P: ISSN No. 2231-0045 RNI No. UPBIL/2012/55438 VOL.-IV, ISSUE-II, November-2015 E: ISSN No. 2349-9435 Periodic Research Relocating Assamese Folklore in the Contemporary Cultural Landscape: A Study on Dr. Bhupen Hazarika’s Art of Music Making Abstract Incorporating the elements of folklore and folk life in contemporary literary forms has emerged to be a very significant trend. Such innovative exercise and exploration of the old forms have resulted in a relocation of the folk traditions in the modern cultural landscape. In the arena of Assamese popular music, Bhupen Hazarika has experimented with the Assamese folk tradition reviving, preserving, popularizing and assigning them with new meaning in the new social context. This paper is a humble endeavour to analyze how the composer has handled the elements of Assamese folklore in his timeless creations and thereby has affected a shift from their triviality and plainness to new meaning and substance. Minakshi Bairagi Keywords: Assamese Folklore, Folk Music, Place Legends, Popular Associate Professor, Music, Mass Communication. Deptt. of English, Introduction D. K. Girls‟ College, Assam, the eastern most state of India has a rich and multihued folklore which has been the result of some historical, geographical and Mirza, Assam some complex social pattern. Folklore refers to the lore or knowledge that have been produced by a people through ages and that forms a continuum through the process of oral or verbal transmission. Folklore comprehends all knowledge that is transmitted by imitation and example as well as the products of such craft (Bascom, 1972). Archer Taylor puts forward a similar observation by defining it as the “material that is handed on by traditional either by word of mouth or by custom and practice. (Taylor, 1948). Folklore is the result of a long drawn process of people‟s desire for expression of their inner urge and also by social needs .It is the outcome of the human mind imbibed with creative feelings and the faculties of creative idea and urge of aesthetic and artistic impulse are rooted in the creation, preservation and transmission of folklore (Islam, 1985:13). In common parlance, the expression folklore points to the traditional expressions, like folk narratives, music, proverbs, riddles, material culture, social customs and the folk performing arts. Folk music forms a significant constituent of verbal literature, an inseparable part of human existence and every society possesses its own distinctive traditional music culture. Observes Nettl, “We know of no culture, no single civilization of the past, no isolated tribal groups in a Anil Kr Boro wilderness or jungle that does not have and has not had, as far back as our Associate Professor, knowledge goes, a body of music” (Nettl, 1975:71).Folklore and folk music Deptt. of Folklore Research, came to be composers‟ favorite area of interest, as sources of Gauhati University, experimentation and new creation, and considerable interest has been Guwahati, Assam devoted to exploit the traditional materials in music creation in the twentieth century. Bhupen Hazarika, the widely popular, multifaceted genius from Assam is one of the noteworthy figures in India in whose hand folklore and folk music receives an extraordinary dimension in modern popular music. Hazarika, an artist of the masses, extremely alive to his contemporary realities has revived and popularized the indigenous forms by employing them purposefully in his works, and thereby has relocated the traditional materials in a new cultural landscape. The present paper focuses on some of Bhupen Hazarika‟s songs from his splendid oeuvre to analyze his intricate art and technique of employing the elements of oral tradition. 144 P: ISSN No. 2231-0045 RNI No. UPBIL/2012/55438 VOL.-IV, ISSUE-II, November-2015 E: ISSN No. 2349-9435 Periodic Research The Aims of the Study of Assamese literature can be attributed to the ancient The aim of the study is to examine some of folk music of the land. Referring to the observation of Bhupen Hazarika‟s songs and to generate Hem chandra Goswami, one of the pioneers of understanding regarding the blending of numerous Assamese literature, Maheswar Neog, terms the age elements of folklore of his mother land. The study is of Assamese literature starting from the beginning, till also expected to offer some knowledge of the 800 AD as the „Dark Age‟, which he also calls the composer‟s acumen in exploiting tradition to the Geetijyug, the age of lyrical literature. Furthermore, he service of the contemporary generation. In addition to has pointed out that perhaps the primitive Assamese that, it will exhibit the artist‟s concern for the tradition marriage songs and some Bangeets comprised the and cultural traits of the common people. Tracing its only literary resources of that period and also some roots in the folkloric tradition, the paper seeks to time in the following age. (Neog, 2008:3). investigate Hazarika‟s art of resituating these However, folklore in the modern age has materials in new context