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The Rajasthani oral narrative of Devn¡r¡ya¸

 Verbal Narrative

One of the chief concerns of a study of a folk narrative is not only to understand the structure and content of the narrative and the context in which it is performed, but also as far as possible to understand and take seriously the notion of text and performance that is offered from within the cultural framework of the narrative. How are text and performance defined and perceived? Are there distinct and articulate notions of what constitutes a text and performance? How do these notions contest a notion of text and performance derived from the researcher's own cultural framework? Thus as Riceour (1981: 18-19)¹ writing in the context of the hermeneutic encounter points out:

... the process of interpretation culminates in an act of appropriation which forms the concluding counterpart of distanciation. To appropriate means "to make one's own" what was inintially "alien", so that interpretation binds together, equalises, renders contemporary and similar. The act of appropriation does not seek to rejoin the original intentions of the author, but rather to expand the conscious horizons of the reader by actualizing the meaning of the text. This theory of interpretation demands not only the initial suspension of the referential relation but also the initial relinquishment of subjectivity - this is a precondition for the ultimate expansion of consciousness under the objective guidance of the text.²

If the notions of text and performance from within the cultural system of the narration diverges from the researcher's own model, must we not set up and entirely different methodology and framework within which to ask questions? Would it not be necessary, indeed to explore a whole new set of questions that may not tally with our wel1 treaded paths of analysis and explanation? As Piatigorsky (1985: 215) with regard to the analysis of Indian religion notes:

It is therefore of great importance to identify the main conditions under which terms corresponding to 'religion', or 'ritual', or 'cult' - where such exist - are used in a religion investigated as meta-concepts for its objective understanding of itself ... In the Indian case these terms of reflexive understanding developed within speculative structures of conciousness which neither codified the religion (as in theology) nor existed separetely from it (as in philosophy) but analysed the religion from within the religion itself.

Following Piatigorsky's observation on Indian religion, we could analogously ask whether there are corresponding terms such as verbal narrative, visual narrative, performance, performer, etc. found within the narrative (and religious) tradition of Devn¡r¡ya¸. Although these may not be codified into a "theory" of the text or of performance, they nevertheless do exist as meta-level concepts used and transmitted by the community of devotees for whom the narrative is of fundamental importance. And, it is as meta-level concepts used to describe the narrative and its performance that such terms and concepts need to be taken seriously.

In the following chapter I succesively examine the categories of performance, remembrance and memory, song and declamatory chant, repetition, dialogue, and reported speech. Each of these features individually and collectively build the context for the communicative act of telling and listening to the oral narrative. Taken together they also form the framework for the "reason" why the narrative is told, which is to elicit the presence of Devn¡r¡ya¸.³ Thus the notion of "text" (both oral and visual) is bound to a larger context. Unlike in the case of the written text, neither the oral nor the visual narrative exist as self-contained objects.⁴

The narrative of Devn¡r¡ya¸, or more precisely sections from the narrative are performed in religiously determined contexts. Most usually a performance is part of a j¡gra¸ Or "night-wake".⁵ The purpose of a j¡gra¸ is to evoke the presence (prak¡¿) of Devn¡r¡ya¸.⁶ Performances are called "pa¤ v¡c¸o" ("reading the pa¤") implying the use of an elaborately structured 8 x I.50 mt. painted scroll on which characters and scenes of the narrative are depicted. Performances of this kind take place in three distinct places: (a) the home of a devotee, (b) in front of a Devn¡r¡ya¸ or Sav¡¢ Bhoj temple, (c) in front of the community meeting place "hath¡¢". Performances can take place any time of the year except for the period called "caum¡s¡" or the rainy season. During this time Devn¡r¡ya¸ (and other Hindu deities) are supposed to be asleep. Performances begin on the 11th day of the bright half of the month of K¡rttika which falls in October-November. During the "caum¡s¡" period the painted scroll called pa¤ which is a central element in performances, is not unrolled. Narratives and songs may be sung, but in the so called seated posture (bai¶ho g¡¸o) without the use of the pa¤ and other dance techniques operative during "regular" performances. Thus as ár¢ Hukam¡r¡m Bhop¡ pointed out:

The fact of the matter is this - now either the temple of Bhagav¡n - some people recite praises of him in front of the temple. And, some [people] who worship and honour Bhagav¡n, what does Bhagav¡n do for them? He is beneficial to them. So such a [person] is understood to be a bhagat of Dev. In his home j¡t¢s - pure j¡t¢s would receive water from his hand. So, in some of their homes it is recited. At our place it is recited at the [homes] of J¡¶s; And, even [in the homes] of Rajp£ts it is recited - even now. There is the Kh¡t¢ community - it is recited [in their homes]. So, Brahmans, Pa¸·its, they too have it recited even today. And, whoever honours Bhagav¡n is his favourite. And, in his home Bhagav¡n's story is recited. There's nothing wrong with that. But, in lanes and alleys, in such places it is not recited. When the fullmoon of k¡rttik arrives - when Dev awakes on the 11th - from that time on, in the evening of the llth, [the recitation] begins. During ËÀ¡·h Dev sleeps. For four months all the deviates [go] to the place of R¡j¡ Ba½. In earlier times there was this powerful king, who would give the gods strength. They go there to work. We say the gods have gone to sleep. But what should gods sleep for? They don't sleep! They go abroad to R¡j¡ Ba½'s place to do "duty" for four months. Thus the work of Chatr¢s and gods is stopped. It is wrong to open Bhagav¡n's door for four months. If the door is not opened, and only a j¡gra¸ is done just sitting, then it is possible to tell the story. The pa¤ can't be opened. Then after that on the 11th of K¡rttik open it and start [recitations] - there's no harm or hindrance in that.

The space marked by the scroll when it is unfolded and stood up is "sacred". The scroll itself is considered to be a "portable" temple in the centre of which there is the lifesize figure of Devn¡r¡ya¸ seated together with his four brothers in his royal court (darb¡r). A makeshift altar is set up in front of his image. Here incense sticks are burnt, and offerings of grain and money are made. Each time an offering from a member of the audience is made the Bhop¡ or his co-singer blows a conch (sa´kh) and proclaims the devotee's name and the quantity and item offered by him. The performance is interrupted here. Besides such interruptions there are other pauses during which the singers are offered tea or tobacco and are asked to be seated. Such pauses can be relatively frequent so that from a total time of about nine hours, six are spent in narrating and performing the story. The singers wear a particular costume (b¡g¡) and use a stringed instrument called "b¢¸" or "jantar". This double gourd instrument is worn by the main singer who plays on it while singing the narrative and pointing to corresponding sections of the scroll. His partner carries an oil lamp which illuminates the scroll during the performance that involves a series of movements back and forth along the length of the scroll, and between the two singers. The main singer may also undertake a series of pirouette-like steps at specific moments during the recitation. There is a great deal of interaction between singers and audience. Audience members often comment on the episode concerned or the singers' performance itself. The singers are also apt to comment on the audience's degree of attentiveness and so on. Audience members may also claim to know more than the singer who must claim and reclaim his authority as a "specialist" by succesfully answering "critical" questions. At times during pauses members of the audience may also entertain the audience by performing a few lines themselves.

The sequence which such a performance follows can be summarized as follows:

a) Purificatory rites.

b) Setting up the pa¤.

c) Wearing the costume by the Bhop¡.

d) A sev¡ for consecrating the pa¤.

e) Invocations of many deities.

f) Prosimetric narration of the story.

g) Donation during frequent pauses.

h) An ¡rat¢ for deities and characters on the pa¤.

