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Passing away of
Narayan Gupta (ca. 1935-2003)
Instead of bereaving the loss of our beloved
Narayan-da, we should celebrate his life and his writings. This entire
week, we will publish his work -- write-ups and his precious art (he was a
gifted painter) in the Internet forum Mukto-Mona.
I just found in my collection a superb writing
of Naryan-da. I sent this article to Dhaka's English Newspaper. I am
confident that this article was published in early 2001 and it must have
brought joy and happiness to many older folks back home. Please enjoy this
superbly crafted article on "water festivals" of Old Bengal
Sincerely,
Jaffor Ullah
------------------------
Water
and Folk Cultures of South Asia-particularly
of Old Bengal
By
Narayan Gupta*
(written
in the first week of January 2001)
One of the
largest congregation of religious rituals is taking place right now in
India. The actual site is the confluence of two mighty rivers Ganga and
Jamuna (many spells as Yamuna or Jumna). In the days of Vedas, about 5000
years ago, there was another river named Saraswati, which met at the same
confluence. Therefore, the
confluence is also called Triveni
Sangam - the confluence of three braids.
The
geographical name of one of the holiest site of the Hindus was renamed by
the Mughal Allahbad - the town of Allah. Before
that, it was known as Prayag. Since
the decline of the Mughals, the
British reigned undivided India for over 150 years.
After the country was divided and boundaries redrawn, based on the
head counts of Hindus and Sikhs on one hand and the Muslims on the other,
the town maintained its name after Islamic Supreme God Allah.
It also maintained a mix of Hindus with all the caste systems,
Muslims and Sikhs. It is also the
seat of the High Court of the largest state of the Union, Uttar Pradesh.
This city has produced many eminent persons of the subcontinent
including the Nehrus. The
inhabitants of the Indus and the Ganges valley have been worshipping river
and seas from the Vedic times in various forms.
The River Ganga is considered as Mother God to many.
Most of the religious sites of the Hindus are located on the banks of
the Ganga, such as, Hrishikesh, Haridwar, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, etc.
There are year round festivals and rituals in all such places.
These are either in the form of a Puja, holy dip, floating little
lamps on leaves dedicated to the ancestors. I
really do not see the special
significance the Kumbha Mela, except that every twelve year it has a special
significance and is called Purna Kumbha meaning full pitcher.
Mela means fair. One
of the big attraction of this Mela
is the congregation of fully naked or half naked Sadhus' gathering by the
thousands. They come there from all
over places - mostly Northern India and the slope of the Himalayas.
After the event, these Sadhus would return to their hermitage.
In the Purna Kumbha Mela of 1953, there was disturbance resulting in
the stampede of the trident wielding Sadhus.
When it was all over, the Mela
authorities counted at least ten thousand devotees dead. What a tragedy
at the site of the Holy God! Skeptics
lamented, people of other faiths ridiculed, faithful Hindus accepted the
tragedy as a result of bad Karma.
Any way, what was supposed to be an event for receiving God's
blessings turned out to be a killing field. In
West Bengal and Bangladesh there are numerous festivals revolved around
their rivers. About this time, during
the Makar Sankranti (Winter Solstice) there is a great congregation at the
Sagar Island, off Sundarbans in the Bay of Bengal.
Rabindranath's famous poem Devata'r
Grash is based on pilgrimage to the Sagar Island.
The obstinate boy wanted to accompany his aunt to the island. Jaibo
Sagore. 'I
must go to the Sagar Island,' he was adamant.
In the end, to save other passengers of the boat from a certain
wreck, the boy was sacrificed to the Ocean God.
With him went down the priest who led the pilgrims of the boat. In
Bangladesh, these festivals are mainly practiced by the underclass Hindus.
One reason is that it is not expensive like the elaborate Durga Pujas
of the so-called upper caste Hindus. In
Mymensingh district, I remember people would travel to Hoshenpur on the bank
of Old Brahmaputra river for dip on the occasion of Janmasthami - the birth
day of Lord Krishna. The event is
commonly known as Asthamir Snan.
Thousands take dip on Buriganga on that occasion, which if I recall
correctly is an official holiday of Bangladesh.
One of the festive seasons of the Bhati
(low lying) areas of Kishoreganj, Netrokona, Sunamganj, Habiganj,
Brahmanbaria is the during the mid monsoon month Sraban (July -August) when
all the fields are flooded, the rivers and canals merge with the Haors
(marshes) and harvesting was long over. The whole area celebrates during
this time. The festivals go by
different names in different areas. In
some places it is called Nouka Puja,
while in other areas it is known as Srabani
Puja or Bisha Hari Puja.
