Palms up: Lines of fate and destiny

Palmistry, or the science of predicting a person’s nature, behavior, past and future through the lines of their hand, is an ancient science much revered throughout the ages. But of late, the authenticity of the science is frequently called into question by many who believe astrology is just mumbo-jumbo.

Punya Prasad Adhikari, 77, who holds a doctorate in Jyotish Shastra (astrology), believes it is a science with its own precise rules and measurements. He uses a microscope to look at the finer lines on a hand, and claims to know all the details about a person, down to the score they get in examinations.

“One day, a foreign diplomat came to see me,” said Adhikari. “I correctly told him the color of his car, approximated its number, and even told him what diseases his family members had.” Adhikari believes indicators of the entire body can be found in the hands.

Some of these indicators are corroborated by medical science. The state of one’s physical health can often be gleaned from the color and texture of skin and nails. A much documented example is the proportion of the index finger to ring finger, which is different in men and women, and may be an indicator of sexuality. According to medical records, typically women have index fingers that are equal to or longer than the ring finger, while it is the opposite for men (J. T. Manning, D. Scutt, J. Wilson and D.I. Lewis-Jones in the journal Human Reproduction, Volume 13, No. 11).

In an article titled Finger length ratios predict sex and sexual orientation, Dr. Stian Reimers writes that gay men were likely to have longer index fingers (more like the typical female) than straight men; though this study is not uniform across ethnicities because few non-western men admit to being homosexual.

Other studies have linked the typical male proportion to a more ‘manly’ face, higher talent in sports, higher aggression, and lower risk of cancer, heart disease, obesity, autism, and depression. (The correlation is not so strong for females, though women with a longer ring finger are believed to be more assertive.)

Similarly, behavioral scientists also interpret a lot from hands. Crossed arms, tapping fingers, thumb enclosed inside fist, etc send subconscious signals that scientists use to interpret psychological state. Adhikari confirms that he takes into account things like how a person conducts himself, how they hold their hands, and how hands relate to other body parts.

But a palmist’s major basis of interpretation is planets and what they mean.

“The nine planets are each represented in the hand, and we infer meaning from their position, size, and connotation,” explained Adhikari. Each planet is associated with several components like color, natural element, stability, and meaning, which palmists use to make predictions.

While the calculations regarding the shape and size of elements are mathematical (and thus credible), the meaning that is derived are of human invention. For example, the planet Mercury, which resides at the bottom of the little finger, is associated with green color and represents communication, trade, intelligence, etc.

When asked about the origins of such associations, Adhikari pointed to ancient Sanskrit texts written by Rishis.

“I’m sure the principles expounded in the books were based on research and observation,” he explained.

Adhikari learnt his science in Benaras from traditional books of astrology but insists that books are just guidelines. The real skill comes from practice and research.

“You verify the things you read with your own research, because following just one book limits you,” he explained.

In his book Cheiro’s Guide to the Hand, Cheiro (a 19th century palmist who made palmistry famous by catering to many celebrities like Mark Twain, Sarah Bernhardt, Oscar Wilde, etc), also pointed to longitudinal study as the basis of palmistry.

“A mother and daughter had the same kind of life lines, and their lives followed the same arcs,” he explained. Thus, by comparing and contrasting the hands of several people, the indicators of their life can be learnt.

Unsurprisingly, this requires years of study. But there is no dearth of charlatans who set up shops with minimal knowledge and deceive people. Many fortunetellers were found to be unable  to get even the basics of their clients’ personal details right.

Krishna Khanal, 45, was fond of having his fortune told. He was once told that he would “get a Master’s but not a diploma” after which he stopped visiting fortunetellers. Ramila Sharma*, 29, was told the exact opposite things by two different astrologers about her marriage, which eroded her faith in fortunetellers once and for all.

Also, since much of astrology is an interpretative science, predictions differ even among those who know the theories. What one astrologer may define as a good indicator may be defined as bad by another. As a result, many individuals are frustrated with the multiple messages they get from fortunetellers and question the very basis of the science itself.

To avoid such confusions, astrologers advise that their words should not be taken literally but more as guidelines. Besides, your fate is not set in stone.

“If you have a long life line, that doesn’t mean you can take poison and still expect to survive,” says Adhikari. Lines may change as fine lines come and go all the time and lines may even develop overnight. Besides, Jyotish Shastra also offers ways out of difficult situations through Graha Shanti (worship of planets to placate them) and other astrological rituals.

It is difficult to think of planets as living objects that are appeased by human worship, but Adhikari insists it is so. “The planets do live, and we can communicate with them,” he stated.

To nonbelievers, such rituals are merely psychological gimmicks which reassure the client. But there is no dearth of believers who look to astrology for rescue.

“I do believe in the science,” said Deepak Pandey who had come to Adhikari for a reading. “I think this is god’s way of sending signals to humans to help them solve their problems,” said Pandey as he unfolded his companion’s cheena (birth chart).

The ancient science is still deeply rooted in some sections of our society while the debate about its authenticity rages on in another section. As long as we keep Adhikari’s words in mind, palmistry can do us no harm. “Bhagya (fate) and karma (action) are as close as nails and skin,” says Adhikari, “there’s no bhagya without karma, so the lines on your palm mean nothing as long as you don’t act on them.”

Published in Republica on July 25

Informal Economy: Intangible Transactions

You go to the Department of Transport Management to fill the form to obtain a driving license. You don’t even have to reach the office, for outside there are rows and rows of makeshift stalls – a table, a chair, and a large umbrella over the open sky—where forms are sold. Not just that, but the people at the stalls also help you fill the forms: for Rs. 50 each.

The assistance continues as you work through the process of getting a license. After you give your written examination, the results are pasted on the walls of the premises, but only after several hours. For a small fee of Rs. 30, helpers will be ready to look up the number for you and give you a call. “You may pay us Rs.30, but you save petrol worth Rs. 60,” says Maya Chhetri*, 30, who has a stall outside the premises and often provides this service.

And that’s not all! If you’re hovering around with a form and a photo, a minder will appear magically by your side with a stick of gum, offering to paste the photo to the form. Since you don’t know where else to get the gum for a one-time use, this service seems a godsend (actually, government-issue gum and other necessities can be found at the gate, but most first-timers don’t know this). For this timely help, you can give him any amount you want to.

If you stick around long enough, you’ll also receive discreet offers to “speed up your process.” In other words, the license that would be delivered four days later can be delivered within ten minutes – for a mere Rs. 300.

It’s common for informal businesses like this to sprout up around busy places. Most government offices, including the CDO Office and Foreign Ministry, witness a fair number of them. Even registered businesses take advantage of busy areas by charging inflated prices for simple services like photocopies.

On the one hand, such businesses make life easier for consumers by providing essential services. Kush Shrestha, 26, who spent a long time in stationery shops outside an embassy, believes they made his visa application process more convenient.

“They were expensive, but they knew the exact specifications of the photos I wanted,” he reflects. Similarly, at the Department of Transport Management, Maya helps many people who aren’t comfortable with the formalities of official documents.

On the other hand, such businesses are seen as a sign of inefficiency of the offices in question. Once, Deepak KC, 27, and a student, was almost assaulted by a hanger-on near the CDO office, who asked Deepak if he wanted to register a marriage. Deepak was with a female friend and the question embarrassed them both. The person would make the marriage process easier for a small fee by walking couples through the lengthy and tedious documentation process.

“If offices ran as they should, there would be no need for such overenthusiastic assistants,” says Deepak who usually avoids such middlemen.

Availing of these services also makes you vulnerable to deception, because the task may not even be accomplished at the end of the day. Many places, like the Foreign Ministry, are sensitive and cannot be influenced by brokers, but there’s no shortage of people claiming to get your work done for a fee.

“And when the middlemen do manage to get the work done, it’s even more disastrous. It tells us how the officials are open to corruption,” Deepak explains.

Economist Dilli Raj Khanal informs that such informal transactions occur in every economy. According to reports from World Bank and other economic institutions, informal economy makes up 35-40% of the economy. In Nepal, as much as 94% of the labor market, which includes wage laborers, builders, coolies, agricultural helpers, vendors, etc, is informal.

“Such transactions are invisible in the eyes of the state,” says Khanal.

