A proponent and scholar of traditional music takes pride in Nepal's rich Traditions and laments its decline.
I, Ramsharan Darnal, am a member of the Damai caste, whose tradition and identity is in music. The caste system itself has a long history in our country, and is a legacy of a division of labour that was carried out during the Vedic age. This categorisation in time came to be linked with religion, and the system was refined with the introduction of customs and laws. Notions such as pure/impure, upper/lower and touchable/untouchable took hold of Nepali society. According to tradition, therefore, I am an untouchable.
In this nation of "four varnas and thirty-six jatis" there are many communities whose identity is music. Kulu, Sarld, Chanaro, Damai, Hudke, Kusule and Kasai are all groups which play various musical instruments, while Kamis make them. The Gaine and Badi are proficient at both …they make and play instruments.
With so many communities traditionally engaged in music-making, one can surmise that this was once a profession respected and patronised. But the fact that all communities engaged in music were relegated to "low caste" status says, to me at least, that at some stage in Nepali history there was a conspiracy against music. The slow demise of Nepali music seems to have begun at the beginning of the 14th century, when King Jayasthiti Malla of Kathmandu regularised the caste system.