prelude  One of the ancient traditional performing art forms of Assam is the Oja pali, featuring the Oja (principal singer) and the palis ( the assistants of the Oja). It consists of gita, nritya and abhinaya. So, on the one hand, it fulfils the need of gita and nritya and on the other, it contains narration with gestures and mudras. Hence, it fulfils the need of abhinaya. From the structural and the thematic points of view, the Oja pali art form can be divided into two broad classes (a) epic-based and (b) non-epic-based. Music is an integral part of the Oja pali art form, although the words of the songs and verses tell the story. The Oja pali music is a triple symphony of gita, vadya and nritya. The Oja pali circle regards this art as gandharva-vidya. Oja pali is an open air performance. One of the most important features of the Oja pali art form is the high pitched voice of the Oja and the palis. In this respect, Oja pali bears similarity with the Yaksagana. The Biyahar-Oja-pali music may be termed as pancanga sangita, i.e., five fold music – a) alpa. It is a kind of svara-sadhana, i.e., musical exposition of some raga or melody note. (b) Guru vandana, i.e., prologue (pada or verse) containing the eulogy of God Vishnu. (c) Visnupada or songs of Vishnu. This step is entirely based on dance movements. (d) Sangitalapa or playing of musical tone or cavar bana or jankar-raga, i.e., ideal raga is started. (e) The singing of the jhuna gita or juna gita, i.e., light song and the puweli gita, i.e., song of daybreak, is the fifth step of the Oja pali music. From the thematic point of view, jhuna gita contains sensual, erotic as well as crude elements. Therefore, initially, it was regarded as taboo. The conception of both raga and ragini is current in the Oja pali art form in general. The raga and ragini are popularly known as dhek in the context of the Biyah-gowa-Oja-pali. In the Biyahiya Oja pali of Sankardeva’s school, the tradition of ragini is totally absent. But it employs many of the ragas used by the Biyah-gowa-Oja-pali art form of Darrang. The Oja pali has its own tradition of the visualisation of ragas and ragini, as a whole, as in other forms of Indian music.

side screen  1) Picture Clue: Identify this medal of a very popular award. (the picture is edited to hide the clue). (Maharnav Gogoi, AEC, Guwahati)

harmonisers  From Manjil P. Saikia, Tezpur – 2) What are called ‘Google whores’? 3) What is the ‘Beer Google Effect’? 4) In which Asterix adventure does he come to India? 5) Which is the first poetry book in the world to be released online in text format?

unities  From Dipankar Koushik, Guwahati – 6) What is the contribution of the Bishop of Lycia of the 4th century to the modern day world? 7) Who was Oliver Cromwell’s secretary for reading letters in foreign languages? 8) Francis Archer killed a man who was wanted by the police on some unknown charge. This was said to be the greatest tragedy in Literature. Whom did Francis Archer kill?

do-re-me  9) Which is the second most commonly used letter in the English language? (Digjam Sarma, Rangapara) 10) In the Mahabharata, how is “Pritha” better known as? (S K Medhi, Advocate, Guwahati) From Sadiq Hussain Laskar, Pune 11) Which is the last Ahom monument in Guwahati? 12) What is common between them– Lombardi’s, John’s, Mario’s and Naples 45? 13) Which temple depicting Tantric worship is located at a distance of 10 km from Sadiya? 14) Which temple of Assam houses Kasyapa Muni as the centre most figure, along with 12 figures referred to as 12 Suryas?

crescendo  15) Brahma used it 1000 years, Prajapati used it for 503 years, Indra used it for 85 years, Chandra used it for 500 years, Barun used it for 100 years. At last, a Pandava used this powerful thing for 15 years. What am I talking about and who is this Pandava? (Sonmani Das, Nalbari)

answers  1) The Ramon Magsaysay Award 2) Websites whose purpose is to earn money from AdSense advertisements 3) Searching someone’s name on Google induced by drinking beer 4) Asterix and the Magic Carpet 5) Golden Threads, Vol.1 6) His name was Nicholas and he was made a saint as there  were several legends of his generosity and love for the  poor. He is now immortalised as Santa Claus 7) John Milton 8) Christopher Marlowe 9) The letter ‘T’. The first most commonly used letter is ‘E’ 10) Kunti, her father Sura had given her in adoption to his cousin Kuntibhoja, who was childless, hence, the name 11) The Bashista Ashram temple 12) They are all famous pizzerias in New York 13) The Tamareshwari Temple 14) Surya Pahar in Goalpara District 15) It was the Gandhiva Dhanu and the Pandava was Arjuna.