Oral Traditions, Myths & Legends of India An ITRHD Publication Indian Trust for Rural Heritage and Development Registered Office: C-56 (G.F.) Nizamuddin East New Delhi 110 013 Tel: 91-11-2435 4190/91-11-2435 4070 E-mail: [email protected], Website: www.itrhd.com Indian Trust for Rural Heritage and Development Published by: The Indian Trust for Rural Heritage and Development (ITRHD) Registered Office: C-56, Nizamuddin East, New Delhi - 110013. e-mail: [email protected] Website: www.itrhd.com Explore Rural India Special Issue 2 © 2017 Indian Trust for Rural Heritage and Development (ITRHD) Photographs © owners and sources CHAIRMAN: S K MISRA EDITOR: SANGYA CHAUDHARY DESIGNER: VIKRAM KALRA Book design and typeset by V.K. Communications B-6/36, Ist Floor, Safdarjung Enclave New Delhi- 110 029 Photographs © Authors and Sources Printed in New Delhi by Modest Graphics Private Limited, Okhla Industrial Estate, C-53, DSIDC Sheds Okhla Industrial Estate, Delhi -110020 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior written permission of the Publisher. Contents Editorial 5 1. Glimpses of the Oral Tradition 7 AshaRani Mathur 2. The Kaavad Storytelling Tradition of Rajasthan 12 Dr. Nina Sabnani 3. Revealed - The Oral Tradition of Healing 18 Shailaja Chandra 4. Kamsel - Relics of Sikkim’s Folklore 26 Dr. Jigme Wangchuk Ashi Pempem Wangmo 5. Phansigars 30 Anirudh Chaudhry 6. Oral Tradition in the Context of Kathak 36 Guru Shovana Narayan 7. Water Divining - A Living Art 41 Chitkala Zutshi 8. Vrindavan - A Land of Living History 43 Paridhi David Massey 9. Vignettes on Nazhu The Festival of the Pochury - Naga of Müluori 55 Sentila T. Yanger 10. Where the God’s go Visiting 61 Uma Devi Jadhav 11. Mayarashtra - Myths and Stories on Meerut 64 Vikram Kalra 12. The Nyash Taranga of Bengal - A Lost Musical Instrument 71 Prabhat K. Ghosh 13. Craft Shakti - Tagore’s Legacy at a Time of Crisis & Opportunity 75 Ashoke Chatterjee 14. Uncaged Souls - Roots of Bengal’s Folk Culture 78 Dipak Rudra 15. Varkari Tradition of Maharashtra 81 Neela Satyanarayana 16. Special Feature “The Spirit of Indian Painting” 85 Close Encounters with 101 Great Works 1100 - 1900 B.N. Goswamy Editorial Oral traditions, myths and legends have always been a very important and integral part of the lives of us Indians. They have for generations not only conveyed our most cherished values but also contributed in a very major way towards the extension of our worlds. To truly appreciate an oral tradition, it is necessary to understand the nature of the tradition itself. Its cultural values, societal functions, its form, content, literal and in depth interpretation. We as children have heard many tales, stories and traditions, which are still deeply enrooted within us, and we therefore refer to them on many occasions, incidents and situations that we come across in our lives. We find ourselves using these tales, stories and traditions as source while communicating in such instances. These have over the years assisted people in educating the young and in teaching important lessons about the past and about life in general. The use of oral traditions as source has been very popular in the past. Because many oral traditions are highly classified and are told faithfully without modification, they can be as reliable as other non-oral ways of recording and passing on experiences. The narratives, myths and legends that make these oral traditions encompass a wide variety of categories from stories of creation, human heroes, folk tales, paintings, living legends, dialects, historical narrations, kinship, local beliefs, etc. Throughout history especially in India, societies have relied heavily on stories, histories and lessons to maintain a historical record and sustain their cultures and identities. There is a wealth of information available which could reveal many aspects of a country’s tradition. Many people have stories to tell and are just waiting to be asked. According to scholars Renee Hulan and Renate Eigenbrod, oral traditions are “the means by which knowledge is reproduced, preserved and conveyed from generation to generation. Oral traditions form the foundation of Aboriginal societies, connecting the speaker and listener in communal experience and uniting past and present in memory”. ‘Oral Traditions, Myths and Legends of India’ is the second in the series of special edition publications by ITRHD, the first being ‘Traditional Cuisines of India’. In this publication, we have tried to cover a wide range of articles from different states of India, which will help our readers experience and explore the world of narratives, myths and legends of an area or expression, to which they do not belong or are not aware of. This issue barely touches the surface of the ocean of oral traditions, myths