Fate of Bhvānā (Bhawana)



A scene from Bhawana, Photograph: Rituraj Konwar

This year’s List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity just has been published by the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) in its fifth session held in Nairobi, Kenya. It is a part of a “program that aims to ensure the better protection of important intangible cultural heritage and the awareness of their significance”. The program currently compiles two lists. They are : 1. Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, which comprises cultural "practices and expressions [that] help demonstrate the diversity of this heritage and raise awareness about its importance" and 2. List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in Need of Urgent Safeguarding which is composed of those cultural elements that concerned communities and countries consider require urgent measures to keep them alive.

In this session India’s three performing art forms, namely (1) Mudiyettu from Kerala; (2) Chhau dance from the tribal area of Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal and (3) Kalbelia folk songs and dances of Rajasthan have been inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. To be included in this list the governments of the member countries of the UNESCO have to submit nominations. The eligible candidate for this list “includes traditions or living expressions inherited from our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts”. India submitted nomination for just three performing art forms and all the three have been inscribed by the UNESCO in the list.

We doubt whether the cultural leaders of the Government of India is aware that in Assam a  tradition of a performing art form called “Bhvānā” (Bhawana), whose history goes back to the 15^th century AD, is desperately struggling just for its survival. It was undoubtedly a deserving candidate to be included in the nomination of the the Government of India. All the three art forms which have been included in the nomination already have a greater visibility in the Indian society and all of them, particularly the Chhau dance and Kalbelia, have already acquired a kind of respectability and popularity to create an aura around themselves. When the Bhawana is contrasted with them we will find that neither it has the respectability in its own territory nor it has an all India visibility. To test our point one can just try to search them in the google search engine. Mudiyettu, Chhau dance and Kalbelia each has several entries in the internet; in contrast Bhawana doesn’t have even a single entry even though its tradition is much older than Mudiyettu and Chhau dance. However, this lack of visibility of Bhawana does not make its value and cultural significance any lesser. On the contrary it possesses some qualities in its content, form and technique which are very rare in any other traditional performing art forms of India.  But under the present condition it does not have any future. The numbers of the skilled artists of this art form are declining rapidly. Thirty years ago in the erstwhile district of Nowgong, and eastern part of the erstwhile Darrang district there were master artists associated with Bhawana in almost every village. But most of them had died without transmitting their knowledge and techniques to their next generation. Because the school and college going younger generation of the village folk consider anything relating to the village life like a stigma, from which they actually want to escape with their education. In our childhood days in every village of central Assam there was a Bāyan (master musician) and a Gāyan (master vocalist), whose role were essential in the organisation and in the performance of Bhawana. Now hardly one will find these genres among the new generations in the villages any more. As a consequence all such villages had lost forever the traditional knowledge and techniques associated with those art forms which were handed down from generation to generation and which were accumulated by the experience of at least five hundred years. Had it been included in the UNESCO list it could have generated a kind of conviction and respectability towards Bhawana to induce the younger generation to seriously accept this art form. Without such conviction of the younger generation nothing is going to save Bhawana from extinction. Thirty years ago almost every Khel (village council) of the villages used to organise the performance of Bhawana at least once in a year. Now even in five years there is hardly any performance. It is a serious situation and there is no doubt about it that the survival of this art form is more at risk than many others. 

 The cultural activists and cultural leaders among us could have made some effort to persuade the central government. But it seems we are almost content rather in organising and participating seminars, workshops etc. on Bhawana in Guwahati. For us perhaps there is no difference between a virtual and a concrete Bhawana. Besides as a nation we, the Assamese people, seem to be more interested to acquire tangible property for our own benefit for the now moment, rather than to conserve the intangible cultural property for the benefit of the society and for the future generation.  The general consensus that there are many people among us, who treat the mass as idiots, perhaps is not entirely false, because they can do anything, even the most absurd things without any remorse. Our last blog amply proves the the level of the public consciousness in our society. It is not just culture; every sphere of our life is is now pervaded by our greed at the cost of anything and everything. Few days ago a friend of mine showed me a coloured leaflet on Jatinga. Its cover is designed in two compartments. The upper compartment contains the photograph of a pair of mallard (Anas platyrhynchos), the common wild duck. It will give the innocent public the impression that mallard habitually visits Jatinga. But the truth is that till this day not a single instance of mallard’s sighting is reported from Jatinga. So, why they dare to do it? It is because some people know that we, the public, often behave like stupid and that we have lost our zeal and enthusiasm to protest injustice or wrongdoings anymore. There might be a reason behind this. If I protest against someone today, I may have to face some problem from that someone tomorrow. So, it is better to keep open all the doors. Who knows which door I will need tomorrow in the hour of crisis? So why should I close it by hanging the lousy mallard over one of them. Besides, there is the whole gala of prizes now in Assam. Why offend anyone who might become the member of the jury for such prizes tomorrow. Life is full of possibilities if one is ready to behave indifferently to the wrong things happening around him. Or else, if one is arrogant enough to say a spade a spade his fate is almost sealed. So why should we care even if the tradition of the Bhawana vanishes in the villages of Assam or the wild duck flies over the sky of Jatinga.    

