Understanding the Interplay of Music, Motion, and Memory in Bengali Elementary Chhara (Nursery Rhymes)

The present study takes up the unique, unexplored genre of elementary Bengali nursery rhymes (chharas) and explores the contribution of the underlying music that cooperates with motion, helping the children to retain and recall the verses. Chharas are Bengali (folkloric) counterparts of nursery rhymes in English. They may be defined as short, rhythmic verses meant for children, generously flavored with cultural connotations, orally passed down through generations. Post careful observation, the rhymes were found to evolve and complicate in their nature and structure in sync with the processing ability of their target audience (children in their developing years). The elementary chharas, often lacking logical sense and textual continuity, are carefully sung or uttered to infants and toddlers by their caregivers (usually mothers) to woo the child to eat or lull them to sleep. While singing these rhymes, the caregiver usually sways or rocks the child to calm in sync with its music, a scenario extremely common in a household. What is surprising is that the children and even adults, remember these rhymes or at least their music and melody, even being out of touch for years. A chunk of prior studies [10, 12] have all revealed the effect of music in magnifying memory and emotion. The proposed research, likewise, attempts to apply the same theoretical frame to this new dataset—Bengali elementary chhara. Post-analyzing the five prominent rhymes, this study identifies and analyzes the importance of the underlying music and motion in the verses, as well as traces their connection with memory.