look news india
With the beginning of Chhath Puja, the great festival of folk faith, purity and sun worship, a wonderful atmosphere of devotion and joy has been created in the entire country. Preparations for making traditional Thekua and Prasad have started in the homes of Purvanchali community settled in every corner of the country and abroad including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand. The holy Chhath ghats built on the banks of rivers, ponds and lakes have started getting decorated with lights and flowers. Unless traditional and heart-touching Chhath songs are sung in such a devotional environment, the celebration of this great festival seems incomplete. One such Chhath song sung in the melodious and soulful voice of young folk singer Maithili Thakur increases the beauty of the ghats manifold every year. His song ‘Sona Suruj Dev’, released four years ago, has today become a cult classic, on hearing which the mind of every devotee and fasting person spontaneously gets absorbed in the sacred devotion of Chhathi Maiya and Lord Bhaskar.
Hailing from Madhubani, Maithili Thakur, who has hoisted the flag of her traditional folk singing in the country and the world, has given voice to many devotional compositions in Maithili, Magahi, Awadhi and Bhojpuri, but her Chhath song ‘Sona Suruj Dev’ released in the year 2022 has been established at the pinnacle of faith. Although this traditional folk song has also been sung in different forms by many other senior and renowned folk singers of Bihar, but when Maithili Thakur recorded it in 2022 with her classical style and effortless sweetness, this song directly touched the hearts of the people. In this song, the supernatural glory of the rising and setting Lord Surya i.e. ‘Suruj Dev’, the purity of the arduous 36-hour waterless ritual and the poignant prayer to Chhathi Maiya for the welfare of the children have been woven with great devotion. This is the reason why even after four years, this song makes its place in the top trending list on YouTube and music streaming platforms every year.
The biggest strength of the song ‘Sona Suruj Dev’ is its pure and traditional musical composition, which is completely different from today’s songs filled with noise and electronic beats and directly gives a feeling of the sweet fragrance of the soil. The lyrics of this popular Chhath song have been written by well-known lyricist Rakesh Nirala in very simple and traditional folk language, which expresses the depth of folk culture. Its melodious and heart-touching music has been composed by director Vinay Dayal. The recording of the song uses entirely Indian traditional instruments instead of synthetic sounds. The auspicious sound of the Shehnai, the enchanting tune of the flute, the traditional beats of the tabla and dholak and the chimes of the manjira together create a spiritual atmosphere which, upon listening, takes the listeners to the memories of the village ponds and the Ganga ghats.
In the official video of this song, the entire rituals of the four days of Chhath Puja – Nahay-Khay, Kharna, Sandhya Arghya and Usha Arghya – have been filmed with great beauty and dignity. The visuals of soup, daura, sugarcane, fasting women dressed in red-yellow sarees, long tilak of vermilion on their forehead and devotees waiting for the Sun God while standing in the holy water of Ganga increase the emotional appeal of the song manifold. This is the reason that at the time of morning Arghya, when ‘Sona Suruj Dev’ is echoed in the tinkling voice of Maithili Thakur on the loudspeakers on the ghats amidst the blanket of fog, every devotee present there gets overwhelmed with emotion and starts saluting the Sun God with folded hands. Millions of views and thousands of emotional comments on YouTube are a clear proof that the new generation listeners are also deeply connecting with their ancient folk traditions through this song.
As Chhath festival approaches, the demand for this song of Maithili Thakur increases manifold on social media reels, YouTube and radio channels. From Digha Ghat of Patna to Assi Ghat of Varanasi, Yamuna Ghat of Delhi and Juhu Chowpatty of Mumbai, the echo of this song is heard everywhere. Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) living abroad also remain connected to their roots and memories of their motherland through this song during the Chhath festival. Folk music experts say that the intimacy with which Maithili Thakur has imbibed the rich tradition of folk culture in her youth is the result that her Chhath song has become a classic today. This unique confluence of faith, music and dedication is all set to enhance the beauty of ghats on the upcoming Chhath festival.