Orality, Inscription, and the Creation of a New Lore

Orality, Inscription …[The] peculiar temporality of folk-

and the Creation of a New Lore lore as a disciplinary subject, whether
coded in the terminology of survival,
archaism, antiquity, and tradition, or
Roma Chatterji in the definition of folkloristics as a
University of Delhi historical science, has contributed to
India the discipline's inability to imagine a
truly contemporary, as opposed to a
contemporaneous, subject… Folklore
is by many (though not all) definitions
out of step with the time and the con-
Abstract
text in which it is found.
This essay examines the process by which Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett,
the discourse of folklore is used to "Folklore's Crisis" 1998, 283
entextualize and recontextualize the oral tra-
dition in West Bengal through a discussion

I
of two contemporary Bangla novels. Motifs
n an essay that critically reviews
from folk tales, myths, and popular epic po-
folklore's disciplinary position vis-à-
ems are being re-appropriated by urban cul-
vis history and culture, Kirshenblatt-
tural forms– both popular as well as elite –
Gimblett (1998) says that temporal dis-
to articulate new identities and subject posi-
location between the site of origin and
tions. I selected these novels by considering
the present location of particular cultural
the mode in which orality is inscribed and
forms signals the presence of folklore.
the time period. One of the novels attempts
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett thus conceptual-
to re-constitute oral lore from a popular epic
izes culture as heterogeneous, layered
composed in the medieval period, and the
and composed of multiple strands that
other re-inscribes an origin myth that is part
are interconnected in rather haphazard
of folk ritual into a new genre via the media-
and contingent ways. This sense of con-
tion of folklore discourse that is responsible
tingency comes about through the jux-
for the first step in entextualizing the myth.
taposition of different time scales such
This essay concludes by suggesting that
that the idea of locality or location be-
folklore's conception of tradition as being
comes the conceptual frame within
temporally disrupted has facilitated these
which the heterogeneous and circulating
new literary appropriations of oral lore. It is
strands that we call culture come to co-
precisely because folklore's subject matter is
here, if only for a moment. However, as
supposed to be out of sync with the times
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett points out, even
that allows for conceptions of culture that
before location comes to be viewed as a
are porous enough for innovation.
spatial category it is a temporal one, and
by constituting the present as a series of
disjunctive moments, folklore creates a
gap between the contemporaneous and
the contemporary.

Cultural Analysis 6 (2007): 71-90

©2007 by The University of California.
All rights reserved
71
Roma Chatterji

In a different, though related, fashion culture aspects is, according to Sanyal,

students of Indian society have made a still visible in the peasant societies of
distinction between "Great traditions" these border regions, for instance in the
and "Little traditions" (Redfield 1955, cultivation of particular genres of folk
Sinha 1957); or between desha (regional, songs that can engage with forms of nov-
provincial) and marga (sanskritic, global). elty. Sanyal says that many genres of folk
Folk rituals, belief systems, and the cul- song in Bengal have been cultivated into
tural institutions of rural India are popular forms that require different
thought to reveal an interaction between kinds of performative contexts. He sug-
the forces of globalization and gests that folk culture is constituted at
parochialization, or margi and deshi as- three different levels: jana (local), desha
pects (Marriot 1955, Sinha 1957, (regional), and marga (global or pan-In-
Trautman 1997). For most scholars this dian). He says that the deshi or regional
interaction is a long-term and largely level acts as a site of mediation between
unconscious process. However, the his- the local and global levels.
torian Hitesh Ranjan Sanyal (2004) holds Unfortunately Sanyal does not de-
a somewhat different view. In his study velop this theme further. However, as
of a small principality in one of the bor- several scholars have tried to show, the
der regions of West Bengal, he shows conception of a cultural region is impor-
how the semi-tribal Mulla court, in what tant in the study of folklore's engagement
is now the Bardhaman district, produced with forms of modernity (Morinis 1982,
political institutions that self-consciously Blackburn 2003, Chatterji 2005). Self-con-
integrated aspects of what was then scious reflection on context, style, and the
thought of as "high culture" – i.e. the cul- process of transmission actually occurs
ture of the Mughal court in North India precisely at this level. Further, this is the
–with indigenous elements taken from level at which the local is conceived of
local tribal and peasant communities. as such and thus also is the level at which
Many such peripheral principalities "metadiscursive practices for creating,
were declared to be tributary states ow- representing and interpreting" folk dis-
ing formal allegiance to the great, though courses are developed (Briggs 1993). In
distant, Mughal Empire. The geographi- this essay I examine some contemporary
cal distance between the central author- attempts at producing new kinds of folk
ity and these border states gave the lat- discourses in a deliberate attempt to
ter some degree of autonomy. Thus, they empower certain marginal groups in
were able to selectively adopt elements West Bengal. These attempts, as I will
of Mughal culture while retaining much show, are part of a larger movement for
of what was traditionally available. The the articulation of a distinctive regional
Mughal presence was thought to be alien identity in which folk culture plays a cen-
but distant enough to be non-threaten- tral role.
ing, and could therefore become a site The idea of region is not necessarily
for experimentation with novelty. Traces restricted to a geographical unit, but re-
of this self-conscious adoption of high fers rather to a social field formed "by a

