The Rationale and Intervention;

Debajit Bora

Ojapali, a semi dramatic performance genre of Assam, focusing on story telling and enactments of epic and myths, is a classic example of what in historical and contemporary times can be regarded as both a ‘popular’ as well as a ‘traditional’ culture. Keeping view of its popularity we want to locate our work in Darang and Mangaldoi district which comes under ‘Darangi culture’ known as the hub of ojapali. Studies of such forms range from intense romanticism, where all its popular characteristics are cited to exalt its powers to capture the identities of the local community to lamenting its decline and diminishing popularity.  There is an irreconcilable difference between the notions of a popular form, which survives on its own popularity and a history, which talks of its decline and confinement in terms of geographical and social, spread. More significant is as a popular form the performance itself narrates its own history, that also a critical one. The reason of its decline both in terms of its spread and its frequency is anomalous if we accept the notion of the ‘popular’ and try to attribute to changing times and socio-economic and political forces at play in modern and contemporary India. The nostalgia itself positions itself against its own present conditions and demands a historiographical review while keeping the performance in the foreground. The need is to look at the performance as a historical and ethnographic source telling the story of a community while at the same time tracing the history of the performance itself.

A form once dominant in the entire lower Assam has become increasingly confined to a few localities of Darang district. It has been cited in local , national and regional accounts as the ‘folk’ and the ‘local’ while also in touch with what was seen as the more ‘artistic’, semi classical or traditional forms.[1] The connection to Ankianat and the impact of Shankaradeva was as evident as the local comic elements. The form which through a story telling style also includes a more abstract form of dance and singing as enactment could absorb various elements where genre characteristics are varied and subjected to different interpretations. Hence in laying out the performance forms in Assam in various sources, just as Ankianat and Shankaradeva impact would be theexemplary  entry point, the mention or description of Ojapali would also feature. By its very inclusion as a more ‘local’ (read indigenous) category than what were seen as the more aesthetic forms its impact was mapped and hardly ignored.The question which emerges from the notion of forms is where do we locate its popularity and how do we read its accounts (ethnographic and historical) in both legitimate histories and official cultural policy documents as a form which includes within it a mapping of ‘high’  and ‘low’ culture.

The conflict between the notions of the popular in terms of the form with its historical marginalization is the entry point to theproblematization which I would like to unravel through documenting and analyzing the performance and its impact parallel to the history of the genre. I will be arguing that this will allow a new way of constructing historiographical intervention to the simplistic way these forms have been studied or relegated to ‘categories’ in post independent Indian writings.

One of the reasons of the historical popularity of the form has been cited because of its close relationship to the aesthetics of Ankianat and the reformation it underwent under the impact of Shankaradeva. It is not clear whether the impact was direct or the new religious spiritualism encouraged emulation. The dance and the singing became more codified and intricate during this form. These are the aspects, ironically, which really has allowed ojapali to be cited as one of the forms which can be seen as representing the Assamese culture. There is an underlying critique here that the actual form and its popular elements however aesthetically reformulated, doesn’t necessarily mean it should be the form to represent the region or a national form which is nurtured in its region.

The problem becomes more complex when we realize that while the aesthetic characteristics attributed to the Ojapali dates to its dialogue with the ankianat, the peak of its popularitycan be located in alternate time, practice and aesthetics.

 The real popularity and its widespread practice was a pre-Shankaradeva phenomenon as cited by most local accounts and histories of the form and cultural practices of Assam[1].  After the end of agricultural season people used to organize ‘Manasha puja’ for the welfare of their region and prevent death from snake bites. Generally it was organized in public places. People of the society without any class caste difference unite in the public ground to take blessings of goddess Manasha. Like a number of peasant rituals again it is not a popular form, which emerged from the peasants or the agricultural community, but encouraged and shaped by its official patron the Darangi kings.[2] Its real popularity lies in its organic connection and syncretism of the Manasapuja which is celebrated at the end of the agricultural season. The festival with the performance of the Manasa story is played in episodes through 11-15 days. The text is like the practice in eastern India derived from the Dharmapuran, with the selection of the performance scenarios made by SukabiNarayana  deva, under the patronage of Koach king Dharmanaryana. The popularity of the form amongst peasant communities is also what makes the depiction of the Manasa story its strongest popular text and enactment. Through the perspective of Paul Connerton we can say that ojapali became a social memory among the Darangi people[3].

Local historical accounts like that of Nabin Chandra Sharmah in one of his book on the history of Darang has cited that during the reign ofDharmanarayana the Darang desh became integrated with Koach state[4]. Thus interpreted would imply that demographically this would be its largest spread covering the landscape of today’s Sonitpurdistrict  toKoach Bihar in West Bengal. Historically this was seen as the 

peak of the forms popularity. The Manasa story enactment however cannot and makes no pretense of any aesthetic beautification. The ‘grotesque’ aesthetics of the central figure of Manasa tells us about the most popular text of the oja palli and one of the reasons why it could never be either within the traditional and classical category to be eulogized as the Assamese or post independent Indian culture. Its aesthetic doesn’t allow it to become directly the example of the aesthetic identity politics. In that sense its popularity is because of this very non aesthetic categories. Yet it does not sustain its genre through its own circulation or without royal or other patronage. Mere depiction of its Manasa enactments and its participative large audiences cannot give us more than an ethnographic account and a simple historical story which can only chronologically lead to the impact and intervention of the Shankaradeva and the neo-Vaishnavite movement.

