This is a narrative of the Ahir people of Madhya Pradesh. It is performed with a algoza, a fingerhole trumpet. Circular breathing is employed along with the singing. An Ahir Goal geet are sung at weddings and happy occasions by the Ahir community around Jabalpur. This extract is from a narrative that can be sung all night long. It is about a devout woman and her in-laws. Her husband goes away and asks her to “rest with the mother-in-law, play with the sister-in-law, and seek help from the brother-in-law.” As she is expecting a child, she asks her mother-in-law to call the midwife. Instead, the mother-in-law sends her to the forest to collect wood without tying the bundle. Gods send a snake to tie her bundle, and she returns. The child is born but the in-laws do not give her water or milk. The great rivers of India, the Ganga and the Yamuna, turn their course and come to her to provide water, and a cow comes to provide milk. These miracles continue until she is reunited with her husband.

Humans have to coax their animals when the mother refuses to nurse her young. As numerous animals are raised together, sometimes mothers do not recognize their young. Interestingly, they can be coaxed by humans making these sounds. The first is the sound to coax a sheep, the second is the sound to coax a goat, and the last is the sound to coax a cow.

The milking song is one of the very few work songs involving cattle farming sung by nomads. The lyrics express the hope that milk will flow like fountains from the animal (goat, sheep, or cow) that they are milking.

A silok is a form of spiritual chant from Hindu religious scripts that describes the importance of kamadhenu (“cow”) and kalpabriksha (a wish-fulfilling tree) for the betterment of human life.

This song is popular with cow herders in the forest who often amuse themselves by playing melodies with paaluwaa (leaf of the saal tree) between their lips. It is a natural instrument, and its shrill tone is also used to communicate with other cow herders some distance away.\nInstruments: maadal, saarangi, baansuri, jhamtaar