Gondi Music and Pandwani Performance Tradition of Chhindwara

Chhindwara has a substantial Gond population in whose culture Gondi music and Pandwani oral epic tradition thrive. Pandwani is the oral rendering of Mahabharata episodes in the Gond cultural idiom — Bhima is the central hero rather than Yudhishthira, reflecting Gond identification with physical courage. The performance is solo, with the singer holding a tambura for drone and moving through the narrative with gesture, voice change for different characters, and percussion interjections. Teejan Bai, the most famous Pandwani artist who received the Padma Vibhushan, is from Chhattisgarh but the tradition is continuous across the Chhindwara-Chhattisgarh border. Gondi songs for Karma, Sawna, and Hareli festivals are performed in the traditional community circle, distinct from stage performance, maintaining participatory rather than audience-performer structure.