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I N D I A N F O L K L I F E V O L U M E 1 I S S U E 3 JANUARY 2 0 0 2

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A QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER FROM NATIONAL FOLKLORE SUPPORT CEN TRE

VOLUME 1 ISSUE 3 JANUARY 2002

PublicSector

Folklore

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National Folklore Support Centre (NFSC) is a non-governmental, non-pro fit organisation, registered in Chennaidedicated to the promotion of Indian folklore research, education,training, networking and publications. The aim of the centre is tointegrate scholarship with activism, aesthetic appreciation withcommunity development, comparative folklore studies with cultural

diversities and identities, dissemination of information with multi-disciplinary dialogues, folklore fieldwork with developmental issuesand folklore advocacy with public programming events. Folklore isa tradition based on any expressive behaviour that brings a grouptogether, creates a convention and commits it to cultural memory.NFSC aims to achieve its goals through cooperative and experimentalactivities at various levels. NFSC is supported by a grant from theFord Foundation.

S T A F F

Prog ramme Of f i cer

N. Venugopalan, Publications

Adm i n i s t r a t i v e O f f i c er s

D. Sadasivam, FinanceT.R. Sivasubramaniam,Public Relations

Programme Assistant s

R. Murugan,Data Bankand Library

Jasmine K. Dharod,Public Programme

Athrongla Sangtam,Public Programme

M. Ramakrishnan,Public Programme

Support Staf f

Santhilatha S. KumarP.T. DevanK. Kamal Ahamed

V. ThennarsuC. Kannan

NEXT ISSUE

The April special issue is on NFSC Folk Festival, March2002: Oral narratives, Folk paintings, Musical instrumentsand Puppetry of India. Closing date for submission of

articles for the next issue is March 31, 2002. AllCommunications should be addressed to:

The Associate Editor,Indian Folklife,National Folklore SupportCentre, No: 7, Fifth Cross Street,Rajalakshmi Nagar, Velachery,Chennai - 600 042. Ph: 044-2448589, Telefax:044-2450553, email: [email protected]

Regional Resource Persons

V. Jayarajan

Kuldeep Kothari

Moji Riba

K.V.S.L. Narasamamba

Nima S. Gadhia

Parag M. Sarma

Sanat Kumar Mitra

Satyabrata Ghosh

Shikha Jhingan

Susmita Poddar

M.N. Venkatesha

Cover Illustration: Vibhishana, wearing his demon mask, sits inhis hut waiting for his cue line

Courtesy: Actors, Pilgrims, Kings and Gods by Anuradha Kapur,Calcatta: Seagull Books, 1990

B O A R D O F T R U S T E E SAshoke ChatterjeeB-1002, Rushin Tower, Behind Someshwar 2, Satellite Road, Ahmedabad

N. Bhakthavathsala ReddyDean, School of Folk and Tribal lore, Warangal

Birendranath Datta

Chandrabala Barooah Road, Silpukhuri, GuwahatiDadi D. PudumjeeB2/2211 Vasant Kunj, New Delhi

Deborah ThiagarajanPresident, Madras Craft Foundation, Chennai

Jyotindra JainProfessor and Dean, Department of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal NehruUniversity, New Delhi

Komal KothariChairman, NFSC.Director, Rupayan Sansthan,Folklore Institute of Rajasthan,Jodhpur,Rajasthan

Munira SenExecutive Director, Madhyam,Bangalore

M.D.MuthukumaraswamyExecutive Trustee and Director, NFSC, Chennai

K. Ramadas

Deputy Director,Regional Resources Centre for Folk Performing Arts, Udupi

P. SubramaniyamDirector, Centre for Development Research and Training, Chennai

Y. A. Sudhakar ReddyReader, Centre for Folk Culture Studies, S. N. School, Hyderabad

Veenapani ChawlaDirector, Adishakti Laboratory for Theater Research, Pondicherry

INDIAN FOLKLIFE - EDITORIAL

TEAM

M.D. Muthukumaraswamy,Editor

N. Venugopalan, Associate EditorRanjan De, Designer

h t t p : / / w w w . i n d i a n f o l k l o r e . o r g

C O N T E N T S

EDITORIAL.... . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

ANNOUNCEMENTS......................................4, 8

INTERVIEW..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

S P O T L I G H T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

H A P P E N I N G S . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 1 1

INNOVATIONS. ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ..... ...14

COMMENTS.....................................................16

VIEWPOINT.....................................................18REVIEW.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

On Arts, Craftsand Folklife

January, 2001

The Advent of AsianCentury in Folklore

April, 2001

Religion andFolklife

July, 2001

On City Landscapesand FolkloreJuly, 2000

On SyncretismApril, 2000

On EcologicalCitizenship, Local

Knowledge and Folklife,October, 2000

Museums, Folklifeand Visual Culture

October, 2001

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E D I T O R I A L

NFSC Folk Fest ival , March 2002: oral narrat i ves, fol k pai nti ngs, musi cal i nst ruments and puppet ry of I ndia

M.D. Muthukumaraswamy

Thi s fest i val subscri besto the poetics of invisibleconnections. Operating between the twin poles of totality

and plethora NFSCs festival intends to show how differentperformances, folk paintings, oral narratives, musicalinstruments and puppetry traditions refer to one another,organise themselves into a single discourse, converge withinstitutions and practices and carry meanings that may

be common to a whole period. Inter-textuality, as it isknown in the parlance of literary criticism, is the measure,practice and enunciating principle behind the organisationof this festival that cuts across genres, traditions andlanguages of Indian subcontinent. The intention is tocreate interpretative events that provide cultural encountersfor the urban audiences in the city of Chennai to revisittheir memories, selves, concepts of modernity and globalculture.

The feasibility of such interpretative transfer dependsineluctably on our context. The dawn of twenty-firstcentury appears to be a harbinger of an age of forgetfulnessfor the Indian subcontinent where the proliferation ofinformation has strangely quelled the possibilities ofmeanings. Spread of information devoid of significanceand signification characterise contemporary Indian citylife with junk mails, short message services on mobilephones, empty advertisements, mutilated language of theinternet chat and television mediated realities of humanexperience. We seem to have forgotten the rich reservoirof oral expressions. The tangible erosion is immediately

felt on the loss of vocabulary in the language of everydayuse. Our capacity to capture, articulate and elaboratehuman experience in words seems to be continuouslydwindling. If information is power, power seems to beabsolutely meaningless and as a corollary, powerlessnessis where meaning is.

Artistic folk traditions have been viewed as totallypowerless in our society stratified by class, caste andcultural strands. While the knowledge on the caste andclass stratification of our society is commonplace, thepolitics of cultural stands is not. Commercial mainstream,hegemonic classical, insensitive popular, invisible avant-garde and suppressed folklore are the five strands of

Indian culture. The inter-relationships between these fivestrands vary from state to state and language to language.What remains constant is the tendency of the commercialand popular mainstream to misrepresent folklore as thingsof the underdeveloped past. What follows is acondescending urban patronage towards unchanging,traditional and authentic folklore and materials andmechanisms associated with it. NFSCs attempts havealways been to challenge these notions and to presentfolklore as they are found. In other words, our attemptshave been to present folklore as changing contemporaryphenomenon and to encourage the view of the traditionas evolving and dynamic process. We have found alliesin the practitioners of avant-garde art, be it, drama,

painting, literature, music, cinema, dance or design. Thisfestival is no exception to our consistent efforts and itfurther strives towards consolidation of our allies.

In that sense, in our modern contemporary times, thetask of the true folklorist (and hence the festival) is to

restore his specialised idiom to the communal, collective

structures, which underlie speech, language and artisticexpressions. Public presentation of folklore in a contextother than where it originates from would first of all meanthat our discursive world is never on its first day. Itsprospects precede us, saturated with use, with reference,with connotations more or less buried but recuperablesediments of recall and meaning. This alone enables allcommunicative, semiotic notions to designate and tosignify. It is these informing planes that generatemetaphor, metonymy and the symbolic. In the festivalsituation, the sources of such semantic planes emerge incomparison as genres, as systems with differences andas expressions having relations of resemblance.

Semiotic creatures we are, we are born to retell tales toparticipate, to traverse through, to alter, to interpret andto make sense of the discursive world that precedes us.Retelling is an existential instance of all linguistic and

cultural resources rushing to ones rescue at the crucialjuncture of communicative act. The philosophicalproposition of memory aiding narrative confrontation ofthe world has endless fascination for anyone who strivesto see the existential drama of retelling beyond the insightsof oral formulae theory. It may also be seen as an effort toview the vast corpus of Indian oral epics as a kind of

Saussurean langue for Indian civilisation and culture.

While the ideas and concepts behind why we chose todo a festival on oral epics were clear from the beginningthe practical aspects of presenting them underwent severalchanges from the original conception. Most of the oralepics are very slow to develop and they do not hold theattention of the audiences who do not belong to thecommunities. In the original contexts the admiration withwhich the oral epics are held is mainly due to theirfunctions such as construction of communitys identity,its values and models of human conduct. In several cases,oral epics serve as referential points for symbolic structureof the communitys history and mythology. So the insiders

identification with the characters and events in the epicsis one of ritual awe and community obligation that gobeyond the interests in the narrative texts. These processesof mediation are common not only to epics that areintensely community specific but also to performancesof pan Indian nature such as Ramayana andMahabharata.

