Folk Culture Studies - Theses
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ItemCultural life of Badagas of Nilgiris \b tradition and change(University of Hyderabad, 2018-07-01)The time of British and missionaries entered the Nilgiri hills during the early period of 19th century, the Badagas lived with other native communities based on mutual relationships sustaining on economic exchange system where in the Badagas (agriculturalists), Kotas (Artisan, musician and cultivator) Todas (pastoralist) and Kurumbas (food gatherers, hunters, slash and burn cultivators and sorceress). But afterwards in 19th century, the Badaga economy, agriculture got much influenced. Badagas being the major agriculturalists of the region, they produced a real surplus of grains and English vegetables like cabbage, carrot and potato along with the commercial crops of tea plantation. They exchanged their products such as salt, mustard, potatoes, sugar, opium, cloth and deceased livestock in return for various goods and services. The Badagas were dynamic for; they were the first to shift to large scale commercial crop cultivation, English education in the missionary schools for their children, and gaining employment in local establishments. The other tribes maintained their subsistence way of life as what they are for several more decades20. In the post-Independence period, the Badagas are very much concerned with their ethnic status whether as a tribe or a caste due to the decline of Tea plantation and the migration of Badagas in search of employment. The challenges Badaga community face in the wake of their migration process ever since their first migration from Badaganadu to Nilgiri foothills, from thence to hilltop and their dispersal to different geographical regions on the hills-Poranganadu, Mekkunadu,Kundeanadu and Thodhanadu and finally again flying to the plains of Coimbatore and other places is highly enterpreneuring. This is a significant journey in the cultural life of the Badagas. The customary interdependence that exists between the Badagas and other groups is being changed in different parts of the plateau. Some Badagas who emphasise on cash crops are uninterested to maintain age old ties. The factors like potentialities of a labour market, proximity to bus routes to the town , aboriginal dwelling patterns and nearness of tribal settlements that are in reciprocity of relationships determine the affinities of Badagas with their traditional obligatory bondage with the local tribes of Nilagiris.
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ItemTantric art \b from ritual to visual(University of Hyderabad, 2018-08-01)The contents of Tantric literature can broadly be studied in (i) philosophical and (ii) spiritual contexts. The contents of Tantra work can broadly be divided into four heads, they are: 1.Jnana (wisdom) 2.Yoga (meditation) 3.Kriya (action) and, 4.Carya or siddhi (attainment). These are the general feature which does not apply to each and every Tantric work. The foremost aim of Tantra is to achieve deliverance and siddhi (mysticalpower). To understand its basic ingredients it’s necessary to study its historical background which is very vast and having different schools of thought. The present study clears the concepts, there by its contents are known. The metaphysical art of Tantra has variety of forms, showing different graphic patterns of vivid colours and tones.The reflections of Tantric ideology in the art forms- painting; sculpture and so on,have an aesthetic value besides being powerful in its symbolism, philosophy and worldview of its followers.For broader discussion, these images impart an extraordinary example of how the cognitive faculty of imagination was trained through the careful practice of visualization. These images mean evidential practice, but also finding the meaning of a particular civilization
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ItemScroll narratives of Bengal : tradition and continuity(University of Hyderabad, 2018-08-01)The Scroll Narrative Art has assumed a decisive role in the society. How enthusiastically they are composing kathas ( narratives ) gradually kathas (narratives or stories) are changing into geetikas (sweet melodies) and skillfully, the melodies are arising into visual images on the pictorial/scroll surfaces. Finally well made scroll paintings altogether stories are reaching to the mass, as the form of mass-amusement and mass-communication to reinforce it as the type of audio-visual presentation tools to speak of it before the crowd as an intercultural method of communication. Scroll narrative artist community known as Patuas performs scroll in villages at the household’s doorsteps. Actually, they are bards and for the sake of their livelihoods they wander the village to villages. The performance of scrolls in numerous sequences are juxtaposed on a long scroll surface either as episode of a tale, or as a sequence of event development through time. Stories are composed into the narratives from myths, epics, history or legends, regional folk tales, applied folklore, and contemporary incidents such as 9/11, HIV/AIDS, Nirbhaya rape. Pat Chitra performance spread around the country as a ritual performance slowly, in Bengal province it has taken a turn towards educative and entertainment value.
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ItemFolk religion and mythology of koch community of Assam(University of Hyderabadf, 2019-06)So far as the researches are done on Koch community, they have focused mainly on the political and socio-cultural histories of the community. Such works highlighted the establishment of a political dynasty, struggling for an identity and the social set up of the community. The works on rituals, rites and other belief systems with regard to folk religion are very much less. Though most of the Koch people are the followers of Hinduism, they still practice their age-old belief systems. In mundane life, they have to acclimatize to the locality in which they survive in the course of which they get mixed up with Hinduism to their old religious practices and thus emerged their “folk Hinduism”. It embodies the ritual practices and other forms of folklore, verbal and non-verbal behaviour like narratives, songs, riddles, proverbs etc. The religious belief that is in practice occurs in orality transmitted orally from one generation to the other. Thus, practices of the folk religion of the Koch community are not taken into consideration to understand their social lives. In light of the above discussion, the existing works are highlighting the socio-historical life of the Koch community and hence the studies are lopsided. For having a holistic perspective, folklore as an ongoing cultural process of the community has to be given emphasis. Because, folklore is a tradition based creation of the folk, by the folk and for the folk whose mode of transmission is oral which includes the process of changes that occur over a period of time and space
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ItemConflicting identities in dalit movement in Andhra Pradesh(University of Hyderabad, 2018-05-01)Dalit movement in India can be treated as socio-economic and politico-cultural movement. Since Dalits are marginalized and treated as excluded by the mainstream caste ridden society, the voices of protest emerged within the Dalit groups and manifested severally as anti-untouchable, temple entry and rights of equality movements during the Colonial phase of history in India. They are all sporadic and isolated events which failed to draw the attention of the mainstream society. With the support of the Colonial regime few individuals like Ambedkar spearheaded the depressed classes’ movement. Despite this, the movement did not achieve the status of unified movement. Each Dalit group had their own path under different banners. Each Dalit movement has highlighted different issues related to Dalits and varied around ideologies. In the process of articulation of Dalit identity connected with the self-esteem and the self-image of a community became poly-vocal. Each movement mainly concentrated on the social and Dalit identity, not on the economic issues. When it comes to the States of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, there were sixty one Dalit castes located in these States. Within these sixty one Dalit groups, Malas and Madigas are demographically dominant. Each Dalit group had their own identity, traditional occupation and caste myths. All these Dalit groups were known as Panchamas or Avarnas or Chandalas or untouchables. These untouchable groups started fighting against the upper castes dominant ideology to eradicate untouchability and caste discrimination. On one hand, they are fighting against the non-Dalit people and on the other hand they are fighting among each other. The conflicts among the Dalits are traditionally linked to the origin of these communities. Even now one can identify the above mentioned conflicts in the present day Dalit movement. From this perspective the present thesis is intend to trace out the types of conflicts in the Dalit movement.