  

Mukha Bhawana :Photograph :Rituraj Konwar



Conservation of the culture

The image of Nataraja, 13the century AD

(Before mutilation)

Do you know where the biggest stone image of Nataraja in India is located? It is preserved in the Assam State Museum, Guwahati. This image (height: 2.11metre), belonging to 13th century AD, considered as one of the masterpieces of Indian art has been severely mutilated recently. The damage was caused when the museum authority unnecessarily renovated the gallery and shifted it to put it on a new pedestal just few metres away from its earlier place of display. Due to its significance in the history of Indian art this image was taken by the Government of India to London where it was displayed in a special exhibition held from 15^th July to 18^th August,1985, on the occasion the first Cultural Festival of India. After its return from London and before it was returned to the Assam State Museum this image was exhibited in the National Museum, New Delhi for quite some time. It is noteworthy that during its transportation to London and back it did not suffer even a single scratch. Now when the museum authority shifted it just 8 metres away the image has suffered 8 major mutilations on different parts of its body. Beside these eight major mutilations almost the entire body of the image has suffered scratches of different magnitudes.

This image was unearthed in the archaeological excavation at Ambari, Guwahati conducted during 1970-71 by a team consisting  Prof. M.C.Goswami, Dr.T.C.Sharma of the Anthropology Department of the Gauhati University, Mr.M.C.Das of the Department of Archaeology of the Government of Assam, Dr.Z.D.Ansari and Dr.M.K.Dhavalikar of the Daccan College Post-graduate and Research Institute, Pune, and Mr.S.K.Mukherjee of the Eastern Circle the Survey, working under the supervision of Prof.M.C.Goswami. 

Following are the major mutilations:

1. The right cheek of the image is severely disfigured with multiple deep incisions. To make the condition further worst, cement ghol(cement mixed with water) is painted on the damaged area to cover-up the damage. This is the extreme kind of an outrageous behaviour for any museum.   

2. One of the left hand suffered two mutilations.  The thumb and the small finger are badly broken

3. The kiritimukuta suffered mutilation in three different areas.

4. The weapon in one of its right hand is badly broken in two areas.

5.  The shield in one of its left hand is severely damaged.

Gosain-kapor, (endi silk)

      This is the second major damage caused to the valuable object preserved in the Assam State Museum.. In the previous occasion an extremely valuable religious textile (Gosain-kapor) preserved in the museum has been damaged when it was washed like household laundry. It reflects how much we are concerned in Assam about the preservation of our cultural heritage.

       When the valuable cultural properties preserved in the museum are subjected to such treatment one can easily guess what would be the fate of those objects which are scattered throughout the country in private collections. While I was working, few years back, in a project for the documentation of the painted manuscripts of Assam I was horrified to find that each and every folio of the beautiful illustrated manuscript of the 10^th Book of Bhagavata preserved in the Bali-Satra have been subjected to commercial lamination. As a consequence of this in few years the manuscript will be completely damaged. 

10th Book of Bhagavata, (hand-made paper) Bali-Satra

  This manuscript was published by H.Duttabarua in 1949 as"Chitra-Bhagavagt". The book is out of print now. Besides the paintings published in that book have many defects due to the limitation of printing technology of that time. It is therefore urgent to make some public effort atleast to have some perfect images of each painting of that manuscript before the chemicals used in the lamination eat away the colour pigments of the paintings.

     

     In Assam people seems to be more concerned about the conservation of the natural environment. There are so many N.G.O.s who are exclusively engaged in it. It is undoubtedly a good endeavour. But the problem is that unless the people are culturally conditioned nothing is going to change. It is the culture which regulates all our behaviour.