Malwai giddha: boliyan, instruments and ensemble cues

The verse cues the ensemble

Kirpal Kazak’s account places boliyan at the centre of Malwai giddha. A lead performer delivers the verse while companions respond; its final words cue a fuller collective repetition. The dholki player signals the other instrumentalists, and dancing can enter with that repeated closing passage. The sequence links poetry, listening and bodily movement. It is more than a dance performed over a separately supplied song.[1]

The entry describes ensembles using dholki, bugdu, chimta and garva among their instruments. Some members contribute particularly strongly to the vocal response. Older performers can participate alongside younger ones, and a troupe may contain both a teacher and that teacher’s pupils. Repertoire matters: knowing and making boliyan is part of the skill. Opening invocations and closing verses also give a gathering a shape beyond individual dance movements.[1]

A living repertoire can address new subjects

In June 2025, journalist Jagriti Sharma interviewed Ravi Chand, a Bathinda government teacher and practitioner. Her report describes his newly written boliyan about stubble burning, political rights and gender equality. This provides a concrete example of named authorship within a living repertoire. Chand advocates moving beyond familiar domestic disputes to subjects he considers publicly significant. His work shows how a recognisable performance form can carry new arguments, rather than requiring every verse to come from an anonymous, undated past. Sharma also describes performers singing while playing chimta, tumbi, sapp, kato and dholki.[2]

What the university competition permits

Panjab University’s July 2024 booklet makes instrumental choices for its Malwai giddha item. It permits dholki, tumba and algoza, specifies at least four student sapp players and lists other allowed instruments. It excludes dhol and sarangi from this item and directs that the pot be struck by hand. These are competition requirements, providing a dated stage format rather than an inventory of village practice.[3]