LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 18:6 June 2018
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
         N. Nadaraja Pillai, Ph.D.
         Renuga Devi, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.
         Dr. S. Chelliah, Ph.D.
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Dalit Voices in Burrakatha (An Oral Narrative):
A Case Study of Kannada and Telugu

Skandgupta


Burrakatha performance
Courtesy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burra_katha

Abstract

India is the conglomeration of different ethnic, cultural and linguistic groups viz. Astro-Asiatic, Dravidian, Indo-Arya and Tibeto-Burman people. Each of these linguistic communities divide into many modern languages that constitute 122 languages of which 22 are scheduled and 100 are tribal languages (Ramakrishna Reddy 2013). Each language of the scheduled and non-scheduled languages developed a type of oral narratives, viz., Yaksagana in Karnatak, Burrakatha in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Mohini Attam in Kerala and Kudi Attam in Tamilnadu, etc. These arts mainly cultivated by the lower sections of the community in order to gain their lively hood. In the course of time, the performers of these Indian folk arts made use of the Indian mythology, Socio-political conditions, the lives of the down trodden and the Dalits. In the Telangana State, Praja Natya Mandali used the art BURRAKATHA for the voices of Dalit and the down trodden people in the society. The main of the paper tries to attempt how multifarious discriminated Dalits have consciously used oral forms of literature to acknowledge themselves socially and culturally. Mainstream literature continuously denied the validity of Dalit literature and its thoughts. Folk arts which consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, beliefs, and customs that are the traditions of that culture, subculture, or groups tried to use the folk arts for their acknowledgment in the multifaceted society. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. Throughout the ages of oppression, oral literature has held Dalit communities in difficulties of education.

Keywords: oral, folklore, culture, identity, expression, Burrakatha, Dalit

Introduction

Story telling is an important Oral tradition in India and there are several traditional ways of narrating a story. Study of Oral narratives has been assumed a special importance with the emergence of special academic department’s viz. Folklore studies, Comparative literature and Translation studies etc. Earlier academicians used to look at some of the native oral arts of India at individual level, without giving the importance to these genres, that involved socio economic conditions of the society, contemporary issues of the people and cultural heritage of each art and the Dalit voices in them. In the current studies of Indian folk arts and the oral narrative involved in them are given importance in the Indian academia because they are the representation of the voices of the undermined people in the society. Each folk art of the Indian Sub-Continent has employed one the other of complex schemas to reach easily to the common people especially the rural people. These unforgettable folk arts of the Indian Sub-Continent have also undergone so many changes, according to the changes that are taking in the Indian society till the date and time to time. These changes are bound to impact the narrators of the arts to change according to the changes that are occurring in the societies that existed.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Skandgupta
Ph.D. Research Scholar
Centre for Applied Linguistics and translation Studies
sgvanshi@gmail.com

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