Gitika is a form of oral narrative poetry, which, like western ballads, tell a single event or a dramatic story, through dialogue. However, gitika tend to be longer than western ballads. Typed characters tend to predominate in gitika. Characters are generally not named, but referred to as prince, son of the vizier, princess, fairy princess, daemon, sorceress, merchant, gardener, ascetic, pir and fakir etc. They are all inhabitants of some kingdom on earth, but without any geographical specificity.
There are two types of gitika: purbabanga-gitika, which are mainly from Mymensingh and include 'Mahuya', 'Maluya', 'Chandravati', 'Dewana Madina', 'Kabka O Lila', 'Kamala', Dewan Bhavna' etc. Nath Gitika focus on stories of the conversion of Prince Gopi Chandra (Manik Chandra Rajar Gan, Govinda Chandrer Git, Maynamatir Gan, Gopi Chandrer Sannyas, Gopi Chander Panchali etc.) and on the miracles of the Nath guru (goraksavijay, Minchetan).
Gitikas date back to the medieval period and portray the norms, customs, conflicts, crises and religious and caste discriminations of a feudal society. Apart from Nath gitika, they are secular poems, inspired by human life on earth and not by thoughts of the after life.
Folk tales pass from one generation to generation in the folk society. Folk tales are in prose and can be both simple and complex. Based on subject, meaning and form, folk tales may be divided into twelve classes: fairy tales, mythical tales, religious tales, adventure stories, heroic stories, sage tales, historical tales, legends, animal stories, fables, comic stories and exempla. Bangla folk tales depict human life and society. Early marriage, polygamy, dowry, the doctrine of re-birth, hatred between co-wives, the stepmother's envy, repression by the powerful, greed, sufferings of the weak and the poor, uneven distribution of wealth, religious and racial discrimination, aristocracy, conjugal love, fraternity, respect for gurus and preceptors, hospitality, alms and meditation etc.
The heroes of Bangla folk tales are primarily dependent on fate and divinity, rather than on intellect, wisdom, labour, struggle or work. They are at times dependent on magic as well.
Folk drama applies to a variety of performances related to dance, song, music, and acting for entertainment or educational purposes. Some examples of folk drama are bhasan, jatra, pala gan, ghatu, gambhira, alkap, kavigan, puppetry, etc. While some folk dramas emphasise songs, others stress dancing or acting.
Folk drama usually has a two-part presentation. The first part has a preamble, instrumental choir and prayer to the gods, while the second part contains acting, song, dance, narration, dialogue, instrumental music, buffoonery, etc. Subjects that are most common in folk drama are stories of Rama and Sita, Arjun and Draupadi, Radha and Krishna, Nimai Sannyas, Behula and Laksindar, Isha Khan Dewan, Firoz Dewan, Zainab and Hasan, Sakhina and Kasem, Hanifa and Jaigun, Rahim Badsha, Rupban, Baidyani etc. Folk dramas usually have a mythical, historical, religious and political flavour. They contain imaginary events, worldly wisdom and comic elements. Apart from descriptions of joy and sorrow, repression, struggle, conflict, love and greed, etc, folk dramas, in addition to entertaining, also educate people about good and evil.
Jatras generally based on myth, history, and folk tale, are a blend of melodrama with song and dance. They are popular across the country. Earlier, boys would play the parts of women, but now have been replaced by actresses. The gambhira of Rajshahi and Maldah regions is a short, two-character play of a man and his grandson, acted out with dialogue, song, dance and music. The alkap, the ghatu, and the leto involve song and dance, meant for popular entertainment. In these performances boys dressed as women act women's roles. These performances have a note of eroticism and gay culture and appeal to their all-male audiences.
The jarigan on the tragedy in Karbala, which is performed mainly at dargahs (shrines), is accompanied by songs, dance and acting. On the occasion of Muharram, a group of ten to twelve young men form a jari gan team and roam around dancing and acting. The group has a main singer; others just chant the refrain and clap their hands. Because of the acting, jari gan is also known as jarijatra in the Rangpur region. Palagan are similar to jatra and include both dancing and acting. Popular palagan include Baidyanir Pala, Gazir Pala, Banbibir Pala, Sakhinar Pala etc.
Rhymes or poetical compositions provide entertainment as well as education. Based on their subjects, rhymes may be classified into nursery rhymes, play rhymes, social rhymes, historical rhymes, satirical rhymes, occupational rhymes, educational rhymes, rhymes for rituals, and magical rhymes.
Rhymes that are recited or sung to pacify and entertain children are called nursery rhymes. Sometimes children themselves recite nursery rhymes. Some rhymes are play rhymes, recited by young people during games such as hadudu (game of tag), kanamachhi (blind-bee) etc. Many rhymes are recited for fun. Others educate people on ethics, morality, mathematics, astrology etc. Some rhymes originated in historical events and preserve the memory of these events in seemingly innocuous rhymes. Thus, the rhyme chhele ghumalo, pada judalo/ bargi elo deshe (When the children fell asleep, silence set in, the Maharatha cavalry attacked our country) speaks of Maratha inroads into Bengal.
Another rhyme recalls the activity of Christian missionaries who converted people, while indigo-planters starved farmers who were not allowed to cultivate crops other than indigo: jat marle padri dhare/ bhat marle nil bandare/ bidal chokhe handa hemdo/ nilkuthir nil mamdo (The Christian clergy make people lose their caste, the indigo planters make people starve, the cat-eyed indigo planters, who live in indigo bungalows, look like blue goblins). The rhyme brsti pade tapur tupur nade elo ban/ shiva thakurer biye halo tin kanya dan (Patter, patter goes the rain, flooding the river/ A Brahmin named Shiva is married to three sisters) indicates that polygamy was in practice at that time.