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JUSTPU

BLISHED

E D I T O R I A L / A N N O U N C E M E N T

Initially I thought we should avoid bringing performancesof pan Indian nature and we should focus only oncommunity specific epics. I abandoned this view as weprogressed with our research and I realised that evenperformances of particular episodes from the pan Indianepics have specific contemporary meanings for communities

as it is in the case of Chitrakathi performances ofMaharashtra. How do I communicate this to urbanaudience who think these are stories of the past?

I decided to present Pata painting and narratives fromWest Bengal in comparison to Chitrakathi because Patapainting narratives deal with explicit contemporarythemes. Whoever sees both the forms would soon learnthat both are contemporary artistic engagements althoughone is an interpretation of an old myth and another isthematic representation of our times. The trouble is Patanarratives are not epic length stories but I decided to ignoreit for the obvious reasons. As we proceeded to includetale of Pabuji from Rajasthan and Padam Kathaperformances of caste myths of Andhra Pradesh purelyon the basis that these are forms that use paintings asaids for oral narrations it became clear to me that genreis an outside construct imposed on forms that do notinherently pledge to interpretative categories.

The opportunity to test the limits of genre as aninterpretative category came our way as we started puttingtogether events of folk theatre from different parts of thecountry. While Therukkoothu, Chindu Yakshagana andYakshagana share several features of South Indian folktheatre tradition, Chavittunatakam as Christian folk theatrehistorically grew with new generic qualities andestablished itself as a tradition in its own right. Is Tamashafolk theatre or popular theatre? IsMayurbhanj Chhau folk

theatre or classical dance? The sequencing of folk theatreevents in the festival is bound to raise these questionsand we hope that such an enquiry would allow us to go

beyond the limits of the genre in order to see continuitybetween cultural strands. The puppetry festival organisedat Dakshinachitra intends to show the connections

beyond the cultural strands and into the spheres oftechnology such as digital animation.

Once you transgress the limits of genre, what you mightlike to see is free variety of expressions. That exactly iswhat we intend to provide under the category of eventscalled epic singing and dancing. While Villuppattu,Khamba Thoibi, Chandaini and Ponung offer excellentrepresentative samples of epic singing and dancing

available through out the country, we have included twoevenings of folk singing by child musicians of Rajasthan.They are not epic singers and their performances havenothing to do with epic singing and dancing. Whatthey intend to perform is songs connected with life cycleceremonies. The idea is to convey how folk singing perse is intimately connected to contexts. Please do see thecalendar of events in this issue (pp.12-3).

However much we try we cannot convey the contexts oforal narratives through performances alone. We hope theexhibitions of folk musical instruments; photography andfolk paintings together would communicate the contextsof oral narratives through their iconic presence as artefacts,images and representations.

Through this festival we convey the knowledge of folkforms; we convey the knowledge on folk genres; weconvey the knowledge of contexts; we convey theknowledge of cultural strands and we convey theknowledge of changes in expressive traditions. We dothat through variety of participatory events through outthe city of Chennai in all available cultural spaces fromMarch 4,2002 to March 13, 2002. If this can be calledreconstitution of the public sphere in favour of folk culture,well yes, that exactly is the intention.

Can we succeed in this experimental exercise? That isthe challenge of public sector folklore.

FOR KINGS SAKE: NARRATIVES AS DESIGNER TEXTS -Soumen Sen/ POPULAR CULTUREAND THE NORTH INDIAN ORAL EPICDHOLA-Susan S. Wadley /ALTERNATIVE PARADIGMS IN

FOLKLORE STUDIES: THE INDIAN CHAPTER - Nita Mathur /AFRO-BRAZILIANAVATRAS:GANDHIS SONS SAMBA IN SOUTH AMERICA - Pravina Shukla /THE FIVE ELEMENTS IN THEAARITUALS OF ORISSA - Ileana Citaristi /WHEN THE STONE CRUMBLES - Desmond L.Kharmawphlang /PATTERNS OF MYTHICAL RECONSTRUCTION IN OODGEROO NUNUKULS

DREAMTIME - V. Bharathi Harishankar /NORTH AMERICAN FOLKLORISTS FACING THE

MILLENNIUM -Lee Haring /MYTH AND IDENTITY - THE NARRATIVE CONSTRUCTION OF SELF

IN THE ORAL TRADITION OFVADRCOMMUNITIES - Guy Poitevin /Book Reviews: LIVES OFINDIAN IMAGES Richard H. Davis -Review by Aarti Kawlra /EXPLORING INDIAS SACRED ARTSelected Writings of Stella Kramrisch. Edited with a biographical essay by Barbara Stoler Miller -Review

by Aarti Kawlra /THE ORIGINS OF MUSIC Edited by Nils L. Wallin, Bjrn Merker, and Steven Brown

-Review by Ludwig Pesch

SUBSCRIPTION RATES

Single Issue India Rs.150/- Overseas $ 10Demand Draft or IMO in favour ofNational Folklore Support Centre

i frj Indian Folklore Research Journal I naugural I ssue Volume One Number One M ay 2001

Announcement

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Fol k performers have a dynami c rel at i onship w i t h other t radi t i ons

Peter Claus is an anthropologist and folklorist working at California State University, Hayward,America and the author of many books and articles. Visit www. isis.csuhayward.edu.ALSS/auth/claus/index.htm for viewing his online articles: Variability in Tulu Paddanas,Ritual transforms a

Myth,Unity in Folklore, Kadu Golla Dualism and Ethnography of Spirit Possession.E-mail: [email protected]. Interview with Peter Claus by Venu

I N T E R V I E W

You hav e devo t ed a great deal of y our r esearch t o t he

stud y of Tulu Paddanas; about t he space of w omens

singing, their bond i n mat r i l i neal relat ionship, etc. Al so

you at t empt ed to develop a met hodology t hat i s more

at t ent i ve to i t s content and expressi on. Do t hese songs

approach t he past t o unset t l e t he stabil i t y of i mposed

hierarchies and div i si ons? What do t hey signify for our

current fol kl ore engagement s and can w e hear a k i nd of

rebel l i ous murmur i n t hose songs?

Thats a complicated question, because you are talkingabout social system on one handmatrilineality-and asong tradition on the other hand. To use the word songof course is to make small of what is really great: thesesongs are mini-epics often 4 to 6 hours long, or more.Some are clearly epic in length, and the Siri Paddana isa very specific set of those. The genre called Paddana,itself is complicated with male sub-genres and femaleones.

I have to say that with regard to the song part of it, theactual recitation, I was attracted both to the male sub-genres of this tradition which occur during the bhuta kolas

(bhuta rituals), which are different from the Siri Jatras.Both of these are ritual contexts. But I was also attractedto the womens songs, which are sung when women aretransplanting paddy in the paddy fields. These areattractive for very, very different reasons. They are alldifferent in some ways, and I have tried to talk about thedifferences in some of my articles. But the womenstraditionssinging the very same songselaborates thestories in beautifully poetic ways.

My original research proposal in 1975 was to collect onesrelated to specific bhuta cult activities (and I use the wordcult here not in any derogatory sense a label for agroup of people that have a common sense of interest inreligious matters). I chose the Billava Koti-ChennayaPaddana cult as one, theMundaldakalu,(a so-called dalitcaste), Kordabbu Paddana and thirdly the Siri Paddana,which is totally different: it is associated with a cult whichis not caste associatedit is multi-caste. Initially I didwork on the male hero traditions, especially with theKoti Chennaya tradition, but then when I started workingwith the Siri Paddana I was drawn to the womenstraditions. And from that Paddana to other womensPaddanas that they sing in the fields. The sheer beauty ofthose Paddanas made me want to collect a whole bunchof them just to listen to them, just to experience theimagery. This is what brought me back about five yearslater to do research pretty much exclusively on thewomens tradition. And as I collected more and more ofthose I was able to see the Siri one, as well as the menssong traditions in much better perspective.

As to matrilineality in any of these, I dont think its animportant feature. Even in the Siri tradition, it is aboutmen and women, no doubt, but matrilineality, I think issecondary. I think all South Indian Dravidian cultures(maybe not all but certainly the majority) give a lot ofprominence to women in comparison with other typesof kinship systems. They all give, I think, an outsider, amale such as myself, much freer interaction with women.I dont know, maybe matrilineality gives a slightly greateredge to this but I dont think so actually.

As to rebellious, I dont think that is what characterisesthe Siri Paddana or any of these Paddanas. The Siri Paddanais particularly associated with the Siri Jatra, the Siri cultritual that occur once a year. It s not about rebelling, it isabout a mutual sense of curing, help, and aid. Its truethat in those cult activities, women have a visibleprominence. That is what amazed me the first time I sawa Siri Jatrathe thousands of possessed women doingand acting in ways that were extraordinary. However quiteas equally extraordinary for mens behaviour toobutthere are fewer men who are participants in the Siri cult.In the fields when the women sing the Siri Paddana, thats

where you see the greatest elaboration of the story andthe narrative takes its fullest form. Whatever rebelliousnessthere may be in the narrative it is most elaborately detailedin the womens field song. When you get to the cultrecitation, its the male control of the womens possession,which predominates, but again there is not a sense ofrebelliousness, but of competition between women:sisters. There is also a sense of collaboration, there is asense of curing, there is a sense of focussing everyonesattentionmens and womens attentionon a woman,a single and usually young woman, who is experiencingdifficulties, and how the aid of the Siri spirits can be

brought to bear on that. Her difficulties are with one of

the Siri spirits. If indeed she is possessed by a Siri spirit,then the issue is how that possession can be turned froma difficult one in to one that she can control for the benefitof everyone involved. Once she can control the spiritherself, she can help others.

