A blithe spirit has flown her mortal nest. And Assam, nay the earth, will be the poorer for it. There is perhaps none who has even once listened to Pratima Barua-Pandey’s soul-stirring songs and not noticed the purity of that husky voice that celebrated the geets of the people of Goalpara. As for those who closely knew this spirited yet childlike woman, the loss is even greater.

But perhaps it is the land that nurtured the singer in this extraordinary woman, her serene Gauripur, which will shed silent tears and miss her the most. Especially her favourite Gadadhar — the river in whose quiet flow Barua-Pandey found, all through the ups and downs of life, what she often used to say, both “peace and inspiration”.

As a young girl, Barua-Pandey used to sit on the grassy knolls of its banks and embalm her music-hungry soul with the notes and lyrics of the songs of the boatsmen who rode its waters. Even later, she found in its blue depths the solace for those moments of nostalgia, when thoughts of her departed father, also her friend, philosopher and guide, nudged themselves into her mind.

For it was Kumar Prakitesh Chandra Barua or Lalji as her father was popularly known, who gave her the strength to fight all odds that came in her way of singing the songs of the people, “so different from those of the bhadralok”. They are human, too, and their songs are equally beautiful, Lalji used to tell his eldest daughter.

Barua-Pandey’s royal family — whose lineage dates back to the days of Emperor Jahangir — was in fact aghast when they found the young girl humming rustic ballads. Many even predicted that if she continued to favour them, she would even lose out on marriage — for who would wed a girl who sang lokageet, the songs of the masses? But for the child, thoroughly captivated by the lilting notes that resonated in the air around her, she was “wedded to music anyway”.

The geet of the Muslim womenfolk who did the chores in the family home in Matiabagh, those of the mahouts of her father’s hati mahal (elephant camp), of the fishermen who cast their nets on the Gadadhar held her spellbound and moved her to memorise each syllable.

Born on a Mahalaya day, October 3, 1935, in Calcutta, Hastir Kanya, as she came to be popularly known, did her early schooling in the city’s Gokhale Memorial School, after which she returned to study at the Gauripur Girls’ High School. Her early years were, in fact, spent alternating “between the din of Calcutta and the soothing environs of Gauripur”. And though she learned Rabindrasangeet at school, Barua-Pandey never had any formal training in music. “My father’s hati mahal was my music institute, and his mahout chief, Bhaben Singha Roy, my guru,” she used to say.

The turning point in the young Barua-Pandey’s life came when Bhupen Hazarika visited Gauripur in 1955. At a jalsa organised on the occasion, the shy young teenager, though “tongue-tied with fear before the balladeer of such repute”, let her voice and the lyrics of the lokageet flow with the strings and rhythms of the dutara, darinda and dhuluki. An enraptured Hazarika, predicting that “this was the voice that would take Goalpariya geet to great heights”, also lent his unstinted support to efforts to impress on all that Goalpariya lokageet was a part of Assamese geet.

Hazarika’s prediction was more than realised when Barua-Pandey was awarded the Padmashree for her pioneering efforts in popularising Goalpariya lokageet. A documentary made on her, Hastir Kanya, after winning the National Award for best biographical film in 1997, went on to create waves at the South Asia film festival in 1998. Its maker, Prabin Hazarika, was, as he says, “deluged with queries on the singer, the beauty of her voice and the richness of the compositions”.

Padmashree, Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee, folk singer extraordinaire — Barua-Pandey’s innocent nature remained ever untouched by fame and acclaim. From the portals of a “royal” home to a joyful camaraderie with the people, Barua-Pandey was devoid of ersatz. It was the love shown by the people for her brand of music that remained her priceless treasure, “closest to her heart”. After all, she had not sung for “fame but for the pure love of it”.

Lyrics of some well-known songs of Pratima Barua-Pandey

O mor hai hastir kanyare
Khaniko doya nai mahutok lagiyare
Hastir kanya, hastir kanya, bamuner nari
Mathai niya tam kalsi o
Omi hate sonar jhari omi o
O mor hai hastir kanyare

Tomra gaile ki ashiben, mor mahut bandhu re
Hastire naran, hastire choran,
Kakoua basher aara
Ore ki shape dongshilek bandhubak
Bandhua hoilo mor lorare

Lal gamcha ranga sari re
Ore tar madhye nanan dor
Ajir moto jao bandhu
Shawami ache mor

Lal sari le re moina, lal sari re
Tor malik bhalo re moina, lal sari re
Are laljir bari jabire moina, lal sari re
Godi, gadla pabire moina, lal sari re