Nautankiの歌

表記はウッタール･ブラデーシュよりも、ウッタル・プラデーシュと短くする方が遥かに件数が多くなっていました。邦訳すれば「北の州」という意味なので、プラデーシュの後ろに州をつけると「州」の意味がダブることになります。北州と聞くと、私は何となく清元の名曲を思い出してしまいましたが、これは全く無関係（笑）　清元の北州は吉原のことです。
youtubeに見るウッタル・プラデーシュの舞踊関係はそれ程目新しさが感じられないように思うので、更に見ていたら、Nautankiという演劇の一種の歌唱が目に留まりました。Hathras地方などで盛んなようです。同州西部に位置するようです。北インドの古典声楽と一味違う味わい深い歌声。伴奏の打楽器の音は何となく南インドのカタカリを連想しました。ナウタンキも、古い芸能なのでしょうか？

Nautanki - A Short Introduction

An introduction to Nautanki, a theatrical genre, as performed particularly in the region of Hathras, Vrindavan and Mathura in India. This is a trailer, the complete film is in production.

Extract from Wikipedia:
The history of the Nautanki performative tradition (also referred to as Swang) goes back several hundred years. Nautanki's origins lie in the folk performance traditions of Bhagat and Raasleela of Mathura and Vrindavan in Uttar Pradesh, and Khayal of Rajasthan. Nautanki's history becomes clearer in the nineteenth century with the coming of the printing press in India and publication of Nautanki operas in the form of chap-books.

Nautanki reached the pinnacle of its glory in the early 20th century when numerous Nautanki performing troupes, known as mandalis (literal meaning: groups) and akharas (literal meaning: wrestling arenas) came into existence. Nautanki mandalis were called akharas due to the prevalence of particular style of singing in Nautanki that required a lot of physical power. The Nautankis staged by these akharas became the main source of entertainment in the small towns and villages of Northern India, and remained as such until television and VCRs began to make inroads beginning in the early 1990s.

Riding on its popularity, Nautanki progressed both in terms of form as well as content and its stage became bigger and more professional. Nautanki companies like Natharam's mandali, catching the cue from big Parsi theater (an urban Indian theater style) troupes such as Alfred Theater Company, started to present their performances outside the core region of its audience. Some performances occurred as far as in Rangoon, Burma.

Nautanki still holds a strong influence over rural peoples' imagination, and even after the spread of mass media (such as television and radio), a crowd of 10,000 to 15,000 can be seen at the top Nautanki performances. Like many other folk forms of India, Nautanki's status has been badly affected by the apathy of the political leadership, and the attitude of looking down upon the indigenous Indian artistic traditions by the powerful urban-based elites suffering from a post-colonial hangover (colonial after-effects on the psychology of Indian elites).