International Journal of Research p-ISSN: 2348 -6848 e-ISSN: 2348-795X
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The Baars (folk ballads) of Mian Dido and Gugga Nath: A Retelling of Dogra History in Folk. Ms. Rupali Sharma
Research Scholar, Dept. of English, University of Jammu (J&K), India
Email: [email protected]
Abstract: described as a rebel in the history of Jammu and Kashmir. Folk literature has always been at the fringes of the main stream academic discourse. However, in the recent years there has been an increased understanding Key words: of the importance of folk studies, Folklore; Orality; Folk songs; Baaras; particularly in a country like India that has Duggar; Lok; Lok-Varta an eclectic composition.
The ever expanding study of myth, orality and folklore encodes deeper Folklore is a traditional art, understanding of the world order, including literature, knowledge and practice that is people’s relationships within the social set disseminated largely through oral up, with nature, with metaphysical entities and of the cosmic order. Folklore and communication and behavioral example. community literature suggest the way in The term ‘folklore’ was first coined by which human mind apprehends various William John Thomas, a British antiquarian relationship with in and outside the social function. Apart from these, the study of in 1846. It is Saxon compound word orality and community literature sheds light meaning lore of the people, and it was used on the creation and evolution in life and also to describe the study of the ancient systems present an alternative to main stream discourse. of customs and beliefs practiced by common people. Duncan Emrich in his Folklore on Thus in my paper, I attempt to present the American Land defines folklore: folk as an alternative discourse to history with particular reference to the legend of Whenever a lullaby is sung to Mian Dido and Gugga Nath who are celebrated as a hero in the dogri folklore but a child; whenever a dilly, a
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riddle…whenever, out of is not much different. Indian folklorists have habit or inclination, the folk using the term Lok Varta given by V.S indulge in songs and Agrawala in 1920parallel to the term dancer,…Then we have folklore. The word Lok in strict sense of the folklore in its own perennial European folk has different connotation in domain, at work as ever, east in respect to west. By the folk in other alive and shifting. (13) countries is generally meant the common mass of people who lives outside the Folklore is usually associated with civilized circles of the society. But in Indian orality and therefore not considered as sense Lok stands for the total cultural unit. ‘literature’ per se. Taken from the Latin word Litteratura, literature implies ‘writing’ However, oral tradition is the main and it indicated anything that has been characteristic of this term Lok Varta , which written down and copied over ‘to achieve a is the Indian folklore as we may put it, and it measure of social circulation.’ But for now implies the materials of folklore as well preliterate societies without a written script, as the science of it. The Lok Varta is mostly literature is whatever culture deems worthy explaining by the scholar through the of sufficient repetition to assure it will sidelight of anthropology, or ethnology and remember and passed along. Thus for sometimes through history and culture. cultures of any nation, oral songs, tales, Nonetheless, the main points of this branch myths, legends, riddles and proverb, which of study in India can be roughly outlined as are circulated orally through generations follows: from a part of their literature, oral literature 1. It studies the survivals of tradition, does not require the identification of a customs, belief and manner in a local particular ‘author ‘because it becomes society. ‘cultural property’. 2. It includes the study of folksongs, The term folklore has always remained a narrative songs, stories, riddles, debatable subject since its coinage by proverbs, children’s game, fairs, and Thomas in 1846 among the European and festivals, worship of domestic American scholars, and in India the situation deities, chants, fasts, ceremonies,
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rites, magic, witchcraft, totems, and political movements, are considered as taboos, devilore, folk arts, folk phase in its emergence. The Russian crafts, and history, philosophy, formalist Mikhail Bakhtin observes psychology too to a certain extent. correctly, “The narrow concept of popular 3. It is an independent discipline, character and folklore was born in Pre- having certain principles of its own Romantic period and was basically and its stylistic aspect too is not completed by Von Herder and Romantics” negligible. (Rebelais and His World 4). 4. Its material is mainly oral, but Of course, the epoch that began with the sometimes written material can also Brother Grimm’s recording of tales from be included. oral tradition and ended with Thompson’s 5. It offers a comparative method of monumental indexing the available texts, are study. not unified. The impression that the 6. Besides a traditional part of the folk- biographies of the Grimm brothers and the life, it is still a dynamic force in the history of British folklore yield is that society. folklore is basically “intellectual slumming” 7. Broadly it analyses the human whom the middle and the upper class people culture, and it chiefly concentrates study as socially inferior. on all the basic fields of folk culture. Folklore studies formally considered as a But in the western sense the examination respected genre in the studies of folk of the history of folklore provide simply an literature, but folk poetry is considered as outlet for the obsession with collecting. It the best method to express emotions and diverts the energy of enterprising folklorists sentiments. Until recently, poetry has always from collecting tales, songs, proverbs and taught as a form of written literature, a log cabins to the gathering of historical passage set in some deliberate arrangement facts. The roots of folklore studies resides in of lines with rhyming pattern written or the fertile ground of the seventeenth and typed out on a page. But the capacity for early eighteenth centuries thought and art, artistic development in oral poetry is as folklore is commonly associated with great as the artistic capacity associated with romanticism and nationalism, the literary
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printed poetry. In fact, the art of poetry has the most appropriate for specific occasion at its roots in oral song, and not in print. That a specific place and moment in time. Folk the language of traditional societies itself is poetry, like storytelling, is not a stagnant poetical and they are better understood in activity and that is why the forms of poetry the words of Otto Jespersen “primitive man are non – static and the factors like expressed his thoughts in the language of spontaneity, immediacy and creativity are poetry” (432). important.
