4. Bengali folk rhymes
"Chhelebhulano Chharha," the first in a collection of essays on Bengali folklore entitled Lokashahitya [Folklore], published in 1907 by Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941).(1) Tagore's views on folklore composition as expressed in "Chhelebhulano Chharha" are significant from the perspective of contemporary folklore scholarship. There currently exists no other complete English translation.(2) The essay is followed by a small collection of chharhas (rhymes) compiled by Tagore.
The poems that Tagore refers to as chhelebhulano chharha can be heard throughout Bengal, and are familiar to most Bengali children. Mothers, grandmothers, and nursemaids frequently recite them to soothe crying children, to distract them into eating, to lull them asleep, and to coax and console them in myriad other ways. Recitation occasions vary from peaceful afternoons and evenings when the mother is alone with her child to stressful mornings when she is trying to calm a screaming toddler as she prepares the afternoon meal. The poems thus express a variety of emotions, ranging from happy musings on the child to the general melancholy and sadness that Bengali women often associate with their own social condition. These poems thus furnish a convenient window to the inner thoughts of their composers, and also alert us to the type of cultural influences that Bengali children are exposed to as they grow up.
Tagore was aware of the multiform quality of folklore and recognized it as the verbal creation of the community. This being the quality that sets folklore apart from written literature, Tagore emphasized the importance of preserving variants.
Bengali has a rich tradition of folklore and folk literature. This tradition is the creation of the rural folk, transmitted orally from one generation to the next. In addition to the rhymes that comprise the subject of this article, Bengali folk literature includes such forms as folktales, riddles, proverbs, maxims, and songs.
Folk rhymes exist in one form or another in most areas of the world. Examples are the nursery rhymes of Europe, the Mother Goose verse of America, and the warabe uta and komori uta of Japan. The origins of many Bengall folk rhymes are obscure, and are thought to be of considerable antiquity; certainly a large portion of them are known to have existed in the oral tradition for several centuries at least. This is a characteristic they share with the folk rhyme traditions found in most other cultures. Siddiqui quotes the famous folklorist M. Bloomfield as follows:
There are many popular rhymes which cannot be definitely assigned to any specific moment in history. The very same popular rhyme may have been in existence for decades, each time adopting
itself, now to one and now to another manifestation of actual life, and being subjected sometimes to slight, sometimes to very extensive
changes. (1963, 203)
On the basis of the available evidence, Bengali folk rhymes appear to be at least as old as the Buddhist mystic verses carya-pada,(3) the earliest literary work in the Bengali language. If this hypothesis is correct, Bengall folk rhymes share the thousand-year history of the Bengali language itself.
Like other oral literature, Bengali folk rhymes are anonymous in the sense that once created they become common property (unless recorded and placed in collections that identify the creators). The dynamic and lively nature of the genre leaves room for continuous change, resulting in many variations on a single rhyme.
Bengal has a rich treasury of folk literature, of which folk rhyme is an integral and important component possessed of its own universe and notable in terms of both quality and quantity. In many languages and cultures folk rhymes are of secondary importance in comparison with folktales, ballads, etc., but in Bengali folk literature rhyme holds a place of equal importance to these other forms. Bengali folk rhyme is not simply an instrument for the amusement of children but a subject worthy of serious study, bearing most of the essential characteristics of folk tradition: anonymous and collective creation, dynamism, textual variation, social function, etc. (Bungi 1977, 101-103). Local culture and folk experience play a dominant role in the composition and variation of these rhymes.
The origins of most Bengall folk rhymes are obscure, and are thought to be of considerable antiquity, possibly sharing the thousand-year history of the Bengali language itself. Classification of the rhymes is difficult and still in a fluid stage, although certain hypotheses have been advanced. The collection and compilation of Bengali folk rhymes in a systematic way has a history of one century. It was inspired by the worldwide interest in folklore collection on the one hand, and by the rise of Bengall nationalism and cultural consciousness on the other. It may be mentioned here that the early collection of rhymes took place before the study of folklore assumed any organized or institutional shape in Bengal. A few literary journals and a handful of devoted scholars deserve the credit for this early work. As a result, collection came first and discussion afterwards.
The collection of Bengali folk rhymes was also inextricably linked throughout its history with soclopolitical change in Bengal. The collection process continues, with many of the recorded rhymes still unpublished. The production of a complete anthology, handbook, or dictionary of Bengali folk rhymes remains a task for the future.
Bangla Rhyme
Hattimatim tim
thakur mar jhuli- episod 4 - Part 1 (Bangla cartoon
kokhan kokhan kare mai
kashimpurer kuja buri
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