Identity and Oral
narratives
(A case study on Kamar Tribe of Kalahandi
adjoining Chhatishgarh)
India constitutes a
fascinating mosaic of diversities of various types, thereby
earning an epithet of subcontinent. The huge landmass encompasses
a vast and varied geographic expanse with a unique historical
continuity, ethnic diversity, rich cultural processes as
well as the mature civilizational framework. The Indian
culture represent a massive canvass of philosophical and
epistemological foundations assimilating the best in the
life and custom of the subcontinent. Here the vast majority
of ethnic subcultures, cultural variations, religious multiplicity
make the Indian society a conglomerate of co-existing diversities
in a state of perpetual equilibrium with common central
focus of cultural integration and universal appeal. Many
castes and tribes maintain each other’s cultural specificity
and uniqueness through the complex network of caste hierarchy/status
either prescribed for the group or achieved through social
processes excepting for a few characteristic cultural features,
without which the basic identification of the group would
be difficult. There is broad cultural consensus in the whole
subcontinent. There has been significant assimilation between
different groups, so that co-existence and interactions
at various levels have brought in a great deal of synthesis
to give our society a multi-ethnic character and a plurality
of approaches and world views.
But although the co-existing
ethnic groups project a composite and universal Indian culture,
they do not completely give up their ethnicity and cultural
moorings. There are certain reasons and compulsions for
maintaining their ethnic identity. The economically dominant
groups have the ideological predominations upon the minor
ethnic groups living with them. In such cases the arts and
ideologies of the dominant group influence the culture of
ethnic minority. As a result of which they completely assimilate
with the dominant culture. In some cases, they feel insecure
and their group identity is threatened. So they try to maintain
their ethnic identity through retaining the cultural peculiarities
of the group.
One ethnic group is
different from the other in terms of objective cultural
differences. “The member of an ethnic group”, writes Sharp,
“spoke one language, held to a distinctive set of practices
and showed a common system of beliefs. Because of these
objective characteristics, it was argued, the members of
the group showed common interest, and would naturally unite
in order to propagate and defend their interest.” (Sharp
: 1988 : 79)
Ethnicity in Indian context
should be viewed from the jati system. Each and every jati
has its own occupation, language and a distinctive set of
common practices with their cultural objective. Mallick
is of opinion that, “ ‘jati’ is mainly operative at the
local and regional level and these jati-varna scheme of
social stratification have been expounded, commented and
interpreted in myths and folklore”. (Mallick : 1975 : 35)
Role of Folkore in
Ethnic Identity :
Alan Dundes refers the
term ‘folk’ to any group of people whatsoever who share
at least one common factor, sharing common occupation, language
or religion having a distinct group identity (Dundes : 1978
: 7) So he says that “Folk groups are those of an ethnic,
racial, religion or occupational character”. (ibid, p-7)
Studying the role of
folklore in retaining ethnic identity, Hoppal writes, “Folklore
as creative communicative process articulates different
forms of ethnic symbolism, and being a fact of social reality,
belongs to the mechanism of culture which reproduces the
ethnic consciousness of identity of the given people.” (Hoppal
: 1981 : 6)
Jansen is of opinion
that “Folkore not only acts as a unifying force in terms
of one group’s identity but also as a divisive force in
terms of moulding or confirming attitude towards another.”
(1965 : 44)
Ethnic identity, now
a days has a meaning which is keenly related to ethnic self
consciousness. “Ethnic self consciousness” writes Broomley,
“means the awareness of their particular unity and distinguish
themselves from other similar formalities.” (1978 : 45)
Ethnic identity is thus
maintained through the language, rituals, customs, food,
dress, manner, speech, dance, music and such other aspects
of culture of a particular ethnic group which would be distinguished
from others. More specifically the oral tradition of each
ethnic group bears the ethnic characteristics, through language
symbol and cultural objectives.
