What Can a Song Do to You? A Life Story of a Gurkha Prisoner in World War I

Figures & data

Figure 1. Jas Bahadur Rai’s headstone in the Indian cemetery at Zehrensdorf, Germany.

Source: Photo by author, 5 November 2016.

Table 1. The first part of the song by Jas Bahadur Rai: Stanzas 1–4.

Note: ^aI assume that this was a mistake while reciting. The proper order should be 3, 1, 2.

Source: Archive no. PK 307/2, Lautarchiv, Humbolt University, Berlin. Recorded at the POW camp at Wünsdorf, Germany, 6 June 1916.

Table 2. The second part of the song by Jas Bahadur Rai: Stanzas 5–15.

Notes: ^aThe swan is a holy bird on the Indian subcontinent, and no one would dare to eat one, not even during a wartime famine.

^bThis stanza does not appear in the handwritten version.

^cThe form is corrupted, but even though pejorative, this is the nearest sense that can be made of it.

^dStanzas 13, 14 and 15 (in italics) were not recorded.

Source: Archive no. PK 3–08, Lautarchiv, Humbolt University, Berlin. Recorded at the POW camp at Wünsdorf, Germany, 6 June 1916.