72
 Orality, Inscription, and the Creation of a New Lore

network of governmental processes, cul- becomes the location for creative experi-
tural flows and forms of popular trans- mentation with the oral literature found
mission shaped by oral, print and visual there. Traditional folk themes begin to
media" (Chatterji 2005,1). In this sense circulate among new publics in popular
my field is carved out of a set of overlap- urban spaces. I will examine two Bangla
ping political regions–the states of West novels that reinterpret folk myths as part
Bengaland Jharkhand as well as the erst- the ongoing project of the Bengali intel-
while province of undivided Bengal of ligentsia to find contemporary signifi-
the colonial era; parts of which are now cance in traditional lore.
independent states in India, including In an important paper on the Grimms'
the independent nation-state of Bangla anthology of fairy tales, Charles Briggs
Desh. (1993) says that folklore discourses use
entextualizing strategies to produce au-
Folklore and the Literary Canon thentic folk voices. These texts are cre-
Even though the folk have played an ated with a political agenda in mind and
important part in articulating ideas about the task of the folklorist is to deconstruct
Bengali culture and tradition, there have these texts for the powerful effects that
been no significant grassroot reformist they produce. Unlike the texts that folk-
movements of the kind that have taken lorists usually analyze, the texts that I
place in Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.1 present here are explicit in laying out
West Bengal, governed as it is by a com- their political agenda. Both novels draw
bination of communist and socialist par- upon the mother goddess complex to
ties for three decades, is typically identi- frame their stories. The fact that mother
fied with a kind of middle class radical- goddess worship (shaktaism) is an impor-
ism. Most reforms have been top down, tant religious tradition in Bengal may
including those that were initiated by an have influenced the choice of subject to
"enlightened" elite in the colonial period some extent, but more importantly, the
(Basu 1992). Instead the folk are per- significance of the mother goddess as a
ceived as an abstract category–an aid to mediator between the "Great traditions"
the process of "traditionalization" – a and "Little traditions" of Hinduism, or
term coined by Shuman and Briggs between local religion and textual, or
(1993) to identify "aspects of the past as shastric, religion gives this theme its sym-
significant to the present" (ibid. 1993, bolic charge (Beane 2001, Humes 1998).
109). Folklore comes to represent the au- Coburn (1988) says that even though the
thentic voice of the folk, a living museum origin of the mother goddess complex
from which Bengal's history may be ex- lies in India's non-Aryan pre-history, con-
cavated. tinuous interplay between various reli-
gious streams–local/tribal, Buddhist,
In a previous paper I have shown
and Hindu–has produced the mother
how the discourse of folklore, reinforced
goddess complex as we know it today.
by state policy, comes to constitute parts
A point of significance for my argument
of Bengal as a folklore region (Chatterji
is that the mediating position occupied
2005). Once constituted, this region then

73
Roma Chatterji

by the mother goddess tradition allowed was serialized in a Bangla literary maga-
Bengali nationalists to claim a distinctive zine called Desh in 2004-2005. It is a cre-
place for Bengal's culture within the ative re-telling of some of the myths as-
civilizational mainstream (Chatterji sociated with Bhadu, a local goddess cult
2003). still prevalent in the border regions of
Mahashweta Devi's Vyad Kaand (The West Bengal. The influence of recent folk-
Book of the Hunter) and Nilakanth loric interpretations of the Bhadu story
Ghoshyal's Bhumi Kanya (Earth Maiden), and their role in the process of
both fall within the Bengali nationalist entextualizing the rituals and songs as-
tradition of historiography, which as- sociated with her worship is evident in
sumes Bengal's folk traditions had a the novel. My selection of these two
seminal role in shaping her culture (Dutt works has been determined by the fact
1990, Sen 1985). In keeping with a mod- that the subjects that they deal with rep-
ern political perspective, they use folk resent two important moments of liter-
tradition as a site for articulating contem- ary inscription – one set in the sixteenth
porary concerns. However, in the forms century and the other in the present.
in which they have become available for
literary interpretation, these folk tradi- Chandi Mangala of Mukundaram and
tions have already been mediated Mahashweta Devi
through inscription. The role of folklor- In the preface to her novel, Mahashweta
ists in bringing oral traditions to print in Devi says that the Chandi Mangala Kavya
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries of Kavikankan3 Mukundaram is the in-
has been extensively studied in India spiration for this work. The epic poem is
(Blackburn 2003, Sen 1960), but the rela- composed of several different stories that
tionship between writing and oral litera- bear little connection with each other: an
ture has a much older history. Mangala autobiographical account of the
kavyas, long narrative poems about spe- composer's journey to a new settlement
cific gods and goddesses, written from in a different part of Bengal that reveals,
the sixteenth to the eighteenth century according to critics, a detailed knowl-
in Bangla, circulated in oral forms long edge of the current socio-political state
before they were written down. Accord- of the society (Bhattacharyya 1976, Devi
ing to Clark (1955) these poems have two 2002); the Vyad Kaand, the story of the
distinct levels–the popular and the hunter Kalketu and his wife Phullara;
learned–and he believes that there is a and the adventures of the merchant
chronological relationship between the Dhanapati, his two wives Khulana and
two levels. The oral lore was re-inscribed Lalona, and his son. According to schol-
in an orthodox Brahminic literary canon, ars such as T.W. Clark (1955) and
but the fact that the medium was Bangla Ashutosh Bhattacharyya (1976) these
rather than Sanskrit allowed for its mass stories show evidence of the evolution
circulation, a fact that holds true today of the cult of Goddess Chandi from that
as much as it did in the medieval period.2 of a benign protector of forest life to a
Bhumi Kanya by Neelkanth Ghoshyal more malevolent deity who deliberately

74
 Orality, Inscription, and the Creation of a New Lore

brings misfortune to coerce humans into Central India.5 She thinks of this novel
giving her worship. (Bhattacharyya says as an attempt to re-create the lost oral lore
that the poetic text was written at a time of the Shabars and thereby restore their
when distinctions between different self-respect. The novel is based on her
groups of goddess worshippers were experiences with the Shabars and with
becoming blurred. However, he bases his the stories that they have published
hypothesis on the text itself and not on about themselves and their lore in her
other historical sources).4 journal, Bartika.
According to the preface of The Book The novel is interesting not only in
of the Hunter, Mahashweta Devi was in- that it seeks to re-inscribe a medieval lit-
spired by the Vyad Kaand of Kavikankan erary text in the form of an experimental
Mukundaram's epic poem, where he Bangla work using contemporary stylis-
describes the lives of nomadic, forest tic devices, but also because of the way
dwelling tribes such as the Shabars. She that the author seeks validation both
describes the clash between contrasting from the Shabar community as well as
forms of life through the experiences of from the Mukundaram's life experiences.
two couples, the migrant Brahmin priest She says that she was inspired by
Mukundaram and his wife, and Kalya Mukundaram's own endeavour, which
and Phuli, a young Shabar couple. She combined direct experience and ac-
explores the culture of the Shabars and quired knowledge of the socio-political
how they cope with the erosion of their events of sixteenth-century Bengal.6 She
way of life as new settlements encroach weaves fragments of the mangala kavya
on forestland. In the novel, the Brahmin story of Kalketu and Phullara into her
Mukundaram is seen using his experi- own narrative in a way that both sub-
ences with the forest dwelling couple to verts it and gives it authenticity. Thus,
depict the characters of Kalketu and whilst in the mangala kavya, the goddess
Phullara, both re-incarnations of demi- gives Kalketu a boon that makes him the
gods who were cursed to suffer mortal founder and chieftain of the city of
birth. He invokes the Goddess of the Gujarat; it is not because of his devotion
Great Forest (Abhaya or Reassurance) to her or to forest creatures but rather, to
through the voice of the hunter Kalketu put a break on his wanton destruction
(Devi 2002, vii). of forest dwelling animals. 7 Instead,
Mahashweta Devi says that Kalketu becomes the first priest of a new
Mukundaram's personal experience goddess cult and, according to Devi, an
with hunter-gatherers in medieval Ben- ancestor of one of the priestly clans of
gal inspired her to write a novel that the Shabar. In the novel, an old rogue
would help in the re-historicization of the elephant representing the forest goddess
Shabar tribe. Apart from being a re- kills Kalya as he inadvertently ventures
nowned novelist, Mahashweta Devi is into the sacred grove where hunting is
also a well-known activist who has forbidden. This act of transgression and
worked among former "criminal tribes" his untimely death lead to his transfigu-
like the Lodhar and Kheria Shabars of ration into a clan ancestor and demi-god.

