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Home , Bengali Hindus, Bengal famine of 1943, Bhadralok, Bhadu (festival)

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

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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 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 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 ( 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 , 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

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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 , a local goddess cult 2003). still prevalent in the border regions of Mahashweta '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 , 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- 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 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 2 as much as it did in the medieval period. of a benign protector of forest life to a Bhumi Kanya by Neelkanth Ghoshyal more malevolent deity who deliberately

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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 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.

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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 stories that are orally narrated. In fact, puja pandal10 in Calcutta last year ( 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 when she comes across ions, travels across the kingdom singing Herambh Bauri (a low 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. 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 –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 , 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,

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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 (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-

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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 19 and denotative reconstitution of second of popular political and social concerns. 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- 20 postmodern folklore. The "representa- cerns of the common people. 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 21 2002). In Bengal today, left-wing oriented regard. The first attempt at establish-

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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 , 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 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- . Some activists like tique certain trends in (cul- Pashupati Mahato (2000) consider this to tured) society. Folklore then represents be a process of internal 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 and tribal

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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 . 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

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Notes I use the word "tribe" rather than "indigenous peoples" or its Indian equivalent "" as it is still commonly used in India, even by 1 The (former "untouchable" ) 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 2 The Bangla of Kavikankan Mukundaram's own experience of migration in the epic text. 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). , 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 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- ter independence such groups were re-des- teenth century (Singh 1995). ignated as "de-notified tribes."

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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, , 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 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).

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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 , 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 19 by James Todd, a colonial administrator and 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- (Mukherjee 2004). tion the province of Bengal. The rationale for 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 of 1943, the worst fam- ine in living memory according to the oral

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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, (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 tribal group in West Bengal. They are a sig- 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: mation into a cult figure. A popular folk icon, Calcutta Book House. Bhadreshawari or Bhadu is worshiped by ______.1976. Bangla Mangal Kavyer the Santals of the -Purulia-Birbhum- Itihash. Calcutta : A. Mukherjee Burdwan districts of Bengal and a large part of Jharkhand state." (Telegraph, Calcutta, and Co. June, 17, 2003). Blackburn, Stuart. 2003. Print, Folklore and 26 While doing fieldwork in Purulia, a dis- Nationalism in . trict in West Bengal, I realized that much of Delhi: Permanent Black the oral lore, especially that which concerned Briggs, Charles L. 1993. Metadiscursive traditional agricultural practices, was not Practices and Scholarly Author- based exclusively on local tradition but was ity in Folkloristics. The Journal Of imperfectly remembered from medieval American Folklore (106)422:387- texts like the Sivayan and Khanar Bachan, that 434. circulated orally.