Poetry may be defined as a form of Folk songs as a part of dynamics, literary art in whish language used to show ongoing tradition continually undergoes the intensity of emotion using such devices changes as performers or singer adapt as alliteration, onomatopoeia, assonance, received knowledge to specific repetition and rhythm to achieve musical or circumstances. As folk song, in its natural incantatory effects. The earliest poems state, is orally transmitted, a song usually evolved from folk songs, such as the does not circulate in a fixed form but Chinese Shijing, or from the need to retell undergoes changes from singer to singer and oral epics, such as the Sanskrit Vedas, place to place. R.L Thanmawia gives a brief Zoraastrian, Gathas and the Homeric epics , identification of the various genres of The Odyssey and The Iliad . folksong and recognizes five classes of songs: The forms of folk poetry are very numerous, wide- ranging and non- static and 1. Those bearing names of individuals. they vary according to context and function. 2. Those named after traditional Often only parts of a poem or verse are musical instruments. remembered, used or adapted by people for 3. Those named after modulation of the specific genre used, whether the poem is voice. long or short, or the particular method of 4. Cradle songs. transmission chosen, whether the poem is 5. Invocations and incantations. read, recited or sung. The important factor The Dogri folk poetry, which I have is: whether the form of folk poetry and the taken for my present study is not different particular method of presentation chosen are from that of the western concept of folk
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poetry. They also marked as variegates hues history for everyman to read and recite. It is and shades. They range from round lays of gathered from thousands of unknown love and fulfillment to requiems of sorrow contributors and is of the nature of and separation. Dogri folk songs are poetic community memory. Tradition which is encyclopedia of human emotions and hold a cumulative social heritage in the form of key to understand the psychological habits, customs, attitudes and ways of life is mysteries of the mind of Duggar. The songs transmitted from generation to generation of Duggar land are a musical index to the either through written scripture or through spiritual history of Duggar as much as words of mouth. achieves of its social ups and downs. To Oral tradition according to Jan study the folksongs of Duggar seems like to Vansina, is a socially sanctioned reported live the Duggar culture and tradition in statement or a hearsay account of a imagination. testimony of the past. In the context of Historians always considered the country like India, oral traditions are not written records as very sacred and valuable, only the testimony of past, but also of but neglecting the oral tradition, because contemporary life. Thus, this definition unlike the document it lacks both authorship shows that the study of folk culture and oral and the time of its birth. Oral tradition tradition is complementary to each other; evolves in a community and comes down in one cannot fully understood one in the time scale from generation to generation of absence of other. In order to understand the course, with change in its context, form and role of oral tradition in man’s life, we must spirit. Collective in nature, oral traditions have more knowledge of the culture and give expression to the beliefs and practices cultural behavior of the people. of community life and truly represent its The oral tradition can be used as a ethos. It is universal as it belongs to source of history because there is scarcity of everyone in community. It is, above all an literary and archaeological sources of the impersonal document. It is also a history in history of modern Jammu region. It is which the people are the historians as well known that the Modern Jammu was divided as the participants, telling their own story in into 22 principalities, but the indigenous their own words. It is, in brief, everyman’s
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historical sources is in the form of characters of Dogri Baran are not fabled but chronicles are not available pertaining to the men of historical repute. The reality of these history of these local heroes, peasant characters gives Dogri ballads superiority leaders, sufi saints and ruling class are over English ballads where in, the character available on large scale. Therefore, the study like Robin Hood, Rob Boy and Ivan Hoe are of oral tradition is very significant in terms only shadows of imagination. These folk of tracing the history of the region in the songs have no known origin. They are absence of historical sources. The study of mainly transmitted through oral tradition various aspects of folk culture and oral from person to person or from generation to culture thus contributes to understand the generation. culture and its functioning in human Baran is a