Music from the Garhwali Telefilm and Dance Drama

Vir Madho Singh Bhandari, remembered and celebrated by villagers throughout Uttarakhand, and mentioned in modern folk songs in the same breadth as Victoria Cross winner Gabbar Singh Negi and freedom fighter Chander Singh Garhwali, stands out as an uniquely Uttarakhandi hero. Brought to life in a folk ballet by Indramani Badoni, the "Gandhi" of the Uttarakhand movement, a telefilm of the dance drama was recently produced to teach future generations of the heroism and sacrifices made by our ancestors for the common welfare.

Produced under the banner of Parvatiya Films by Beer Singh Thakur, the film 'Maletha Ki Kool' is based on the script of renowned cultural activist of Garhwal, Shri Jeet Singh Negi. Senior music director shri Bhagwati Prasad Pokhriyal composed the music of the film. Roshan Dhasmana and Jagriti Dhobal performed the lead roles under the direction of Balraj Negi.

The Legend of Madho Singh

The Bhaadi bards sing of his adventures as a soldier who had led Garhwal's armies into Tibet sometime in the 1600s, built forts ("garhs"), and expanded the frontiers of the Garhwal Raja's kingdom across the Himalayas. However, his sacrifices on behalf of his village Maletha, are most poignant as they echo the most basic struggles that afflict many Uttarakhand's villages to this very day.

Born to a famous warrior, Sone Baan Kalo Bhandari, Madho Singh left the dry and arid confines of Maletha at a young age, joining the royal court in Srinagar and rising to the rank of general in the raja's army. However, his native village remained poor and its field unable to grow anything more than Jhangora, a coarse millet and a staple crop in the Uttarakhand hills.

Upon one of his visits home, the poverty of Maletha grew unbearable as his wife could bring him no food or water, and definitely not the fine vegetables, fruits, rice, and beans he had grown accustom to at the royal court. After a restless night, Madho vowed by dawn to build an irrigation channel bringing water from the nearby stream, the Chandrabhaga, to the fields of Maletha. To do so, Madho Singh had to burrow through a mountain to draw the water from the stream. He thus organized the villagers with the priests' blessings, and began excavating the furlong long, five feet wide tunnel.

Weeks went by as the villagers, inspired by Madho's dedication, set to the task with great alacrity. However, upon completion, the Chandrabhaga refused to flow. The villagers tried altering their design and the priests gave offerings to the local deities, but with no effect. The stream would not budge from its original course.

During the night, the Goddess appeared to Madho Singh, beckoning him to sacrifice his eldest son to free the stream of its original course. Madho Singh, crestfallen, refused as the price seemed too steep. Yet his son, who had grown up to be a strong young man, knew that the future of the village depended on his sacrifice and thus took his life but not before ordering the villagers to present his body to the Goddess. They did, placing his severed head at the mouth of the tunnel. The stream immediately changed course, flowing through the tunnel, carrying the head on its roaring waves and depositing it in the village's fields.

While his village rejoiced at their newfound fortune, Madho Singh left Maletha with a broken heart and never returned. His story is told and retold during the traditional harvest time, commemorating both Madho Singh's exploits and sacrifice for the fertility and prosperity of his home village.

To this day Maletha remains verdant and prosperous, and the tunnel Madho built still functions, providing the only reliable source of water to the village, four centuries later. Indeed, as a singularly stunning feat of engineering, the tunnel's longevity owes as much to Madho Singh's ingenuity as his own tragic loss. Moreover, as his story became legend, and legend became myth, Madho Singh's example came to symbolize the Uttarakhandi condition in its entirety, and as such, has become one of the best known tales from Uttarakhand's misty past.