75
Roma Chatterji

The character of Mukundaram (who is and speakers, a space that allows for cre-
responsible for this transfiguration) is op- ative innovation (ibid. 1998, 309). In the
posed to the deceitful Brahmin priest in example discussed above we see how an
a Shabar origin myth who betrays the act of inscription by a Brahmin in the six-
hospitality of his tribal hosts by trying teenth century–the compilation of oral
to steal an iconic symbol of the forest narratives about the goddess Chandi
goddess. The Brahmin is killed by the into a written text–led to a proliferation
goddess, and the Shabar people con- of similar texts. Thus, not only are there
demned to destitution. Their lot will several other versions of the Chandi
change only when a Shabar hunter is able Mangala compiled by other authors in the
to find and trap the golden iguana, the medieval period, but there are also more
vahana (vehicle) of the goddess, as recent oral and painted narratives in
Kalketu once did. Bengal's folk tradition based on the
Devi draws on the authority of the Chandi Mangala Kavya. 9 Similarly,
myths published by Shabar activists in Mahashweta Devi's novel has inspired
her journal, Bartika, to validate her ver- popular plays on the same theme and
sion of the Kalketu story rather than on has even became the theme of a Durga
stories that are orally narrated. In fact, puja pandal10 in Calcutta last year (Ghosh
she stresses that the stigma of the label 2000).11
"criminal tribe" imposed on the Shabar Mahashweta Devi's novel allows us
in colonial times gave them a form of to read popular culture as a post-
cultural amnesia so that they forgot their modernist text that makes self-conscious
oral lore.8 In this context, the attempt to use of citation as a device to politicize its
re-historicize the Shabar is interesting, location both within tradition and the
though somewhat paradoxical. The modern. Peter Shand (2002), in a paper
Shabar voice must first be entextualized on the cultural appropriation of Maori
before it can be re-inscribed in Devi's art, discusses Julia Kristeva's view of
novel. Similarly, when she refers to language as being constitutive of texts
Kabikankan Mukundaram's first-hand that form "mosaics of citations; every text
knowledge of the Shabar and the forest, is an absorption and transformation of
it is at the moment when the forest and other texts" such that it is able to straddle
the Shabar's distinctive way of life is disjunctive registers.12 He says that the
about to be destroyed. Thus she refers to fusion of high and low art creates
the names of trees mentioned in the opportunities for cultural critique made
Chandi Mangala that are felled when possible through dislocation from their
Kalketu clears the forest to make his conventional contexts (ibid. 2002, 54). In
settlement. the examples discussed here we see that
Kirshenblatt-Gimblett (1998) quotes this concept holds true for medieval
Ong as saying that writing did not re- times as much as it does today.
duce orality when it was first introduced Kavikankan Mukundaram's text draws
but rather enhanced it. She also says that upon earlier versions of the epic found
inscription creates a gap between words both in the oral and the written

76
 Orality, Inscription, and the Creation of a New Lore

traditions. Similarly, other composers in father, the village chief, will not let her
the sixteenth and seventeenth, centuries go away, the king decides to let Bhadu
as well as folk painters and story tellers, stay in the village but to be educated in
modern day novelists and playwrights, a manner befitting a royal princess.
and contemporary producers of popular Dhruvachand stays behind to oversee
culture all become part of a culture of her education. Bhadu's new identity, as
citation and circulation. a royal princess, is kept secret. Bhadu is
In the next example, folklore writing very popular among the village people
gives the impetus for the process of because she works actively for their bet-
entextualization. As I will show in the terment. In this way she meets Anjan, the
next section, the production of certain son of the doctor (kaviraj) of a
folkloric themes has given rise to new neighbouring village. They fall in love,
literary subjects that are in circulation in much to the dismay of Dhruvachand. In
the Bangla public sphere. the meantime the British imprison the
king because of his active involvement
in the popular uprising of 1857.13 He is,
Bhumi Kanya: The Transformation of however, later released. When he hears
a Goddess Myth about Bhadu's involvement with Anjan,
Let me begin with a summary of the he orders the latter's capture and secret
novel by Neelkantha Ghoshyal: imprisonment. Bhadu is heartbroken
Folklorist Papiya is researching Bhadu and, together with two of her compan-
puja in Purulia when she comes across ions, travels across the kingdom singing
Herambh Bauri (a low caste man) who songs at the gates of various forts in
tells her the secret story of Bhadu's life. which Anjan may be imprisoned, hop-
Bhadu was an orphan found by the chief ing that he will recognize her voice and
(mukhya) of Lada village. Raja Nilmoni respond. The king relents and Anjan is
Singh of Kashipur in whose kingdom released, but by then Bhadu has disap-
Ladha is located has just introduced a peared. Her companions report that one
new strain of rice–Bhaduyi – for cultiva- morning she seemed to fade away, merg-
tion in Kashipur. He tours the kingdom, ing with the sky. Village women continue
disguised as an alien traveler, to see if to sing the songs that Bhadu first sang in
his subjects are in favor of the new crop. the fruitless search for her lover.14
His minister, Dhruvachand, accompa- The positioning of Papiya, the re-
nies him. In the course of his travels he searcher, as the main interlocutor signals
hears that the chief of Lada village has a the novel's self-conscious location within
daughter who is the living embodiment the larger discourse of folklore. The folk
of Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity. goddess Bhadu has been at the center of
He decides to see her in person and vis- folklore research for the last four decades.
its Lada disguised as a Sanskrit pundit More recently, her story has been drama-
(scholar). He is wonderstruck by her tized and is now on the way to becom-
beauty and grace and decides to adopt ing a popular theme in urban
her as his daughter. However, since her performative and literary genres. Thus,