It follows that illegal or criminal activities that cannot be officially registered, like high-level corruption or the global trade in drugs, fall under informal economy. At the same time, informal economy also includes perfectly harmless transactions. Like many students of Kirtipur, Prasiddha Pokharel goes to the pond at Doodh Pokhari to wash his clothes. As big plastic bowls to wash clothes are available there for hire at a nominal cost of five rupees, he doesn’t need to worry about carrying cumbersome items when he goes there.

But most often, informal economy straddles the uneasy border between the legal and illegal, like the activities listed above. Because these businesses are unregistered, they easily gain unsavory reputations. Stalls around the Department of Transport Management have been banned for charging unreasonable fees and deceiving people. The services still exist but in a more covert manner.

Stall owners are wary of admitting they provide these services, and even more wary of giving their names because they have been constantly hounded by the police.

“Police and journalists don’t go after big criminals who swindle millions but hound people like us who are just trying to make a living,” said Mahesh Lama*, who has worked in the area for years soliciting passengers for his driving schools apart from the regular services.

“It’s better than doing nothing,” said Mahesh. “The business is none too lucrative, but I can at least buy lunch for my children.” He believes he isn’t doing anything wrong.

But since such transactions are invisible, their contributions aren’t counted in the GDP and other indicators. As a result, the picture of economy is always incomplete.

“The percentage of informal transactions in a country’s economy is an indicator of development,” says Khanal. Those in informal economy have no social security, no fixed wages, not even guarantees of their livelihood. Since they are invisible to the state, they can easily avoid taxes too.

“In developed economies, like the US, I’m sure far fewer people get away with not paying taxes,” says Khanal.

High activity in the informal sector, like in Nepal, is a sign of a system still in development. The sign of a developed economy is when informal elements are gradually formalized, and every transaction is accounted for. And Nepal still has a long way to go before its informal economy is sufficiently minimized for it to be called “developed.”

Algorithms of shopping fancies

You walk into a supermarket with a grocery list full of functional items: rice, dal, napkins. But before long, you find yourself buying all kinds of things you never intended: chocolates, chips and biscuits with cream that you had never seen before that day. You return home laden with twice as many items as you had intended to buy.

Your purchases aren’t merely coincidences or whims. In fact, the shelves of supermarkets are carefully designed to attract the attention of customers and maximize sales.

“Retail is a vast area with carefully analyzed principles of its own,” says Hemanta Dangal, Operations Manager at Saleways Department Store.

Areas in a supermarket are categorized as prime locations, or dead areas, according to the footfall they get. For example, the area just in front of the customers when they enter the store is a prime location that every visitor is bound to see. So, in this area are stored fast moving consumable goods like chocolates and chips. In the dead areas are stored slow-moving items which customers need only once in a while, like soaps, shampoos, etc.

And it just so happens that the fast-moving items are the ones you don’t necessarily need, and may not even buy unless their attractive display entices you.

Bhatbhateni Supermarket and Departmental Store at Pulchowk has a large display box full of chips and nachos that stretches across several counters.

“Every customer is bound to look at this box,” says Panu Paudel, Operations Manager at Bhatbhateni Supermarket and Departmental Store. “25-30% of purchases at supermarkets are unplanned, and it’s displays like these that incite such unplanned purchases.”

Many shoppers confess to falling for these clever arrangements. Press Giri, 22, is a student who often shops there. There she can buy everything she needs at one place, and she can find items that she cannot find at her corner store. But she also admits that she gets swayed by the items on display and often ends up with more than her original list.

The prime area is a location of constant attention and experimentation. In summer, juices and cold drinks may be placed near the entrance, while in winter it is tea, coffees and hot chocolates. Festival offers are also placed near the entrance for the same reason. The sale of items at prime location is unfailingly high.

Apart from an item’s location in the store, its visibility on a particular shelf is also of paramount importance. The amount of shelf space occupied by a brand is directly proportional to its sale. Dangal confirms that no visibility means no sales. Brands prefer that their products be placed at eye-level.

“Eye-level is that where you don’t have to bend or stretch in any way to get a product,” informs Dangal, “and without a doubt, the items displayed at eye level get more customer interest than items stored elsewhere. This is reflected in the sales.”

