Sidhi (Madhya Pradesh): National folk singer from Madhya Pradesh, Manya Pandey is on a visit to Tamil Nadu to understand their regional folk tradition. She met Tamil Nadu's Art and Culture Department's senior officials including Deputy Director B Hemanathan on Tuesday.
Tamil Nadu's Art and Culture Department took Pandey on a tour of music colleges and music schools. Where she interacted with music teachers and students, discussed their practices and took insights about Tamil folk culture.
The National Folk Singer is waving the flag of her Bagheli folk songs all over the country. While talking to the media, National Folk Singer Manya Pandey told that in Tamil Nadu, especially in Chennai, most people speak and understand broken Hindi and most of the educated people talk in English.
I can converse in English, so I did not face much difficulty in conversing. Manya Pandey said that the most popular folk song of Tamil Nadu is Nattupurapattu which is sung in weddings and religious functions. The Tamil Nadu government pays special attention to the preservation and promotion of the cultural heritage of its state.
Tamil Nadu's Urumi, Nadhaswaram and Villupadu, Dhanushkaar etc. musical instruments are played traditionally for years. Along with this, Tamil's famous folk song is Villupahu which is a storytelling style, in which a bow-shaped musical instrument is used. Urumi Melam is a popular folk music, which is often played with Urumi and Nadhaswaram in rural Tamil Nadu.
Tamil folk songs are not only a means of entertainment, but they also reflect social, cultural and religious aspects. Manya Pandey said that Tamil Nadu has a long tradition of folk music and the history of folk music here is thousands of years old. In Tamil, people sing folk music in weddings and temple festivals.
He said that by touring South India, I got the opportunity to become aware of the folk music and folk culture there which is very precious to me.