As the names imply, the festival centers on the boat, the waterways
and other traditions. Just as the
rivers lose their separate identities with the onset of waters rushing from
the slopes of the Meghalaya hills, so does the shades of Hindu-Muslim
culture of the village folks. They probably return the pre-modern folk
cultural days - having no relevance with the Hindu-Babu cultures or no
conflict with the rural Muslim cultures of East Bengal.
The whole Bhati area takes
a festive look. Everywhere there are
hectic activities. Friends visit
friends. Married daughters make long
waited Journey to the parents home, the trip uniquely called Nayyar.
Then,
who worries about caste or faith? It
is a uniquely folk culture of the poor Bengal - rarely seen anywhere else in
the sub-continent. Hindus join
tobacco (often Ganja) smoking parties with Muslim friends.
Muslims are welcomed at the courtyards of Hindu farmers to share
Pitha (rice cake) eating parties. I
have even noticed Muslims singing folk songs on Lakhindar and Behula.
These are the two legendary characters of rural East Bengal.
(When I say East Bengal, in this context it excludes the southern
districts of Bangladesh like Jessore, Khulna and Pabna) but it includes
Bangla-speaking areas of Assam such as, Karimganj and Silchar and even
Tripura.). Then at night, there were
informal session, mostly outdoor, of folk songs like Bhatiali, Jari Gaan,
Shari Gaan, Marfati Gaan, and drum beating. Paan-Supari,
Hookaha, Doi-ChiDa and often Ganja went freely.
But, one stark difference from such events of West Bengal was that
there was no hanky-panky or alcohol or women related entertainment formed
part of the festivities. Occasionally,
the staff of the Zaminders or younger men of the Babu families were invited. There
are no deities and rarely have I saw the participation of Brahmin Purohits.
These festivals have no relevance with the religious festivals of
North India or West Bengal (like Gajan or Rathjatra).
There are boat races participated by hundreds of boats and witnessed
by many thousands. I have seen no one
asking: Are you a Hindu or Muslim? On
one such boat race festival at Ajmiriganj under the subdivision of Habiganj
in the late forties, I saw not less than fifty thousand people came to see
the boat race. All were seated on
their boats of different styles, sizes and colors.
Not too far was the famous village Baniachong, said to be most
populated village of the United Bengal. It
produced many eminent personalities. One
such person was Ramnath Das, who was the first person to travel the globe on
a bicycle. It is said that he wrote
his diary in Sylheti dialect, which was translated in standard Bangla before
reproduced in the Dainik Ananda Bazar Patrika of Calcutta.
On the way back to Itna (under Kishoreganj subdivision), our team had
stopped at the village Joysidhdhi (home of Ananda Mohan Bose) and Mriga
(home of Dr. Nihar Ranjan Ray of Bangalir
Itihash fame). When
the festivals were going on, the traders did also brisk business.
At the Ajmiriganj Bajar, I noticed there were thousands of stalls
selling almost anything that is needed for daily rural life - starting from
thread for fishing net to Alta (decorative color for rural women's hand and
foot). There were thousand of vendors
displaying their myriad merchandise. These
included colorful Reshmi Churi (ceramic bangles), earthen pitchers, sugar
candy, rice, cooking oil and even fresh fish. At
the level of the educated class, rivers and water ways played a dominant
part in Bangla literature, folk songs and folk cultures.
Rabindranath's songs are heavily loaded with such things that are in
daily life of riverine Bengal, such as boat, sail, southern wind, ebb-tide,
waves, boat worker, flood, golden
crops and harvest, ghat, white cloud, boat-wreck and on and on.
Like wise, Nazrul's famous song, Padma'r Dheu-re ....., would take
anyone to his left-behind home in distant rural Bengal before one could
finish humming the tune. People
of South Asia, Bengal in particular, have learnt long ago the value of
water, which is the sole source of life, happiness and destiny of rural
souls - men and women, rich and poor, Muslim and Hindu.
All that is needed is the mind to appreciate and feel the gift of
nature. --------------------------- * Naryan Gupta passed away sometime in the first week of May, 2003. He was about 68 years old at the time of his demise. He was born in Itna, Mymensing. His grandfather was the Zamindar of Itna. As a young boy he had vivid recollection of the partition of India and Pakistan. His memory was fresh as ever as far the Hindu-Mussulman riot od 1940s. We lost a great soul. Narayan
Gupta used to write from Maryland, America |
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