and legends that may be found across the country and is merely a window into this world. ITRHD’s publications have become central to our activities complementing both the energy and vision of the Trust. The magazine Explore Rural India and our special issue on Traditional Cuisines have been very well received and appreciated for which we offer our heartfelt gratitude. We would like to sincerely thank all our contributors for taking out time to write these articles for this publication, which are integral to the success of the publication. We would specially like to thank Mr B.N. Goswamy, a leading authority on Indian Art for permitting us to use some of the most beautiful works contained in his spectacular book on collections of Indian paintings titled “The Spirit of Indian Painting: Close Encounters with 101 Great Works, 1100-1900”. For a tradition to be alive in a society, that tradition must contain values that are relevant and appreciated in that society. ITRHD through its projects and activities has been slowly trying to work towards creating this feeling of relevance, appreciations and sense of belonging towards rural heritage, society and culture. We have always strived to create conditions in which sustainability may thrive in rural India. This publication has particularly been very interesting and exciting to work on and we hope that all are readers enjoy this as well. We wish everyone a very happy and prosperous new year and hope that 2017 would be a year of positivity leading to greater awareness, appreciation and recognition of our culture and traditions. S.K.Misra Sangya Chaudhary Chairman Director Indian Trust for Rural Heritage Indian Trust for Rural Heritage and Developement and Developement Konyak Morung at Wakching village, Mon district, Nagaland Glimpses of the Oral Tradition AshaRani Mathur Twenty years ago I saw a film which, for the first time, word which is as old as it is diverse: the retelling from brought alive for me the splendour of the oral tradition generation to generation of ancient myths of creation when and pointed me to the many ways it has permeated our the earth was birthed in water, grandmotherly stories of country and its living culture. clever animals and befuddled humans, cautionary tales of those foolish enough to defy the gods. India is the land of That may sound like a strange thing to say. After all, we the story teller, the bard, those who recount the epics; it are surrounded from birth by a tradition of the spoken resounds equally to the solemn chant of hymns and the Oral Traditions, Myths & Legends of India 7 sliding between Persian, Arabic and Brajbhasha in the verses of Amir Khusro, Sufi poet of medieval Delhi. Part of the vast oral tradition is shared across the whole country, leading to glorious local versions; and some parts are critically specific, such as recipes of medicines made from nearby herbs and uttered in a shaman’s language spoken by perhaps just a few hundred people. But to get back to the film and my moment of epiphany. Its subject was the oral transmission of the Vedas which have come down to us over millennia and through countless generations. Though the dating of the Vedas remains speculative, one compilation is thought to have taken place ca. 1500 BC, others might be even earlier. What is certain is that the Vedas are the original sacred scriptures of Hindu teaching. The devout say that their spiritual wisdom comes from the breath of God himself. Others hold the widespread belief that they are the words of God in human speech as told to the sages of ancient times, and are thus a vital fundament of the Hindu faith encompassing all aspects of our lives. Clearly it was crucial for the utmost accuracy to be maintained in transmitting the words of the Divine, else their meaning and efficacy would be lost to mankind forever. The original had to be preserved in pristine purity; there could be no accretions and no omissions, not one superfluous syllable nor any left out. Each word of each mantra had to be in the exact order and let us remember that there were a very (very) large number of mantras. Three Bird Kirman, Kashmir wool carpet. Richly detailed with warm How, then, was this amazing feat accomplished? Especially tones, a masterpiece of the Talim when nothing was written down and relied purely on memory? Quite simply, our ancestors used the means unbearably romantic verses of the ghazal, the sonorous available to them. They laid down a framework of rules tones of the teacher and the acid tongue of the cynic who and regulations from which there could be no deviation. comments on life. Then they devised and perfected a highly sophisticated The tradition in India speaks in different languages, many method of memorizing, beginning with the relatively more than can be counted.