1 INDIAN FOLKLIFE VOLUME 3 ISSUE 3 SERIAL NO. 1 6 JULY 2004 2 BOARD OF TRUSTEES CHAIRPERSON Jyotindra Jain Professor and Dean, School of Arts and Aesthetics, NATIONAL F OLKLORE S UPPORT C ENTRE Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi National Folklore Support Centre (NFSC) is a non- TRUSTEES governmental, non-profit organisation, registered in Chennai Ajay S. Mehta dedicated to the promotion of Indian folklore research, education, Executive Director, National Foundation for India, India Habitat Centre, training, networking and publications. The aim of the centre is Zone 4-A, UG Floor, Lodhi Road, New Delhi to integrate scholarship with activism, aesthetic appreciation with Ashoke Chatterjee community development, comparative folklore studies with B-1002, Rushin Tower, Behind Someshwar 2, Satellite Road, Ahmedabad cultural diversities and identities, dissemination of information N. Bhakthavathsala Reddy with multi-disciplinary dialogues, folklore fieldwork with Dean, School of Folk and Tribal Lore, Warangal developmental issues and folklore advocacy with public Dadi D. Pudumjee programming events. Folklore is a tradition based on any expressive Managing Trustee, The Ishara Puppet Theatre Trust, behaviour that brings a group together, creates a convention and B2/2211 Vasant Kunj, New Delhi commits it to cultural memory. NFSC aims to achieve its goals Deborah Thiagarajan President, Madras Craft Foundation, Chennai through cooperative and experimental activities at various levels. Molly Kaushal NFSC is supported by a grant from the Ford Foundation. Associate Professor, Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, C.V. Mess, Janpath, New Delhi Munira Sen CONTENTS Executive Director, Madhyam, Bangalore K. Ramadas Letter from Kuldeep Kothari............................. 3 Deputy Director, Regional Resources Centre for Folk Performing Arts, Udupi Tributes .......................................................... 4 P. Subramaniyam Remembering Folklorist Komal Kothari............. 5 Director, Centre for Development Research and Training, Chennai Y. A. Sudhakar Reddy Copyright of folk and indigenous art forms....... 6 Reader, Centre for Folk Culture Studies, S. N. School, Hyderabad On Komal Kothari........................................... 8 Veenapani Chawla Director, Adishakti Laboratory for Theatre Research, Pondicherry Life and works of Shri Komal Kothari............... 11 EXECUTIVE TRUSTEE AND DIRECTOR On Folk Narratives ......................................... 14 M.D. Muthukumaraswamy Here to Eternity, on a magic Jharu.................... 21 Review Books ................................................. 23 STAFF REGIONAL RESOURCE Our Publications............................................. 24 PERSONS Assistant Director T.R. Sivasubramaniam V. Jayarajan Administration Kuldeep Kothari COVER PAGE Moji Riba Shri Komal Kothari receiving Sangeeth Natak Academy Programme Officer K.V.S.L. Narasamamba Fellowship Award from the Hon’ble president of India, (Publications) Nima S. Gadhia Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. C. Kodhandaraman Parag M. Sarma Librarian Sanat Kumar Mitra THIS ISSUE R. Murugan Satyabrata Ghosh Shikha Jhingan The focus of this issue of Indian Folklife is on Life and Works Programme Assistant of Shri Komal Kothari. (Public Programmes) Susmita Poddar V. Hari Saravanan M.N. Venkatesha NEXT ISSUE Archival Assistant INDIAN FOLKLIFE Genre, Community, and Event B. Jishamol EDITORIAL TEAM for announcement see page.20. M.D. Muthukumaraswamy Support Staff Editor All communications should be addressed to: Y. Pavitra The Editor, Indian Folklife, National Folklore Support Centre, C. Kodhandaraman P.T. Devan Associate Editor 7, 5th Cross Street, Rajalakshmi Nagar, Velachery, P. Sivasakthivel Chennai - 600 042 (India), Tele/Fax: 91-44-22448589 / 22450553, V. Thennarasu P. Sivasakthivel email: [email protected], [email protected] C. Kannan Page Layout & Design http://www.indianfolklore.org INDIAN FOLKLIFE VOLUME 3 ISSUE 3 SERIAL NO. 1 6 JULY 2004 3 Letter from KULDEEP KOTHARI, Secretary, Rupayan Sansthan, Rajsathani Institute of Folklore Email: [email protected] Dear Friends, was back and there really wasn’t much that could be done about it. At this point in time he was working on a fresh It is a rather difficult task to talk about a person like Kaka idea - that of setting up an ethnographic museum. He (Komalji, my father) in the past tense. After a month, it tried some chemotherapy and also a course of radiation still seems so unreal to all of us at Jodhpur - indeed, it which helped ease his pain a bit. He even tried some must be so, to a lot you too. All of us do so very much, non-conventional remedies and was in and out of miss his overpowering but reassuring presence. One still hospital a number of times. He really wanted to go a feels he’s out for a visit and will be back soon. long way further. The museum had become his passion