Ropnigeet

Ropnigeet of Bihar is a prominent folk song of the state. It is basically a work song sung in groups. Ropnigeet is associated with the activity of sowing paddy seeds, the sowing of which is more than a simple agricultural activity in Bihar. It is associated with hope, rejuvenation and the beginning of a new working season for the largely poor farmers of Bihar. It was these simple, humble and largely illiterate farmers who spontaneously founded this wonderful folk form to celebrate the occasion and ease their labor.

Songs of sowing crop are popular in almost every province of India, where paddy happens to be the principle crop. Ropnigeet literally means the song of sowing. Rice being the staple food in large parts of Gangetic Bihar, it is obvious that the sowing of paddy will be widely celebrated. Paddy cultivation takes place even before the high summer of the Gangetic plains have given way to the monsoon. The farmers are bound to work in the midst of intense heat and it will be long before he feels the first droplets of rain on the parched land. Ropnigeet in Bihar urges them on through the intense heat to work hard in the hope of the prosperous days that surely lay ahead.

The farmers were and still are to a certain extent illiterate. Therefore, there is no written document for Bihar's Ropnigeet. It passed from generation to generation through an oral form of transmission. The songs celebrate their labor and also sings of the promises that are to be got because of the hard labor that they have put in. Sometimes they also celebrate the gods and the earth, which is source of all prosperity. Ropnigeet at Bihar attests to the importance of rice and rice cultivation to Bihar's cultural life.