ABSTRACT
According to folklore expert Dr Hardev Bahri, the biraha songs usually consist of two lines sung in a folk tune. These songs usually described the sorrow of the gopis when they were separated from Lord Krishna and were popularly known as biraha, ragini, rasiya, prasang bhagait and so on, in the folk dialects of North India. Biraha folk songs are popular in regions lying in east Uttar Pradesh, west Bihar, north Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and north-eastern Jharkhand. Biraha has different forms like loriki, chandaini, khari biraha and biraha. Biraha folk song has emerged from the biraha, which describe sorrow of separation. When the people from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar arrived in their destination points, at that time Chhutta Biraha used to be sung. Biraha is the best folk composition of social harmony, which has been linked with Lord Krishna since the ancient period, and has been kept alive mainly by the Yadavs of the Hindi-speaking region of North India.