and he wanted to see his dream come true. Sometime Many of you have visited our home at Jodhpur. Today, last year, after following up with the Government for as you come into the driveway, you come face to face almost a year, we were allotted a piece of land to set up with a large pile of stones; Stones from the demolition this museum. It is a very picturesque locale at the edge of part of our old house. The ground opens up into an of a stony plateau with a small enclosed valley. Kaka empty space where Kaka planned to build a hostel of was thrilled with the location. Every visitor who came some sort. The space is there, but the house which was to see him would be told about his plans for the museum for many years my grandparents’ home is gone - You and taken to the site. Without saying so, he was building can feel the vacuum. Aptly, this also seems to be a up on his ideas for the project. He would sit late into physical manifestation of what has happened. the night jotting down points related to some aspect or Painstakingly, one will have to go about building the the other of the project and be woe betied if anyone house again. delayed anything related to it. Last month, when I got a mail from David/Carol telling The museum of his dream aims at to have objects of me about this program1 I intended to try and attend it daily use rather than curios. It will relate the story of the and meet all of you who have worked or dealt with my creative ingenuity of the common folk by tracing the father at some point in time. While I share a close personal history of tangible cultural objects and the role they rapport with many of you, I would have liked this play in their daily life. Kaka thought out a lot of what opportunity of meeting so many others who knew him. he wanted to achieve and uncharacteristically, All of us, especially my mother Indiraji, would like to documented it. thank you for this gesture and also for the numerous Kaka also in the last few months worked for creating a thoughtful messages of condolence that we received. structure for the organization - Rupayan. He knew that Komalji, as most of you refer to him was quite a repository it would be very difficult to take his plans to fruition in the absence of an organisation. In furtherance of this of indigenous knowledge. He was one of the pioneers in objective he created a new executive council of Rupayan the documentation of performing arts in India and a vocal comprising of some young energetic people. All of us exponent of the oral traditions of history. He did extensive now have a common objective to strive towards - the work on Rajasthan’s folk music and culture. Instrumental completion of his museum. We also realize that what we in making archival recordings of folk musicians of are trying to achieve is difficult because our effort lacks Rajasthan, he exposed them and their art internationally. the benefit of the continuity of Kaka’s intellectual How did he achieve this? Certainly not alone - he built output - but that is what makes it so much more of a on his own experience and knowledge through the challenge. We also intend to draw on the same numerous discussion that he had with colleagues like resource base which helped hone his knowledge - all of you. He was able to make the lateral connections that he you. To this end, we shall be circulating a brief concept was so famous for, by interacting with people of different note on the museum. We would like to invite disciplines and absorbing their know-how. It was such expressions of interest towards involvement with the interactions that brought the familiar twinkle to his eyes. project. We would also like you to freely provide us, as Let me dwell briefly on the last few months of Kaka’s feedback, your thoughts on the issue. q life. It was in the summer of 2002 that Kaka discovered 1 Memorial conference at Columbia University. For report that his old tryst with cancer wasn’t over. The disease see page. 5. INDIAN FOLKLIFE VOLUME 3 ISSUE 3 SERIAL NO. 1 6 JULY 2004 4 Tributes Rustom Bharucha songs that only Muslims may sing, or the method of tuning the Sindhi Sarangi. None of us will see him fill I remember Komalda talking to me with matter-of-fact yet another notebook with observations while he sits calm about his father’s death rites and ceremonies, which cross-legged, interviewing epic bards or puppeteers. he had observed with meticulous rigour. Acknowledging None of us will travel with him to remote village where the family as a vital site for his research, he punctuated especially interesting types of performances may be his observations with intimate details—for instance, if heard; none of us will hear him distinguish between all three people travelling by train are taking the ashes of a the different types of desert we pass through on the way. dead person to Hardwar, then they will always buy four None of us will meet him briefly in western cities cups of tea.