Hardeep,
I never got much time to focus on the tumba-algoza guys in my research, though it was an important tradition. Besides the few notes I have here and there in my writing, I have no special expertise. Because I think it was an important tradition, I felt it was essential to have in that volume, but because there is no substantial written work on the subject, I had to edit and translate Thuhi’s book. With no disrespect to Thuhi, that book is not a rigorous “academic” work, though we can be very grateful for all the information he compiled. What I did was to take excerpts from the book that would seem to give an overview.
The book is available from Chandigarh. He does talk more about Auria. I actually don’t have the book with me now, but I’m pretty sure it will answer your questions, and I think you’re right about the village. One thing that seems clear is that the tradition is stronger in Pakistan than in India. In India, the performers that were most visible during my time were a few (Hindu) Bazigars, who learned the tradition from the mostly Mirasi type musicians….most of whom went to Pak side at Partition (if not already there).
One of the interesting things that all Punjabis should know is that the earliest commercial (we could say “popular music”) recording of Punjabi material were of this genre. It seems logical that if this was the genre of music used for entertainment that Punjabis were already enjoying that this would be first recorded.
If and when I get access to my copy of Thuhi’s book again I can try to scan the relevant pages.
Michael Nijhawan’s book Dhadi Darbar also has a little teeny bit on this.
A fellow from Delhi made a documentary on this, but I have forgotten his name at the moment. No disrespect. If you look for tumba algoza clips on youtube now I believe you’ll find the filmmaker’s channel.
If it moves you, you might consider starting an Off Topic thread on this, and compiling some of the video links. I have some links but I’ve never organized them because I am busy with other stuff. I think the most important part of the genre is the ballad texts themselves, so it is hard to gain entry into the world of truly understanding the genre if one can’t follow the words.