77
Roma Chatterji

accounts of the Bhadu puja produced by puja in October and November. How-
folklorists have been used as source ma- ever, some Bhadu songs refer to histori-
terial for the transformation of a ritual cal details in the goddess's biography,
complex into a literary subject. This is such as the name of her father, Raja
demonstrated in the way in which cer- Nilmoni Singh Deo. Raja Nilmoni Singh
tain motifs from the folklore discourse Deo is an important historical figure in
are woven into the literary text. Before I Purulia. He participated in the uprising
discuss the motifs in detail, a brief ac- in 1857 and was imprisoned by the Brit-
count of the Bhadu complex is in order. ish for instigating his Santal subjects to
My account is based on versions of her raid the royal treasury. 16 However,
origin myth that circulate in the border Nilmoni Singh Deo had no daughters
districts of West Bengal, Orissa, and and this fact is one of the folklore conun-
Jharkhand (Chakravarti 2001) and on drums that have generated much specu-
songs sung during her festival. lation.
Bhadu, a local goddess who was born Interestingly many Bengali folklorists
human and the daughter of the royal attempt to re-construct Bhadu's history,
house of Kashipur (a former principal- and the songs and origin myth are used
ity in Purulia,) gained the status of a god- as archeological objects that may help to
dess after her early death. The enigma reveal Bengal's pre-history. Ashutosh
of her virginity and untimely death has Bhattacharyya (1965), one of the first
led to many stories that purport to ex- folklorists to write on Bhadu, views this
plain it. One set of stories views Bhadu puja as a tribal agricultural ritual that has
as an incarnation of the goddess Durga, been transformed by "Hindu iconicity"
who was born to the Maharaja of (Hindu poutolikta) and by the colonizing
Kashipur in answer to his prayers. Be- influence of the Maharajas of Kashipur.
ing a goddess she could stay with him Later folklorists do not necessarily fol-
only for a short period of time. She died low Bhattacharyya in making a strict
a virgin because no human man dared separation between tribal and Hindu
to marry her. After her death the king aspects of the ritual. However, they do
instituted this puja in her memory. It is follow his methodology in that they
performed in the rainy season between separate the songs from the ritual and
August and September at the time when foreground the former as the primary
the rice seeds are transplanted. The wor- object of analysis. The discussion that
shippers are exclusively women.15 The follows is based largely on one text by
songs that are sung about the goddess Shubrata Chakravarti (2001) since this is
are an important feature of the ritual. one of the most comprehensive, and the
Most of the songs depict Bhadu as a most recent, of the studies on Bhadu and
young married woman who is visiting summarizes all preceding interpretations
her parents' home for the festival season. of the Bhadu complex.
These Bhadu songs follow the pattern of As I have said, most folklorists have
the agomoni songs sung to welcome the tried to re-construct Bhadu's life story
goddess Durga at the time of the Durga from the songs sung during her festival.

78
 Orality, Inscription, and the Creation of a New Lore

Two significant events of her life stand as is Bhadu, and that, since both figures
out – these are her birth as Raja Nilmoni are associated with Kashipur, they are
Singh Deo's daughter and her untimely often linked. Unlike the folklorists dis-
death as a virgin. Given that it can be cussed above, my respondent was quite
demonstrated that she was not his comfortable with a semiotic explanation
daughter, some folklorists assume that for the Bhadu puja. She told me that the
this festival was started by the king to women of the royal family once per-
deflect the force of a rebellion among his formed a goddess puja at the time of great
poor subjects led, perhaps, by a woman. misfortune. Kashipur was being attacked
He was able, according to another ac- and Bhadu, on hearing of an impending
count, to appropriate Bhadu's voice by defeat, chose to kill herself rather than
giving her a royal lineage. Her untimely face dishonor.17 However, the rumors of
death has generated another set of ex- defeat were false and the goddess puja
planations. Thus, Bhadu was indeed a was institutionalized in Bhadu's
member of the royal family even if not memory).
the direct descendent of the king. She In Chakravarti's text, the Bhadu myth
eloped with a low caste man and was is an ideological construct, a successful
killed by her kinsmen in an attempt to piece of propaganda to discipline and
avert dishonor to the family name. The pacify a potentially rebellious popula-
royal house of Kashipur then instituted tion. The establishment of her worship
a festival in her name to deflect popular can be interpreted as an attempt to in-
anger, as the king's low caste subjects corporate the source of rebellion into the
loved Bhadu. structure of power. However, Bhadu
A point worth noting in these ac- does retain her exemplary status in this
counts is that the songs and myths are text, if not as a goddess than as a figure
treated as potential documents. There is that represents all womankind, and by
no attempt to analyze them as semiotic extension, all subalterns. The emphasis
texts. No folklorist, as far as I know, has on the songs, especially on the lyrics,
examined the genealogy of the royal have helped to crystallize a particular
family to discover whether a princess disciplinary perspective which assumes
called Bhadu actually existed. I spoke to that folklore is necessarily concerned
one of the senior members of the royal with the search for the authentic voice
family in her home in Purulia town in of the people and that the feminine voice
1983, and she told me that Bhadreshwari is the privileged site of this authenticity.
(Bhadu) was the daughter of Maharaja Scholars like Chatterjee (1993) and
Bikhambar Narayan Singh Deo. She was Sarkar (2001) have said that the nine-
to be married but her bridegroom died teenth- century nationalist historiogra-
on the eve of the wedding (Clearly, the phy of Bengal posited a domestic space
relationship between Nilmoni Singh Deo that was insulated from the moderniz-
and Bhadu is a metonymic one, estab- ing influences of the colonial state. The
lished in the oral tradition. Nilmoni internal space came to be represented as
Singh Deo is the subject of folk narrative, the site for national resurgence. The as-

