `Black cow's footprint' from a ceremonial song. The song, `They shot the hunting bow' evokes the `Black cow's footprint' story via narrative fragments. The author gives the original text of the song and its meaning.
One of music's critical functions in Kota society is to be reflectively diagnostic of time and place according to the author's perception. The spatio-temporal patterns by which the Kotas perform are described under the heading `Shawms and songs'. The difference between the music of the Indian tribal communities and that of the Kotas is explained vividly. Classification of percussion patterns, the game, the context of the songs, the composers of the songs, devotional or prayer song, songs of grief, and other songs are given in their contexts with an analytical perspective.
Anchoring
The morality of places is discussed under bringing out space and space- time, people and their places, village, forest field and musically implicated places, values and morals. Music serves as a conduit in the oral transmission of moral stories and as a ritual and everyday means of differentiating places qualitatively as well as hierarchically, not only through kinds of performances but also through the making, placement and storage of musical instruments.
The author mentions `Points of anchor' wherein he describes how Kotas embody the process of `anchoring' when they make music rather than describe it by a particular term in their language. In the introduction he remarks, "I am using `anchoring' as an analysing metaphor, one that provides windows of insight into those aspects of group identity or individual subjectivity that can be described in spatio-temporal terms. Anchoring implies arriving somewhere at some time." Anchoring places of Kota culture, anchoring in ceremonies, anchoring of larger performance units, music and eclipses are dealt with in such a manner that musicologists and cultural anthropologists can understand the Kotas' cultural identity clearly.
He explores further in detail the forms and symbolism in god ceremonies and funerals which endure despite traceable changes in Kota rituals over the past 50 to 70 years. Finally he has vividly written about the Kota god ceremony, the two types of funerals — the green and the dry — and how Kotas in performing transformative acts in god ceremony and funeral ceremonies reconstitute themselves, their gods and the spirits of the dead.
An excellent work on the music and dance of the Kotas, which reflects their society and culture, and stands as a remarkable contribution to the world of music by an ethnomusicologist, it rightly deserves the Edward Cameron Dimock, Jr. prize awarded to it in 2005 by the American Institute of Indian Studies.
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