and thereby delivering to been found to be gaining special interest in Indian as them new meaning and new dimension. well as Assamese literature and music in the later part The present study is analytical based on of the nineteenth century as an upshot of the growing primary sources supplied by the songs and song texts nationalism in the colonial period. It embarked on with of Bhupen Hazarika and the secondary sources are the rise of nationalism and the increasing awareness provided by books and journals related to the topic. among the writers, musicians to search for roots and Discussion respect for tradition. It has been observed that the Assamese Folklore and Folk Music Tradition traditional forms serve a host of functions as a means Like any other part of the globe, Assam, too of expression in the contemporary world .Various folk possesses a rich and distinct folklore enriched by its cultural forms and expressions in the modern age multicultural, racial peculiarities. The enormous attract the attention of artists and writers not only as diversity of groups and sub-groups of various new literary modes and techniques but also of extractions of affiliations inhabiting the different areas answers to contemporary socio-cultural issues in the hills and plains of the state constitute an almost (Behera, 2008:2). inexhaustible source of material both for the Bhupen Hazarika and his Art anthropologist and the folklorist (Datta, 1999:26).The Bhupen Hazarika, the pioneer in most outstanding feature of Assamese folklore is that experimentation in the field of music, great composer, it is not confined to a particular group or community. lyricist, film maker and singer with his signature The expression, Assamese is a complex one giving baritone voice, enthralled millions of people across rise to serious debates as Assam is a land, inhabited the globe. The deep rootedness in the traditional life by numerous tribal, non- tribal and ethnic groups, and and folk song of his motherland impart a unique possessing their own distinct language and culture. flavour to his music. His works exhibit the persistent Historically Assam included a vast region which is and ground-breaking efforts to revive, popularize the known at present as the North Eastern Region, indigenous Assamese culture and music in the divided in to seven states of India. The geographical contemporary society and thereby relocate these old peculiarity and the complex population pattern mark forms in the modern cultural landscape. However the diversity of language, tradition and culture .The Hazarika, through his experimentation and erstwhile Assam was a land composed of hills and innovativeness procured a respectable place for the valleys and tremendous variety of cultural traits folkloric materials in the cultural arena making them contributing to the making of a composite and an apt medium for expressing the self as well as a checqured culture constantly influencing each other powerful tool for communication. The music maestro through a process of assimilation and acculturation. has represented the folk elements of Assam hitherto Even the present Assam represents a plethora of ignored as creations of the lower class of people not culture and awesome racial diversity contributing to suiting the elite taste. Some of Hazarika‟s songs have the formation of the mainstream Assamese society. been selected for the purpose of the study. The songs All the races… distinctiveness form the great taken for discussion can be considered as a group Assamese community. with some qualities common in them. They appear to Termed as the “folklorist‟s paradise”, Assam be odes on some particular places, composed on has a rich repertoire of folk music and a cultural some special occasions, representing the history, heritage. The folk music of the diverse character has culture, folk narratives and etymological explanations been categorized in to some broader categories, such associated with those places. Apart from the as songs of religious and devotional content; songs of innumerable elements of folklore in the songs, they ceremonies and festivals; songs of love and yearning; have also been based on Assamese folk music and children‟s songs and ballads and other narrative tunes. songs. In this study, Assamese folklore refers to a The songs chosen for discussion are broader area including the elements found among the Mangaldoi Tomar Nam Hauk, (1974) Tihu Hol Tomar groups and communities belonging to the erstwhile Nam (1976), Diphu Hol Tomar Nam (1982), Rangpur Assam. In the present paper, attempts will be made to Tomar Nam (1993), Akashijanere (1963), Kah examine the elements of folk narratives and folk Mangaih Sheh (1968) and Tirap Simanta (1966). The music and elements of material culture in the selected first four songs mentioned, had been composed on songs of Bhupen Hazarika. the occasion of the annual conferences of Assam Folklore has been the source of inspiration Sahitya Sabha, the highest literary body of the state for literary creation throughout the ages.