79
Roma Chatterji

sociation between domestic space and intellectuals use it to counter the cultural
the women's activities that become the nationalism propagated by right-wing
symbolic markers of this space is political parties. In this context women
folklore's contribution to this historiog- become suitable representatives of the
raphy. This point will be elaborated in folk,used to represent the category of the
the next section. We must first, however, subaltern, cutting across such conflicting
examine folklore's contribution to the divisions such as class, caste, religion,
new social imaginary that is being and locality.18
formed in contemporary Bengal.
To conceptualize folklore's role in cul-
History, Realism and Folklore
tural production, Gerald Warshaver
(1991) proposes a triadic schema in Bengali folkloristics has traditionally
which folklore of the first level is the lore engaged with the ideology of secularism
produced by the folk. When this lore and the political form that it takes in the
becomes the object of knowledge of a discourse of art criticism, i.e., realism.
discipline, it becomes second level folk- Since the first quarter of the twentieth
lore. Third level or postmodern folklore century, Bengali intellectuals have tried
consists of "abstract reconceptualization to harness folk forms to the expression
and denotative reconstitution of second of popular political and social concerns.19
level constructs of first level folklore so In 1943, the left-oriented Indian peoples'
that it appears bearing traits which… can Theatre Association (IPTA) formed to try
be identified as postmodern…" (ibid. to introduce the register of "socialist re-
1991, 220). One could think of the two alism" into folklore and folk art so that
novels discussed here as exercises in the latter would reflect the real life con-
postmodern folklore. The "representa- cerns of the common people.20 Folk art
tional practices" of folklorists constitute had to be transformed into a people's art
the raw material that the novelists work that would help in the growth of people's
with (Warshaver 1991, 224). Thus Bhumi power (Oberoi 1998). However, as Sudhi
Kanya uses motifs from folkloric repre- Pradhan (1979) says, IPTA's theatre ac-
sentations of the Bhadu story rather than tivities in Bengal were largely confined
from the oral tradition. to urban areas. Their impact on rural ar-
eas was limited. Also, they were less in-
In an earlier work I have argued that
terested in folk culture per se, creating
Bengali folklorists have focused on songs
instead, hybrid forms of music and
to the exclusion of ritual to conceptual-
dance out of the three broad traditions
ize Bhadu puja as a secular festival
that were thought to make up modern
(Chatterji 2005b). Bhadu songs, now
Bengal's popular musical tradition – i.e.,
available in print form, are supposed to
folk, classical, and western (Oberoi 1998).
represent the authentic voice of rural
women expressing their daily concerns. The Left Front government that has
Secularism is associated with the folk been in power in West Bengal for three
voice in many parts of the world (Asad decades has been more successful in this
2002). In Bengal today, left-wing oriented regard.21 The first attempt at establish-

80
 Orality, Inscription, and the Creation of a New Lore

ing government institutions for the pres- posed into a different register such that
ervation and study of folk culture began it can be co-opted by new forms of insti-
in the late nineteen-seventies. An advi- tutionalization. The print media is one
sory committee called the Loksanskriti such form. Since Anderson's (1983) semi-
Parishad (Folk Cultural Committee) was nal work, its role in the articulation of
set up to explore possibilities of district new political entities has been exten-
level interaction. Members of this com- sively studied. In India, forms of folk
mittee organized workshops in the dif- culture have been re-articulated by print
ferent districts of West Bengal to facili- media in the service of new political for-
tate interaction between folk artists, lo- mations (Ashley 1993). In the process
cal scholars, and government agencies. they also acquire a new kind of aesthetic
The government also set up a series of autonomy such that they can absorb new
awards for folk artists and has instituted contexts of performance.
scholarships and pension schemes for In India, oral and literary traditions
folk performers. The Folk and Tribal Cul- have co-existed for a very long time.
tural Centre was set up in the early nine- Some scholars see this in a positive light
teen-eighties for the promotion and pub- as two intellectual streams that mutually
lication of research on the folk culture of enhance each other (Sen 1986,
West Bengal.22 Lokshruti, the bi-annual Bhattacharyya 1976). Beginning in the
journal published by the Centre, has be- early part of the twentieth century, na-
come an important forum for intellectual tionalist intellectuals like Rabindranath
debate and discussion on the folk cul- Tagore, who set up Vishva-Bharati Uni-
ture of West Bengal. versity at Shantiniketan, actively sup-
The significance of such forms of gov- ported institutions for the propagation
ernment intervention lies in the fact that of folk culture. This meant that only the
it creates sites on which a new form of images selected for circulation in the lit-
local self-knowledge can emerge. Most erary media were considered archetypal
of the scholars who contribute to folk forms, such as Baul songs made
Lokshruti have a moral and political stake popular by poets like Tagore and Nazrul
in the constitution of folk culture. For Islam, and Santali23 dances represented
them, folk culture embodies the symbolic in paintings of the Shantiniketan artist
imaginary through which they can cri- Nandalal Bose. Some activists like
tique certain trends in bhadralok (cul- Pashupati Mahato (2000) consider this to
tured) society. Folklore then represents be a process of internal colonization that
the site which is both of Bengali society has led to a form of "cultural memocide"
and yet not fully in it. The folk become a and to a loss of voice among the tribal
virtual community used to delineate the people of Central India. In this Mahato
spiritual qualities, not just of the region, is responding to the writings of an ear-
but also (through the mediation of state lier generation of folklorists like
agencies) of the nation itself (Dutt 1954). Ashutosh Bhattacharyya who felt that
Government intervention in folk cul- there was a mutual exchange of cultures
ture has allowed the latter to be trans- between Bengali Hindus and tribal

