Bihar's folk music is not performance alone — it is how the land marks its seasons, its weddings, its births and its longing. At Rasmanjari, these traditions are taught as living heritage, in the forms they were born in.
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The lamp-pot dance of Mithila
From the Mithila region of North Bihar, Jhijhiya is performed by women who balance perforated earthen pots — glowing with lamps inside — on their heads as they dance. Sung and danced during Durga Puja and the monsoon months, it is an offering of light: a prayer for the family's wellbeing and a ward against evil. The songs are invocations, and the dance demands grace, balance and devotion in equal measure.
Songs of parting and the migrant's longing
Born in the Bhojpuri heartland, Bidesia is the music of separation — of the labourer who leaves for distant cities and the family that waits. Popularised as folk theatre by the legendary Bhikhari Thakur, its songs carry the ache of migration that has shaped Bihar for generations. Sung with dholak and bansuri, Bidesia remains the most powerful voice of Bhojpuri folk feeling.
The song of the monsoon
When the first rains break over the fields of Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, the kajri begins. These monsoon songs speak of dark clouds, swollen rivers, and love and longing in the season of rain. Sung by women on verandas and in courtyards, kajri moves between folk and semi-classical forms — a tradition our students learn from its village roots upward.
Songs of spring and the month of Chait
Chaiti belongs to Chaitra, the spring month of Holi and new leaves. Sung in the Bhojpuri region as winter lifts, these songs celebrate the season's turn — the mango blossom, the festival of colours, and love in springtime. Light, playful and rhythmic, chaiti is the joyful counterpart to the monsoon's kajri.
Songs of birth and blessing
No tradition is closer to a Bihari home than the sohar. Sung by the women of the family when a child is born, sohar songs bless the newborn, praise the mother and invoke the gods' protection over the cradle. Passed from grandmother to granddaughter, they are among the oldest living songs of Bihar — and among the first our folk students learn.
All five traditions are taught in our Classical & Folk Music course — vocal training in the authentic folk styles, with dholak and harmonium accompaniment, under the guidance of Smt. Kiran Kumari, a Grade A folk artist of All India Radio. Jhijhiya dance is taught alongside our Kathak classes.
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