https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=ManbhattManbhatt - Revision history2026-07-31T05:52:43ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Manbhatt&diff=464025&oldid=prevPranav at 06:44, 25 November 20252025-11-25T06:44:09Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>'''Manbhatt''' were [[Brahmin]] priests of south [[Gujarat]] (India) narrating stories called ''[[Akhyana]]''s to the accompaniment of music played on copper-made water pitcher or large globular metal pot (''man'') having a narrow mouth and bloated mid-part, used for beats of rhythmic beating time as required.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780195650983.001.0001/acref-9780195650983-e-3036|title=Maṇ - Oxford Reference|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780195650983.001.0001/acref-9780195650983-e-3036|access-date=2018-08-27}}</ref> The manbhatt has been an important fixture in the religious lives of middle-class Gujaratis for several hundred years. Today, this once extremely popular art of story-telling is almost extinct.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/offtrack/story/20040112-dharmiklal-pandya-struggles-to-save-dying-art-of-gujarat-manbhat-akhyan-790784-2004-01-11|title=Singing a Lost Tune|last=Mahurkar |first=Uday|date=12 January 2004|publisher=[[India Today ]]|access-date=17 February 2010}}</ref><br />
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The narrative consists of stories from the epics, the Puranas, and from everyday life. The singer uses fingers with metal rings to slap rhythmically the shoulders of the ''man''.<ref name="Pollock2003">{{cite book|author=Sheldon Pollock|title=Literary Cultures in History: Reconstructions from South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ak9csfpY2WoC&pg=PA580|accessdate=19 September 2017|date=19 May 2003|publisher=University of California Press|location=California|isbn=978-0-520-22821-4|page=580}}</ref> Further accompaniment is provided by [[cymbal]]s (''jhanjh''), [[barrel drum]] (''pakhavaj''), [[tabla]], and [[Pump organ|harmonium]].<br />
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The communities of [[Charanas]] and [[Bhats]] have been composing and reciting epic verses celebrating the exploits of their royal patrons. They use the ''[[Rasa (literary form)|raso]]'' (''rasa'' or ''rasaka''), a structure consisting of several poems that each tell a portion of the story, depict a scene, or speak in the voice of a character. The main raso forms are ''[[doha (couplet)|doha]]'' (couplet) and ''[[chhand]]'' (extended metre). A variant of the doha is the ''soratha''. The number of syllables per line is the same in both forms; however, in doha the first half of the line is longer and the rhyme occurs at the end of the line, whereas in sorath the second half of the line is longer and the rhyme occurs in the middle. In chhand, the metrical structure has many forms.<br />
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According to scholar [[Krishnalal Jhaveri]], at the time when the art of printing and printing process were not even developed, these story-tellers used to pick up stories from the Puranas (also the stories written by the newly emerging writers) and narrate them to the accompaniment of Man, before their audiences of near and far off places that they visited. Thereby, besides regaling their listeners, they used to bolster up their religious sentiments, too.<br />
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The distinguishing quality or the ingenuity of these story-tellers or public-preachers was that they were superb singers and music composers besides being well-versed actors and performers having a marvelous sense of rhythm. Due to their extraordinary mastery over music and the art of performing, these well skilled story-tellers could make their audience laugh heartily or shed tears pathetically at will.<br />
==See also==<br />
* [[Akhyana]]<br />
* [[Fagu]]<br />
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==References==<br />
{{reflist}}<br />
[[Category:Social groups of Gujarat]]<br />
[[Category:Hinduism in Gujarat]]<br />
[[Category:Culture of Gujarat]]</div>Pranav