81
Roma Chatterji

groups and not a form of forced imposi- place. These groups can lay claim to au-
tion (Bhattacharyya 1965). To illustrate tochthonous status as much as the more
this point he shows how particular forms autonomous indigenous groups that
of devotional song evolve from tribal (i.e. have been called tribes since the colonial
Santali) songs. Other scholars have period (Sarkar 2005). Mahashweta Devi
pointed out factual anomalies in refers precisely to a text that was used to
Bhattacharyya's data (Chakravarti proselytize–to bring groups into the
2001). 24 Bhattacharyya seems to have Hindu fold–to re-constitute the lore of
used the Santals as a reference point be- the Shabar tribe. Thus, tradition that is
cause they are important in the literary being re-constituted here is thought to
imagination of modern Bengal. In a simi- be hybrid, disrupted by historical events,
lar vein, in recent theatre productions on and not unbroken or continuous. This
the Bhadu theme Bhadu is called a Santal view of tradition allows selective re-ap-
goddess, in spite of the fact that folkloric propriation to create a regional culture
treatises on Bhadu and on the songs as- that can find its place within pan-Indian
sociated with her worship are commonly civilization.
available and widely read all over Ben- In this essay I have juxtaposed two
gal.25 All folkloric treatises on Bhadu re- moments in Bengal's history when the
fer to her as an agricultural goddess written and the oral inflect each other
worshipped by low-caste Hindus in the (The Chandi Mangala Kavya belongs to the
border regions of Bengal. Some scholars written tradition that is also part of sec-
like Bhattacharyya admit that her wor- ondary orality. Bhadu belongs to the oral
ship may have roots in some archaic tradition and has only recently begun to
tribal ritual, but much the same can be be appropriated by the written tradition).
said for any form of goddess worship in If we read the contemporary history of
India. The Santals have come to repre- the vernacular public sphere in light of
sent the voice of subalterneity in Bengal events of the medieval period, not only
today and there are departments for the are recent attempts at entextualization
study of Santali language and literature and recontextualization given historical
in universities such as Vishva-Bharati depth, but the past is made contempo-
University in Shantiniketan (Azad 2004). rary. Much of contemporary Bengal's
The attempt to incorporate the Bhadu oral lore has been re-contextualized from
cult into Santali cosmology is somewhat popular medieval texts like the mangala
paradoxical, given the fact that the low kavyas which are still enacted in villages.
caste groups who worship Bhadu were New forms of oral composition are mod-
absorbed into the caste system only in eled on the poetic language that was
the medieval period at the time of the formed through these texts (Chatterji
composition of the mangala kavyas, when 1985). 26 Folklorists need to turn their
popular folk cults became Hinduized. gaze to the past, not to re-configure sur-
Bhadu has no mangala kavya, so perhaps vivals but to make the discipline truly
the absorption of her cult into contemporary.
Brahmanical Hinduism never did take

82
 Orality, Inscription, and the Creation of a New Lore

Notes I use the word "tribe" rather than "indigenous

peoples" or its Indian equivalent "adivasi"
as it is still commonly used in India, even by
1
The Dalit (former "untouchable" castes)
movement in Maharashtra and the Anti- activists like Mahashweta Devi.
Brahman movement in Tamil Nadu have re- 6
Mahashweta Devi considers Kavikankan
shaped local societies in both the states (Basu Mukundaram to be a forerunner to a more
1992). modern literary sensibility as he includes his
own experience of migration in the epic text.
2
The Bangla of Kavikankan Mukundaram's
The modern Bangla novel that deals with the
epic has numerous Arabic-Persian words in
subjective aspects of its characters is sup-
it. After the Turkish conquest of Bengal in
posed to have been inspired by the English
the thirteenth century, Persian became the
novel in the nineteenth century (Chatterjee
court language and Arabic was also stud-
ied. The composers of the mangala kavyas all 1993).
pay homage to their patrons who were 7
This is a form of negative devotion that is
largely Muslims (http://www.banglapedia. well known in medieval Bengal. As impor-
org/HT/P_0336.HTM, downloaded on 18 tant Sanskrit texts are translated and re-in-
April 2006). scribed in folk culture, a transformation of
the major characters also occurs. Demons
3
A title that he was given after he wrote this
come to acquire spiritual grace through the
much acclaimed epic.
power of their hatred for the gods. Single-
4
Apart from the version composed by minded hatred is sometimes even more ef-
Kavikankan Mukundaram, there are several fective than single-minded devotion in
other Chandi Mangalas as well, some of which achieving a sighting of God. The mystical
precede Mukundaram's version. Manik movement called Bhakti (devotion) that
Datta composed the first one. Another com- spread throughout India in the medieval
poser, Dvija Madhava was probably period shaped popular religion, lore, and lit-
Mukundaram's contemporary. Dvija erature. The reverberations of this move-
Ramdev, from the border region of ment are still being felt today (Sen 1987).
Chittagong, now in Bangla Desh, composed 8
She makes a distinction between groups
the Abhaya Mangala and Bharatchandra, the
like the Shabar who have forgotten their oral
Ananda Mangala, all variants of the goddess
lore and those like the Santal, Munda, and
narrative. (http://banglapedia.org/
Oraon; neighbouring tribal groups who have
HTM_0123.HTM, downloaded on 18, April
rich oral traditions.
2006).
9
Bengal and Bihar have popular story tell-
5
The "Criminal Tribes Act" was passed in
ing traditions that involve depictions of sa-
1871 by the British Indian government. It
cred stories in the form of scroll paintings.
was believed that certain groups within the
Excerpts from the mangala kavyas or even
caste system were criminals by hereditary
variants of the stories told in them are sung,
occupation. Meena Radhakrishna (2001)
while the patua (painter of the scroll) displays
says that this act was based on assumptions
the scroll register by register before an audi-
about vagrancy and impoverishment that
ence. The pata tradition is probably very old,
was associated with forms of life that were
but the first collections of such scrolls and
considered nomadic. Such groups were
writings on them date to the end of the eigh-
forced to adopt a sedentary ways of life. Af-
teenth century (Singh 1995).
ter independence such groups were re-des-
ignated as "de-notified tribes."

