Rajbanshi Folk Tales and Folk Songs

Myths and Tales of Kock-Rajbanshis of Western Assam

Rajbanshi Folk Tales and Folk Songs: Rajbanshi community has a rich and ancient heritage of folk tales, folk songs, ballads and folk dramas. Bhawaiya chatka (folk songs of Rajbanshis) has now become a popular subject of folk studies in the country. This volume of folk literature of Rajbanshis encompasses the literature of the common people, at least the majority of them.

This book is a treasure trove of that community which is based on oral tradition. It reflects the feelings and taste of that community.

Sukhbilas Barma (b. 1946) is a bureaucrat belonging to the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) of West Bengal cadre He retired from the service in 2006 and from the active government job in 2009. Study of folk culture, particularly the folk culture of North Bengal has been his passion. Rajbanshi community is the most numerous of the ethnic groups residing in North Bengal. Barma as a member of the community has been pursuing with great interest the study of history, anthropology, sociology, culture and other allied issues associated with this great community. He is a vocal performer of the folk music of Bengal, where his speciality is Bhawaiya, the folk form of the Rajbanshi community. Apart from his performing excellence, Barma is an exponent of the folk music of Bengal. His books on Bhawaiya (both English and Bengali) are used as reference books in the Universities. He has been awarded Honorary D. Litt by the University of North Bengal for his valuable contribution to folk culture.

This book is the product of an assignment on Rajbanshi Folk Tales and Folk Songs given by the North-East Centre for Oral Literature (NECOL), Agartala, a wing of the Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi in May, 2011. The assignment was made to Dr. Girija Shankar Ray and me as an associate of Dr. Ray. We were given this task immediately after Dr. Ray was awarded the Bhasha Samman by the Akademi in October, 2010.

Indian literature is vast with its immense varieties, styles, forms and languages. But we are generally accustomed to consider the written literatures of the scheduled written languages only. In reality, the languages or their dialects spoken by the indigenous tribal people in India are very large and the literary compositions in most of them survive only in the oral form. With the passage of time many of these oral languages as well as their literature are facing the threat of extinction. But the value of these oral literary works is immense.

While speaking on the subject 'folk culture' of North Bengal, the scholars have to admit that it is like a confluence, i.e. the joining point of so many streams, where some of them are non-existent, disappeared with the passage of time for some reasons, while some others dominate. Such things have happened in this part of ancient Kamrup and Poundravardhana for historical, social and political reasons. People belonging to various stocks and culture have come to this area at different time periods starting from the ancient age. They have come here driven by various motives-religious, political, economic. Additionally, tea gardens of Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri and Assam have attracted people from innumerable tribal and ethnic groups to the area in the 19th century. Each of the ethnic groups had their own culture and literature to boast of. The original residents of the area belonging to the 'Bodo' stock and the group of people known as Rajbanshi too had their own culture. Jalpaiguri district alone became the residence of almost 36 tribal groups. All these taken together have given birth to an integrated culture.

**Contents and Sample Pages**

In our society, in order to explain stories that are prevailing in the form of prose narravite, folk tales are usually used. These can be categorized into three forms (1) Myth (2) Jonoshruti or Legend and (3) Jadukotha or Tale. The topic of our discussion is Myth. In Assamese it is called Puran Katha or Pura Katha or Purabrittya or Otikatha or Gosain Katha. In Bengali it is called Loka Puran. Although we are focusing on the Myths and Tales of the Koch Rajbanghsi of Western Assam in this seminar, the details of the Rajbangshis of North Bengal will also consequently occur. Myths n mainly spiritual birth sand rituals of an ethnic community, from the from the God-Goddesses and the legendary works their great men did which have got place in the beliefs of the people and form the culture symptoms, religious beliefs etc. of that community. Keeping the English 'Myth' terminology only, we have organized this seminar to collect, discuss and analyze the Myths and Tales prevalent among the Koch-Rajbangshis. On our discussed subject matter, as in the other regions of India, the Koch-Rajbangshi of the Western Assam do have innumerable Myths and Tales to their credit.

We would like to explore how the life cycle, the reality, social consciousness, science, establishment, art, sculputre, literature of an ethnic community are hidden in its myths and tales. In addition to that, how the thinking of Koch Rajbangshis has been expressed through its acceptance. On the other hand, how new myths have been built up by breaking the ancient myths and how from myths to tales and from tales to legends have been formed.

Dwijendra Nath Bhakat (1954) is a thoughtful Writer and Researcher. In the year 1992 he got Ph.D. award from Gauhati University on the Topic "The Assamese Vaisnavite Satras of North Bengal and Goalpara". In 2009 he received the Sankardev Research award for this thesis from Auniati Satra Majuli, Assam. He has also received Bepin Chakraborty Sanman 2010, Dhubri; Minati Nandi award, 2013, and; Trivirtta award 2014, from Coochbehar, Siksha Bikash award, 2015, New Delhi; Kriti Sikshak Sanman, 2015, Dhubri; Biswa Mahabir, Chilarai Smark Award, 2016, Nalbari; Grierson award, 2018. Rajbangshi Bhasa Akademi, Matigara, Darjeeling; Hemchandra Barua Bhasa Sanman, 2018, Axam Sahitya Sabha. W.H.A. Wood Award, ABN Seal College, Cooch Behar, 2018; Rajbanshi Bhasa Samman, 2019, Rajbangshi Bhasa Akademi, Cooch Behar, W.B. Govt. He has written 45 books on various subjects like language, culture, literature, travelling etc. On 30th April, 2015, he retired from his service as an Associate Professor and Head, Department of Assamese, Chilarai College, Golakganj, Dhubri, Assam. At present he is a Research guide, Department of MIL and L.S. Gauhati University and guest Professor of Panchanan Barma University, Department of Rajbangshi language course and also President of Koch Rajbangshi Sahitya Sabha, Assam.

Koch Rajbangshi Sahitya Sabha is a colossal apolitical Korganization of Assam. The main objective of this organization is to study, publish, publicize, expand and preserve the language, literature and culture of Koch Rajbangshi ethnic community. Keeping this aim in mind, we had organized a seminar on 27th and 28th September, 2016 in collaboration with Sahitya Akademi and Chilarai College. Subject of this seminar was 'Myths and Tales of Koch Rajbangshi of Western Assam'.

In our society, in order to explain stories that are prevailing in the form of prose narravite, folk tales are usually used. These can be categorized into three forms (1) Myth (2) Jonoshruti or Legend and (3) Jadukotha or Tale. The topic of our discussion is Myth. In Assamese it is called Puran Katha or Pura Katha or Purabritty or Otikatha or Gosain Katha. In Bengali it is called Loka n. Although we are focusing on the Myths and Tales of the Koch Rajbanghsi of Western Assam in this seminar, the details of the Rajbangshis of North Bengal will also consequently occur. Myths mainly originate from the birth and spiritual rituals of an ethnic community, from the God-Goddesses and the legendary works their great men did which have got place in the beliefs of the people and form the culture symptoms, religious beliefs etc. of that community. Keeping the English 'Myth' terminology only. we have organized this seminar to collect, discuss and analyze the Myths and Tales prevalent among the Koch Rajbangshis. With this objective, we requested the Sahitya Academy for a seminar. The Sahitya Akademi accepted our request and gave us their permission. In this regard, I would like to specially thank Dr. Gopal Chandra Barman, Eastern Region of Sahitya Akademi. It is due to his initiatives only that for the first time in North East India, a seminar on Myths & Tales has been organized.

**Contents and Sample Pages**