In this context, an
attempt has been made here to study the oral narratives
of the kamar tribe and to find out how their ethnic identity
has been reflected in their folkore. The kamars are also
known as ‘Paharia’. They are an offshoot of the Gonds. But
they claim to be autochthonous of Katpar—Purabadi hill range
of Central India. (Russel and Hiralal : 1916 : 323)
The kamar tribe is found
in the Western Kalahandi region of Orissa and in the eastern
part of Raipur district of Chhattisgarh. They were the rulers
of Bindra Nawagarh region (presently Gariabandh Tehsil of
Raipur district). They were also the village headmen in
some of the villages of Khariar state—presently identified
as the Nawapara distict of Orissa.
The approximate population
of the kamars was 7000 in 1911 census and at present they
are 19,750 in Chhattisgarh (Srivastav : 1990 : 117) and
about 5000 in Orissa. In Chhattisgarh they are treated as
scheduled tribes and get the privileges from their government.
whereas in Orissa they are not considered as Scheduled Tribes.
The enumerators of Census have wrongly identified them as
Kamar, another caste of ‘iron melter’—blacksmith and
have left them from the list of scheduled tribes.
The kamars have their
ecological concentration in Katpur—Purubadi hill range.
They practise shifting cultivation, hunting, fishing and
food gathering in the jungle. When there is lack of food
or hunting animals they migrate frequently from one place
to the other for a certain period and after that they return
to their homeland. They never allow any outsider to take
to hunting in their own jungle.
The Kamars speak a language
of their own which is influenced by Halvi and Chhatishgarhi.
They believe in the Gods and Goddesses of the Gonds. Most
of their rituals, customs and religious beliefs are akin
to the Gonds. (Hiralal and Russel : 1916 : 324)
The Kamar folklore is
rich in its ethnic content. Though they are a tribal community
small in number, their folkore, rites and rituals etc. show
their distinct ethnic purity.
The Gonds and the Konds
are the major dominant groups in Kalahandi exercising controls
over the land ownership, village administration and religious
hierarchy. They have assimilated the components of caste
Hindu culture. But the Kamars have a distinct ethnic identity.
They are an isolated group maintaining their group solidarity.
The Kamars are endogamous
family having the rigidity and clarity of group definitions.
They are divided into two sects, viz; ‘Budharajia’ and ‘Makadia’—The
Makadias are monkey eaters, so they are looked down by the
Budharajias. They form their associational clustering through
their settlement of habitation or small village in isolation.
It is seen that the Kamars do not settle with other castes/tribes
and they form their own caste/clan based village.
The Kamars have no bardic
tradition. Being asked of their bardic tradition they reply
that long ago they had their ethnic bards. They were greedy
and were ever dissatisfied with the alms given to them for
their singing. So they killed their bards with bows and
arrows and continue to sing their song themselves.
The Kamar folklore is
enriched with myths, legends, epics, tales, riddles and
songs. Their oral narratives, both in prose and poetry form,
have a rich depository of their ethnic cultural traditions.
They sing the long narrative epics and myths nights together.
All these narratives are enriched with their ethnic characteristics
(Dube : 1947 : 7)
The oral narratives of
the Kamar tribes are known as ‘geet’, ‘Khena’ and ‘Katha’.
‘Geet’ means the song, may it be as small as two lined song
or as big as one thousand lined oral epic. They sing the
oral epics which is known as ‘Geet’.
The myths are known
as ‘Janamkhena’ or ‘Adipuran’ which means creation myth.
‘katha’ means folktales and legends etc. Here some selected
specimens of oral narratives of the Kamar folklore are presented
for case study i.e. to find out the elements of ethnic identity.
They are as follows
:
- Narrative — 1
: Creation myth of Kamar (myth)
- Narrative — 2
: Kachra Dhurua—a Kamar hero (legendary epic)
- Narrative — 3
: Origin myth of Goddess Duarsani (myth)
- Narrative — 4
: An epic story of Kamar widow (epic)
- Narrative — 5
: Gandhu Paradhiya (epic)
All these narrative were
collected by the author in 1985 from the hilly region of Kapar—Purubadi
hill range of Nawapara district in Orissa adjoining Chhatishgarh.
