Kinnera Jogulu seeks support from govt

Anantapur: Nearly 25 families belonging to Kinnera Jogulu have been settled in Kallur village of Anantapur district. Kinnera Jogulu living in Kallur and other parts of Anantapur district migrated from Maharashtra.

The Kinnera tribe, who were part of the Gadinadu, used to play musical instruments while singing and narrating ballads or stories of local heroes, historical places and pandava kathalu. The kinnera stringed instrument has several variations, it comes with seven, nine, 12 or 13 frets.

The instrument which they are using is having 11 frets. The larger-sized ones have three resonators, while the smaller ones have only two.

Much like the Saraswati veena, the instrument is made with organic materials. Its neck is crafted of bamboo, and the resonators from sun-dried and hollowed-out bottle gourds.

The strings were once fashioned out of women's hair, horse-tail hair and even animal nerves, but have long been replaced with thin metallic strings. These tribes have absorbed elements of Hinduism and worship their own pantheon of nature gods and goddesses and continue to revel in their ancient customs and manners. Their languages do not have scripts and are essentially verbal. Tradition has a firm grip on them. The laws of tradition are always obeyed scrupulously and any breach is strictly censured. They always participate in the feasts and festivals of the community and their ballads are often interspersed with simple and short, often dramatic, monologues.

The tone of voice, facial expressions and body language change with the song's mood. Modernisation has crippled the traditional ecosystem of rural landscape, with everything being decided in terms of printed money. This has affected the lifestyles of nomadic communities to a great deal. Due to modernisation, the traditional areas earmarked for nomadic settlements, like forests, pastoral greens have been destroyed or on the verge of destruction and has compelled the nomadic tribes to adapt to situation by looking for newer areas for their activities or become a part of the system by taking on newer professions.

The Central and state governments are neglecting their welfare and there is no economic and cultural scheme for their upliftment since independence.