corruption of hindi word societies. The study of various aspects of Bir which means the brave or chivalrous. folk culture and oral tradition such as Baran is usually more stirring than Karkan manners, customs, traditions, superstitions, because they appeal to the felling of mystery folksongs, folktales and myths may and romance which predominate over all the eventually solve many difficult problems of other feelings in a common man. Heroic ethnology. It throws light on numerous note in them never flags partly because of aspects of social organization. These also the sound effect of the words make local material more useful to other (onomatopoeia) and partly because from the social researchers concerned with telling directness of narration. Dogri development programs language possesses many hard, resonant and The oral tradition available in rough sounding words. Therefore the heroic Jammu region is in the form of legends, themes, clang and clash of fight is rendering myths, folklores, folktales, proverbs, riddles, in it with great perfection. These ballads superstitions, beliefs, customs, traditions, weave halo of undaunted valor round the songs, ballads and social life. There are character which grips the heart and arouses a some songs which generally depict the felling of hero- worship. bravery and solidarity of the heroes and In western context the word ballad is these songs are known as Baran . Baran is only a means of amusement with a whirl of unlike the heroic ballads of English. The
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dance. The English word ballad has others. The human sympathy and antipathy originated from the French Ballour which must have their way and they have it in the means Dance. Thus, is a symbolic Dogri ballad too. representation of festivity and a merry I have taken the Baran of two folk measure which is either present in a tavern heroes, Mian Dido and Gugga Nath. Both or round the fire amidst sprightly are not formed of airy, but are the true sons ejaculations. The ballad in the west therefore of the soil and they compelling realism marked only the festive celebration and has which has grafted them inextricably in the never been endowed with the sanctity it has memory of people. enjoyed in the Duggar to listen to a Karak or Baar in Duggar is like performing a ritual. Mian Dido was born in Jagti village All the heroes in Karakan or Baar are of Jammu in the month of chet in 1780. His persons of noble and elevated characters father’s name was Mian Hazari. He whose narration carts the mind into a bent of distinguished himself for chivalry and edifying solemnity and also show the social prowess in his very childhood. Jammu attitude of Duggar towards life which is region at that time ruled by Maharaja Jit deeply colored with ethical considerations. Singh, who was a weak king and could not defend the state from the ravages of the Heroic ballads in Duggar are not an Sikhs. Maharaja Ranjit Singh was reigning ostentatious exhibition of purposeless over the Punjab. The Bhange chiefs of his gallantry but a commendatory record of the court on the instigation of some vile friend fearless endeavors directed to some worthy of Jit Singh launched an inroad upon Jammu end. These ballads are poetical histories with in 1809. The soldiers of Duggar resisted a pinch of imagination which serves to them tooth and nail under the joint vivify the fact. Though Ballad by its very leadership of Gulab Singh, Suchet Singh and nature is an objective composition as it is the Mian Dido, and put them to rout. After the poetic-reproduction of some body’s where death of Jit Singh, Jammu fell under the personal feeling cannot be brought in domination of the Sikhs. Gulab Singh also without a grotesque unseemliness, yet the went in the service of Maharaja Ranjit Singh man is but a flesh and blood and cannot and Suchet Singh had already preceded him. easily repress the reactions to what befall
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Dido chaffed and fretted at the like. In the following verse Dido throws a subjugation of Duggar to an alien ruler and challenge to the enemy and asks them to resolved to redeem his land from the vacate his land: dishonor. He organized a group and began to Samne khadoi Mian Dido lalkara je ditta harass the Sikh Army in Jammu. Lahore Raj was alarmed Diddo would foil all attempts Beria daiya chodi de for capture. Gulab Singh was at last sent to Sadi kandi chodi de vanquish staked his life for the freedom of his land. Gulab Singh tried to persuade him Apne majhe da mulk samahal for surrender and assured him of amnesty Apne lauhre da mulk samahal and a high rank in the Sikh Darbar but Dido refused. This led to an open conflict between Pagdi talwar Mian Dido halla je kitta two. An official of the Sikh army, Sardar Badi badi mundian beri dian tange garne Attar Singh, dismembered the old father of naal Dido into four and transfixed the pieces to each wall of his house. Ladkan baal gane naal
