Kunjan Udiya

Kunjan Udiya Jayin paiyan paprole
ho kunjan
ho Kunjan Udiya Jayin paiyan paprole
ho pabho
ho pabho sad di dunge khole
ho ek gal suni jaya jera (X3)
hoo....

Kunjan Udiya Jayin paiyan nadaun
ho kunjan
ho Kunjan Udiya Jayin paiyan nadaun
thanda jal nirmal nahaun
ek ghut pi jayan jera (X3)


Kunjan Udiya Jayin paiyan barot
ho kunjan
ho Kunjan Jayin paiyan barot
chitte dand gulabi honth
ek gall kari jaya jera (X3)


Kunjan Udiya Jayin paiyan lakesar
ho kunjan
ho Kunjan  Jayin paiyan lakesar
Pabho mangdi nakke jo besar
turad kadai jaya jera ho

Ek gall suni jaya jera ho
Ek gall kari jaya jera ho.
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Kunjan Udiya Jayin paiyan paprole

Audio here

This song describes the seasonal migratory patterns of Demoiselle Cranes or Koonj as they are locally referred to. The bird breeds in Central Asia and migrates to India and further south during winters. Along the way their flock rests at various places in northern India which are listed in this folk song namely, Nadaun, Paprole, Lakesar, Barot etc. The beauty is that one can add even more stations to the song as long as the next line in song rhymes with name of place. This is jow folk songs live and grow.

More About Koonj in Indian Culture

Beautiful women are often compared to the koonj because its long and thin shape is considered graceful. Metaphorical references are also often made to the koonj for people who have ventured far from home or undertaken hazardous journeys.The name koonj is derived from the Sanskrit word kraunch, which is a cognate Indo-European term for crane itself. In the traditional telling of the history of Valmiki, the composer of the Hindu epic Ramayana, he composed his first verse when he saw a hunter kill the male of a pair of Demoiselle Cranes that were making love. Observing the lovelorn female circling and crying in grief, he cursed the hunter in verse. Since tradition held that all poetry prior to this moment had been revealed rather than created by man, this verse concerning the Demoiselle Cranes is regarded as the first human-composed meter.The flying formation of the koonj during migrations also inspired infantry formations in ancient India. The Mahabharata epic describes both warring sides adopting the koonj formation on the second day of the Kurukshetra War.