83
Roma Chatterji

10
Puja here refers to an annual public cel- by Khulana, a character from the next story.
ebration and worship. However the word The rest of the scroll makes no reference to
may also be used to denote worship orga- the first story. In the epic the two stories are
nized within the household. A pandal is the kept completely separate. Interestingly, in
temporary structure constructed to house the pandal depiction of the epic we find a
the icon (murti). Unlike permanent icons confluence of two traditions: a contemporary
made of metal or stone, the icon worshipped activist one that gives prominence to the
in Bengal, Durga puja, is made from straw tribal presence in Bengali culture via the
and clay. The icon is immersed in a river or works of Devi, and the older popular tradi-
pond at the end of the five-day puja. Even tion of pata narratives. Thus, the goddess is
though pandals are temporary structures, not depicted as "Abhaya" for which there is
they are often very elaborate and designed no iconic model, but rather as the maiden
around particular themes that reflect con- Managala Chandi with her elephant headed
temporary political and social issues. son in her lap. Recent pata paintings show
the goddess seated on a lotus flower with
11
The Calcutta edition of the Telegraph posts
Ganesa on her lap instead of showing her
a list (with description of the themes) of
swallowing an elephant, and the song says
Durga puja pandals of Calcutta and its sub-
that Dhanapati misread the vision of the
urbs every year. Last year's list includes a
goddess kissing her elephant headed son,
reference to the "Nalin Sarkar Street
Ganesa, and thought she was swallowing
Sarbojanin Durgostab" on Aurobindo Sarani,
him instead (Singh 1995).
which had pata paintings of Phullara and
Kalketu on the walls of the pandal. The god- According to Anjan Ghosh (2000) public
dess Durga was depicted as a village woman festivities associated with Durga puja
with the god Ganesa in her lap (http:// emerged in the eighteenth century with the
www.telegraphindia.com/1031002/asp/ emergent comprador elite in Calcutta. The
others/print.html, downloaded on 18 April British colonial elite also patronized these
2006). festivities.
Even though the selection of the theme The Calcutta-based theatre group per-
was inspired by the popularity of formed Phullaketur Pala, based on the Chandi
Mahashweta Devi's novel among the urban Mangala, but clearly inspired by
elite of Bengal, the portrayal of the charac- Mahashweta Devi's novel in that it empha-
ters from the Chandi Mangala were inspired sizes the story of Kalketu and Phullara. In
by the pata painting tradition of Bengal as the play, as in the novel, Kalketu is depicted
was the juxtaposition of figures from differ- as a tribal leader who leads the journey of
ent stories in the text. The scroll paintings his tribe from a nomadic way of life to settled
that depict the Chandi Mangala always con- agriculture. The handbill of the play re-
centrate on the second story, i.e. the story printed in the Telegraph says that it depicts
about the merchant Dhanapati and his vi- the conditions of that time and tries to
sion of a beautiful maiden, Mangala Chandi, historicize the modern psyche (http://
who kept swallowing and regurgitating an www.telegraphindia.com/1031030/asp/
elephant. In the scroll paintings there is only others/print.html, downloaded on 18, April
a fleeting reference to the story of the hunter 2006).
Kalketu. He is depicted as carrying seven 12
Julia Kristeva Semeiotike:recherches pour une
pots of gold, given to him by the goddess semanalyse (1969, 146, quoted in Shand 2002,
Abhaya or Chandi. He is seen accidentally 56).

84
 Orality, Inscription, and the Creation of a New Lore

13
Variously known as the "Indian Mutiny" Don't cry, don't cry Bhadu
and "The first war of Independence" depend- Your father, o Blighted one
ing on the perspective of the writer. Where will he get more kajal (colloriuom)
14
"Bhumi Kanya" serialized in the Bangla Chatterji 2005, 199
magazine Desh from November 2004 to April
2005. Many new literary works first appear Contrast this song with the following:
in this magazine before being published
The drums beating in the bamboo grove
commercially.
My treasure Bhadu is coming
15
It will be obvious that I am referring to
Look, look Vraja maiden, how far is
wet rice cultivation. In border districts like
Vrindavan
Purulia, paddy is sown in May and June and
the crop is harvested in November and De- You are a friend of Vrindavan, you live there
cember. Dry rice cultivation is rare and until Who are your parents, whom do you look
recently many areas in the border of Bengal to for support
cultivated only one crop a year (Chatterji Whose house did you go to, who took care
1985). of you
16
The Santal are the largest tribal group in Mother's hands are stained with red
Bengal. The timing of uprising of 1857 dove- sandlewood paste, she wears a garland of
tails with several other localized uprisings red hibiscus flowers around her neck
that were taking place in different parts of I went to Kashipur and saw a tiger sitting
India at that time. One of these was the Santal on a golden plate
rebellion of 1855-1857. Many nationalist his- The tiger doesn't eat people, he has come to
torians interpret this rebellion as a first stir- show himself
ring for a nationalist cause by tribal groups Bhattacharyya 1965,77
in India, and view Nilmoni Singh as a na-
tionalist.
References to the Great Goddess, as Durga,
17
There is an implied reference to alien con- as Kali, and even as Radha occur repeatedly
querors (i.e. Muslims) in this story. The story in this song. Bhattacharyya professes to be
seems to have been influenced by Rajasthani puzzled by the imagery, probably because
tales of valour and virtue, in which Rajput he views the Bhadu complex from the per-
women prefer to commit ritual suicide rather spective of a so-called aboriginal, agricul-
than face dishonour at the hands of the en- tural ritual.
emy. The Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan
by James Todd, a colonial administrator and
19
The Swadeshi (self-rule) movement, 1905-
folklorist, was widely read all over India and 1907 was the first attempt to use folklore for
influenced many creative writers in Bengal political mobilization. This nationalist up-
as well, one of the most famous being surge was sparked off by the plan to parti-
tion the province of Bengal. The rationale for
Rabindranath Tagore (Mukherjee 2004).
partition was purportedly administrative.
18
Bhadu songs that address the goddess as However there were also political reasons
an ordinary village woman are privileged such as the threat of a burgeoning Bengali
in folkloric discourse rather than those that nationalism in the nineteenth century.
describe her as a goddess. Thus: 20
The Bengal famine of 1943, the worst fam-
ine in living memory according to the oral