i) A sev¡ at the end of the performance when the pa¤ is rolled together again.⁷

The first term that provides us with a correspondence to "performance" is "pa¤ v¡c¸o". Thus the external description of song narrative, dance, pointing to the pa¤, audience participation etc. is - for Bhop¡s and Bhaktas alike - simply called "reading the pa¤". Thus the performance is not - as one might expect from a textual perspective - described as "narrating or telling Devn¡r¡ya¸'s story." The focus here is not on the "text" as such, but on the scroll, which is an icon of the deity, and of the text. However, the scroll is not self-explanatory: it needs to be "read", i.e., it needs to be "decoded" and rendered meaningful by a specialist, namely the singer. Each performance thus involves a deconstruction of the entirety of images on the pa¤, and a simultaneous reconstruction of its meaning. The meaning of the images becomes distinct or emerges through the juxtaposition of spoken and sung narrative together with visual images located on the pa¤. The pa¤, therefore, is not read like a picture-book, it is read, on the contrary, through a narrative which manifests on account of its own recitation. The Bhop¡ does not decode the images on the pa¤ according to his own interpretation like an art historian may do so, he is bound by the interpretation of the images encoded in the narrative. The pa¤ according to the definition provided by the term "pa¤ v¡cno", is not, therefore, simply an illustration of verbal, narrative content. It is, in fact, that which gets revealed through the interpretative framework provided by the narration. It would appear then that the imagery and iconicity of the pa¤ is much more central to a performance than is the narration itself. This iconical emphasis can also be traced in sentences such as "pa¤¡ k¡ lekh", meaning "writing of the pa¤", that the singer ár¢ Hukam¡r¡m Bhop¡ used to prove the existence and authenticity of specific passages and episodes from the narrative. Thus the pa¤ was "proof" of the oral text, and not vice versa. Visual imagery and iconicity are thus considered primary to verbal expression. But without verbal expression, the meaning(s) of the images do not reveal themselves.⁸

Before moving further, one point needs to be clarified here, and that is the use of the term image. This again is an external category used to describe the pictures on the scroll. The term image suggests a static visual representation or symbol of a real or imagined object. However, the "images" on the pa¤, are as I have Before moving further, one point needs to be clarified here, and that is the use of the term image. This again is an external category used to describe the pictures on the scroll. The term image suggests a static visual representation or symbol of a real or imagined object. However, the "images" on the pa¤, are as I have mentioned "icons" in a special sense of the term. Once again, they are not icons in the sense of only being traditionally conceived visual representations of religious themes,⁹ they are, in fact, the iconic or visual presence of characters and scenes from the narrative. A term often used by singers when pointing to deities, persons, animals on the pa¤, is that they are "bir¡jm¡n", i.e., they are "present", "seated", or "manifest". The images of deities, persons, animals etc., therefore, are those deities, persons, animals etc.¹⁰ There is no distance created between the symbol and thing. While this correlation undoubtedly results from the sacred nature of the scroll, it is to also a product of the "oral" and "aural" culture built into the tradition of Devn¡r¡ya¸. As Jardine (1996: 6f.) observes:

An oral culture can hardly conceive of words as labels of some sort, as literate people tend to do, since spoken words are not "things" that can be picked up and "attached" to other things; a word must be an event or an action. Further, sound for oral peoples is dynamic also in the sense that it is linked to power: it must be driven by power from a source of some kind, which is why words (i.e., dynamic actions, events) themselves are understood to have great, even magical power. ... Since oral cultures communicate mainly through sound, which is irreducibly dynamic, they lack the capacity to "stop" the dynamism of the lifeworld and subject it to abstract analysis. Oral thought processes, in other words, are always highly contextual.¹¹

This correlation of word or image and thing is also evident in the case of the visual narrative, that, as has been pointed out above, is also conceived in terms of the metaphor of "written text" or "script" (lekh). Thus it is not as though the pa¤ is simply a picture book spread out to accompany the narration. The pa¤ and its imagery is a concrete expression of the presence of the content of that imagery. This is particularly evident in the case of Devn¡r¡ya¸ himself, who is seated on his "python throne" in the center of the pa¤. The presence of Devn¡r¡ya¸ in the (for us) two dimensional image is as real as the presence of a deity in m£rtis in Hindu temples.¹² There is no contradiction in the fact that there may be simultaneous performances of Devn¡r¡ya¸, done by different Bhop¡s using different pa¤s, because the presence of Devn¡r¡ya¸ - like that of other deities - is manifest in both a manifold and localized form.¹³ The presence of Devn¡r¡ya¸ and other deities or persons on the pa¤ is of central importance because the entire performance is focused on manifesting Devn¡r¡ya¸'s prak¡¿ ("presence", "radiance", "light", "splendour"). Thus on another level the activity of "reading the pa¤" which also involves not only the narration of the text, but also dancing, musical instrumentation etc. occurs within the larger framework of "presencing" Devn¡r¡ya¸. The narration does not stop at revealing or decoding the meaning of the pa¤. The decoding in reality continues further than the semantic and cultural meanings into the domain of experiencing "presence" (prak¡¿). The culturally specific sense of both "reading" (v¡c¸o) and "the written" (lekh) in terms of visual images of the pa¤ (and not the verbal expression of the narrative) thus extends into the realm of presencing the divine.¹⁴ Thus the meanings of the images ultimately make sense within the context of the manifestation of divine power.

