Garhwali, Kumaoni, Himalayan literature

Pitamber Datt Devrani : Collector of Garhwali Folk Songs and Folk Sports

Pitamber Datt Devrani is famous fro his Hindi writing about regional issues. However, he contributed in collecting the Garhwali folk songs of Gangasalan area and publishing them by different media.

Pitamber datt Devrani was born in Himalayan village sanesh, Kumbhichuad, Kotdwara Garhwal, in 1930 and expired in 2009. He did mA privately by his industrious nature. He started his career as teacher in Rashtriya Madhymik Vidyalaya, Silogi, Malla Dhangu , Pauri Garhwal and later on, joined Matiyali inter college. Devrani retired from Matiyali college as principal.

Apart from publishing many literary works in Hindi Pitamber Datt Devrani collected many regional Garhwali folk songs of Langur, Shila, Dhangu, Dabralsyun , Udaipur and Ajmer Pattis.and published them in Lok Sahitya Sangrah. Dr Shiva Nand Nautiyal appreciated his contribution in collecting Garhwali folk songs of Gangasalan region and Dr Nautiyal referred tens of Garhwali folk songs collected by Pitamber Devrani in his famous book ‘ Garhwal ke Nritya Geet’. Pitamber Devrani also collected and wrote about Garhwali, Himalayan folk sports as gindi myala (Gend ka Mela - similar to Rugby and Hockey ) performed in Dadamandi (Shila) , Saud (Malla Dhangu), Katghar (Talla Dhangu), Devikhet (Dabralsyun) and Kandi-Kasyali (Udaypur) .

Copyright @ Bhishma Kukreti, Mumabi, India, 2009