(Last Updated on : 20/04/2012)
Nichukanigeets or cradle-songs are the soft and tender music which have a lingering note to it. They often depict the stories and tales that provide joy and happiness to the child.
These songs depict a perfect harmony of melody and fantasy that transports the child in the world of imagination and playful thoughts. Lyrical rhapsodies like "Lai hale jale abeli batahe" are well-known. Even the song "Sialie nahibi rati" garners the imaginations of the child riding it to a world of fancy. The Assamese folk songs are said to have been influenced from the Vaishnava poetry. It can be suggested that Sridhar Kandali's exquisite Kankhowa poem which has a delicate touch has been significantly influenced by the Assamese songs. This does not bear any reference to the Bhagavatam or Harivamsam from which the Vaishnava poets adopted their themes. The poet cultivates the child's playful thoughts and establishes it through the Kankhowa which is considered as one of the unsurpassed children's poetry. The influence of the Vaishnava poetry is quite apparent in the following excerpt of the poem:
My darling boy has herded the cattle, His teeth shine in the sunbeam;
I have kept for him curd, milk and sweets, I have kept for him a golden bed with pillows.
The poetry has a blend of the motherly affection and the tenderness that the childhood portrays. The words and rhythm of the poem has a perfect bearing with the Vaishnava poetry. The songs are a representation of the sense of the art of the initiators of the poems.
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