Rememberance

In this section I briefly examine the meaning of the act of remembering with which a recitation always begins. Rather than regard this preliminary segment of the narrative situation as a "formulaic", and therefore insignificant, recurrent beginning, my intention is to relocate it as a primary source of knowledge. My contention is that this source, which is almost unintelligible or unimaginable to the rationalized users of the printed word, is of prime importance to a wide variety of expressive traditions in India, ranging from story-telling to dance, theatre, and music. Similarly, the exertions of scholars - who themselves no longer cognize through the oral and aural - to understand oral narratives in terms of "mental texts", "memorization", "formulaic language", etc. are drastic attempts at making orality intelligible. Nevertheless, by virtue of being cut off ourselves from the source of creative inspiration as it is perceived of in different expressive traditions, we tend to gloss over its validity and authenticity.

The narration of Devn¡r¡ya¸ typically begins with an invocation of different benevolent and auspicious deities, that are also present on the pa¤. In invocation the deities are revered and remembered. The verb used here is "siÆvar¸o" which is cognate with Hindi "sumira¸" or "smara¸" and means "remembering", "recollecting", "calling to mind", "memory".¹⁵ The deities invoked during the invocatory section are Dev¢ á¡rad¡, Ga¸eÀ, Devn¡r¡ya¸, Bhair£n¡th, Sarasvat¢, and one's guru. The deities are invoked, to provide protection, learning, wisdom. Thus for example, two lines tell us that without one's guru there is no "knowledge", and without Mother Sarasvat¢ there is no song or voice. By remembering á¡rad¡ (a name of Sarasvat¢ or Durg¡), the singer begins by saying she will reside in the heart. The goddess Sarasvat¢ also resides in the singer's voice (ka¸¶h; literally: "throat"), inspiring him to sing. By rembering Ga¸pat or Bin¡yak one gains happiness and satisfaction. And, again whoever reveres Devn¡r¡ya¸, the god worshipped in the form of bricks (¢¶h),¹⁶ will never have a scarcity of milk or cereals. The important point here is not only of course that the protective and inspirational qualities of different deities are being invoked, but also that they are being "remembered". There is an invitation to remember. In other words, the singer is "re-membering" or "re-attaching" himself to the source from which the recitation flows.

In fact the reference to rememberance at the beginning of the narrative marks out the very nature of the work of narrating which is an exercise in bringing forth from an epistemological domain resided over by the goddess of learning, creativity, and wisdom. It is not, from the point of view of the singer, an exercise in bringing forth from memory in the sense of an internalized, "mental" act of the retrieval of knowledge. The domain of knowledge and inspiration from which singer draws out the song is external to him. It is an "objectified", phenomenological sphere that grants him knowledge. This understanding of oral narration is, from an epistemological point of view, contrary to the understanding that oral narration is the result of complex processes of learning and memorization. Thus, for example, Finnegan (1992: 114-117) in her chapter on composition, transmission and memory, points out that in earlier models narratives were "pictured as coming down automatically irrespective of human agency", but that later critical studies move "away from the idea of storing verbatim memories to one of people re-constructing and organizing on the basis of what they know and do, so that remembering means not drawing on rote memory but a creative and organizational activity by the user." The emphasis in more recent work is thus in "memory as a social process". Some of the questions that are put in this context are:

What kinds of processes and ideologies are recognized for the preservation of records and memories without writing, and how are they valued and sanctioned? Are there recognized ways in which people are explicitly or implicitly trained to remember or to forget? What kinds of mechanisms are involved, and memory of what? Are such devices - and the content of what is remembered - necessarily all verbal or are there other media, images, and/or active performances additionally or alternatively involved, and if so what is the interaction between these? (ibid., p. 116)

