ABSTRACT
The town of Pirojpur under Pirojpur district is in the Barisal division of south-western Bangladesh. Steamers and launches from Sadarghat (in the capital of Dhaka) journey overnight on rivers Padma-Meghna to reach Hularhat Launch Terminal. The Pirojpur Ramakrishna Math and Mission is in the town centre, where a Kobigaan performance was scheduled to begin at 9:00 in the morning. In terms of the performance, this meant that the daakgaan (invocation to the goddess) had already been performed. By noon, the verse-duelling was still on, now handled by the sarkars themselves. Nishikanto explained the existence of God within each living being through the story of the drowned Titanic. Kobigaan is a song contest between two groups of performers with a strong element of debate or logical argument. Unsurprisingly, such performances do not exhibit a simple/linear musical structure.