So the male involvement is what transforms spiritpossession from difficulty to social good, but womenalso participate in that transformation. I dont see acompetition in which there would be rebelliousness. Soyour full question was about Tulu Paddanas, matrilinealityand rebelliousness has been atleast partially answered.Siri narratives brought me to look at the womens Paddana

tradition, but what brought me to do the collections thatI have done on them is the sheer beauty of the womenstraditions.

When you say t hat t hey contai n a curat i ve value i t i s

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i nteresti ng to see a social fabri c which support s male

dominat ed perspecti ve and w it hin t hat str uctur e w omen

occupy a space ot her t han w hat i s know n i n general . Itis signi f icant t o t he study of t he narrat i ve mode of

Paddanas and also t o concei ve it as a chroni cle of our

t i me. Is there any singular point or mul t i p le factors

w hi ch mak es t hem so uni que and w hat i s that semi nal

posit ion w hi ch w omen occupied in that ? I remember

your art i cle al so st ress t he rol e of w omen and t he

support i ve role of men. So does t hat mak e t he femini ne

voi ce very semi nal i n t he narrat i ve?

It is important, there is no doubt about that. But I dontsee it as unique or extraordinary. Its definitely also a partof Keralas Pampomtullal, where women play a very

prominent role. It is part of Andhra PradeshDavidKnight has written about the Veerabhadra cults and thePerantalucults there. I understand from Isabelle Nabokovswritings and Margaret Trawicks writings that women playa very prominent role in Tamil culture too, and in Tamilfamilies. I dont think there is anything extraordinaryabout the Tulu situation, within South Indian context.But perhaps it is revelational what I have written abouthow narrative song traditions view womens role in thekinship systems and society in south India. I dont knowwhy other anthropologists did not write about it. It mayhave been my focus on the oral literature that womensing. But I always felt that Dravidian kinship systems

placed women in equal positionnot equal as indemocracy, individuality but equal prominence, equalimportance in the family. Although that is malleable tooin some communities, it is more subtle, in some it ismore exposed.

Much has been made in the folklore literature by Kannadafolklorists about the nature ofSiri and how it expressesthe womens rebelliousness, but I have never entirely gonealong with that. Anything I might have written thatsuggests that, was not meant to support that sort of idea.There have been many kinds of extravagant ideasexpressed by Kannada folklorists about the Siri material,

and viewing the SiriJatra activities. The word Siri inKannada in some parts of Karnataka means a rebellious,headstrong woman, but I dont get the impression inTulunad, among the Tuluvas that it means that; maybe ithas something of that connotation but not to be over-

interpreted.

The uneasiness and vi gil ance i s in a w ay connect ed t o

you r comments about mar gi and desi .also. You ar e of

t he opi nion t hat some of t he w ords whi ch regional

l anguages developed are not very subtl e or pr oducti ve

categori es for underst andi ng the i dea of fol kl ore. I cansee t hat t here i s a ki nd of i maginat i on behind r efusing

to accept t hese li mi t ed defi nit ions. How ever, woul d yo u

explai n that tension more clearl y? It is one t hing to say

t ha t t hese categor ies are not u sefu l anym ore to

understand t he hi story of t he present . At t he same t ime,

i t is i mportant to ident i fy those categor i es, w hich are

operat i onal or conceptual l y useful t o understand t he

idea of fo l k l ore. M aybe the idea of fo l k l ore i t sel f is

undergoing change i n our t imes.

Well, the terms margi and desi are terms that were not inany way developed by people who deal in terms of

folklore today. There was a relationship between regionaland Sanskritic traditions, and folklore was left out of this.Folklore, the culture of the untouchable, the marginalized,the tribal was never part of that binary. Perhaps a newcategory had to be introduced to draw attention to theirtraditions and that it is very much a part of what peoplehave done under the label of folklore. But I also have anobjection to folklore and its implied opposite, whateverthat may be. I dont exactly know why a category of folkloreexists as if that is something that has to be different fromeverything else. In anycase , folk vs. the rest of us is aEuropean and English and American set of distinctionsthat have a wholly different baggage to them with a very

different set of historical significance, that I dont thinkapply very well to India, or to Africa or to other parts ofAsia.

Is it because of t he cul t ural div ersit y?

No, it has to do with what needs to be distinguished,and I dont think folklore needs to be distinguished. It issort of the baseline of culture. In fact, it is the new kindsof movements which are distinguished by people withina culture, such as America, with movements like post-modern having to distinguish itself and Modern and

before that enlightened, etc. Those were types of writingor types of art that, as they developed in a culture, getlabels, and get distinctions because of those labels, oralong with those labels. Nevertheless, folklore never needsto have a distinction because that was the baseline fromwhich other things seek to distinguish themselves. Weview all of this from our perspective as if modern andpost-modern and enlightened was normal and folkis something different, needing a label: its not, it is whatsnormal, usual, everyday thinking and practice.

Why we needed to create a word like folklore to identifythe baseline, I am unsure. Because culture is alwayschanging and the word folklore implies that there issome point at which that baseline was solidified and made

static, made unchanging. If thats the intention of use ofthat word is, then I have no interest in that word becauseit does not pertain to any sort of reality that I have everencountered. Everything that I have studied in folkloreis under constant change. Change, not only in terms of

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content but change in distribution and spread, and itsaccessibility by small, limited groups or mass groups, inother words, popular culture, to apply another label todistinguish it from folklore, which implies a morerestricted use. But I dont think these labels identifyanything. Perhaps they identify, if anything, maybe aprocess: something becomes loosened from restrictionwithin an identity group to become more popular, thenyou call it popular culture. When it is constrained andidentified with one group, then you call it that groupsfolklore. So that you talk about Italian customs, food andstories and you call it Italian folklore and that identifies agroup of Italian Americans, or German folklore, or Britishfolklore. These phrases identify a collection of things,practices, stories and so forth within a restricted groupof people as an identity. But you dont need the wordfolklore either when you talk about German customs,German tales: there are few (if any) customs or tales thatare found only among the Germans. All can be shown tohave developed out of practices and stories shared farmore broadly than just among Germans. There is aprocess by which they may have become restricted toGermans (If they did) that leads them to be identified asGerman folklore.

Why I asked you t he quest i on about cul t ura l div ersi ty

i s t hat duri ng our aft ernoon int eracti on at NFSC, you

w ere t alk ing about border communit ies and nomadic

peopl es fol kl ore. We di d not pursue fur t her but t he i dea

of nomadi cit y generat es new possibil i t i es in understandi ng

fol kl ore. The idea of nomad prov i des new dimensions to

t he study of fol kl ore. The i dea of nomad does not support

t he i dea a fi xed pl ace i n space and ti me. I t al so cont ai nslot of creat i ve potent i a l , w hich the idea of group or

communit y doesnt hav e. When w e di d a seri es of

w orkshops on v i sua l ar t t rad i t ions of I nd ia , I a lways

thought that i t is the communal w hich contai ns the

indi vi dual. The indi vi dual i s lik e a picture of that being.

The indi vi dual exists only duri ng the singulari ty of that

event or performance or duri ng the maki ng of that w ork

of ar t . This stat us of nomadic i ty also al low s var iat ion

w it hin t he col lect i vi ty. They dont govern the practi ce.

I t al l ow s t he performer or art i st to be close t o his/her

communit y as w el l as makes possible the movement

away f rom i t . Why y ou ho ld the op in ion tha t fo lk l o re

does not r eall y need all t hat ?

Well, I dont know I agree although I have thought aboutall which you have mentioned about nomadicity. But Ilike the idea, I think it is something that hasnt beenexplored very well, especially with regard to Indianfolklore of course, it has been done with Europeanfolklore, especially in America because American folkloreis all about where your ancestors came from: Italy,Germany, Sweden, England, Spain or where yousupposed your ancestors came from, those you want toidentify with. But it also happens in India, and thematerial that we are talking about, lets call it folklore,

often or sometimes has that characteristic of nomadicity(I like that word).

Right now I am studying a group called the Gollas ofAndhra Pradesh and Karnataka and the Kuravas too,

which are widely dispersed people. Actually my interestin them was to get myself back to looking at morethoroughly anthropological issues, less folklore ideas, butI found myself concerned with folklore once again in

just exactly that aspect of folklore that nomadicity implies.It is what holds a people together, in a sense, a micro-diaspora of Gollas. The Katama Raju Katha for some Gollas,or for Kuravas, the Mallana, Maillara, or Kandhoba storyand others they have a huge repertoire of folklore holdthese diasporic peoples together. There are performinggroups and importantly, I believe, they travel throughoutthe Kurabaand Kurama and Golladiasporas, performingthese stories about the Golla and Kuraba heroes. Theirperformances have the effect of maintaining a certaincultural unity within the diaspora, it holds together anidentity group and keeps them as a social group, asopposed to a group that disperses and dissolves. Andwhat I found myself doing in my present research isseeing the degree to which those performers and theirsongs and performances are effective in holding the groupand the group identity together. Our research is inprogress and I dont have any answers, although mypreliminary findings are in an unpublished paper froma conference of the Hyderabad Central University Centre,which speaks about some of these issues. The SocialEffectiveness of Performance is I think what I call thatparticular paper, and it begins to address some aspectsof your question, your identification of nomadicity offolklore. It doesnt address some of the aspects that youmentioned the aesthetic dimension, the artisticdimension I dont know quite how to address those.

