Where Gods Dwell

Kusum Budhwar

Description

An introduction to the colourful and exuberant folk literature from the hills of Kumaon and Garhwal In the iridescent snows of the Central Himalayas known as Devbhoomi, the land of the gods, there is a story for every mountain, river and tree. Kusum Budhwar introduces us to Kumaon and Garhwal s rich and rarely translated folk literature by retelling the colourful and exuberant stories of the region. Whimsical and imaginative, these are tales of high adventure, luminous love and romance, benevolent pastoral gods, local heroes, brave medieval warriors, sacred sites and historical anecdotes, all of which are equally popular in these parts but little known outside. Arranged in sections, each focusing on a particular theme, the book opens with Nanda Devi, the patron goddess of the region, believed to be the daughter of the Himalayas. In the sections that follow we become intimately acquainted with the enchanting adventure sagas of the Ramola clan, the Ramola Gathas; the romantic ballads Malushahi and Haru Heet ; the tale of Chyongompa, the demon bird; and the simple stories, imbued with faith, of local gods and goddesses like Golu Dev and Devmangala, among others. Where Gods Dwell not only allows us to savour the stories of the hills, resonating with the cheerful cadences of mountain streams and the dark silence of the forests, but also offers us a rare glimpse of the culture, life and society of the people of the region whose lives are shaped by the rugged terrain they inhabit and who revere the mountains on which they make their home.

Sujets

• Sociologie, société et politique
• Folclore
• Cultural studies
• Humanities
• Folklore

Informations

• Publié par: Penguin Books Ltd
• Date de parution: 08 septembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9788184752854
• Langue: English

Extrait

In the iridescent snows of the Central Himalayas known as Devbhoomi, the land of the gods, there is a story for every mountain, river and tree.
Kusum Budhwar introduces us to Kumaon and Garhwal’s rich and rarely translated folk literature by retelling the colourful and exuberant stories of the region. Whimsical and imaginative, these are tales of high adventure, luminous love and romance, benevolent pastoral gods, local heroes, brave medieval warriors, sacred sites and historical anecdotes, all of which are equally popular in these parts but little known outside.
Arranged in sections, each focusing on a particular theme, the book opens with Nanda Devi, the patron goddess of the region, believed to be the daughter of the Himalayas. In the sections that follow we become intimately acquainted with the enchanting adventure sagas of the Ramola clan, the Ramola Gathas; the romantic ballads ‘Malushahi’ and ‘Haru Heet’; the tale of Chyongompa, the demon bird; and the simple stories, imbued with faith, of local gods and goddesses like Golu Dev and Devmangala, among others.
Where Gods Dwell not only allows us to savour the stories of the hills, resonating with the cheerful cadences of mountain streams and the dark silence of the forests, but also offers us a rare glimpse of the culture, life and society of the people of the region whose lives are shaped by the rugged terrain they inhabit and who revere the mountains on which they make their home.
Cover painting courtesy Kusum Budhwar
PENGUIN BOOKS WHERE GODS DWELL
Kusum Budhwar, author of Romance of the Mango: The Complete Book of the King of Fruits, has also written articles covering travel, religion, folklore, and cookery that have been published in books and magazines. The wife of an Indian Foreign Service officer, she has lived in several countries and is widely travelled. Her bond with the Himalayas began early, having studied and taught in the hill stations of Dalhousie, Simla and Mussoorie.
She now spends a better part of the year in Mukteshwar in Kumaon together with her husband who equally shares this love for the hills.
WHERE GODS DWELL

Central Himalayan Folktales and Legends
KUSUM BUDHWAR
PENGUIN BOOKS
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi 110 017, India
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Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
First published by Penguin Books India 2010
Copyright © Kusum Budhwar 2010
Illustrations © Priyanka Awasthi 2010 and Kusum Budhwar 2010
All rights reserved
ISBN: 978-01-4306-602-6
This digital edition published in 2011.
e-ISBN : 978-81-8475-285-4
This e-book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior written consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser and without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above-mentioned publisher of this e-book.
Prem Nitin & Soraya Karnikeya, Prarthna & Amaani
CONTENTS
Copyright
Map
Introduction
NANDA DEVI STORIES
Nanda: Birth of a Goddess
Roopkund: The Wrath of a Goddess
Nanda and Sunanda: A Goddess in Action
LOCAL DEITIES
Goludev the Just
Naagraj Krishna
Devmangala of Budho Kedar
Kal Bisht, the Gentle Cowherd
Mahasu Devta of Hanol
ROMANTIC SAGAS
The Malushahi: The Ballad of Raja Malushah and Rajuli
Haru Singh Heet, the Righteous
Massar Kund
RAMOLA GATHAS
Gangu Ramola: Pride and Penalty
Sidhwa and Bidhwa: Pastoral Adventures
The Kunwar Brothers: Of Girls and Dice
TALES OF VALOUR
Ajuba Bafaul, the Wonder Man
Garhu Sumyal, the Grand Old Warrior
Madho Singh Bhandari’s Amazing Feats
Teelu Rauteli, the Warrior Lass
LEGENDARY PLACES
A Guru’s Miracle: Meetha Reetha Sahib
The Tiger Lord Saryu at Bageshwar
Gomati or Gokarna, the Cow-eared
The Caves of Patal Bhuvaneshwar
The Temple of Haat Kalika
CAPITAL TALES
Srinagar (Garhwal)
Almora (Kumaon)
FANTASY AND HUMOUR
Chyongompa, the Demon Bird
Kutri Muya or A Guest Is God
Ghugutiya, the Crow
Raja Divya Chand’s Supernatural Powers
Demon Gangola
Acknowledgements