Neo-vaishnavic ojapali has generally been associated with upper Assam. Shankaradeva initiated a new type of Ojapali called Sattriya or Ramayani ojapali. Bhrigu Mohan Goswami in his book “ A study on the ojapali art form” says: “ Daitarithakur a well known biographer of Assam in 17^th century A.D. writes in his guru carita that Shankardeva preached his new doctrine with the help of the ojapali art form.[1] The katha guru carita inform us that illiterate persons like Laxmanoja could get by heart the entire Assamese version of the Dasama( Book X of the Sanskrit Bhagawta-purana) and the EkadashaSkandha ( book XI of bhagawata-purana) and they were recognized as oja.”. This history of upper Assam and its adaptation of Ojapalli is a sharp contrast to what is seen as its ‘popular’ character. The Ahom kings of upper Assam in their long consolidated rule of 600 years see ojapali, not as an ‘entertainment’ medium but a ‘religious performance’ in temple. In that sense the other genre of ojapali not only reflects power structures of kingship and religious institutions, but because of its non popular intent is adaptable to aesthetic politics which is then cited as the identity of the Asamese people and their culture.

Through the evolution of the ojapali my intent is to see how performance forms (the ojapali being the extensive case study) can be not only seen as a historical archive of its culture and identity of its participants, but its history itself combined with its own historical self reflexivity becomes a critical historiographical study.

The format of storytelling, supposedly from the epics and the Puranas, through improvised songs, dialogues and performative interludes itself weaves in the notion of enacting one’s identity with the notion of narrating and commenting on the enactment itself. The term ‘oja’ means the leader of the troupe and ‘pali’ is his assistant. Generally a group of five and six people performs ojapali in public places,namghor (Assamese prayer halls) and Maroi puja (Manasapuja)ground. Dr. Nabin Chandra Sharmah has describedthe performance thus:

“The dialogues and conversation of Ojapali neitherwritten nor prepared before the performance, created instantly, keeping view the class of audience, environment and then dramatized it during their performance by oja and pali. Audience can get the sense of Epic and Purana subject mattermatter through satire and humor. Contemporary issues, events and problems are addressed through performance. Generally Bhaira or the Dainapali( pali stands to the right hand side of Oja) put more humor element to it.”

One of the major significant aspects of ojapali is its versatility and interactivity and operates at two levels. The enactment sections are self absorbed and even abstract while the story telling techniques distances itself from the performance and even takes on its place with the audience.The intent is to use the epic stories to address social, economic and political issues.  The story telling is directly addressed to the audience, adding to the inclusive and shifting space. Here Michael Wilson’s notions of story telling is a key idea and refers to the story teller as an insider-outsider who mediates a historical review of the performance itself, before its history can even be written. Bringing in a methodological perspective from theatre and performance studies around story telling strategies will allow me to ground the performance practice at multiple levels of its performance.

 Through the complex performance happening at every level the form can be read as identity performance of the community it represents as well as its history. At the other level my intent is to trace the history of the performance itself and hence see it as a second level of history or a historiographical method.

 I am reading this space as performing the present along with a past and choreographing its own history.

The idea of ojapali being a popular form rooted in its community is in contrast to its increasing marginalization and geographical confinement. I read this as a problem in terms of reading so called popular forms and its struggle for survival. If it is indeed a popular form the increasing marginalization is a far more complex idea rather than the usual arguments of a direct proportional decline measured against the growth of the electronic media, the mobile theatre of Assam or even the cinema. The problems of trying to pursue an alternate trajectory to the growing commercialization of leisure activities has an adverse impact on what we always saw as ‘popular’ forms making simplified assumptions and conclusions difficult to make. Similarly just to see it as a reflection of the shrinking of agrarian activities of the community does not answer the question but actually makes it more complex. The ojapali performers as a community are joining the industrial labour force and today represent the working class rather than the agrarian community by there sheer presence in industrial labour. Moreover the growing difficulties are making it impossible even within the seasonal performance cycle for the performers to sustain their economic needs and hence there is a growing need to perform the ojapali as a part time activity. These are more complex ways to interpret social changes and its implications for forms like Ojapali.  I am trying to foreground the recent performances and read through the performative texts and changes to understand the complex changing scenario of India. Whether the performance can even be read in this way is what I would like to explore.

Ultimately there is a need to map the ojapali against other forms which have come under the radar of national and regional cultural attention. It would be interesting to see the debates around Sattriya receiving the legitimate sanction as the eighth classical form of India. Sattriya, which adopts aspects of ojapali in its own cultural expression is now a coded form which in the process of classicization inflicted violence on the so called popular form of ojapali. The official cultural policy and regional politics around performance genres is important in this work to understand the problem .