My expertise lies in social anthropology, not in aesthetics,although the aesthetics of folk traditions always attractsme, but in terms of what gives me something to workwith is the social effectiveness. Everything that I havedone with folklore actually is on the social effectivenessof folklore.

You are also inv olv ed i n t he set t ing up of few folk lor e

insti tut ions in Indi a. These insti t uti ons in a way at tempt

to reinvent w heel s-ones know ledge or enti re wor k become

another indi vi duals tool or basel i ne. The fol k ar t i st

al so tr ansforms hi s/her expert i se, innovat i veness, thr ough

w hat i s preserv ed, archi ved and pr esent ed by t hese

i nsti t ut i ons to t he communi t y. These processes may al sorevi t al i se t he tr adit i on. What are your experi ences in

w orking in India?

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I dont think that the folk ever-needed folklore centresto become inspired. I could give innumerable instancesto show that folk performers draw techniques and contentthey see in other traditions into their own tradition. Folkperformers are not as isolated from one another as most

of us like to think. We like to imagine them as pure orsomething like that ,but they are not. They have a dynamicrelationship with other traditions around them. That isas it should be.

So its not for the sake of the folk that the centres areneeded. It is for our sake, to inform us what we aremissing in our isolated lives, to bring us in touch withthose who share our times. In that regard, there is anenormous amount of material that needs to be gathered.We need to use the most up-to-date equipment to recordit. It has to be stored in an environment such that it isntlost as fast as it is gathered. It needs to be understood in

so many different ways and it needs to be accessible,conveyed to those of us who are interested. All of thistakes huge sums of money. The Ford Foundation hasprovided all this. My primary association with the centreshas been through a series of workshops meant to enhancelinks between folklorists within India and between Indianfolklorist and folklorists around the world. One of themost important aspects of those links, in my view, wascommunication and a mutual understanding of oneanothers methodologies and uses-primarily interpretativeuses-of the material gathered in the centres. Our hopewas to develop a cadre of younger folklorists who could

establish these kinds of links. The actual results of theworkshops may be seen in the works of those who hadparticipated, and in the activities of the institutions suchas NFSC (Muthukumaraswamy had participated in the

Announcement

I ndi an Folk l ore Research Journal - Cal l for Papers - M ay 2002(Cl osing Dat e: March 31, 2002)

Instructions for Authors: Please send articles (not more than 5000 words) in a double spaced (A4 size), single-sidedtypescript or Microsoft word 95. The articles should be original, unpublished and not submitted for publicationelsewhere. The copyright in any form of the article shall rest with the publisher. References and footnotes should be

included at the end of the file or typescript. Also it can be e-mailed to Associate Editor at [email protected] should confirm to the latest edition ofMLA style manual. Line drawings or illustrations should be providedin camera-ready form. It could be either at 100% or 50%. For figures the maximum display area is 4.5x7.25.

Submissions: IFRJ invites the submissions of articles on all aspects of folklife, including articles in English or worksin other languages, offering multidisciplinary, historical and cultural approaches to folklife. Please send your copyscript in accordance with the latest MLA style manual. Submissions are evaluated anonymously, the authors nameand address should appear only on the cover sheet of the copy script. We also welcome submission of illustrations.Authors are responsible for obtaining copyright permission and send your submissions in three hard copies toAssociate Editor, IFRJ.

Copyright: In assigning copyright, authors may use their own material in other publications provided that the IFRJis properly acknowledged as the original source of publication.

Periodicity: IFRJ is published annually in May every year. Website: www.indianfolklore.org for viewing abstracts and

full text ofIndian Folklife, Newsletter.Resource reviews: Resources to be considered for review (print as well as audio visual) should be sent to ReviewEditor, IFRJ. Scholars wishing to review folklore resources should write to Review Editor, outlining their interestsand competencies.

I N T E R V I E W / A N N O U N C E M E N T

workshops), Fossils (most of its leading figures hadparticipated) and the Centres themselves (most employfolklorists who had participated in these workshops). Ithink it can safely be said that the hoped for linkageshave come about. I think there are further kinds of

development which need to take place, though I dontknow whether The Ford Foundation is still willing toprovide its monetary support, but I am always willing tocontinue my interaction with Centres and the folklorists.Infact, I am in touch with many of them every time Icome to India, we continue to communicate and shareideas.

Of course the materials collected in folklore Centres maybe of value to people of many different interests: artists,scholars, school children, the general public in urban aswell as rural areas. All are welcome, as long as they usethe material in ethical ways, respecting, acknowledging

and protecting the property rights of those who createdthe art in the first place.

NOTES

The following words are used without diacritical marks inthe text:Siri Paddana (Siri Pddana); bhuta kolas (bhta klas); bhuta rituals

(bhta rituals); bhuta cult (bhta cult); Billavakoti (B-llavakti);

Chennaya Paddana (Chennaya Pddana); Koti Chennaya (Kti

Chennaya); Paddanas (Pddanas); Siri Jatra (Siri Jtra); Katama Raju

Katha (Ktama Raju Katha) Editor.

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Among t he Vark ari s: A j ourney t o Pandharpur

Scharada Bail is currently working as an internetconsultant and interested in cultural studies .E-mail: [email protected]

I nd i a abounds i n exampl eswhere thecollective tradition has evolved out of the fierce longingfor ones personal, very own relationship with God. WhenSri Jagannath of Puri is adorned and then carried on theshoulders of the millions who adore him, each one ofthe crowd is feeling a tangible love akin to what onemay feel for more human ties, but far more intense andexalted. When millions of people walk for almost fourweeks to reach their beloved Vithoba at Pandharpur everyyear, they are placing this annual pilgrimage above alltheir other mundane, domestic tasks. The Pandharpuryatra takes place in the month of July-August, the Hindu

month of Ashaadh, in Maharashtra. It is an annual ritualin the lives of millions of peoplea month long journeyon foot that begins at Alindi on the banks of the Indrayaniriver, and culminates on the Devshayani or AshaadhiEkadashi day at Pandharpur. Here the river Bhima hastaken a turn which makes it appear like the crescent ofthe moon. It is therefore called the Chandrabhaga river.The famed Vitthal temple is in Pandharpur. There isanother smaller yatra later in the year during Kartik, orNovember-December. But the Ashaadh one is the defining

journey, the most significant characteristic of theVarkarisa Vaishnav sect which draws followers fromthe small rural farmers across Maharashtra.

To be a Varkari is to be free of too many cumbersomerules and rituals. It is to merely love ones Vithoba withall ones heart, wear tulsi beads around ones neck becausetulsi is dear to Him, and a spot of black powder on theforehead because Vithoba, like all forms of Vishnu orKrishna, is the Dark One. For a Varkari, liberation is meantto be through love, and love for Vithoba is to be realizedas love for ones fellow humans, and creatures. Thesimplicity of this particular path to salvation is what hasmade the Pandharpur yatra such a powerful and

memorable journey for around 700 years.

Varkaris refer to the poet saint Sant Jnaneshwar(12751296) as Mauli, an endearment which can refer toones mother, and in this case, conceives of the saint as aspiritual parent, both mother and father. Infact , the sectgrew out of the teachings of Jnaneshwar, who broughtthe Bhagawad Geeta out of the clutches of the priestlyclass and into the hearts of millions of peasants byrendering it into Marathi as the Jnaneshwari. Jnanadev,his siblings Nivruttinath, Sopan and Muktabai, Namdev,Eknath and Tukaram are among the saints who arevenerated each year at the Yatra. Their songs, or abhangsare sung to the accompaniment of dhol, small brassmanjiras, and veena. Their woodenpadukas, or footwearencased in silver, are carried in palanquins the entirelength of the journey from Alindi to Pandharpur.

In Maharashtra, the towns and villages where importanttemples are situated are called Sri Kshetras. The routeof the yatra is marked with concrete painted boards whichgreet the pilgrims, and inform all others that it is theMahamarg on which the devout travel totheir destination. The sheer scope of the yatra isawe-inspiring. It begins on the Ganesh SankashtaChaturthi Day at Alindi. Jnanadevspadukas are carriedfrom this spot, his birthplace. The other large groupcarrying Tukaramspalkhi sets off from Dehu, and some40 odd palkhis from other destinations also begin the

journey, where they join the Mahamarg at differentstages, to finally converge at Wakhri, 6 km. beforePandharpur. Here they set up their last camp, sing, dance,perform theatre, rejoice in having come this far, and reachPandharpur the next day, to keep their tryst with theirLord.