85
Roma Chatterji

tradition in Bengal, coincided with the es- Works Cited

tablishment of the IPTA. This famine was Anderson, Benedict. 1983. Imagined Com-
artificially induced in the sense that it was
munities. London: Verso.
the result of the diversion of grain for the
war effort by the colonial government rather Asad, Talal. 2002. Formations of the Secu-
than because of crop failure. Several of the lar. Christianity, Islam, Modernity.
IPTA's most famous theatre productions, as California: Stanford University
well as films by some of Bengal's most illus- Press.
trious film directors, are on the theme of the Ashley, Wayne. 1993. Recordings: Ritual,
Bengal famine. Folk songs on this theme are Theatre and Political Display in
still sung all over Bengal (Chatterji 1985). Kerala State, South India (Ph.D.
21
"The Left Front" refers to a coalition of dissertation, New York Univer-
political parties in Bengal with communist sity).
and socialist orientations.
Azad, Salam. 2004. Rabindranath,
22
Much of this information was given to me Shantiniketan o Poshmela.
by Professor Mihir Bhattacharya of Jadavpur Calcutta: M. C. Sarkar and Sons.
University, Calcutta. I interviewed Professor
Bhattacharya in October 2004. Basu, Sajal. 1992. Regional Movements.
Politics of Language, Ethnicity-
23
The Santals are a numerical dominant
Identity. Shimla: Indian Institute
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nificant presence in Bolpur, the place where of Advanced Study and Delhi:
Tagore established his famous institution, Manohar Publications.
Shantiniketan. Beane, Wendell Charles. 2001. Myth, Cult
24
As Chakravarti points out the forms of and Symbols in Shakta Hinduism.
song attributed to the Santals by A Study of the Indian Mother God-
Bhattacharyya are more popular among dess. Delhi: Munshiram
other, though less famous, tribal groups. Manoharlal.
25 I quote: "Bhadreshwarir Galpo is the tale Bhattacharyya, Ashutosh. 1965. Bangla
of a popular and benign princess's transfor- Lokshatiya. Vol 111. Calcutta:
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Bhadreshawari or Bhadu is worshiped by ________.1976. Bangla Mangal Kavyer
the Santals of the Bankura-Purulia-Birbhum-
Itihash. Calcutta : A. Mukherjee
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88
 Orality, Inscription, and the Creation of a New Lore

Response
Kirin Narayan dition but was imperfectly remembered
University of Wisconsin, Madison from medieval texts…that circulated
USA orally" (22). Just as the oral lore she en-
countered had sometimes already been

T
written in other texts, so the folklore on
he evening before I had the chance which the novelists draw, Chatterji finds,
to read this rich and stimulating has also already been entextualized else-
article by Roma Chatterji, I had where. Regarding these novels, Chatterji
found myself riveted by a short book that points to the centrality of other medieval
a friend had passed on: Lady Gregory's Bengali literary writings, inscribing oral
Toothbrush, by Colm Toibin. I had so far traditions in the 16th century, and also
known Toibin's marvelous novels, not other forms of inscription and reformu-
his nonfiction; this lively biographical lation by activists and intellectuals,
essay recreates the life, writings, and his- sometimes with government support. So
torical context of Lady Augusta Gregory Mahashweta Devi's Vyad Kaand (The
(1852-1932). An amateur folklorist who Book of the Hunter) recreates the adven-
crafted literary texts from Irish oral tra- tures of the author of a sixteenth century
ditions, Lady Gregory was also a play- epic poem encountering hunter-gather-
wright, a founder and director of the in- ers in the forest, adding myths written
fluential Abbey Theater, a close associ- by authors from contemporary tribal
ate of W.B. Yeats and a key figure in Irish groups and published in her own jour-
cultural nationalism. Reading Roma nal. Neelkantha Ghoshyal's Bhumi Kanya
Chatterji's essay set in contemporary (Earth Maiden), serialized in a Bengali
Bengal, reminded me of the recurring magazine, draws extensively on rituals
association, across regions and histori- and songs published by folklorists.
cal eras, between writing down folklore, Tracking oral traditions through multiple
producing literary works inspired by media, Chatterji reminds us of how
folklore, and drawing on the language "composers…as well as folk painters and
and themes pervading these forms of story tellers, modern day novelists and
inscription to articulate a cultural iden- playwrights, and contemporary produc-
tity with strong political ramifications. ers of popular culture all become part of
Bringing the perspective of a folklore a culture of citation and circulation."
scholar to two contemporary Bengali I would like to have had further in-
novels, Roma Chatterji beautifully illus- formation from the authors of these nov-
trates the complex and ongoing cycles els about their creative process as
of interchange between oral and written Chatterji's conclusions prompt me to
cultural materials in India. Her final foot- wonder whether, in addition to these
note adds context from her own work: chunks of entextualized folklore materi-
"While doing fieldwork in Purulia, a dis- als, the ongoing flows and permutations
trict in West Bengal, I realized that much of oral tradition might not also be rip-
of the oral lore, especially that which con- pling through the novels. If the two au-
cerned traditional agricultural practices, thors have spent time in these regions,
was not based exclusively on local tra-

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Roma Chatterji

one might assume that conversations Works Cited

with actual people would play an impor- De Caro Frank, ed. Forthcoming The
tant role, with direct observation and lis- Folklore Muse: Fiction, Poetry, and Other
tening joining practices of reading. Reflections by Folklorists. Logan: Utah
Both novels appear to be written from State University Press.
the perspective of a semi-outsider look-
ing in, discovering and contextualizing Narayan, Kirin. 1994. Love, Stars and All
a different world. This pattern makes me That. New York: Pocket Books.
consider the different positions that au-
thors take in regard to oral traditions rep-
resented in fiction. When are the tradi- ___2007. My Family and Other Saints.
tions presented as one's own, recast from Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
within, and when are they presented as
the traditions of a closely related Other Toibin, Colm. 2002. Lady Gregory's Tooth-
carrying key insights for a personal, re- brush. Madison: University of Wisconsin
gional, or national Self? How does a lit- Press.
erary stance inflect a political message?
These particular examples also sug-
gest a disjuncture between inscribers of
oral traditions and literary creators. Yet,
as Lady Augusta Gregory vivdly dem-
onstrated, the two roles may also exist
in the same person. While Lady Gregory
mostly wrote plays, other folklorists have
written in a diversity of creative genres
(cf. De Caro, forthcoming). Chatterji
points to the gap between past and
present as key to literary innovations in
folklore; as someone who writes fiction
and memoir drawing on oral traditions
I've also contemplated as a folklorist
(Narayan 1994, 2007), I perceive the re-
lations between everyday life and oral
tradition's richly imagined parallel
realms—(which might be located in the
past, but are not necessarily so) as also
inspiring creativity.

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