While the location of products in a store is decided by the supermarkets based on pre-existing retail-store models, individual brands bargain for shelf space and level. They may offer money or discount in exchange for space at eye-level or bulk space at prime location. Paudel related that since people are more likely to buy a single-serve item than a family-sized unit, they often put the smaller unit of the same brand at eye-level.

There are many other strategies used to boost sales at supermarkets. Paudel informed that they put new items at prime locations so that customers are attracted to products that they may not have heard of otherwise. Also, little items like chewing gum that line the counter are there because “people buy them just because they see them.” In a sense, when you arrive at the counter and see little knickknacks, you continue to buy even after you have officially finished your shopping.

Intangible factors like music and wall colors are also carefully chosen to create the desired ambience.

“These factors don’t necessarily increase sales, but they help create a conducive shopping environment,” says Dangal.

Saleways has experimented on a range of different music: from Rock to Hip Hop to folk. After they received complaints from customers who didn’t like one genre or another, they have stuck to playing track music. This has created a soothing environment.

Sunila Shrestha, Branch Manager of the Pulchowk branch of Bhatbhateni Supermarket and Departmental Store, informed that they continue to experiment with music during special occasions, for example, by playing festival-specific music and songs. She believes this puts customers in a festive mood.

A lot of a supermarket’s sales also depend on the guaranteed customer footfalls it gets. Dangal, who has been in retail business for 15 years in Nepal and abroad, is in a position to compare supermarket culture across countries. In countries where supermarkets are the only way of shopping, it is common to have necessities like milk stored at the back of the supermarket. Customers who need milk have no option but to go to the supermarket, cross all the aisles, and reach the dead area.

“The logic of putting necessities at the back is that customers can make a round and see other things the store has to offer,” Dangal expounded.

In Nepal, we are not in the habit of getting daily necessities like milk from departmental stores, so placing milk at the back serves little purpose. In fact, Dangal informs that hiding necessities in dead areas often does not work, because people come in for a short while, have a glance, and go back disappointed.

“A supermarket is a place where you can find everything,” he says, “but because supermarket culture is not so developed in Nepal yet, sometimes people don’t bother to check out the entire store.”

Saleways had experimented with keeping essential groceries like rice, beans, etc in a different room. But after customers turned away, they put these items directly to the right of the entrance. Their sales rose by 200%. Since then, their prime location contains a mix of necessities like groceries and fast-moving consumer items like chips and chocolates.

“At the end of the day, it’s the customers who decide the display, not the display that decides the customers,” says Dangal. If a store has a certain number of guaranteed footfalls, it can put its products at any inconvenient place and expect customers to find it. But if the number of customers is not guaranteed, it must do all it can to attract new customers by contouring the display to suit their needs.

With increasing supermarket culture where people have even begun to prefer supermarkets to corner stores, the day is not far in Nepal too where the display decides the customers and not the other way around.

Some common advertising strategies

Emotions

Many advertisements link their product with some emotion: happiness, fun, relief from fear, beauty, etc. Viewers have been known to connect most easily to these kinds of advertisements. This strategy works on any kind of product.

Humor

A small section of advertisements use humor to get across to their audience. Humor can be tricky, because what one person finds funny  can be offensive to others. Hence, this strategy is best suited for fast moving consumable goods (FMCG) products, where humor is used to create a fun association with the product. Humor is used less often in products that require serious investment or analytical decisions.

Information

Facts, figures and statistics are likely to communicate to consumers if the products in question are important logical investments, or those that have complicated technical aspects. Statistics are often combined with other approaches, like emotions, to take off their dry edge and make them more relatable.

Published in Republica on July 11

Phantom limbs

Surya Thapa was putting up a hoarding board at Damauli when suddenly the signage crashed into some electrical wires. Surya was electrocuted, and subsequently had to have his right arm amputated. He was just 25 then.

After he had his hand amputated, strangely, he felt that his hand was still there. He would feel the fingers on his hand twitching and tingling. “I felt like there were ants walking all over my hands,” said he. And when he would look at his hand, he would see that it was not there.