Sri Krishna as Vitthal came to live in Pandharpur, due to

S P O T L I G H T

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S P O T L I G H T

the request of Pundalik, many centuries ago. Pundalikwas a delinquent youth, who had shown great disrespecttowards his parents, even turning down their plea to helpthem in a journey to Kashi. However, he himself feltimpelled to go to Kashi shortly thereafter, and losing hisway close to the holy city, had to sleep the night in Sage

Kukkuts ashram. It is said that here he saw how thethree maidenly forms of the great rivers Ganga, Yamunaand Saraswati came each night to refresh themselves bylabouring in Kukkuts ashram. When he questioned them,they revealed that Kukkut was so pure a devotee, thatmerely working for him was enough to cleanse and refreshthem, after their exhaustion at washing away the sins ofthe multitude at Prayag. And what was the secret ofKukkuts pure devotion? He had selflessly and lovinglyserved his parents.

This was the eye-opener that Pundalik needed to abandonhis neglectful ways and turn into such a devoted son,that one day, when Sri Krishna arrived to beckon him

from outside his Pandharpur home, Pundalik did notrush out, as he was busy massaging his old parents tiredfeet. Instead he threw a brick outside, known as a veet inMarathi, and asked Krishna to stand on it and wait forhim, till he finished his work. Thus Vitthal stands witharms akimbo, in the classic waiting position, theBhaktavatsal, ready to wait forever for the love of hisdevotees. The Pundalik story has a theme underpinningit, that illustrates a fundamental facet of Indian culturewhen we serve ones parents, we are actually serving God.

When I joined the Yatra at the end of June, 2001, theVarkaris had already been walking for weeks, and had setup the last camp at Wakhri. I stumbled off a bus onto the

highway near Wakhri at night, and for a few momentsstood in a disoriented haze. Then I began walking towardsdistant lights, where others were already silhouetted beforeme. I reached a lantern lit expanse of tents where thesmells of cooking, and the sounds of chorused bhajansrevealed a nighttime routine that had become secondnature for these thousands. Pilgrims walk in organisedgroups called dindis, with their leaders carrying saffroncoloured pennants on tall sticks. Many have the brassmanjira in their hands that helps them to keep timewith the abhangs which the whole group is singing.Women sometimes carry little square brass pots holdingtulsi on their heads. The more mundane necessities forthe pilgrims, like food, clothes, and tents, are carriedalongside in trucks which can go ahead and pitch campfor the night, at each respective stop. The yatris aresustained by an enduring community culture. Familiesin villages and towns along the Mahamarg havetraditionally fed and hosted the pilgrims. In addition, aPalkhi Mahasangh administers the important issuesaround the Yatra. The dates, various stops, timings ofspecial poojas are printed on leaflets and available to allwho care to join the Yatra.

I was joining at a very late stage, but I comforted myselfwith the thought that I was coming from distant Chennai.As I walked towards where the Tukaram palkhi wasparked, I stopped to listen to some of the discourses andsongs being sung by the campers. An elderly yatri withthe elaborate silk turban of a leader was addressing hisfellow men and women. It is not enough to merely behere on this occasion. One has to express ananda. Thesaints want us to dance and rejoice, to love every moment

of the journey, because this is all we have

The big, beautifully curved and embossed silver handlesof the Tukaram palkhi beckoned, and as soon as I hadfinished paying my few moments of homage to the saint,I was asked if I had eaten. Would I like dinner? The

question came from an elderly man with twinkling eyes.Over a dinner ofkhichdi, potato and peas sabji, and largeround rotis, he told me that he had been coming with thepalkhi from Dehu for forty seven years, and before that,from Alindi for another twenty five. Forty seven years!I exclaimed. Im only forty! Well, Im in my eighties,said the man, indulgently. His smile was that of a manwho is absolutely contentto be walking for a three-weekperiod at eighty, without any sign of strain.

I stretched under the stars on the ground, along withhundreds of others, wondering about the spirit that heldthe whole community together. Was this mortification,walking for weeks, sleeping in the open, enduring every

discomfort for a demanding God? It seemed to me like ariver of love and contentment, with every person in thethrong attuned to the others around him or her. The ladyalready asleep next to me woke at 2 am and left to bathefor the final trek to Pandharpur. When she returned, shewas ready to talk. She asked me to join her for the Yatraevery year from Dehu, even pointing out her addressfrom certain landmarks! She was warm and welcoming,and did not even feel the need to know my name. Myclothes, accent, obvious social status, nothing held anyimportance for her only my desire for Vitthals blessing.The rest of the night was enlivened by the performanceofbharud, a form of folk theatre that showed Tukaramsstruggles with his shrewish wife on this occasion. After

the drama, and in between, there was abundant songthe devotional abhangs of the saints. I walked into thewatery rising sun of an Ashaadh morning towardsPandharpur with the others streaming around me,fortifying myself with the stunningly sweet amrit tulyachaha or nectar-like tea, sold at intervals. This heavilysugared brew is especially for the walkers who may berunning low on blood sugar. For me, it was sheerindulgence! Pandharpur town was decked up for the greatevent, and crowds packed the temple where all thepilgrims would not be able to have darshan. But this doesnot discourage them. For this annual event is its ownreward. The Lord lives among his people, and to have

been a part of this journey, is to have recognised this.Other incentives are unnecesary. An endless processionof humanity, with the bright colours of sarees, turbansand pennants heightening its already colourful character,is the final, delightful sight of this unique event. As Istood on the appointed day at the gates of Pandharpur,seeing before me the river of arriving pilgrims stretchingto the edge of the horizon, I felt the stirring deep insidethat informs us we are close to our Source. It is at momentslike this, when it seems obvious that the intelligence thatguards over all of us, and goes by the name of God, isnot on some distant galaxy, but here, very close at hand.

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The past oral t r i bes of I ndiaand many partsof South and South East Asia have for long been richstorehouses of art and craft. Many of these tribes are famedfor their needlework, especially embroidery. Passed onfrom mother to daughter, embroidery is an importantpart of the repertoire of the tribes skills. But sadly, this isa legacy that is showing signs of decay in the presentday, mainly because of lack of awareness among thegeneral public.

To raise awareness about the art of embroidery practisedby severa l tr ibes , the Craf ts Counci l of India incollaboration with the Crafts Council of Andhra Pradeshand the Asian Secretariat of the World Craft Councilorganised an international embroidery seminar in AndhraPradesh. Held at the National Institute of FashionTechnology, Madhapur, Hyderabad, in early 2001, theseminar was planned to create awareness of the kind ofembroidery that was existent in India and the 13participating countries.

It was also intended to give young designers an addeddimension to their work and study of textiles and design.Most of the speakers were designers from NGOs who

worked with the tribes and helped them with their work.Spectacular examples of this work were presented oncolour slides that served to illustrate many of the lectures.More important, the spirited discussions betweenspeakers brought into focus the numerous problems faced

by the needle-craftspeople and attempted some solutions.

The weeklong seminar was spread over eight sessions,covering historical perspectives, regional expressions,pastoral and nomadic traditions, South East Asianembroideriestradition and change, and the influenceof market places. There were joint sessions with theembroidery workshop, as well as a bazaar that displayed

and sold embroidered saris, shawls, pouch bags and tablelinen. The craftspeople, most of them women, also had asession where they interacted with each other anddiscussed their strengths and weaknesses with the helpof moderators who spoke their language.

Among the papers presented was one by Judy Frater, whodiscussed Rabari embroidery as a reflection of the tribesadaptation to the environment. The paper, RabariEmbroidery: Chronicle of Tradition and Identity in a ChangingWorld, described how Kala Raksha, an organisation setup by Frater, guided the craftspeople to view embroiderythrough contemporary idiom. During the devastating

earthquake of January 2001, Frater geared up herorganisation and arranged for many exhibitions and saleswhich took the tribe through a dark period.The seminar also discussed the applique and mirror workof the Banjaras, a pastoral tribe of Andhra Pradesh. The

Embroi dery : The Uni versal Thread

Sabita Radhakrishna is a freelance writer, broadcaster andVice Chairperson of Crafts Council of India based in Chennai.E-mail: [email protected]

state Crafts Council had identified this needlework as aproject that could help alleviate the poor socio-economiccondition of the Banjaras. Yellama Thanda, a Banjaravillage near Hyderabad, was chosen as the model village,and the women of this village were trained by the craftscouncil to hone their skills for a demanding market.

Viji Srinivasan, the woman behind Aditi, encouragedwomen to describe their thoughts and fantasies throughquilts which they embroider beautifully and it is theinventiveness of these sujni quilts that make themoutstanding. Dinh Thu Huong, a textile designer fromHong Kong, described her group Craft Link as a centrethat helped craftspeople to adapt designs to suit thecontemporary market, if only to prolong the life of thecraft.

Eric Ong, president of the Artelier Sarawak society, spokeof the beadwork that played an important role in thecultural history of the peoples of Sarawak in Borneo. Beadswere worn not only for ornamentation, but also astalismans and status symbols. Apart from glass beads,cowrie shells, bear claws, leopard teeth, shell discs,mirrors and brass bells are used. Today, moving withthe times, these beads have become part of evening wearaccessories!

Indrasen Vencatachellum, Chief of Craft and Design atUNESCO, chairing the wrap-up session, said craftsshould be considered a part of the national culturalheritage and that due honour should be accorded to themakers of the crafts.