Narrative—1 :
Creation myth of the Kamar
In the beginning God
created a man and a woman, in whom two children of opposite
sex were born in their old age. ‘Mahadeo’, however, created
a massive deluge over the world in order to destroy a Jackal
who had offended him.
One day the old Kamar
went for a hunting. While shooting an arrow to a deer, it
said, dear hunter it will rain for seven days and there
will be a great flood. It was a great surprise for him to
hear this from a talking-deer. So the Kamar returned to
his house and told it to his wife. They put up their children
in a bamboo “Jhapi”—box providing food for twelve years.
When the deluge struck everything went down the water excepting
the bamboo box. A generation passed.
Mahadeo wanted to create
man on the earth. So he made a bird out of the dirt of his
body and sent the bird in search of a man in the deluge.
The bird discovered the bamboo “Jhapi” and brought them
to Mahadeo. Mahadeo asked them, “Who are you ?” The boy
and the girl said “We are a pair of brother and sister”.
So Mahadeo separated them for twelve more years, and disfigured
their faces with pox marks. Now they could not recognise
each other and were married. The Kamars are the children
of this couple.
Narrative—2 :
Kachra Dhurua : A Kamar Hero
A legend runs that there
was a Kamar ruler in Bindra Nawagarh. He killed the Bhimraj
bird of a foreigner from Delhi. The foreigner from Delhi
sent man-eating soldiers who ate up all Kamars except a
pregnant woman. She took shelter in a Brahmin’s house in
Patna and gave birth to a child whose name was Kachra Dhurua.
Kachra Dhurua grew up to be a benevolent warrior and took
revenge against the man-eating soldiers and regained his
ancestoral throne of Bindra Nawagarh (Russel amd Hiralal
: 1916 : 324)
Narrative—3 :
Origin myth of Goddess Dursani
Once in the jungle of
Guru Donger a Kamar was digging the earth for roots. Meanwhile
his spade struck on a stone in the earth and blood secreted
from the stone. The stone was the resting place as well
as the symbol of Goddess Duarsani. The Kamar saw the blood
and being afraid of it returned home. At night, the Goddess
appeared in dream. She wanted the Kamar to be her priest
as he had woken up the Goddess sleeping on the earth.
Next day, the Kamar brought
the stone—the symbol of the Goddess and started worshipping.
But he could not appease her with blood through offerings
of animal sacrifice. So he transferred the priesthood to
a Gond. The Gond appeased the goddess with ample sacrifice.
Next the Gond transferred the priesthood to the Bhunjias—a
small tribal group of the same area. The Bhujias are also
considered as the offshoot of the Gonds.
Narrative—4 :
An epic story of Kamar widow.
This is an epic sung
by the Kamar tribes of Central India. The name of the epic
is ‘Maa randi po tura’ which literally means ‘the story
of an widowed mother and her orphan son’. The gist of the
poetic narration may be summarised as follows :
There was a poor widow
in a village living with her son. The woman worked in the
village headman’s (Gauntia) house who belonged to Gond tribes.
The widow was husking paddy, guarding agricultural fields
and helping in household chores for which the earnings she
received was so inadequate that she was unable to make both
ends meet. It was very difficult to manage her basic sustenance.
Very often the old woman dug out roots from the nearby jungle
and ekked out a very precarious life.
One day she did not
have any food to eat. She sighed and said “Oh mother Laxmi
! For how long would you put me in such difficulties ?”
Hearing the painful utterance of the poor woman, Mother
Laxmi, the Goddess of wealth appeared in the shape of a
young Kamar girl before the widow. Being asked by the widow
Goddess Laxmi replied that she was an orphan girl and had
come for shelter. The old woman took pity on her and gave
her shelter. The son of the widow regarded Goddess Laxmi
as his sister.