The feeling that an amputated limb is still there is called ‘phantom limbs syndrome,’ and it affects many people with amputations. Dr. Bulanda Thapa, currently Professor of Orthopedics and Trauma, informs that even after the amputation of limbs, it is normal for patients to feel them. “At these times, the patient mostly perceives limb extremities like fingers,” says Dr. Thapa.

Birkha Bahadur Rai from Sindhupalchok, 60, agrees with that. Having had to amputate his right leg to gangrene ten years ago, he still feels that his toes are moving. When his leg was just amputated, the feeling that it was still there was very strong. Now it has reduced, but still, sometimes it is easy to forget about his deformity. Once, it was raining and he got up to bring in some clothes he had left to dry. Suddenly he stumbled and fell because he had forgotten that he did not have a leg anymore. “It must be a force of habit, but it’s the right leg that always moves first,” he explained.

The feeling is strongest when Birkha is asleep or lying down. “It doesn’t cause any problems at all, it’s good to sleep with two legs,” he jokes. But then he awakens and realizes the absence of his leg with a shock. Then the problems start. Sometimes his invisible fingers twitch, sometimes itch and burn, and sometimes ache. “I just massage my stump to get rid of it,” says Rai.

Rai has gotten used to the feelings after all these years. But for some people, the existence of invisible limbs can be traumatic. Anita Neupane, 22, a student, lost both her legs and one hand in an accident seven years ago. The feeling that all these limbs were still present haunted her for a long time. Her doctor told her that it was because she could not accept that she did not have these limbs any more. This led Anita to doubt her own willpower, and she focused on accepting what happened to her. She still believes that she has not fully accepted her situation because she continues to have those sensations, though in a reduced form.

But Dr. Bulanda Thapa is clear that phantom limbs are not simply psychological problems. “Since pain comes from perception, definitely there is psychology involved,” he says, because there is a deep link between physiology and psychology. Even in cases of normal pain, sometimes people keep feeling the pain even when the condition has healed. In such cases, the pain is a result of perception and not just of the medical condition. And with amputation, the case is complicated by severe trauma, which may perpetuate the pain and the phantom limbs syndrome beyond the normal timeframe.

But at the same time, to blame the sensations only on psychology may not be fair on the patient. Dr. Thapa informs that there are three kinds of nerves, sensory, motor, and autonomous. With the amputation of a limb, the motor part cannot function because the limb does not move any more. But the sensory and autonomous nerves are still there, and they are responsible for these feelings. Sometimes, after amputations, these limbs often reorganize, leading the patient to confused perceptions. Such reorganization can even be found in normal medical cases like tooth extractions where a wound in one tooth hurts at another place.

But without their physical existence, the dimensions of the phantom limb are based completely on the amputee’s perceptions. Anita reports that her legs sometimes feel like they have shrunk, sometimes like they have bloated. There have also been cases where the patient feels that the amputated limb is in some other part of the body and not where it originally was. Some patients report distorted phantom limbs as well.

These sensations normally reduce with time, as in the case of Birkha Bahadur Rai. But sometimes, it can get chronic and disturb a patient’s life. Dr. Thapa remembers many such cases. “Once, a patient complained so much of pain on the balls of his feet, when he did not have any feet,” he informed. Despite counseling and medication, his condition did not improve. When pain becomes chronic, Dr. Thapa warns that the patients may get into addictions to forget the pain.

Today, the number of people in Nepal with amputation is rising, with many migrant workers coming home without their limbs, and many individuals nursing wounds from the decade-long conflict. It is important to understand their condition and not dismiss their sensations and mere psychological whimsy for them to feel better.

Dr. Thapa recommends that if the pain becomes chronic and intrusive, counseling and medicines are the best ways to deal with it. Prosthetic limbs are not a solution because they help improve the structure of the limb but do not have its internal composition. So, they don’t help with the phantom limbs. The best course, therefore, to dealing with phantom limbs is medical counseling and medications which can gradually help the patient accept their condition as well as live with it in daily life.

***

Dr. Shambhu Shah is Senior Resident at Grande hospital. Having specialized in orthopedics for his Masters degree, he is currently working as an orthopedic surgeon.

Excerpts from an interview with him on phantom limbs:

Is phantom limbs syndrome a psychological condition or a physiological one?