The UNESCO Craft Awards for 2001 were also presentedduring this seminar. There were 51 entries from 12countries, and the entries were judged on the basis oftechnical proficiency and creativity in the context oftradition and design innovation. The first prize of $2,500went to Basheer Ahmed Jaan of India for his embroideredshawl and Kaim Tae Ja of Korea for her embroidered panelscreen. The second prize of $1,500 went to Jasiben Meriyaof India (Kutchi wall panel) and a group of eight Banjaracraftspeople (Banjara wall panel).

Sufia Begum of Bangladesh (kantha bedcover) and HaticeMuskaya of Turkey (hand towel) shared the honours forthe third prize of $1,000. All six entries were sent toUnesco in Paris to be part of a permanent exhibition.This was not only a pat on the back for CCI, it shouldhelp keep the tradition of embroidery alive.

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INDIANFOLKLIFE

VOLU

ME

1

ISSUE

3

JANUARY2002

12

Date Event / Art form Story of Venue From

March 4 Phad Pabuji CEH Rajasthan

March 4 Therukkoothu Kandavavana Thakanam OAT Tamil Nadu

March 4 Khamba Thoibi Khamba and Thoibi MT Manipur

March 5 Phad Pabuji CEH Rajasthan

March 5 Therukkoothu Bageeratha Prayathanam OAT Tamil Nadu

March 5 Khamba Thoibi Khamba and Thoibi MT Manipur

March 6 Chitrakathi Aranya Kand CEH Maharashtra

March 6 Tamasha Marathi Tales OAT Maharashtra

March 6 Phad Pabuji MT Rajasthan

March 7 Chitrakathi Aranya Kand CEH Maharashtra

March 7 Tamasha Marathi Tales OAT Maharashtra

March 7 Child Artists - Langas and Manganiars Folk Songs MT Rajasthan

March 8 Pata Sabitri and Satyaban, Chandi Mangal CEH West Bengal

March 8 Yakshagana Lava - Kusha OAT Karnataka

March 8 Ponung Abangs MT Arunachal Pradesh

March 9 Pata Manasa Mangal CEH West Bengal

March 9 Yakshagana Pandavaswamedha OAT Karnataka

March 9 Ponung Abangs MT Arunachal Pradesh

March 10 Padam Katha Rupavathi Kalyanam CEH Andhra Pradesh

March 10 Mayurbhanj Chhau Chakrabiyuha OAT Orissa

March 10 Villuppattu Muthupattan Kathai MT Tamil Nadu

March 11 Padam Katha Rupavathi Kalyanam CEH Andhra Pradesh

March 11 Mayurbhanj Chhau Tamudia Krishna OAT Orissa

March 11 Villuppattu Pulithevan Kathai MT Tamil Nadu

March 12 Chavittunatakam Karlman Natakam OAT Kerala

March 12 Chindu Yakshagana Keechaka Vadham CEH Andhra Pradesh

March 12 Chandaini Chandaini MT Chattisgarh

March 13 Chindu Yakshagana Keechaka Vadham CEH Andhar Pradesh

March 13 Chavittunatakam Karlman Natakam OAT Kerala

March 13 Chandaini Chandaini MT Chattisgarh

NFSC FOLK FESTIVAL, MARCH 2002: ORAL NARRATIVES, FOLK PAINTINGS, MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS ANCALENDAR OF EVENTS

Time: All performances starts daily at 6.00 pm Venue: Government Museum premises, Egm

Keys used (Genre) : SPN = Scroll Painting and Narrative; FT = Folk Theatre; ESD = Epic Si

Keys used (Venues) : CEH = Centenary Exhibition Hall; MT = Museum Theatre; OAT = Open A

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Surabhi : The l imi t l ess ear t hen vessel

Siddharth Kak is producer and presenter of Surabhi and basedin Mumbai. E-mail: [email protected]

This vessel contains all of natureWithin it lies all Creation.This vessel brims with the Seven SeasWithin it lie the infinite Galaxies.This vessel contains priceless TreasuresWithin it resides the Supreme Evaluator.This vessel resounds with Cosmic SoundWithin it flows the Fountain of Life.Says Kabir, Listen all you FaithfulWithin this vessel dwells the Creator!Saint Kabir

Thi s verse by t he famous Sai nt Kabi rhas often been quoted in Surabhi brochures and episodes.It presents succinctly in poetry what the programmestrove to present using mass mediaa slice of the richplurality that India has nurtured. `Surabhi denotesfragrancethe fragrance of clay, the fragrance of a childand mother, an accumulation of a wider fragrance.

Surabhi began in the early 1990s when the documentaryformat had a negative perception among televisionaudiences in India, who equated it with Governmentpropaganda. Surabhi stormed Indian television with itsinteractivity and content, interactivity that reached out to

its audience as well as those who were presented throughthis cultural showcase. The content brought to the peoplea glimpse of their own life and livingtheir own culture;the vessel that is part of us and within which we grow.

It showed the various facets of the individualsomeglossy, some rustic, some coloured, some monotoned,some antique, some new. It was the first programme toreach out to people on equal terms, to ask them questionsand elicit answers that would reflect in the show,something taken for granted in todays programmes.

This rich content and viewer-friendly format were bothintegral to Surabhis appeal. But the real challenge was ingiving importance to the supposedly less classy, lesspopular and less star-valued subjects to retain itsessence and reality, while still catering to popular taste.In a sense, sometimes the folk and the rural were

romanticised using slow motion shots, lighting effectsand mood music; but this did not make the subjectkitschy. Instead, it appealed to an audience that was notprepared, informed or initiated to appreciate it. To thatextent, Surabhi was a course in cultural appreciation forthe masses. It presented to India the lives of its peoplesand how art was a reflection of those lives.

Thanks to Surabhi, art and culture were no longer thedomain of the elite. The common man was introduced toartists and craftspeople from all over the country, from

Jangarh Singh Shyam, a tribal artist from Madhya Pradeshto a modernist like M.F. Hussain. The subjects chosen

were eclecticthe BMX stunt cyclists of urbanMaharashtra, the coconut tree climbers of Kerala, thearchitecture of the Hampi temples, Laurie Bakers work,the carvings on the Taj Mahal, the decorated walls of the

traditional Bungas in Gujarat, theRamlila of North India, innovativecontemporary plays, the lostprocess of metal casting practised

by Sri Karunanidhi Sthapathy inTamil Nadu and by folk craftsman

Jaydev Bhagel in Bastar (M.P.) .Change and innovation, tradition

and modernity, folk and classical,all were represented and treatedwith zeal and passion. A passionthat was derived from the art andartistes themselves. Surabhi aimedto salute this passion, seek it evenin the oft-ignored and highlight itas a thread that binds lives,communities, cultures andnations.

Surabhi provided a platform forlesser-known artists like Abdul

Majeed Ansari (a Surahi makerwho makes exquisite clay-ware bypasting together delicate strips ofclay), or for local art forms like thatof Karagiri pottery in Vellore, TamilNadu. Yet , in essence, the

Karigari potter brothers at work

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programme was a platform for its audience; theyparticipated to extend their understanding of livingculture, they presented their views and suggestions andideas. It was a two-way process where they learnt aboutother cultures within the country and even abroad andgot insights into their own ways of life. The two-foldlearning included the interaction of the Surabhi team withthose being filmed. A new dimension was added to theirunderstanding of culture. Infact, the broad definition ofculture that Surabhi now boasts of imbibing andpropagating is one grown out of their experiences in thehinterlands of India. What was presented to the audienceswas rich with the understanding gained through thatinteraction.

Surabhi thus evoked a new understanding of theaspirations of the people of India and touched a deepchord of cultural connectivity. It gave people a sense ofpride in their culturea pride that had been battered bycenturies of colonisation, followed by years ofliberalisation. The audience was heartened by the senseof confidence they received; there was an overwhelmingsense of reassurance that we were culturally equal to therest of the world. Whats more, Surabhi demystifiedclassical culture and elevated popular culture. Itshowed that classical music was not superior to folk

music but a continuum. It offered two planes ofexpression at the same level. It pioneered a new form ofinteractive communication to go beyond a television showto become a symbol of national identity. When Surabhifirst went on air on national television, the channel withthe greatest outreach at that time, it was different fromother programmes. It spoke with and not down to thepeople; it created a niche for itself, reaching out to boththe urban and the rural audiences. Today, with so manyprivate channels, dishing out popular entertainment tomainly urban masses, the rural majority is ignored. Thisis a new challenge for Surabhi; to find a new formatand deal with the paradox of bridging the urban-ruralgap and forming an urbanrural interface in its newavatar`New Surabhi on the Star Plus channel everySunday morning.*

* I would like to thank Rahela Padachira, who provided the research and

background information for this article

Abdul Majeed Ansari making strips of clay for creating his pots

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These days,no festival or utsav is considered completewithout some sort of folk music or dance. The idea ofpresenting the music and dance traditions of the Adivasisin a public forum is generally well-meaningto creategeneral awareness among the urban/rural public aboutAdivasi lives and to generate a sustainable developmentof Adivasi art forms. Unfortunately, these good intentionsare far removed from reality, as I found in the course of atwo-year study I conducted in the Burdwan and Birbhumdistricts of West Bengal.1

This article examines the impact of public presentationsof Adivasi (in this case Santal) music and dance upon thedistinctive traits of such traditions. Public presentationhere refers to the presentation of the music and dancetraditions of the Adivasi communities outside theireveryday lives and natural performance contexts; that is,outside the context of their parav (festivals), rites andrituals.