The widow gave Mother
Laxmi a handful of rice for cooking food. It was cooked
and surprisingly it was more than sufficient. Since then
they had no food problem and they all lived happily.
One day Laxmi advised
the son of the widow to cut the jungle and prepare the field
for cultivation. The boy prepared the field and borrowed
bullocks and plough from the Gond headman. But he was unable
to collect the seeds. Laxmi took some straw in her hand,
made it small pieces and advised the boy to sow it in the
field. The villagers laughed at him and thought that the
boy has gone mad. But surprisingly the harvest was so ample
that it was quite difficult on their part to bring all the
paddy to their house. Laxmi told the old woman to go to
the village headman and get six ‘Kodi’ of cart (one ‘kodi’
is equal to twenty) to lift the paddy from the field to
pay the rent for the transportation to him. Being asked
of the rent, the village headman (Gauntia) thought that
yesterday she was working in his house as a maid daily wagers
and now she needed six Kodi of carts to lift her harvest.
However, he agreed to provide the carts being assured by
the widow to get the admissible fare. The Gauntia reluctantly
provided her with six Kodi carts. The paddy was transported
from the field to the widow’s house. But there was no place
in her small hut to keep all the paddy. It was kept outside
her hut.
The cartmen sent by
the Gauntia demanded the fare for the cart. Laxmi immediately
plucked a pumpkin from the roof of her hut and gave it to
the cartman to hand it over to the Gauntia. When the Gauntia
saw the pumpkin he put his hands on his forehead and said,
“See, how the wicked Kamar widow cheated me with mere a
pumpkin for six kodi carts”. He gave the pumpkin to his
wife to prepare curry. While cutting the pumpkin the Gauntia’s
wife found a huge number of gold coins within it. Gauntia
knew this from his wife and asked his cartman. “How many
more pumpkins did you see on the widow’s roof ?” The cartman
said, ‘innumerable’ the Gauntia became spellbound. He thought
that there was no other rich man like him in his locality.
Perhaps, now Goddess Laxmi had taken shelter in the old
women’s house.
The Gauntia improvised
a game plan. He wanted to give his daughter in marriage
to the son of the old widow so that through her daughter
he could get control over the old woman’s property.
He offered this proposal
to the old widow. She gladly agreed and the marriage of
the Kamar widow’s son with the only daughter of the headman
was solemnised.
Next, the headman wanted
to get Laxmi—the adopted daughter of the Kamar widow—as
his daughter-in-law. He said to the old woman, ‘O Samdhin
! I gave my daughter in marriage to your son. Now I want
my son to be married to your daughter.’ The old woman, unwittingly
agreed to this proposal. The marriage was almost fixed up.
Goddess Laxmi could understand
the plan. She said to the old woman ‘Mother, do you think
that I am a human being ? I took pity on you. You called
me and I came to you hearing your pitiable condition. I
helped you in all respect. Now how do you think of my marriage
with a human being ? You believed in the Gauntia who was
not even giving you your rightful daily wages. I considered
you as my own mother. I filled in your house with plenty.
Now I am going. Saying this Goddess Laxmi disappeared.
When the Gauntia heard
it he felt as if he had terribly been cheated by the Kamar
widow.
Narrative—5 :
Gandhu Paradhiya
This narrative is named
after the hero “Gandhu Paradhiya”. Gandhu is the name of
the hero and Paradhiya symbolised a hunter. The gist of
the epic is as follows :
Gandhu Paradhiya was
a hunter. He killed a deer. By this time the Gond prince
and his followers of Bindra Nawagarh kingdom arrived at
the spot and claimed that they have killed the deer. So
there was a fight with Gandhu and they took away the skin
of the deer. Gandhu tried to take revenge of this defeat.
He made a beautiful bamboo handicraft and presented it to
the king of Subarnapur. The king gladly accepted the gift
and in turn gave him some gold coins and expressed his inability
to help him in his objectives. Gandhu returned with the
gold coins.
