বাংলাদেশের ফোকলোর: ঐতিহাসিক প্রেক্ষাপট ও আধুনিকতার নতুন দিগন্ত | Folklore of Bangladesh: Historical Context and New Horizon of Modernism

Abstract

The sphere of Bangladeshi folklore is immense and rich in diverse elements. This unique folk culture is well-heeled with diverse, multidimensional and internal dynamism in the wider surroundings of our social and geographical structure, influence of rivers and climate, anthropological diversity and characters, behavior-belief-values, notion-tradition, world view and mental and psychological state and ever changing trend. The folk culture of this land has changed their religious features due to various historical and social projections and powered evolution in touch of the ethnic peoples of this land as well as expatriate communities. Thus the culture got a unique shape of worldly and life-oriented culture. On the occasion of annual worshipping or seasonal event, the devotees put their god on chariot, cart or sedan and in procession travelled from one place to another place. The modern "Jatra' came out of this procession. It means that at the inception "Jatra' was a part of religious practice which in course of time turned into folk drama. Gradually, "Jatra' evolved from its religious identity into performing art depicting socio-political issues. Literature, history and biography of famous personalities also became the base of the plot of a jatra performance. For example, "Lenin Jatra', 'Hitlar Jatra' or 'Ram Mohan Jatra' in West Bengal and Amolendu Biswas' 'Michael Jatra' in Bangladesh became popular. This evolution of Jatra' is discussed in this article in light of internationally practiced theories and methods. The article heads towards modern and scientific methods of folklore research considering the theories of Richard M. Dorson from USA, German scholar Johann Gottfried Von Herder (1744-1803), Grimm brothers, Henrik Porthan and Eliss lonnrot from Finnland, William Thoms and Bishop Percy Thoms from England, C.W. Von Sydow (1878-1952) from Sweden, Chek scholar Dusan Zbavitel, contemporary folklore theorist Dan Ben-Amos, Richard Bauman, Alan Dundes, and Hermann Bausinger. Moreover, this article analyses the folklore practice of Bengali folklorists Rabindranath Tagore, Abanindranath Tagore, Reverend Lalbihari De, Sir Sharat Chandra Mitra, Dakkhinaranjan Mitra Majumdar, Upendra Kishore Roy Chowdhury, Dr. Dinesh Chandra Sen, Khan Sahib Abul Wali, Abdul Karim Sahityabisharad, Gurusaday Dutt, Muhammad Shahidullah, Chndrakumar Dey and Ashutosh Chowdhury and discussed their importance and limitation.