Indian Antiquary Vol 31

Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple
Publisher: Swati Publications

Page 91

FEBRUABY, 1902.]
LADAKHI SONGS.
87
LADAKHI SONGS.
BY THE REV. A. .. FRANCKE, LEH. (With the aid of the Rev. S. Ribbach and Dr. E. Shawe.).
• Introductory Notes. WHEN I wrote a paper on Ladakht popular poetry about three years ago (published in Globus, LXXV. No. 15), my collection consisted of only twenty-five songs. Those songs had been collected in Leb, Stock and Sheh, that is, in the residences of the ancient Ladakhf kings and were all of the same type. As I had then been unable to discover any specimens of a more natural type of Ladakhi poetry, I concluded that really popular poetry was entirely absent in Ladakh. Meanwhile travels in Lower Ladakh and Pårig, which extended my collection to about 250 pieces, have enabled me to discover other branches of Ladůkhi poetry, which bear a less artificial character. But before presenting any of them to the readers of this Journal I will shortly describe the different types of Ladakhi pootry, as far as I have got to know them.
1. The Court Song. It has been fully described in the Globus. Its principal characteristics are the following:- The language is as near as possible to the book-language : a certain knowledge of Buddhism is displayed: it flatters persons in high position. It has no rhyme, but a certain rule of metre is strictly observed. The predominant metre is that each line consists of three trochees. I give specimens of the Court Song in Nos. I.,II., V. and IX. The first line of No. I. is pronounced thus:
trdshie phineum thaogopas. That of No. II. is pronounced
di chi gángyi-tsúg rgyan. * In consequence of the strict observance of this metric rule many of the sentences are incomplete, and the meaning can only be guessed from the context.
2. The Dance Song. - Its language is the dialect of the country: where it is sung religious ideas hardly ever come in ; it tells in naïve language the thoughts of people's hearts. It makes use of the rhyme of sentonoe, generally called parallelism when occurring in European poetry. Two or more sentences are constructed accordingly, and in the corresponding places different words sro inserted. Examples for illustrating this rhyme can be found in Nos. III, IV., VI, VII, VIII., and X. I am told by Prof. Conrady of Leipzig and Dr. Lanfer that this form of parallelism has been observed also in Chinese popular poetry. These are two examples taken from No. IV.: ,..
6. ndohung gydoo yógkhorla rdés, 7. Khyógthong gydvai skyédthorla rdés, 15. gánla rdxéspe gándaos shig in,
16. yangla rdserpe yangduos shig in. In many cases the Ladakhi Dance Song reminds us of Hebrew poetry; but as the principles of poetry among these two nationalities are not the same, occasional conformities may be taken fo be a matter of chanoe. Whilst the Ladakht rhyme is, as many examples prove, s rhyme of sentence, the Hebrew town of poetry may be called a rhyme of thought.
The Dance Song generally also has a metre, which is not of Bo stricts uniformity as that of the Court Song. In it only the accentuated syllables are counted. The number of the unaccentuated syllables between them varies from one to three. As regards the accentuated syllables, the number 4
* 1 Dr. Lanfer also speaks of end-rhymes we ooonrring in Ladakhi songs. I feel doubtful about this. As regards w pornobloul observations the Ladakhle do not seem to be able to hear end-rhymes at all. At least in my English clan, when studytag Eng Hah poetry, the Ladakhte could take hold only of the metro; the poetion form of the end. thyme ww entirely lost on them.