Discuss the seminal contributions of A K Ramanujan to folk literature, especially to folktales.
Introduction
The folklore
of India encompasses the folklore of the nation of India and the Indian
subcontinent. India is an ethnically and religiously diverse country. Given
this diversity, it is difficult to generalize the vast folklore of India as a
unit. Although India is a Hindu-majority country, with more than three-fourths
of the population identifying themselves as Hindus, there is no single,
unified, and allpervading concept of identity present in it. Various
heterogeneous traditions, numerous regional cultures and different religions to
grow and flourish here. Folk religion in Hinduism may explain the rationale
behind local religious practices, and contain local myths that explain the customs
or rituals. However, folklore goes beyond religious or supernatural beliefs and
practices, and encompasses the entire body of social tradition whose chief
vehicle of transmission is oral or outside institutional channels.
The folk and
tribal arts of India speak volumes about the country's rich heritage.[2] Art
forms in India have been exquisite and explicit. Folk art forms include various
schools of art like the Mughal School, Rajasthani School, Nakashi art School
etc. Each school has its distinct style of colour combinations or figures and
its features. Other popular folk art forms include Madhubani paintings from
Bihar, Kangra painting from Himachal Pradesh and Warli paintings from
Maharashtra. Tanjore paintings from South India incorporate real gold into
their paintings. Local fairs, festivals, deities and heroes (warriors) play a
vital role in this art form. In history the arts were made by upper caste but
now they are famous worldwide. India possesses a large body of heroic ballads
and epic poetry preserved in oral tradition, both in Sanskrit and the various
vernacular languages of India. One such oral epic, telling the story of Pabuji,
has been collected by Dr. John Smith from Rajasthan; it is a long poem in the
Rajasthani language, traditionally told by professional story tellers, known as
Bhopas, who deliver it in front of a tapestry that depicts the characters of
the story, and functions as a portable temple, accompanied by a ravanhattho
fiddle. The title character was a historical figure, a Rajput prince, who has
been deified in Rajasthan.
Various
performing arts such as Garba and Dandiya Raas of Gujarat, Sambalpuri dance of
Odisha, the Chhau, Alkap and Gambhira of West Bengal, Bihu dance of Assam,
Ghoomardance of Rajasthan and Haryana, Bhangra and Gidda of Punjab, Dhangar of
Goa, Panthi dance of Chhattisgarh, Kummi, and Karagattam of TamilNadu, Kolattam
of AndhraPradesh, Yakshagana of Karnat aka, Thirayattam of Kerala and Chang Lo
of Nagaland derive their elements from myriads of myths, folktales and seasonal
changes. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata are the two greatest and most widely
read epics of India. Other noteworthy collections of Indian traditional stories
include the Panchatantra, a collection of traditional narratives made by Vishnu
Sarma in the second century BC. The Hitopadesha of Narayana is a collection of
anthropomorphic fabliaux, animal fables, in Sanskrit, compiled in the ninth
century. Indian folklorists during the last thirty years have substantially
contributed to the study of folklore. Devendra Satyarthi, Krishna Dev
Upadyhayaya, Prafulla Dutta Goswami, Kunja Bihari Dash, Ashutosh Bhatacharya
and many more senior folklorists have contributed for the study of folklore.
But it is during the 1970s that some folklorists studied in US universities and
trained up themselves with the modern theories and methods of folklore research
and set a new trend of folklore study in India. Especially, South Indian
universities advocated for folklore as a discipline in the universities and
hundreds of scholars trained up on folklore. A.K. Ramanujan was the noted
folklorist to analyse folklore from Indian context. Study of folklore was
strengthened by two stremas (sicsic); one is Finnish folklorist Lauri Honko and
another is Peter J. Claus of American folklore. These two folklorists conducted
their field work on Epic of Siri and led the Indian folklorists to the new
folklore study. The Central Institute of Indian Languages has played a major
role in promoting folklore studies in India to explore another reality of
Indian culture. Recently scholars such as Chitrasen Pasayat, M. D.
Muthukumaraswamy, Vivek Rai, Jawaharlal Handoo, Birendranath Dutta, P. C.
Pattanaik, B. Reddy, Sadhana Naithani, P. Subachary, Molly Kaushal, Shyam
Sundar Mahapatra, Bhabagrahi Mishra and many new folklorists have contributed
in their respective field for shaping folklore study as a strong discipline in
representing the people's memory and people's voice.
Recently the
National Folklore Support Center in Chennai has taken the initiative to promote
folklore in public domain and bridging the gap of academic domain and community
domain. Indian folk heroes like Rama, Krishna in Sanskrit epics and history and
also in freedom movement are well known to every one. They have found a place
in written literature. But in Indian cultural sub-system, Indian folk heroes
are most popular. The castes and tribes of India have maintained their
diversities of culture through their language and religion and customs. So in
addition to national heroes, regional heroes and local folk and tribal heroes
are alive in the collective memory of the people. Let's take examples of the
Santhals or the Gonds. The Santhals have their culture heroes Beer Kherwal and
Bidu Chandan. Gonds have their folk hero Chital Singh Chhatti. Banjara folk
hero is Lakha Banjara or Raja Isalu. But not only heroes, the heroines of
Indian folklore have also significant contribution in shaping the culture of
India. Banjara epics are heroine-centric. These epics reflect the "sati"
cult. Oral epics with heroic actions of heroes and heroines produce a
"counter text", as opposed to the written texts. Therefore, the
younger brother becomes hero and kill his elder brother in an oral epic, which
is forbidden in classical epics. Folk heroes are some times deified and are
worshipped in the village. There is a thin difference of a mythic hero and
romantic hero in Indian folklore. In Kalahandi, oral epics are available among
the ethnic singers, performed in ritual context and social context. Dr Mahendra
Mishra, a folklorist, has conducted research on oral epics in Kalahandi, taking
seven ethnic groups. Dr. Chitrasen Pasayat has made an extensive study of
different folk and tribal forms of Yatra, like Dhanu yatra, Kandhen-budhi
yatra, Chuda-khai yatra, Sulia yatra, Patkhanda yatra, Budha-dangar yatra,
Khandabasa yatra, Chhatar yatra, Sital-sasthi yatra and examined the 'hero
characters' of the local deities. Indian oral epics are found abundantly
everywhere there are caste based culture. Prof. Lauri Honko from Turku, Finland
with Prof. Vivek Rai and Dr K Chinnapa Gawda have conducted extensive field
work and research on Siri Epic and have come out with three volumes on Epic of
Siri, not Siri. Similarly Prof. Peter J Claus has done intensive work on Tulu
epics. Aditya Mallick on Devnarayan epic, Pulikonda Subbachary on Jambupurana,
Dr JD Smith on Pabuji epic are some of the commendable work that have been
drawn attention of the wider readership.
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