Cultural festival recalls rich heritage of Khandesh

NASHIK: The two-day

Khandesh Sahitya Sanskruti Mahotsav

that began on Thursday offered a treat to citizens speaking the 'Ahirani' dialect of the

Marathi language

.

Literature

,

culture

and the

folk art

of the state's 'Khandesh' region were celebrated in the festival organised by the Khandesh Ahirani Kasturi Manch. The event is the first of its kind.

Valmik Mahale Kunzarkar the district president of the organizing committee, said that the festival aimed to spread awareness of the rich history of Khandesh and the literary heritage of the

Ahirani dialect

.

"It is a major dialect in Marathi and was originally spoken by the Ahirs or cattle herders living in the Khandesh region. Ahirani branches out into region-specific sub-dialects which differ from Chalisgaon, Dhule, Malegaon and Jalgaon. It is also spoken in some parts of Nashik like Baglan, Malegaon and Kalwan tehsils as well as Aurangabad. Apart from Maharashtra, neighbouring states of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh speak the dialect as well."

Deepak Saindane the organising committee's executive president said that research on Ahirani revealed that the dialect is spoken in the Dharni tehsil of the Amravati district, around the Melghat Tiger Reserve forest area. "There are around 35,000 speakers of this dialect in 40 villages of Vidarbha as well. We want to raise awareness about this dialect in such a way that state-level events are organized annually," he said.

The event began with welcome songs in Ahirani, followed by a traditional 'Bhilavu' folk dance. A formal inaugural function was held on Thursday afternoon, where industrialist Umesh Rathi and senior journalist Uttam Kamble were the chief guests. MLA Balasaheb Sanap, Mayor Ashok Murtadak and other speakers made it a point to speak at least few lines in Ahirani during the inaugural function. Ahirani stand-up comedian Vijay Pawar's performance received an overwhelming response the same day.

The latter half of the day was dedicated to folk songs in the Ahirani dialect. "Women artists from various parts of the Khandesh region performed traditional Ahirani folk songs. We also organised a quiz contest on Ahirani idioms and phrases. The audience participated enthusiastically and won many prizes," event coordinator, Prasad Deshmukh, said. An Ahirani poetry summit was later organised in the evening session.

On Friday, artist Pravin Mali presented his popular Ahirani one-act play 'Sakhyan Ayat Poyat'. Theatre artist Sanjay Bhadane also presented an Ahirani play. A panel discussion on the rich culture of Khandesh was organised in the afternoon session. A musical event by Lokshahir Shivaji Patil and a multilingual poetry meet were scheduled in the evening session on Friday. The festival ended with Khandeshi folk dances presented by dance groups from the city.

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