Wedding songs: ghoriyan, suhag and sithniyan
The songs women sing through a Punjabi wedding: ghoriyan for the groom, suhag for the bride leaving home, and sithniyan to tease the other side.
In the evenings before a wedding the women of the house gather with a dholki and sing. In the groom's home they sing ghoriyan, songs of the mare he will ride to fetch his bride; in the bride's home they sing suhag, songs of a daughter leaving her father's house, which make everyone cry.
When the two families meet, the women trade sithniyan, sharp, funny insult-songs mocking the other side's stinginess, looks and manners. The words change with every village and every wedding, and much of the Punjab's folk poetry lives in them.
More music forms
The Guru Granth Sahib is arranged by raga, not by author: the scripture was meant to be sung.
▶ Watch
The heroic ballad of the Sikhs, sung to the small dhad drum and sarangi in front of the Akal Takht.
▶ Watch
Unaccompanied verse sung at speed by two or three voices, the Malwa cousin of the dhadi ballad.
▶ Watch
The short, witty couplets that fly back and forth during giddha and bhangra.
▶ Watch
Three-line verses of love and longing, sung in duet between lovers or friends.
▶ Watch
The firefly-spirit who wanders the land in song, reporting what she sees.
▶ Watch
The Sufi song of the Punjab, created by Shah Hussain and perfected by Bulleh Shah.
▶ Watch
The school of classical singing born at the court of the Maharajas of Patiala, famous for its daring, fast and ornate style.
▶ Watch
The singing family of Sham Chaurasi near Hoshiarpur, whose greatest masters, Salamat Ali and Nazakat Ali Khan, moved to Pakistan in 1947.
▶ Watch
The loriyan sung to babies and the rhymes of the courtyard, the first poetry every Punjabi child hears.
The laments women sing for the dead, and the ritual mourning in which they beat their breasts in a circle.