INTRODUCTION
The idea behind this book is to share with the English reader the rich folklore of the central Himalayas, a region spanning present-day Garhwal and Kumaon. After years of living overseas, when my husband retired from the Indian Foreign Service, we decided to make Kumaon our summer home, a place to retire to from the heat of the Delhi summer. In 1998, we knew little about this area of our country and even less of its history and cultural traditions. But we were eager to learn all we could. To that end we applied our time-tested practice, one that we used each time we were posted to a new country—to travel widely within the land, to interact keenly with local inhabitants and to read up comprehensively about the area. This book is a product of all that research. Travel was our greatest teacher and, in these past years, we have done it extensively, covering almost all the districts that comprise this region. In the course of these tours, we met several interesting people who were more than willing to share their knowledge and gently guide us away from pitfalls that we may have otherwise failed to notice.
Language posed a bit of a hurdle while researching and collecting data. Most of the material was available either in Hindi, Garhwali or Kumaoni. While my Hindi was somewhat rusty from disuse over the years, knowledge of the other two languages was non-existent. Further, I found to my dismay that only a handful of writers in the English language had cared to record the folk tales of this region and that too in passing, most of them appearing in memoirs or travelogues. In contrast, quite a large number of Hindi scholars had turned their attention to this rich folk literature and analysed it fairly exhaustively.
The very nature of a folk tale is that it passes on by word of mouth, often down several generations, and may alter in the telling by becoming more subjective as it acquires the narrator’s personal interpretation. With this reality comes the problem of multiple versions of the same story. To deal with this, I read and discussed with other scholars various versions of a single story before rewriting it in English, ensuring scrupulously to stay with the essence of the story but passing over its glaring inaccuracies and muddled references with regard to time or place. Credibility-testing flights of fantasy or improbable situations are part and parcel of a good tale, but when medieval heroes and heroines are cast in modern outfits, jewellery and make-up (complete with wrist-watches) and are found shopping around railway stations and lighting up cigarettes, then the wisest course is to exclude such references as they detracted from the story!
What I have not included in this work are the pan-Indian mythological tales such as the myth of creation, the churning of the ocean, Kudru and Vinta, the descent of the Ganga, the marriage of Shiva and Parvati and episodes from the two great epics. Admittedly, many of them are set in this region and justify why the central Himalayas are known as Devbhoomi or ‘Abode of the Gods’. The only reason I can give for their omission is that they are well covered elsewhere besides being known all over the country. Instead, my readers are offered whimsical, imaginative stories associated with high adventure, romance, pastoral gods, local heroes, medieval warriors, sacred spots and historical anecdotes, all of which are equally popular in these parts but little known outside.
The Puranas form an inexhaustible pool for Hindu mythological legends and folk tales, and just as storytellers from elsewhere in India borrow from this great source, the people of this region do the same thereby building up a considerable fund of stories that are variations of the originals. Bearing in mind the preferences of their audience, the raconteurs of these stories alter and adapt the characters, themes and locales to suit local tastes.
Here is an example. One interpretation of the cause of the great war in the Mahabharata is said to be the cham tree. Supposedly, this large tree grew on the boundary between the territories of the Kauravas and the Pandavas. Each side claimed it to be theirs. To settle the dispute, it was suggested that a branch be broken. If the sap emitted blood, then the tree belonged to the Kauravas, but if it emitted milk, then it belonged to the Pandavas. Everybody agreed, but when the Kauravas saw the milky sap they refused to give up their claim and the altercation escalated into war.
The theatre of the great Mahabharata is believed to have been in this region and there is a strong belief that the Kauravas and Pandavas belonged to these parts. The heroe