Structural Peripheries and Ideological Underpinnings: Performative Narration in Par of Pabuji

Abstract

A.K. Ramanujan considers Bhakti, tantra and folklores as three alternative, coexistent systems which are part of Little Traditions (desi/loka) as against Great Tradition (margi/shastra) and invert, oppose and modify the later structures: “In fact, the three great sources of counter-structures, bhakti, tantra and folklore, all relate to each other and also have Hindu, Buddhist and Jain forms—creating overlaps, intermediate genres, indeed, ‘a scale of forms.’ Tantra inverts, and extreme forms of bhakti subverts; folk forms rework and domesticate the orthodox brahmanical traditions” (Dharwadker 27). The folk forms carry within them seeds of subversion which exist in consonance with their apparent social and religious conformity. These subversive elements question the socially and religiously accepted values, judgments and conventions by presentation of alternative value system both through thematic thrust as well as through their performative potential. Further, to understand folk performances and their concerns, it is not imperative to encase them within the textual gymnastics, rather we should attempt to study them as parts of the whole, which is essentially folk life and its concerns. Different manifestations of folk life such as tales, theatre, songs, riddles and jokes inherently represent one system and reflect on each other. These forms conflict and amalgamate with each other so as to qualify and intensify a vision of folk life which exists not in simple harmony but contains all the disagreements and contradictions of a dialogic imagination. Along with this internal conflict, contestation, amalgamation and transference are the processes through which the dynamic encounter of different traditions is defined within the folk culture.