Her soul-stirring rendition of Marathi bhaktigeet, Ambebaicha gondhal, has fired up Instagram. Tejashree Ingawale tells us how she was moved by her grandmother’s spirit in the moment
Tejashree Ingawale left her job in advertising to pursue loksangeet practiced by her ancestors
On October 10, Tejashree Ingawale uploaded a video on her Instagram account (@tejashree_ingawale), singing a song that her grandmother Bhagirathi Ingawale taught her. The lokgeet and bhaktigeet singer was overwhelmed by the public response — the video has racked up over 11,000 likes in less than a fortnight.
She recalls recording the video on a sudden whim, moved by her grandmother’s spirit. “Diwali was around the corner,” she says, “I was missing my grandmother. I took a break from Diwali cleaning, and just picked up the ektara and sang to feel close to her. I did not expect the response I received.” The 37-year-old hails from the third generation of a lineage of bhakti singers, and had grown up with fakirs and sants coming over to sing and worship with her grandparents. Her great-grandfather was, in fact, taught by Jangli Maharaj, the 19th-century sage who lived in Pune, where he continues to draw a large following.
The song comes from Maharashtra’s ancient indigenous bhakti practice called gondhal, where songs are sung with spiritual vigour and are hypnotic in its rendition of voice, rhythm, and ultimate devotion. On Ingawale’s performance of a song, titled Ambabaicha gondhal, several commented that her voice seemed to be blessed by the gods. “I just got goosebumps”, remarked one user, while another wrote, “The songs drips with the scent of our homeland”. When we mention this, she responds, “I am really in shock over the praise, but it’s all thanks to blessings from Ambabai and my grandmother.”
Ingawale’s soul-stirring music comes from the hard life of a wanderer. Back in 2013, she was an art director in the advertising world. “I lived in Wadala, Chembur, and Juhu in those years. One day, I just got a feeling — I can’t put it in words — all I wanted to do was go back home,” she says. When she called her father Ratankumar Ingawale to tell him of her decision to hit the brakes on her career of six years and move back home at the iconic Jangli Maharaj Road in Pune, he wanted to understand what had brought this on. But he was quick to tell her that there would always be a place for her at home. “I lost my father a month after I moved back home. I couldn’t help but feel that I returned home to be with him in the last few days,” says the singer, who now splits her time between her Pune home and West Bengal.
A few months after she lost her father, she woke up from a dream that changed the course of her life forever. “In my dream, my grandfather [Sambhaji Ingawale] was singing. But what really got me was that I could smell the incense and rose that he would put out when he would begin singing,” she says.
She woke up and related the dream to her mother, Sureskha Ingawale, and grandmother, informing them that she was leaving to go find some answers. “I handed my mother all the savings I had accumulated in cash. I told them I didn’t know when I would return, or if I would even make it back. It was grief mixed with a spiritual crisis; people told them that I had gone crazy, but my mother just asked me where I was headed,” she recounts.
Ingawale set off across rural Maharashtra with little to no money, and bartered her skills of song, sketching, and prowess with the Marathi language in exchange for food and shelter. There were many occasions when she went hungry, but her mother remained a voice of support, even when her grandmother passed away. “My mother would say, ‘We don’t need much to survive; keep going, keep walking on the path. Whatever you want will come to you.’ And so I went on,” she says.
Ingawale returned home after three years. While her journey of self-discovery through music continues to this day, she supports herself through workshops, retreats, and classes teaching loksangeet. She also launched Sahajo Sang, a platform for lok and bhaktisangeet artistes to share their bhakti. “As a child, I never thought of singing, but now I feel my ancestors’ wisdom flows through me. I am grateful for every moment that led me to this surrender,” she signs off.
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