168 Abode of God
song at the time of change of season :
Ayo basant phagun chait ko bhagi holo apnan may at ^
Timli ko pat no khayo bhat
Na anni chithi na kusalpatt,
Ayo basant phagun chait ko bhagi, holo apnan mayat.
It was explained to me that it was part of Riturena (the seaso
nal song) which meant—
"The Spring has arrived, but
Here I am away from my kith and kin.
Lucky are they who are enjoying choice
Dishes at their parents* homes*.
The Hurkiyas invariably accompany the Hurkiyani with a small
drum called 'Huraka' which resembles 'damru'. The Huraka is
made from the skins of monkeys which are acquired from the
Harijans.
The Hurkiya songs are transmitted from generation to gene-
ration and they are almost the same all over entire Uttarakhand,
except with little local variations. The theme of these songs are
normally love, eulogies of past kings and princes, hymns in praise
of local kings, the change of season.
In the history of the dancing girls of Uttarakhand, the mention
of a class known as Nayaks is but natural because most of the
Hurkiyas and Hurkiyanxs came from their families. The Nayaks
owed their origin to the campaign of Raja Bharti Chand (1437-
1459) against Nainka Raja of DotL In these long drawn camp-
aigns the Kumaon soldiers developed temporary alliances with
the women of Doti. The descendants of these temporary mar-
riages were not admitted into any caste and came to be known
as Khadagwals or the children of swords. They were also named
as Nayaks, implying the descendants of a Nayika, meaning mis-
tress. The female offspring usually took to dancing and many of
them found way into the houses of prostitution. These Nayaks
lived in separate villages or areas marked for them as Nayakana.
With the passage of time the practice of Nayika girls became so
corrupted that government had to intervene and two bills called
'Protection of Nayak girls' and the 'Protection of minor ' girls'
were passed by the U. P. State Legislation Assembly vide their
Gazette No. 2 and 8 of 1929. The Distriet Magistrate was given