Bihu, the festival of Assam, came alive in the national capital as young dancers gave a mesmerizing performance of the event that celebrates nature, fertility and youth.

A capacity audience at New Delhi's India International Centre Monday evening witnessed dances and songs of the festival that heralds the advent of Bohag (spring), the mellifluous call of the cuckoo and the blooming of the kopou flower.

Members of the 4th Assam Police Battalion, Guwahati, who are now working at Assam Bhavan, New Delhi, gave a captivating Bihu performance. They were accompanied by young dancers who are at present studying in various schools and colleges of the capital city.

Utpola Borah, a documentation officer of the Archives and Research Center for Ethnomusicology at the American Institute of Indian Studies, sang Bihu songs and also gave a lecture.

"Bihu songs, inspired by the month of spring, portray the various moods of life, such as love, separation, eroticism and union. A remarkable quality of these songs is that they often reflect contemporary events," said Utpola Borah, who has done an extensive study of Bihu songs.
 
Borah, also a promising Hindustani classical vocalist, performs on the radio and the television. She has also published a book "Bihu Festival of Assam: Music, Dance and Performance."

Borah said: "Bihu songs have a unique tonal structure of words, melody and rhythm. They are couplets of four lines with alternative rhythm."

"The Bihu dance is closely associated with the music and the song metre controls the rhythmic movements. Certain songs have fairly long stanzas with regularly recurring sections."

Husoris (group dances) are an integral part of the Bihu celebrations. Batches of young men go house-to-house and sing and dance for the welfare of the members of the household.

The instruments used in Bihu and husori performances are dhol (drum), pepa (horn pipe), gogona (Jew's harp), toka (bamboo clapper), tal (brass cymbals), bahi (flute) and hutuli (ocarina).

Borah also dwelt on the history of the Bihu festival.