The Existence of Oral Traditions in Bengali Poetry

In an attempt to identify the existence of oral poetry in Bangla traditions, it is pertinent that our understanding of the relationship between language and performance is well-defined. Bangla folk culture is still one of the finest in the world. It is rich, rhythmic, and ornamented passing down to generations after generations in oral forms. The spoken word poetry phenomenon gained popularity by the preliterate communities who composed and preserved the literature which spoke of the local values and traditions of that particular community in that particular period. The performance was natural and filled with emotions and beliefs and brimmed with aesthetics, ecstasy, and humor. The folk culture is therefore the classic example to unfold the relationship between language and style to dig deeper into the traditions of oral poetry in Bangladesh.

The Bengal oral tradition of poetry appeared in many forms: poetry, songs, proverbs, ballads, drama, tales, epics, and rhymes. Each form had a unique tune and witty verses that go hand in hand. Spoken word poetry is still in practice, particularly in the indigenous and village cultures. Researchers are now trying to put them in text as a means to restore and spread this cultural practice which is on the verge of being lost in the name of modernization.

Folk songs in our South Asian culture are the perfect examples of Bangla oral traditions which ranged from nature to city, history, politics, and religion to conflicts in the cast system. Topics of oral performance also included the life of a farmer, an old tyrant, or a newly married couple. The rural and urban people discovered poetry in everything. The poems were recited as mantras while doing chores and the people crafted language in small verses describing life in fragments and details.

Gitika is a form of South Asian medieval oral narrative poetry in South Asia narrating an individual event or story through dialogue. However, the characters are not named but referred to as king, queen, old lady, demon, merchant, or sorcerer to name a few. There are no details on the settings as to where these characters belong, for instance, Thakurmar Jhuli. The poems are usually about human life and secular not highlighting any particular religion or social system.

Over centuries, Bangla oral traditions welcomed several mystic poets who followed the doctrine of Bhakti, Sufi, and Baul traditions. They are not just poets but also masters who shared and questioned the elements of the universe and truth of our existence through poetic expression. To discover or rediscover the roots of Bangla literature, folklore tradition is a window to the world of poetic expressions merging language and performance under one roof, for instance, the Baul of Bengals.

UNESCO declared the traditional Baul songs of Bangladesh as one of the forty-three works of intangible and oral world heritage art, which encouraged researchers to preserve this cultural institution. Baul singers are known to give a sense of mysticism and it still does send a chill down my spines. The verses are still relevant in this era and performance has continued to exist over the decades. One of the most prominent gurus of the Baul tradition is our Lalon. Even though the performances are being modified and experimented, no one has been able to change or criticize the language in discourse. Lalon Fakir being the pioneer inspired Nazrul Islam, and Rabindranath Tagore, Allen Ginsberg, Kangal Harinath to name a few for their poems. These legendary and renowned poets listened to Lalon Fakir’s songs which were mostly about grave society values like humanism, discrimination, political and social problems amongst others. Lalon was also a part of the 19th century Bengal Renaissance movement when modernity and new ideas were entering the Bengali society.

Unlike scholars who argue poetry is for the higher and sophisticated class of the society, the highly celebrated Lalon received no academic education and was extremely poor. Thanks to Lalon, we today have spoken word poetry rich in mystical, social, and political content dedicated to the poor peasants of the land. Lalon drew his inspiration from all the socio-cultural environment of his time. He did not have the luxury to gather from or enrich his wisdom from other contemporary philosophers or thinkers.

Lalon played an imminent role to enhance the Bangla oral traditions we speak today, although he composed around 2000 to 10,000 songs (the exact number is not known), no written record of the compositions were found. His rural followers, who were also not educated and unable to transcribe his great works, orally transmitted them from one generation to another. Lalon’s works are now translated in other languages, studied, and research and to this day has fascinated academics across the globe.

One of Lalon’s disciples Mantu Shah (also known as Fakir Anwar Hossain) has been on the quest of preserving the authentic lyrics of Lalon Fakir since 1960. His book Lalon Sangeet is available in three volumes. The only difficulty in oral poetry culture is that most of the verses are lost and cannot be traced. Mantu Shah has traveled extensively to many places In Bangladesh and India and worked with manuscripts of Fakir Maniruddin Shah who was a direct disciple of Lalon and records say he was authorized by Lalon himself to write down the verses for archiving purpose.

As we do not have an authentic account of the tunes for these verses, three different types of tunes are in practice in Bangladesh nowadays. The oral traditions vary from one poet to another and from one style to another, for example, traditional poets and urban poets have different approaches towards their performance. They are:

1. Akhrai tradition:

2. Intermingling of Akhrai tradition

3. The fusion of classical and western music with Akhrai tradition.

Spoken word poetry continued to exist as common sayings and proverbs with no knowledge of its origin. In the last decade, several elite small groups in Dhaka are making an effort to revive this practice by forming social groups and practicing spoken word poetry amongst themselves and organizing open mic sessions where one segment is dedicated to slam poetry or live poetry sessions. Even though oral traditions are multi-dimensional and have changed its course over periods, people are now trying hard to revive and nurture this candid cultural expression of poetry to reign over language and performance in a perfect lyrical world.