Next he went to the
king of Manikgarh—who was a Bhunjia king. He presented the
gold coins to the king and sought help from him to fight
against the king of Bindra Nawagarh. This plea was that
the prince of Bindra Nawagarh had forcibly taken away the
skin of the deer from his own territory. The king of Manikgarh
expressed his inability to help him in his expedition and
gave him some pearls—Manikya. Then Gandhu went to the Binjhal
king of Padampur. The king employed ‘Kokobhaini’—a tribal
hero of superhuman ability to help Gandhu in his fight against
the prince of Bindra Nawagarh. A great battle was fought
between Kokobhaini—the tribal warrior with the prince of
Bindra Nawagarh and the later was defeated. The deer skin
which was brought forcibly by Kokobhaini was demanded by
Gandhu to be returned to him. But Kokobhaini refused to
oblige. So another combat took place between Gandhu and
Kokobhaini. Ultimately Kokobhaini defeated Gandhu. The latter,
out of grief went into the jungle. Since then he never went
to Padampur region. Till today the Kamar has no kingdom.
Analysis
Studying on the role
of folkore in maintaining ethnic identity, Hoppal writes,
“Folklore as creative communicative process articulates
different forms of ethnic symbolism and being a fact of
social reality, belongs to the mechanism of culture which
reproduces the ethnic consciousness of identity of the given
people.” (Hoppal : 1993 : 7) Broomley also is of the opinion
that, ethnic self-consciousness means the awareness of their
particular unity and distinguish themselves from other similar
formations. (1978 : 45).
Jansen, studying the
role of folklore in retaining group identity, is of the
opinion that, “Folklore not only acts as a uniting force
in terms of one’s group’s identity but also as a divisive
force in terms of moulding and confirming attitude of one
group towards another group.” (1965 : 44). He further says,
“the smaller the group, the stronger the esoteric elements
in its folklore and vice versa.” Many groups are definable
simply because they each have their own peculiar types of
isolation ranging from obvious geographic separation to
other not so-obvious forms of isolation. (ibid)
In all the oral narratives
presented above we could find out two distinct aspects viz.,
(A) ethnic culture of Kamars, preserving their group identity
and (B) cultural assimilation/diffusion with the larger
traditions of India.
Ethnic culture of the
Kamars to retain their group identity is based on some factors
which could be found from their socio-cultural processes.
The question is why do the Kamars prefer to retain their
group identity ? Why do they like to live in isolation ?
On the basis of their folk narratives these questions may
be examined. As described in narrative—2 the Gonds constitute
powerful tribes to overthrow the Kamars from Bindra Nawagarh
state. This was originally the ancestral seat of the Kamars.
The ethnographic account of Russel and Hiralal also mentions
that the Kamars are the off-shoot of the Gonds. (1916 :
324) But the Kamar myth (Narrative—2) mentions that they
are the direct descendants of their Supreme God Mahadeo.
In this myth they describe that their first progenitors
were a Kamar couple, consisting of a pair of uterine children
from the same parentage. Thus, the myth shows their racial
purity, which rejects the concept of their being the off-shoot
of the Gonds. When the Gonds have occupied their territory
the hostility of the Gonds and Kamars might have been much
more acute. So to project their separate identities such
myths could have been created to alienate the Kamars from
the Gonds.
In Narrative—3, it is
seen that the Kamars were the first discoverer of Goddess
‘Duarsani’ now the tutelary deity of the Gonds as well as
the other belonging tribes. Goddess Duarsani was worshipped
by the Kamar priest who was replaced by a Gond priest. This
story validates the empowerment of the Gonds over the Kamars
in the process of control over the state, transfer of the
power base and the religious priesthood. It is found in
western Kalahandi that the Gonds were the administrative
heads “Gauntia and Makaddam”. They were also religious
head achieving priestly status. This symbolises the transfer
of political power from the Kamars to the Gonds. So the
truth of over-lordship of a peasant society—the Gonds over
the primitive tribe—the Kamars, is established through a
power shift. It is a great loss on the part of the Kamars.