Presenting music and dance outside community contextsradically changes the norms and inner dynamics of theirperformance. It is by now common knowledge thatAdivasi artistic-creative traditions have been organicallyinterwoven into a total way of life, which has, overgenerations, been developed on the basis of an eco-centric

world view that considers the human world and natureas parts of the same continuum. Such traditions, whetherwall/floor decorations, iconography, fine and/orperforming arts, are deeply related to one another, andall of them are related to the everyday Adivasi way of life.This means the displacement of one formsay musicand dance from its everyday association with othersseriously disturbs the very physical location of theirculture.

Of course, change in location is inevitable with changingtimes. But the popularity of Indian classical music,another of our oral-aural musical traditions, clearly shows

that relocation need not destroy a tradition completely,provided its core competence and characteristics are notinterfered with. The political exigencies of nineteenthcentury India needed the investiture of our raga sangeetwith the epithet classical, which insulated it againstmindless intervention. But marginal music of peoplesuch as the Adivasis of Jungle Mahal, has not enjoyedthe same status. So, this music is victim of the dominantculture, including the state, which seeks to civilise byimposing regimented change 2 on these traditions.

Such regimented change occurs in the core area of Adivasimusical tradition in the process of negotiation withurban/semi-urban audiences. The major change is in theperception of audience. In Adivasi culture, there is nodistinction between performer and audiencethe entirecommunity takes part in the music and dance. Thisdistinction is created in public presentations, andseriously disturbs the very ethos of Adivasi culture. By

imposing alien ideas of excellence, it willy-nilly transformspart of the community into a passive audience.

Whats worse is that public performances interfere withthe traditional spatial arrangements of the performers. Intheir traditional group dances, the Adivasi women dancein a semi-circle holding each others hand or waist, andthe men face the dancers while playing their musicalinstruments. But in most public presentations, insteadof facing the musicians in a performative dialogue, as iscustomary, they face the audience; the women stand in arow (or two) in front of microphones on the stage. Theinstrument players stand in the wings and are relegated

to providing background to the dancers.Possibly the greatest damage has been done to performerand performance alike by confused experiments withAdivasi music. The result of blundering experimentationwith instruments has resulted in the use of musicalinstruments entirely unsuited to Adivasi musicharmoniums and synthesisers are predominant, with themadalbeing used very rarely. Using keyboards restrictsthe musical notes to standard frequencies or pitch points,totally destroying the finer nuances of intonation patternsand displacing musical notes from their original positionsin the Adivasi musical scale. Using a harmonium orsimilar instrument also means that the musical movement

is a sharp jump from one note to another, instead of thedistinctive gradual undulation or traversal across the finerintervals between two notes. This also inscribes musicalelaboration onto the keyboard, and, in a way, externalisesmusical notes and distances this specific knowledge fromthe knower.3

One other issue I have with the public presentation ofAdivasi art forms concerns the use of such musicaltraditions as medium to spread developmental messages.For instance, during the initial environment buildingphase of the Total Literacy Programme, Adivasi musicalforms and melodies were indiscriminately used to

popularise educational programmes. In the course of mystudy, I found a large corpus of songs on literacy andfamily planning, which were first written in Bengali andthen grafted on to Adivasi, mainly Santal, melodic andmetrical moulds of different musical genres. This distortsthe formal structure of different genres of Santal songs,since melody and language are integrally related in Santalmusic. Multiple song texts are seen to be set in limited,genre-specific melodic moulds. Since, in Santali tradition,tune/melody provides structural values to its text 4 , theimposition of Bengali linguistic tendencies is deeplydisturbing. This not only changes the formal structure ofSantal music, singing and dance, it affects theinstrumental accompaniment, which closely follows the

melodic and metric moulds of the Santal songs.

Whatever may be the reasons underlying suchpublicisation and re-presentation of Adivasi art forms,it is possible to identify certain trends resulting from

Adi vasi music and the publi c st age

Jayasri Banerjee is an independent researcher and is workingon folk and tribal performance genres of the Jungle Mahal.E-mail: [email protected]

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them, which must be negotiated as soon as possible.Public presentations of Adivasi music and dancetraditions are gradually changing them into context-freeart forms. This process, I think, began when the Adivasiperforming arts in general, and Adivasi musical traditionsin particular, started being used for instrumentalist andfunctionalist purposes. The problem is compounded bythe reluctance of urban audiences to negotiate aestheticsthat are different from what they are used to. The resultis that Adivasi musical traditions are not appreciated ontheir own terms; they are either made to echo popularfilm music or they are preserved as quaint elements oftimes past.

At the same time, this process has led to the Adivasisprofessionalising their art forms. Now, Adivasis are

negotiating public presentations in order to dictate feesand organise regular earnings. A few of them are evendaring urban audiences to appreciate their specificaesthetics rather than adjusting to the dominant taste.

This emerging professionalism could be the only hopefor this musical culture. It is high time the public acceptsthe fact that the Adivasi way of life and culture has changedradically. As things stand, romanticising the Adivasispure, holistic, eco-centric way of life will only lead totreating this entire culture as museum pieces. To conserveAdivasi music and dance traditions as living traditions,it is time we treated these as context-free art forms and

welcome professionalism in these traditions. It is evenlikely that the Adivasi musical tradition, like classicalmusic today, will be able to save itself by setting its ownterms and dictating its own aesthetic norms.

NOTES

1. The project, Adivasi Musical Instruments of JungleMahalStudy of a Tradition in Transition [1998-2000] wasfunded by Bangalores India Foundation for the Arts,Sangeet Natak Akademi, New Delhi, sanctioned a

supporting grant for related documentation. The targetarea of this project was the forest region [called JungleMahal] in four administrative blocs of two districtsBurdwan and Birbhumin West Bengal. Thoughreference has been made to this geographical specificity,one can safely say that the general scenario of Adivasiartistic-creative culture in our country in general doesnot present a very different picture.

2. Jain, Jyotindra, 1993, Commercialising Tribal Art inSeminar, No 412, December, Pp 43-44. I use the term

regimented change in music to mean artificially graftedchange from above by ignoring the inner logic of a musicaltradition merely for catering urban middle class taste andmarket.

3. The use of harmoniums in classical music has been ahighly contested issue historically. The debate has noteven been initiated in case of Adivasi music.

4. Prasad, Omkar,1993, Text-Tune and Tone-TuneRelations in Santal Music : Some PreliminaryObservations in Bonnie C Wade (Ed) Text, Tone And Tune: Parameters of Music in Multicultural Perspective, Oxford& IBH Publishing Co Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, pp. 235 241

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Publi c fol kl ore: Pursuing cul t ural democracy i n t he 21stcentury

Richard Kurin is Director, Smithsonian Centre for Folklifeand Cultural Heritage, America. He is a cultural anthropologistand the author of Reflections of a Culture Broker: A View from

the Smithsonian and Smithsonian Folklife Festival: CultureOf, By, and For the People. E-mail: [email protected]

V I E W P O I N T

Where i s publ i c fol k l oreheading in the 21stcentury? Much of what has become public or public sectorfolklore in the United States grows out of the experienceof the Smithsonian Institutions folklife program foundedin 1967 and now known as the Centre for Folklife andCultural Heritage. Examination of that program isrevealing of where public folklore has been, and where itmight be heading. While the Smithsonian program hasexhibited a continuity of basic values and philosophy, ithas also changed over time. In general terms, its origins

are found in an appreciation for and desire to properlyrecognise particular folk traditionslargely performativeand decorative. As the program has matured, activitiesfor the representation and presentation of those traditionshave expanded and became increasingly institutionalised.The future seems to point in the direction of consideringa wider scope of cultural production than typicallyengaged by folklorists, advancing theoretical and analyticwork through the examination of practice, seeing folktraditions at the intersections of contemporary political,economic, and artistic life, co-operating with increasinglyvaried congeries of civic and community partners,diversifying fiscal sources for support of institutionalwork, and developing more strategic means to help

diverse cultural communities to persevere and evenflourish in an age of globalisation.

Origins

The Smithsonian program was spearheaded by RalphRinzler who put together a new, broad coalition of diversecultural workers, scholars, politicians, and institutionsin the most dramatic of ways to coalesce a field of practice.In 1967 he developed the Festival of American Folklife,now renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, in theheart of the U.S. capital, on the National Mall inWashington, D.C. Drawing about one million visitorsannually and extraordinary media attention, this massiveexposition of musical performances, crafts and cooking

demonstrations, workshops and celebrations presentedby traditional performers and aided by scholars provedinstrumental in the public appreciation of folk culture,and its official recognition. It led to the creation ofprograms in a variety of national and state institutions,as well as local and private organisations. It encouragedcultural practitioners in various communities and hasprovided a common experience for two generations offolklorists, ethnomusicologists, and others, from aroundthe United States and indeed, from around the world, tohone their skills and ideas of public culturalrepresentation.