Dido bent his steps towards Trikuta. Hath aunda nain Dido Jamwal But he was beleaguered there. He killed the Beri daiya chodi de murderer of his father in a single combat at one fell swoop, and himself was shot dead Apne manje da mulk samahal by a soldier of Sikh Army. But Dido was Kharch patha berien band je kitta enshrined for ever in the memory of the people. He was not openly extolled because “Hun ke khaga Mian Dido jaad? of the fear of Sikhs, but the popular feeling Samne kharoiye Mian beri gee galaya of love for this great hero of Duggar could not remain pent up and poured itself out in Sari kandi de pakki ge garne beri ni jande Baar of Dido. In this ballad as in others a haar siyaal conservational form is adopted which gives Khai khai garne bang talwar. ( Sharma 92) dramatic intensity of the ballad and makes the scenes dynamically graphic and life-
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Mian Dido hurled his challenge on said to have married a princess from Bengal. the enemy. He asked to clear out his land, According to the tradition, he marched to and mind their own “Lahore and Majha”. Gazani to rescue the cow of a Brahman Mian Dido fell upon the enemy with his widow from Sultan. The cow asks him to sword and struck their heads to the “Garna” escape in the night with it but Gugga will bushes. Dido Jamwal was not easy to not play the sneaking thief. He spurns the capture. The enemy cut off his supplies. On Sultan out of his sleep and kills him in a fair being asked what he would live upon, he battle. The ballad contains many replied to their faces that the ‘Garna’fruit of supernatural events and describes many the kandi has ripened and berries remain in miracles of Gugga. season throughout the year. I will feed The following extract describes Gugga’s myself upon them and wield my sword. march towards Gazani and his scuffle with Every word of these verses is charged with the Sultan: patriotic fervor. Chadi peya Gazani par raja The other hero which I have taken for the present study is Gugga Nath and his Chot nagare lai Baar is considered as the longest of all, but I Thum thum chal chale rath neela have taken only a section of it. There is no satisfactory historical evidence about Jain kumbe par thali Guggas birth, but still he is an object of Majlo majli dev Gugga great curiosity and interest. Gugga was the enemy of Nagas, and there are many Uppar tille de aai uppar tille de aai khrota descriptions of his fights with them. Gugga rath is worshipped by the people of duggar and Neela gi ronak karai… shrines are built to him at several places in the land. Gugga day is celebrated every year Kaddi miyana talwar beri ne in the duggar region and it falls on the next Sir raje de lai day of Janam Ashtami. It is called Gugga Navami. An account of his conquests is also Thraa tote talwar hoie available in the different part of India. He is
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Bajj jamin par aai clutched at the hinge and smote the head of Gugga with his sword. The sword fell in Tera baar hai geya beriya four pieces on the ground. Gugga said that Hun mera phirya I aai now it was his turn. He struck a blow angrily on the king whose torso remained in Gazani Krodhe bich dev gugga ne but whose head flew across Tilla. Saar beri de bai Thus, both the baars glorify the Dhad reya bich gazani de saar chodya till exploits of the soldiers in martial campaigns tapai. (Shastri 162) and may be treated as a national tribute to their valor. Baars set up a high standard of Gugga rode towards Gazani with a solder ship which extols spirited martyrdom blast of trumpet. The blue chariot was going in the field even higher than the victory, and at a jog trot. After covering stage after stage, pours indignant contempt on the dastardly Gugga reached Tilla (the bank of Atak) and escapades. These songs are a universal threw a signal to the blue horse meaning that testimony to the undeterred bravery and he had been brought in tender care by the fortitude of duggar. The heroism as depicted mother Bachal. The horse sprang over the in these baars is not a cold, heartless seven iron walls including the moat. The savagery which tramples down all soft cow acclaimed her master with her lowing emotions, but is nobly tinctured with and hoped to be released from the fettes feelings of love and sympathy. It is the which were cut asunder by him. He led the heroism in which uncontrollable impulse of cow at his left side and held the bludgeon war is beautifully balanced with deep human against right. The cow said that she had been sentiments. Thus, these baars tend to reveal in complete fast for the last six days and he both the moral and heroic traits of a soldier. should slip away without waking the king This humanizes their character to a degree up. But Gugga replied that a man should not which is otherwise not obtain by any other act like a thief.
Gugga spurned the king out of his sleep who got up growling like a lion. All References: the four bed posts crashed down. He
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