This set of questions in the context of Devn¡r¡ya¸ would relate to how Bhop¡s learn and transmit their knowledge, and how this knowledge is culturally sanctioned. To begin with it would be important to point out that the office of a Bhop¡ is not necessarily hereditary. An apprentice my or may not learn the trade from his father. Of fundamental importance is the "call" or attitude that an individual feels towards Devn¡r¡ya¸, and learning the narrative. Many individuals may, in fact, function as an assistant to a Bhop¡s, but not all finally become Bhop¡s. Those who do become Bhop¡s, do not receive any formal training. On the contrary they "pick up" their trade by listening to the Bhop¡ at performances, and occasionally joining in the performance. The text is thus learnt in a process analogous to the learning of natural language. Besides "picking up" the text itself through instructional. prose narratives, the apprentice pays attention to other features of the performance such as n¡c (dance), v¡¸o (pointing out pictures), g¡v (verse), arthr¡v (explanation), and muskar¢ (jokes). The performance itself therefore involves a wide range of "transmission media": the pa¤, dance, narration, song, jokes, gestures, instrumental music, costumes, riddles, lighting etc. Above all, of course, it should not be forgotten that the performance is a religiously determined event that serves in the worship of Devn¡r¡ya¸, the deity of the majority of audience members.¹⁷

But while the questions posed by Finnegan above are important from the researcher's perspective they nevertheless tend to overlook the cultural categories used by singers and performers to describe their own activity. Thus "... the Indian notions of smara (Sanskrit) and marapu (Tamil) combine love, memory, tradition and worship. They refer to reverential acts of ritual attendance, but also to the passionate longing of love. ... Smara, 'memory', 'love', 'worship' constitute 'tradition', that which is handed down from one generation to the next (Skt. parampara). The heritage one receives from the elders is kept alive and fostered in love for its beauty, value and concrete 'indexicality'."¹⁸ Moreover, the Sanskrit category of sm¤ti refers to the remembrance of revealed knowledge ¿ruti. Marwari siÆvar¸o, Hindi sumira¸, and Sanskrit smara in the context of oral narratives and written texts, thus all refer to the source of religious literature. In the case of Devn¡r¡ya¸ it is also this source that allows the oral narrative to manifest itself. The invocation of deities at the beginning of a recitation need not therefore be reduced to a matter of "formula" or ritual prescription of some kind. It is a matter of becoming "re-connected" to a sphere of inspiration and knowledge.

Let us now turn to the formal structure of the narrative, while keeping in mind that the formal structure, by virtue of also being a reflection of what the singers do, provides us with an insight into the larger communicative framework of the narrative. As mentioned above the Bhop¡ begins the narrative with an invocation (remembrance) of various deities, most notably á¡rad¡ and Sarasvat¢, the goddesses of learning, music, wisdom, speech, and creative inspiration. Following this he begins with the narrative per se. The narrative itself is a weave of verse and prose on the one hand, and song and declamed speech on the other. In addition to the interaction between these textual forms and delivery modes, there is the interaction between the main singer and his partner. The dialogic form of the delivery is furthermore also to be found in the narrative itself, which proceeds through a series of dialogues between different characters or voices. Before turning to this central element of the narrative, let me first deal with the verse and prose sections.

The verse sections of the text, which incidentally are also called "g¡v"¹⁹, on account of their being sung, consist of four lines and a refrain. In some cases the sung sections comprise more than four lines. These exceptions will be discussed below. The "g¡v" is sung by both singers simultaneously. In many instances they begin with an extended vowel "on-line": "e...". The first line ends with an extended "auv£ rai" or simply "rai". The last word in the second and fourth lines invariably rhyme, but not the first and third lines. The refrain usually consists of ("bhal¡ j¢ bhal¡") Dev bhal¡" [Very good, sir. Very good, Dev]. When not referred to in terms of song (i.e. g¡v), the verse section are called "ka¤¢" which literally means link in a chain, "connection", or "sequence". Thus the verse sections are understood to be links in the narrative chain. And, in fact the narrative moves from one set of ka¤¢s to the next. Each set of ka¤¢s contains a short, compressed monologue spoken by a particular character. In the prose section following a verse, this "monologue" is almost repeated verbatim. The difference of course lies in the form of delivery which is now "declamatory". The prose sections which are declaimed are called "arth¡v" literally meaning "explanation" or "meaning" (Hindi: arth). In contrast to the verse sections, here there is a definite spacing of the singers' voices. While the lead singer begins the sentences, his partner may rejoin in a number of alternate way: (a) he may complete a sentence ended half way by the lead singer, (b) he may simply repeat the lead singer's text (c) he may add a line of his own,(d) he may simply acknowledge the lead singer's text with remarks such as "mhe" or "v¡h v¡h".