Rinzler was motivated by an ideal of cultural democracydrawn from such teachers as Woody Guthrie, Charles

Seeger, and Alan Lomax and incubated through the folkmusic revival and the Civil Rights movement. Guthriessongs like This Land is Your Land expressed anAmerican populist and participatory democracy. Seeger,the founder of ethnomusicology and a public

documentarian, found in Americas communities adiversity of cultural treasures embodying wisdom,artistry, history, and knowledge that could not bedelegitimated because of considerations of wealth andpower. Lomax saw the growing problem of cultural grayoutthe worldwide spread of a homogenised,commercial, mass culture at the expense of most localand regional cultures. Rinzler saw the problem of culturaldisenfranchisement, as people lost touch with and powerand control over their own cultural products. He saw

that in rural Appalachia and in Cajun Louisiana thespirited performances by old-timers of superb musicalskill were under-appreciated by their descendants.Ironically, with the folk music revival these same musicachieved popularity among youth in New York and othercities. He saw the strength of cultural enfranchisementin the powerful role music played in the Civil Rightsmovement, where it mobilised people in communitychurches, on picket lines, and in the streets for a great,moral battle. For Rinzler, the grassroots creation andcontinuity of culture in contemporary society was abuilding block of democracy. The democratic force ofculture was raised to a new level on the National Mallwhen the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., led the March onWashington in 1963.

In the 1960s, while serving as research director for theNewport Folk Festival and carrying out his ownfieldwork, Rinzler drew these strands together and createda plan. For Rinzler cultural work was empathetic, studied,advocacy for the traditions of varied communities.Though invited to the Smithsonian Institution, thenational museum of the United States, to design thecontent for a folklife festival as a popular attraction on theNational Mall, Rinzler envisioned a project of culturalconservation and recovery, through which, with theefforts of people like action-anthropologist Sol Tax andthe leadership of then-Secretary S. Dillon Ripley,endangered cultures and traditions could be revitalised

and the larger society educated. The Festival was insertedinto the national museum with all the challenges andopportunities it entailed. Rinzler enlisted folklorists RogerAbrahams, Henry Glassie, Kenny Goldstein, ArchieGreen, and Bess Lomax Hawes, key African Americanand American Indian cultural workers like BerniceJohnson Reagon, Gerald Davis, Clydia Nahwooksy, andLucille Dawson, and a variety of those specializing in avariety of ethnic and regional cultures like Ethel Raim,Martin Koening, and Mike Seeger to plan Festivalprograms and thus bring into the nations cultural life arange of perspectives and aesthetics truly reflective of thepeople. Rinzler worked with Nancy Sweezy andeconomist John Kenneth Galbraith to revive Southernpottery and crafts operations and aid cultural andeconomic development in the region, in part by gettingtheir goods into the museum shops. Sales generatedincome and regenerated American cultural traditions.

The 1976 Smithsonians Folklife Festivallasting for three

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months and including over 5,000 artists from all over theUnited States and from 35 nationswas a centrepiece ofthe American Bicentennial celebrations. The Festivalprovided a redefinition of Americas cultural heritage inthe face of European nationalist and American elitistmodels. American culture has its multiple levels and

interpenetrating sectorsnational, regional, local, ethnic,religious, occupational, folk, popular, elite, community-based, commercial , institutional, and official . Mostimportantly, American culture could be seen as diverse,vital, and continually creative, situated in a largereconomy, a larger society, indeed, a larger world oftechnological and social transformations. Rather thanrecreate an older world of utilitarian crafts or purge musicof electronic media, or reconstitute the nation or worldinto villages the Festivals message was to move thecontemporary world towards more culturally democraticinstitutions. Older aesthetic traditions, forms and systemsof knowledge, values, and social relationships did nothave to inevitably fade away, but rather could be used bypeople to design and build their own futures. The villagemight get bigger; the forms of communication more wide-ranging, the systems of exchange more complex, but skill,knowledge and artistry based in human communitiescould still remain and prosper. If voices that couldcontribute to cultural democracy became silent, everyonewould lose.

Persisting Programs and Ideals

The Centre continues to produce the Smithsonian FolklifeFestival which to date has had more than 35 millionvisitors over the years, involved more than 25,000 artistsand musicians from the United States and some 76 nations,relied on the efforts of more than 1,000 folklorists andother scholars, generated more than 20,000 media stories,

numerous policies, laws, and spin-off organisations,events ranging from local and state folklife festivals toOlympic arts and presidential inaugural festivals, anarchival collection of photographic images and recordings,and a healthy number of scholarly papers, articles, andbooks. The Centre also publishes Smithsonian Folkwaysrecordings include an incredible range of American andother folk musics and verbal arts. To date, some 300 newrecordings have been produced over the past decade,joining more than 2,000 other recordings published bythe historic Folkways Records and other labels acquiredby the Centre. Millions of recordings are in print in acultural conservation project that supports research anddocumentation, collections acquisition, archival

preservation, and broad distribution. Recordings are usedin a variety of ways, in schools, for example, to teachhistory, or by American Indians to maintain their heritage,or by Indonesians to understand the diversity of theirisland nation. Recordings have generated millions ofdollars in royalties that return to musicians. The Centrealso produces museum and travelling exhibits,documentary films and videos for television and lecturehalls, symposia, educational materials, and severalwebsites, all encouraging people to take an active role inaccurately and respectfully studying, understanding, andrepresenting their own cultures, and those of theirneighbours. The Centres archival collection, developedthrough the Festival, Folkways, and other projects, is aresource annually used by scores of fellows, researchers,

and educators. The Centre advises a variety ofmultinational and national government agencies, servicegroups, and community organisations on folklife andcultural heritage theory and practice. The Centresinvolvement is of broad scope. In 2001, the Centre workedwith almost 300 community cultural groups in the United

V I E W P O I N T

States and abroad. These included local artisan co-operatives, organised groups of elementary schoolteachers, and a variety of cultural advocacy organisations.The Centre enlists a host of people from a variety ofsectorsthe arts, government, entertainment, andacademiato help with its projects. Such have included

Hilary Clinton, the Dalai Lama, Yo-Yo Ma, B. B. King,Bob Dylan, Mickey Hart, Pete Seeger, John Hope Franklin,and many, many others.

The Centre for Folklife and Cultural Heritage has about45 permanent staff, including 15 Ph.D.-level scholars andcurators, and a complement of production support andtechnical staff. They are annually joined by some 30-40temporary staff, 75 interns, 10 fellows, and more than 500volunteers. The Centres programs are strengthened bydistinguished advisory groups. Collaborators with theCentre in any one year include more than 1,000 traditionalculture practitioners, 100 lay and academic scholars in awide variety of disciplines, as well as numerous culturalheritage and advocacy groups, and scores of

governmental, cultural and educational organisations,foundations, corporations, and small businesses. TheCentres annual budget is roughly $14 million, with about$1.8 million from the U.S. Congress, about $1.2 millionfrom the Smithsonian, approximately $5 million generatedby gross sales revenues through recordings and Festivalconcessions, and about $6 million in grants, gifts,contracts, and in-kind support for Festival programs,educational, research, and archival projects.

The Centres philosophy continues to encourage culturaldemocracyso that people can access their own culture,represent themselves, develop their own cultural heritage,and benefit from their efforts. The Centre works as a

partner, joining high-quality scholarship with strongcommunity engagement and an active, entrepreneurialspirit. This has led to activities that have affected policiesand practices at local, national, and international levels.Programmes and products have earned communityrespect around the world, serious scholarly review,popular acclaim, broad media attention, and professionalrecognition in forms such as Academy, Emmy, andGrammy Awards.

The Future

The Centre recognises that cultural democracy isthreatened in todays world on a variety of frontsecological, political, and socio-economic. Theenvironmental degradation of ecosystems destroys the

infrastructure supporting many traditional peoples andcultures. Displacement, famine, lack of economic viabilitydrastically changes ways of life. People die and cultureswith them. In other cases, local, regional, ethnic, andother forms of culture are suppressed by state authorities.Despite major gains in democratic and human rightsachieved in the last part of the 20th century, much of theworld still lives under authoritarian and repressivenational governments. Those governments often seek tolimit or destroy cultural diversity within their borders.Globalisation in the form of the unprecedented worldwidespread of mass commercial cultural products, forms, andsensibilities also threatens local cultures. Many see theirown ways of national, regional, or local life threatened

economically, socially, aesthetically, and even morally,by the availability, popularity, and packaging of globalmass culture. They also witness the appropriation oftheir own commodifiable traditions by outsiders withoutadequate compensation or benefit to the homecommunity.

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The Centre recognises its limitations with regard toinfluencing ecological systems, the rule of nations, andthe forces of the world economy. But it does seek to workwith a numerous and broad range of cultural organisationsand communities to affect conditions, circumstances, andconsequences in ways that do justice to diverse human

culturesso that they may persevere and flourish. Howbest to do this is always a subject of discussion and debate.Despite the grave challenges, there are positive signs forcultural democracy on the horizon. There is an increasinginstitutional consciousness that healthy ecosystems arenecessary for economically viable communities.International and local policies increasingly recognisepossessing culture and practising traditions as legalhuman rights. Many governments, faced with theprospect of representing m