The loss of the land and Goddess have continued to be blackspots
in the racial memory which could have been projected in
their folklore. In narrative—5 empowerment over the deer
skin symbolising the intervention of the Gonds upon the
territory of the Kamars more specifically validates the
above truth. Even to compensate for the degradation of their
socio-political status they have projected them as superior
to the Gonds. It is evident from their folk narratives.
Ethnocentric “Kamar”
:
In reality, it is even
unimaginable on the part of a Kamar boy to marry a Gond
girl of Gauntia—the village headman. But in the epic of
the Kamar widow (Narrative—4) it happened so. The Kamar
boy married the Gauntia’s daughter and in turn the Gond’s
son could not marry the daughter of the Kamar widow.
This again indicates
a sense of ethnocentrism of the Kamar community. In reality
they do not have an equal caste status with that of the
Gonds. Rather the Kamars are considered as an offshoot
of the Gonds. In the narrative—4, the Kamars have perceived
marriage between a Gond girl with a Kamar boy. In this narrative
the concept of ethnic purity of the Kamars exhibited by
refusal of marriage of a Gond boy with Laxmi is depicted.
A Gond girl given in marriage to a Kamar boy donotes a superior
caste status for the Kamars. Till today there is no evidence
of a Kamar girl divorced by a Kamar husband nor any Kamar
girl eloping with out caste lovers. This suggests maintenance
of ethnic purity of the Kamars through the institution of
marriage within the same community.
In the creation myth
of Kamar (Narrative—1) Mahadeo, the Supreme God wanted to
bring a deluge on the earth simply to drown the jackal,
who offended him. Again in the epic narrative—5 Gandhu Paradhiya
had fought for a deer skin which reveals the impulsive character
of tribal people who are more likely to be guided by the
race memory of their ethnic impulses rather than intellectual
reasoning.
Here, an event may be
mentioned. A certain kind of grass—“De badhun” is not cut
off from the jungle unless the brightmoon of Bhadrava (September)
comes. Some Gond and Dom people entered the forest and cut
off the grass. They were obstructed by a Kamar. He told
that if they took away the “De badhun” the forest Goddess
would be angry and their entire community would be in trouble.
But when the outsiders did not bother to listen to him and
cut off the grass the Kamar killed one of them by shooting
an arrow. Two others saved themselves and ran away. The
police arrested the Kamar and he replied in the court that
as they had disregarded their religious tradition by cutting
off the grass he had to kill one of them. He confessed his
role in the homicide without any hesitation and did not
consider his action as sinful. Rather he was happy that
he had done his duties to preserve the tradition. This depicts
the distinct ethnic character of the Kamars.
Sense of Isolation
and withdrawal
In narrative—5 we see
that Gandhu Paradhiya was betrayed by the tribal warrior
‘Kokobhaini’ who defeated the Gond King of Bindra Nawagarh
on behalf of Gandhu and got back the deer skin but he did
not return it to Gandhu. It symbolizes introduction of another
tribal power to his territory. Out of anguish and sense
of diffidence he ran into the jungle as a mark of self withdrawal.
A sense of insecurity alongwith a challenge to his self
esteem as well as his self identity takes over his mental
process. He started a new settlement, where he expected
not to face any outside intervention. Till today it has
been observed that the Kamar tribe does not allow people
from other caste/tribe in their exclusive settlements. They
always build their habitat only at the feet of some hill
adjacent to a jungle and like to live in isolation. Even
their language, customs, traditions and rituals are entirely
different from other communities. In narrative—3 we see
that their sense of withdrawal is much more intense when
Goddess Duarsani is also appropriated by the Gonds and handed
over to the Bhunjias. But at first instance, the Kamars
were the traditional believers of the Goddess and the priest,
first worshipper is always from the Kamar community.