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Chakravarti, Subrata. 2001. Bhadu. Devi, Mahashweta. 2002 .The Book of the Calcutta: Loksanskriti and Hunter. Translated from Bangla Adivasi Sanskrati Kendra. by Sagaree and Mandira Chatterjee, Partha. 1993. The Nation and . Calcutta: Seagull. its Fragments. Delhi: Oxford Uni- Dutt, Gurusaday. 1954. Folk Dances of versity Press. Bengal. Calcutta: Gurusaday Chatterji, Roma. 1985. Folklore and the Dutt Estate. Formation of Popular Con- ______. 1990. Folk Arts and Crafts of sciousness in a Village in the Bengal. Calcutta: Seagull. of West Bengal Ghosh, Anjan. 2000. Spaces of Recogni- (Ph. D. dissertation, University tion: Puja and Power in Contem- of Delhi). porary Calcutta. Journal of South- ______.2003. Category of Folk. In Ox- ern African Studies) (Special Issue) ford India Companion to Sociology 26(2): 289-299. and Social Anthropology. Edited by Humes, Cynthia Ann. 1998. Veena Das. Delhi: Oxford Uni- Vindhyavasini/ Local Goddess versity Press: 567-597. yet Great Goddess. In Devi: God- ______. 2005. Folklore Genres and the desses of India. Edited by John Production of a Cultural Field. Stratton Hawley and Donna Paper presented in the Alan Marie Wulf. Delhi: Motilal Dundes Lecture Series, Depart- Banarasi Dass: 49-76. ment of Anthropology, Univer- Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, Barbara. 1998. sity of California, Berkeley. Folklore's Crisis. Journal of Ameri- ______. 2005b. Between Myth and can Folklore. 111(441): 281-327. History. The Making of a God- Mahato, Pashupati. 2000. Sanskritization dess Tradition. Yearly Review vs. Nirbakization (A Study on Cul- (Special Issue). Edited by Manju tural Silence and Ethnic Memocide Jain, Gautam Chakravarti, and in Jharkhand). Calcutta: Sujan Christel R. Devadawson. 13:191- Publications. 206. Marriot, Mckim. 1955. Little Communi- Clark, T.W. 1955. Evolution of Hinduism ties in an Indigenous Civiliza- in Medieval : tion. In Village India: Studies in the Siva, Candi, . Bulletin of Little Community. Edited by the School of Oriental and African Mckim Marriot. Chicago: Uni- Studies. 17(3):503-518. versity of Chicago Press: 171-222. Coburn, Thomas B. 1988. : Morinis, E.A. 1982. "Baba Taraknath": A The Crystallization of a Goddess Case of Continuity and Develop- Tradition. Delhi: Motilal Banarasi ment in the Folk Tradition of Dass. West Bengal, India. Asian Folklore Studies. 41(1): 67-81.

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Mukherjee, Meenakshi. 2004. Tod's ______.1987. The Bengali . Rajasthan and the Bengali Imagi- Delhi: Amar Prakashan (lectures nation. Yearly Review (Special Is- delivered at University of sue). 12: 61-76. Calcutta in 1916). Pradhan, Sudhi. 1979. Marxist Cultural Shand, Peter. 2002. Scenes from a Colo- Movement in India. Chronicles and nial Catwalk: Cultural Appro- Documents, Vol.1 (1936-1947). priation, Intellectual property Calcutta: Pustak Bipani. Rights, and Fashion. Cultural Oberoi, Diamond. 1998. Expatriation, Analysis. 3: 47-88. Exile and Rootlessness. A Semio- Shuman, Amy and Charles L. Briggs. logical Study of the Cinima of 1993. Introduction. Western Folk- (Ph. D. Disserta- lore (Special Issue). 52 (2/4):109- tion, Univer- 134. sity, New Delhi). Singh, Kavita. 1995. The Pictures of Radhakrishna, Meena. 2001. Dishonoured Showmen (Ph.D. dissertation, by History. 'Criminal Tribes' and University of Chandigarh). British Colonial Policy. Delhi: Ori- Warshaver, Gerald. 1991. On ent Longman. Postmodern Folklore. Western Redfield, Robert. 1955. Peasant Society and Folklore. 50 (3): 219-229. Culture. Chicago: Chicago Uni- Sinha, Surajit. 1957. Tribal Culture in Pen- versity Press. insular India as a Dimension of Sanyal, Hiteshranjan. 2004. Selected Writ- the Little Tradition in the Study ings. Calcutta: Centre for of Indian Civilization. A Prelimi- Archaelogical Research and nary Statement. Man in India. Training, Eastern India 37(2): 93-118. Sarkar, Jawhar. 2005. The Construction of Trautmann, Thomas R. 1997. Aryans and Hindu Identity in Medieval West British India. Delhi: Vistar Publi- Bengal. A Case of Popular Cults. Calcutta: Institute of Develop- ment Studies. Sarkar, Tanika. 2001. Hindu Wife, Hindu Nation. Delhi: Permanent Black. Sen, Dinesh Chandra. 1985. The Folk Lit- erature of Bengal. B.R. Publishing Corporation ( first published in 1920). ______. 1986. History of and Literature. Delhi: Gyan Pub- lishing House (lectures delivered at in 1909).

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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 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- Tarticle 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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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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