Ghumot, the keeper of cultural past: How conservation of Indian monitor lizard has sparked an aesthetics debate on folk music

Wildlife conservation in a culturally diverse country like India is often complex. The curious story of a traditional Goan percussion instrument and conservation of the Indian monitor lizard illustrates the challenges.

Ghumot (or Ghumat) is a traditional membranophone percussion instrument that features in several religious and cultural practices of Goa. It has significance among the Hindus and Christians in the western state and was originally made and played only by the local tribal community.

It is believed to have travelled to the state with migrants who eventually settled there. Researchers rely quite a bit on oral histories since there is sparse documentation about the origin story of the percussion instrument.

Ghumot is made with an earthen clay pot with the mouth covered with animal hide, usually that of the Indian monitor lizard (Varanus bengalensis). The ghumot player strikes on this tightly tied membrane to create sharp beats.

Author Ninotchka Mendes talks about how oral traditions inform folk musical practices and multitudinous forms that cut through various strata, religions and castes, making way for bhajans, ovis, kirtans, and ladains.

The folk musical performances of the Christian Gawdas — one of the first settlers of Goa — particularly centred on the ghumot, she writes. Called ghumata vazop, it is a dance set to the beats of ghumot.

The instrument is also played in a pre-wedding ‘roce’ ceremony of Goan Christians, where the ghumata vazop comes alive. It is a tradition originally typical to the Kunbi community that has now been adopted by other communities as well.

Ghumot also comes up in the context of another folk genre, Mando, among Catholic Goans.

The instrument assumes significance during Hindu religious rituals such as the Ganapati Stotra, Ganapati Arati and Ganapati Visarjana observed during Ganesh Chaturthi. It is one of the largest Hindu religious festivals celebrated across Maharashtra and the western regions of India.

Ghumot is played to reign in cultural and performative ethos of Goa on June 24, when the feast of St John the Baptist, known as the São João festival, is celebrated every year. It is also instrinsic to the zagor or harvest season, usually organised by the mandd (village committee) and Shigmo or Holi.

There are also new musical explorations that spin a new rhythm on traditional and folk music organised around heritage. The ghumot is becoming more accessible and bringing in new musical promises. In Goa, there are venues such as Madragoa in Panjim where a variety of mandos and fados are performed fortnightly.

There are also old traditional Goan houses where house concerts are organised that imagine Goan folk and traditional music anew. We can witness such newness in the recently released video by Entre Nos during September 2024.

In recent years, as awareness around the conservation status of the Indian monitor lizard grew, the membrane has come to be replaced by goat skin or synthetic materials. On August 30, 2019, the state cabinet of Goa declared ghumot without monitor lizard skin as Goa’s state heritage instrument.

The Indian monitor lizard is protected under Schedule I of the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972 and is listed under Appendix I of CITES, effectively banning its trade.

But some people in the region continue to make ghumots with monitor lizard skin hide. A multi-instrumentalist from Goa expressed his preference of playing ghumot covered with a monitor lizard hide. This, he said, creates a better resonance and sound quality and makes the player happier compared to playing a ghumot with goat skin or synthetic membrane.

He drew the analogy of the difference between an acoustic tabla and an electronic tabla to explain how the musician may feel.

One potter narrated how, in 2018, police had come by to check if he possessed ghumots made with monitor lizard skin. “Thankfully, it was sold otherwise I would have to pay a fine,” he said with relief.

A few conversations with the players also speak of disbalanced exposure in terms of opportunities and indifference on the part of certain members. 

Nirmal Kulkarni, an ecologist from Goa, explained that the Indian monitor lizard is an endangered species and it was protected much before its association with the ghumot became a controversy. In the past, female monitor lizards would be hunted by dogs bred by the potters who make ghumot. Thereby, their skin, organs and blood were used for various purposes. But that severely impacted the monitor lizard population in the region. An alternative skin allows for the tradition to be kept alive and is a boon, he added.

One of the makers also commented on the elasticity of the monitor lizard skin. However, they have somehow adapted to the new materiality of ghumot.

Finally, the community of makers is shrinking. In this context, it becomes important to reflect on what claim-making to ghumot does. In 2020, T M Krishna wrote about the complex terrain of who produces the mrindangam sound. Is it solely the virtuoso player? What about the maker?

It makes us reexamine the caste structures in musical presentation, reception and chances. One notices how there are in-built hierarchies in genres, voices, instruments, and furthermore the role of the musicians as soloists and accompanists, all driven by an implicit shift in aesthetic discourses.

Goa’s state heritage label has suddenly brought a percussion instrument to spark off debates on new aesthetics around folk music. We find ourselves asking whose heritage is being showcased and who gets to become brand ambassadors of a socio-cultural past.

Sebanti Chatterjee is Assistant Professor, Sociology and Anthropology, SRM University-AP

Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth.