Mahabharata: The Tharu Barka Naach

A review by Rama Parajuli and Pratyoush Onta

"It is not known when the Barka Naach, the Dangaura Tharu version of the
Mahabharata, was first performed in Dang Valley," write editors Meyer and
Deuel. 

Early in this century a village leader named Mahatawa Rul Lal Tharu
of Jhalaura collected scattered  manuscripts that contained parts of the
text of the orally rendered Barka Naach, which literally means "big dance".
After teaching himself to read and write, Rup Lal produced a
single version of it in Tharu language in 1922 and with the help of some
Tharu priests, organized its performances in five-year intervals until the
early 1960s. Funds necessary to support a complete production of the Barka
Naach, the editors report, then dried up. When he died in 1970, Rup Lal's
manuscript was passed on to his son, Chandra Prasad Tharu.

During their pan-Tarai study of Tharu material culture and architectural
designs, Meyer and Deuel met Chadra Prasad in 1993. Impressed by his
knowledge of Tharu songs, they provided financial support for the
production of an abridged version of the Barka Naach in February 1994. Some
weeks ago a full version of the same was performed. The book is a textual
introduction to the performance and a guide that could accompany its video
version.

The editors claim that the Barka Naach is culturally unique to the
Dang-based Dangaura Tharu and constitutes a part of their larger legend of
the Barkimer ("the Big war"). Its performance, they write, "is closer in
form to the classic Greek drama: the story is told through the dancing of
performers and the singing of the traditional Tharu text by a chorus." They
also describe, in brief, how the Tharu version of the story differs from
that of the classic Sanskrit Mahabharata.

The Barka Naach consists of an opening prayer, ten songs and the closing
prayer. The opening and the closing prayers, it is reported, are mandatory
in each performance while selections can be made from the main body of
dance songs to suit the circumstances of the performing groups. These dance
songs are, as the editors note, action stories, largely devoid of the
"philosophical teachings that pervade the Mahabharata." They are also very
much Pandavas-oriented. In particular, the second brother, Bhim receives
attention. 

Many of the heroics of the third brother Arjun in the classic
version is attributed to Bhim here, he being a particurlarly popular folk
deity of the Dangaura Tharu.

The ten dance songs describe the following episodes of the Mahabharata: the
conspiracy of the Kauravas to kill the Pandavas by burning them inside a
wax house; Bhim's killing of Raksasa Danu; Draupadi's swayamvara; the dice
contest in which the Pandavas lose everything; Pandavas in a 12-year exile;
their 13th year of exile (living incognito) in the house of King Bairath
(Virat); Bhim's fight with King Bairath's elephant; Bhim's killing of
Kichaka who had harrassed Draupadi; attack on King Bairath by Duryodhan's
company (longest song); decimation of the Kauravas at the end of the battle
in Kurukshetra. The epilogue describes the Pandavas' journey to heaven.
Each song contains a refrain. While only those who are familiar with the
original Tharu version can say how authentic the English one is, the
translation reads well.

The chief intended audience of the book is clearly the lay western reader
who is only sparingly familiar with the classic version of the Mahabharata.
The glossary is mostly helpful even as it does not contain the word paidhar
which forms a part of the title of each song. The family tree of the
Kauravas-Pandavas provided at the end is useful even as it does not contain
all the characters encounted in the songs. 

Some of the introductory text
could have been better edited (DDT did not eliminate malaria from the Tarai
in the 1960s as claimed; 'controlled' is more the case). The book is
produced elegantly. However the publishers would have done the readers a
service by keeping the title consistent. The front cover title is as given
here but the inside jacket says The Barka Naach: the Tharu Mahabharata
which should have been the title for the front as well. The jacket blurp
(which contains an incomplete sentence) and the inside text would have
benefited from a close reading by a careful editor.

It will be left to those who are familiar with the published large corpus
of Nepali folklore to compare this Tharu Mahabharata with other folk
versions. For scholars of south and south-east Asian folklore, a larger
comparison could be a worthwhile project. A study of  Rup Lal's (as yet
unpublished?) book "describing the role of the Barka songs in Tharu
culture" mentioned by his son should also be done. Finally some
contemplation on how Rup Lal's rendition might have reified the oral
tradition of the Dangaura Tharu Barka Naach as performed in the 19th
century would also be useful to understand how the written word intervenes
in the reproduction of a largely oral culture.

(R. Parajuli is a reporter for Kantipur and P. Onta, among other things,
hosts the discussion program Dabali over Radio Sagarmatha on Wednesday
mornings)