After the lines of the verse section have been faithfully repeated in the declamed prose section, the singer and his partner continue the narrative in the dialogic manner mentioned above, till it is time to sing another ka¤¢ The declamed section invariably ends with lines such as "lets see what news x has to say/says" and "By saying it, know it, lets see". These lines denote (1) that a person is about to speak and (2) whatever is to be known is to be revealed by saying it or by speaking. The word used for "news" is "samc¡r".²⁰ Thus x always begins his speech to y in the form of a 1st person sung "news". Logically then, that which is to be known through x's speech, and by implication the continuation of the narrative, becomes apparent in telling it/saying it/speaking it aloud. The emphasis on the connection between speaking and knowing is significant because it underlines the oral nature of the narrative. The singers do not say, for example, "know it, by reading it" or "know it by understanding what is written". The reference throughout is to speaking and telling. This aspect importantly underscores the emergent nature of knowledge for this particular oral tradition. Since there is no knowing before someone speaks, we cannot take recourse to "frozen" receptacles of knowledge such as scriptures, inscriptions, palm leaves, books etc. to preserve and reveal knowledge.

The dialogic interaction between lead singer and partner is matched on an internal level by the dialogical structure of the narrative. By this I mean very specifically that the narrative is fundamentally nothing more then a series of conversations or dialogues between different voices.²¹ There are hardly any extended third person descriptions of events or scenes offered by the singers themselves. Whatever happens in the narrative takes place through the voices of various characters. Thus the narrative both in its internal structure as well as external expression comes closest to the speech genre of conversation. The analysis offered here and in the subsequent sections on repetition, dialogue, and reported speech, therefore focuses primarily on the nature and occurrence of utterances as a fundamental unit of speech, rather than on linguistic features such as grammar, or even "formulaic" language in order to understand the oral composition of the narrative.

While describing the features of conversational discourse in everyday situations,²² Tannen (1994:25f.) points out that

...conversational discourse frequently represents what others have said ("reported speech") as dialogue ("direct speech" or "direct quotation") rather than third-person report ("indirect speech"), and that "direct speech" is more vivid, more effective. But why is dialogue more vivid? I believe it is because the creation of voices occasions the imagination of a scene in which characters speak in those voices, and that these scenes occasion the imagination of alternative, distant, or familiar worlds, much as does artistic creation. Finally, the casting of ideas as the speech of others is an important source of emotion in discourse.²³

Whereas the conversations in the narrative are situated in the present, giving us a scene of a current event, the commentary offered by the singers is situated in the past. For example, such a commentary may be inserted between dialogues to spell out time and place:

"The time they reached in Sindhba·¡ (mhe), both Bhairavn¡ths took hold of the trunk. They shook the trunk./ The Jogi¸¢s were sitting on the leaves./ One by one they all tumbled and fell down. (sir said.)/ By Darb¡r's command, there was a well nearby. (mhe) They all went and fell into the well./ Bhairavn¡th said "ár¢ Mah¡r¡j."²⁴

Verbs involving saying or telling are most frequently used. These are almost always in the present tense, facilitating the usage of direct speech. One example has already been given above in the case of the line preceding a verse section ("lets see what news x has to say/says"). Other examples are to be found in sentences preceding actual "direct speech". Thus "Bhairavn¡th said", "Dev Mah¡r¡j said", "He or she said". Sometimes simply "said" is used. In such cases the speaker can be determined by the foregoing sentences. In addition to these usages of the verb "said" at the beginning of a spoken sentence, the second singer makes use of "said" to end his lines: "came and fell down", sir said. Thus while the lead singer introduces a character's speech by saying "x said", the second singer ends his version of the text also by saying "he or she said". The second singer's usage of "he or she said" in fact facilitates the repetitive nature of his delivery. Not only is the content thus repeated but also the fact of the direct speech being spoken by x is re-emphasized and repeated. Repetition and dialogicity thus together form a fundamental aspect of both narrative delivery and narrative style.

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