Editing Oral Storytelling Traditions of Bharat and the World (section)

==== Bardic Traditions ====
In Milton Singer’s Traditional India: Structure and Change, an anthropological account of the Vahīvancā Bāroṭs, the Bhāṭs and the Cāraṇs of Gujarat provides us with information about the manner in which bardic castes would transmit stories, perform ballads, compose poetry and through these, transmit and preserve knowledge of history, lineage and genealogy. Hindu Rājās and local chieftains would patronize them, and they would in turn attend to them on special occasions. They would loudly proclaim the Rājā’s titles and sing hero stories of their clan, narrate stories of their victory, and compose poetry chastizing the enemy. They used gestures, modulations and song to perform longer poems called rāsos, couplets called duhās, and the epics and purāṇas as ballads. The subjects of poetry ranged from love and death to the Gods and Goddesses. The Bhāṭs composed their poetry in Braj Bhāṣa, a dialect of Hindi, while the Cāraṇs composed in a dialect of Western Rajasthani known as Ḍingaḷ, which was specifically crafted by them for this purpose.