It’s a psychological manifestation of a physical absence. When a limb is amputated, there are three kinds of possibilities: there may be stump pain, which is clinically manageable; phantom limb sensations, which don’t cause much trouble and go away with time; and phantom limb pain, which causes problems.

Why do amputees continue to feel the limbs that aren’t there?

The sensory cortex in our brain has a map of our body. And this map is hardwired. When a limb is suddenly amputated, the brain is still working on the old map, and has a hard time adjusting to the change. Phantom limb sensations may last for 40-50 years.

What can be done to cure phantom limb pain?

There’s no surefire treatment that can fully cure this pain. In severe cases, there are medications. We use counseling and therapy, the point of which is to ensure that the brain knows of the limb’s absence. Massaging the stump often helps, because then the brain becomes aware of the existence of the stump.

Prosthetic limbs don’t help with this syndrome because they don’t connect to the muscles and nerves. In the West, electric prosthetic limbs are available. They actually connect to the muscles, and a few hours of daily use has been known to reduce pain. But they aren’t available in Nepal, and are also very expensive. So for now, therapy is the best course.

Published in Republica on July 4

Songs of Gandharvas

Gandharvas are folk singers who sing to the accompaniment of Sarangi, Arbajo and Madal. Traditionally, music was their sole profession. Their songs were handed down orally and did not have written notations. They learnt by committing entire songs to memory. They also have a vast repertoire spanning many genres. Besides popular genres like humor and bravery, they have songs for times of the day (morning, noon, evening) and for cultural occasions like wedding and vratabandhas.

Gandharvas’ songs used to disseminate news. ‘Ghatak’ are songs of events like murder, theft, elopement, etc. Gandharvas have on record major historical events like the earthquake of 1990 BS (1934), Chandra Shumsher’s visit to ‘Belayat,’ Jung Bahadur’s tiger hunt, etc. The well developed genre called ‘Karkha’ contains exact descriptions and genealogies of the Shahs, Ranas, and many local heroes going back to the sixteenth century. These songs were living memory reservoirs of entire communities.

Gandharvas also sing religious songs that differ from classical versions and provide local color. Ancient mythical characters wear local Dhungri, Fariya, etc in their songs. Gandharva Ramayana is especially well developed and differs at many points from the written versions.

In Vyasa’s version, Rama does not know that he is an avatar until the very end. In the Gandharva version, not just Rama and his family but even Surpanakha and Ravan are aware that he is Lord Vishnu, which changes the dynamics. This version is more deterministic, since Ravan walks into his death with full knowledge of his futility. According to Bhanubhakta Acharya, Ravan rubs his hands with dust before he abducts Sita so that his body may not contact Sita’s pure person. But he does no such thing in the Gandharva version.

The characterization of Sita differs even more radically. Sita is not aware of her status as a goddess in most versions. According to Bhanubhakta, Rama hides the real Sita and creates a Sita of grass. It is this fake Sita who tells Lakshman to leave her and go after Ram. Since it is the fake Sita who is abducted, the true Sita was never touched by Ravan. This version does not tell us what the real Sita would have done, since her agency is taken away to ensure that her chastity is unquestioned.

But in the Gandharva’s version, there is no such deception. Sita acts of her own volition. The story of her birth tells us that she has always been feisty. Sita hears parrots forecasting her marriage with Lord Ram, and captures them. She tells them they will be released only if their prediction comes true.

Later, when she espies the deer that would be her doom, Sita wants to “make a blouse of its skin.” In most other versions, Sita simply wants to play with the deer. Such minute variations mark the Gandharva Ramayana as a possibly unique Nepali version.

Gandharvas credit this version to Ravi Lal Kandel of Gulmi. But Kusumakar Nyaupane, who was part of a research on Gandharvas, informs that this version was popular among all castes, including Gandharvas, even before Kandel documented it. The fact that the Gandharvas’ version was more popular than other written versions illustrates how powerful a means of communication they were.

They have many local stories involving gods. A famous one is ‘Kalbaleni.’ Lord Shiva goes to a woman called Kalbaleni as a mendicant and asks for some alcohol, but she gives him water. Later he goes to her as a handsome man and asks for the same, but now her alcohol turns to water. She realizes that she slighted the mendicant. She asks the mendicant’s forgiveness, but even when she empties her store, she cannot fill his bowl. Lord Shiva curses her to be always poor.