The Gonds belong to the
peasant society. They share the agro-economic activities
with other non-tribal group and thus have been assimilated
into the greater Indian tradition. As plain-dwellers and
agriculturists they have adopted the changes through their
participation in education, politics and culture etc. But
the Kamars have defined a particular territory for adopted
agriculture as the dominant form of economic activity. They
are not even aware that their exclusive habitat in the forests
is being enchroached upon and gradually destroyed by outsiders,
thereby depriving them of their forest dependant livelihood.
They do not desire to come down to the plain land, thus
trying to maintain their group solidarity and isolated style
of living.
Esoteric Elements
in Kamar Folkore :
No other ethnic group
knows about the esoteric elements inherent in Kamar folklore.
The ethnocentric character of the Kamars, the ethnic stereotype
of Kamars in relation to the Gonds and their indifferent
attitude towards other communities are not visible in the
present Kamar life style. But when the traditions of their
folklore are carefully studied and analysed, the esoteric
components would be revealed. Smilarly their folklore has
given them a sense of unity and integrity in their in-group
building and ethnic mobilisation.
Cultural Diffusion
In the oral narratives
of the Kamar we may see certain motifs which denotes the
age old cultural interaction between tribal and non-tribal
groups in Central India. The following motifs are found
in the Kamar narratives.
Narrative—1 : Creation
myth :
i) Mahadeo—Siva
as Supreme God.
ii) Concept of
deluge and creation of earth, bird and animal by Mahadeo.
iii) Floating of
a box in deluge and the first brother sister in the box.
iv) Brother—Sister
incest.
v) Talking deer
warning a deluge on the earth.
vi) Creation of
man from the union of brother and sister.
Narrative—2 : A Kamar
Hero :
i) A pregnant
Kamar woman taking shelter in a Brahmin’s house in Patna
Kingdom.
ii) The Kamar hero
taking revenge on his father’s enemy and regaining his father’s
Kingdom.
Narrative—3 : Laxmi
:
i) The goddess
of wealth appearing as a Kamar girl in Kamar widow’s house.
The motifs of creation
myth found in the kamar creation myth have striking resemblance
with the Hindu mythology Srimad Bhagabata.
Studying the tribal
myths of Central India, Blackburn is of the opinion that
these myths are by no means free from Sanskrit influence.
(Blackburn : 1977 : 200) The motif of talking deer in Kamar
myth is influenced by the Hindu mythology Srimad Bhagabata.
In this text a small talking fish warned the king Satyabrata
of the future deluge on the earth. The king was identified
later on as Manu. (Srimad Bhagabata, VIII the skandha :
24 Adhaya). As the context of tribal myth is a jungle deer,
the Kamar had witnessed a talking deer. This shows the cultural
diffusion of Hindu mythology in a Tribal setting in central
India.
The narrative of a Kamar
hero Kachra Dhurua is also influenced by the Chauhan Origin
myth. A pregnant Kamar woman taking shelter in a Brahmin’s
house in Patna State resembles the origin myth of the Chauhans
of Western Orissa. (Ramsey : 1901 : 81-303). Similar myths
are also found among other tribal communities of Central
India (Mishra : 1993 : 20).
It shows that an Indian
aborigin community confined to a particular geographical
environment has similarities in the mythological beliefs
and concepts with those of the greater Sanskritic tradition
of India.
REFERENCES :
- Blackburn, S. H.,
1977, Tribal Creation Myth of Central India. A problem
of Cultural Diffusion. Man in India Vol. 57 No. 3.
- Broomley, Yu.,1978,
Ethnography and Ethnic process quoted in Hoppal M. “Contemporary
Forms of Folklore and Ethnic Identity in Folklore and
Mankind Das, C. R. (Ed) 1993. The Universe Cuttack.
- Dube, S. C., 1947,
Field songs of chhatish garh. The Universal Publishers
Ltd. Lucknow.
- Dundes Alan, 1978,
Essays on Folkoristics, Folklore Institute, Meerut.
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