200
women in politics serves as the operative term with a political process that seeks to
extend visibility to the woman as a political subject. But when representation is the
normative function of a language which is said either to reveal or to distort what is
assumed to be true about the category of women and the most important point is a
prevailing cultural condition in which women’s lives were either misrepresented or
not represented (Butler 1990).
Various rituals of Gajan become abolish in present time, and some are also practised till date but before the nineteenth century, self-sacrificing and self-torturing
activities were the part of Gajan, and originally this festival was meant to worship
Dharma Thakur or Dharma raj, the god of fertility, and rituals are also ranging from
religious to dangerous. Some of them are swang jatra (a kind of folk theatre), pitphoron (piercing one’s own back with hooks), jibaphoron (piercing the tongue),
agunkhela (fire walking on burning coal), and marakhela (dancing with the head of
corpses). The structure of Gajan mainly reflects the life of agricultural people of
rural Bengal. This is the celebration in which the earth is represented as a virgin
(non-ploughed soil), mother (harvesting soil) and beldam (abode of the death)
according to hierogram (sacred inscription). The festival represents combine rituals
of Brahmanic and Non- Brahmanic rites. The sastric representation is according to
Brahmanic culture and cycle of agriculture or cultivation throughout the year is the
influence of folk or tribal customs.
Marakhela was the most dangerous rites of Gajan carnival and was practiced at
the end of the festival where devotees dance with rotten human corpses, human heads
in honour of Dharma Thakur, a local fertility deity in ancient times (Ferrari 2010).
Description of Marakhela mainly obtained from old texts, various local source and
interview of local people of my study area, but perceptions or knowledge of these
people about this dangerous ritual is not based on direct observations because this
ritual was banned since second half of the nineteenth century as it is equally offence
as murder. In present time I am able to see during my field work that Sannyasi preparing and dance with dummies and coconut (substitute for bodies and heads) in
various villages of rural Bengal. Self-torturing and self-sacrificing rituals of Gajan
also can compared with various sacrificing rituals which were found in Dravidian
and Munda-speaking population of India and also in Mediterranean cultures in
ancient Greece and Italy; in one point these all rituals were similar that all rituals
were highly dependent on both socio-economic and socio-biological structure of the
people of this region, because in different region rituals performed within a definite
socio-political matrix which actual root was grounded in an agricultural economy,
worship of divine femininity in patriarchy system (Ferrari 2010), for unique rituals,
structure Gajan as a carnival slowly become marginalised in different part of Bengal.
11.9 Gajan as a Folk Culture and Its Vulnerability
Questionnaire survey and interviews of Gajan artists have been taken who are
involved in two types of Gajan Dal (groups), one is immature or new groups and
M. Ghosh and L. Satpati
women in politics serves as the operative term with a political process that seeks to
extend visibility to the woman as a political subject. But when representation is the
normative function of a language which is said either to reveal or to distort what is
assumed to be true about the category of women and the most important point is a
prevailing cultural condition in which women’s lives were either misrepresented or
not represented (Butler 1990).
Various rituals of Gajan become abolish in present time, and some are also practised till date but before the nineteenth century, self-sacrificing and self-torturing
activities were the part of Gajan, and originally this festival was meant to worship
Dharma Thakur or Dharma raj, the god of fertility, and rituals are also ranging from
religious to dangerous. Some of them are swang jatra (a kind of folk theatre), pitphoron (piercing one’s own back with hooks), jibaphoron (piercing the tongue),
agunkhela (fire walking on burning coal), and marakhela (dancing with the head of
corpses). The structure of Gajan mainly reflects the life of agricultural people of
rural Bengal. This is the celebration in which the earth is represented as a virgin
(non-ploughed soil), mother (harvesting soil) and beldam (abode of the death)
according to hierogram (sacred inscription). The festival represents combine rituals
of Brahmanic and Non- Brahmanic rites. The sastric representation is according to
Brahmanic culture and cycle of agriculture or cultivation throughout the year is the
influence of folk or tribal customs.
Marakhela was the most dangerous rites of Gajan carnival and was practiced at
the end of the festival where devotees dance with rotten human corpses, human heads
in honour of Dharma Thakur, a local fertility deity in ancient times (Ferrari 2010).
Description of Marakhela mainly obtained from old texts, various local source and
interview of local people of my study area, but perceptions or knowledge of these
people about this dangerous ritual is not based on direct observations because this
ritual was banned since second half of the nineteenth century as it is equally offence
as murder. In present time I am able to see during my field work that Sannyasi preparing and dance with dummies and coconut (substitute for bodies and heads) in
various villages of rural Bengal. Self-torturing and self-sacrificing rituals of Gajan
also can compared with various sacrificing rituals which were found in Dravidian
and Munda-speaking population of India and also in Mediterranean cultures in
ancient Greece and Italy; in one point these all rituals were similar that all rituals
were highly dependent on both socio-economic and socio-biological structure of the
people of this region, because in different region rituals performed within a definite
socio-political matrix which actual root was grounded in an agricultural economy,
worship of divine femininity in patriarchy system (Ferrari 2010), for unique rituals,
structure Gajan as a carnival slowly become marginalised in different part of Bengal.
11.9 Gajan as a Folk Culture and Its Vulnerability
Questionnaire survey and interviews of Gajan artists have been taken who are
involved in two types of Gajan Dal (groups), one is immature or new groups and
M. Ghosh and L. Satpati