Kalbaleni is an example of a prominent feature of Gandharva songs: moral. Here, Kalbaleni is cursed for her wicked behavior. Even in Ghataks, the wicked person is described by words like ‘sinner,’ and is punished, while good persons are rewarded. There is the implied threat that listeners will be punished if they behave similarly. They contribute to shaping the worldviews of their audience by spreading and endorsing values.

Gandharvas’ songs are also deeply philosophical. Jeevanphal talks of the journey of life, and gives the message that the body is simply a house for the soul. In accordance with classical Hindu theology, such songs embody the idea that life is ephemeral, and humans should pursue good deeds.

But Gandharva songs only incorporate ideology when it is relevant to them. A famous song about Lahure mentions that when “two kings fight, the people suffer,” discarding the royal ideology, whatever it is. Hence, though their songs may contain complex theological issues, they are always relatable.

In fact, subtle subversion of religion is common in these songs. Unlike written versions that only glorify gods, these songs express what people truly feel. While there are songs about Krishna’s prowess and romance, he is also listed among great sinners. ‘Char Yugko Ramkali’ describes kings of each ‘yug’ who lived lives of extreme luxury, but did not take away anything when they died. Krishna ‘has ‘1,600 Gopinis and wreaks havoc,’ but in the end gains nothing. Krishna’s example makes the point that pursuit of luxury and wealth are useless.

There is also subversion in Mangal (praise) of local gods like Gorakhnath, Muktinath, etc, which Gandharvas consider essential to their existence. Gorakhnath is said to be the creator of all the four Vedas and greater than Macchindranath. Gandharvas also believe Brahma gave them their instrument ‘Arbajo’ while the instrument is not mentioned in classical texts.

With historical songs, there is danger of similar exaggeration blurring facts. The names of Jung Bahadur’s brothers are correct but he is said to kill a 16-foot tiger when the maximum length of tigers is 10 feet. Later elements creep into older songs, like a fountain pen (called ‘funtin’) that writes Ramayana. One can easily imagine such embellishments being taken as truth, so truth has to be carefully mined.

Many of these songs are lost today, since few people want to hear religious or historical songs. Gandharvas have modernized in other ways: since Japanese scholar Imau Fumiko taught them to codify their music, they begin from basics like Sa Re Ga Ma when they teach outsiders. But some things don’t change, Gandharva children continue to neglect the notes and learn one song at a time. “We don’t need the notes,” they say, “music is in our blood.”

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Seasonal songs

The Gandharvas have a song for every month. Eastern Classical Music has a similar system of seasonal songs, but Gandharvas’ songs are different.

Baisakh: Kalbaleni

Folktale of a wicked woman who is taught a lesson by Lord Shiva.

Jestha: Belauri Rani

Sung by elderly women when planting and weeding ‘Ghaiya’ rice in the hills.

Ashadh: Asare

Sung during riceplanting and accompanied by a lot of fun and mud splashing. This song is believed to cause rainfall. One Gandharva claimed that it rained on June 16, 2014 because he played Asare that evening.

Shrawan: Sangneti

Gandharvas go from house to house singing this, and are greeted with food, rice, and Tika. This song is believed to ward off diseases, itching, etc.

Bhadra: Winter songs

From Bhadra, the weather gets colder, and traditional winter songs are sung.

Asoj: Malsiri

Sung during the nine days preceding Dashami. Playing it at any other time is believed to be a sin.

Kartik: Chaanchari

Played in Kartik after the Malsiri season ends.

Mangshir: Wedding songs

Mangshir is the traditional season of weddings.

Poush: Swasthani

Songs of Goddess Swasthani.

Magh: Sarumai Rani

Mentions flowering peaches and hints at spring. It is the story of a tragically widowed queen whom historians have identified as Queen Sarupadevi of Kaski.

Falgun: Faguwa

Mahadev Mangal in praise of Lord Shiva.

Chaitra: Chaitithi

Folksongs like Kalbaleni and others.

Published in Republica on June 27