Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Akanandun: Dead and Undead


Multitude of meanings can be derived from folklore depending on the method of the analysis used. Most of the times the literal meaning leaves  one baffled, confused and shocked as it fails to fit in our reasonable logical thinking and that is why scholars of culture have been using various semiotic and psychoanalytic methods to analyze the potent content of these tales of ancient wisdom. One such tale  from Kashmir  which has terribly fascinated  me with its central  intriguing motif of mystical Resurrection or Rebirth  is the story of Akanandun. The story has been told , retold , represented various times hence I am focusing on the core of the story rather than the details which might have been added later
Apart from the central motif the other recognizable one with which the story starts is  that of a desire for a male child. The anxiety to have a male heir to perpetuate the ancestral lineage is a concern discernable in most of the Patriarchal communities. There are stories about the absurd lengths that parents go to achieve this feat. In the said story too it is the desperate need to have a boy child which make the parents of Akanandun to promise the jogi that they will return the child bestowed on them through his miraculous powers, exactly after twelve years. This kind of desperation points to rash promises we human beings make without giving a second thought to what  it could actually suggest. Akanandun’s parents accepted the condition without thinking what would happen after 12 years and soon conveniently forgot the promise made. It also talks about short-lived memory of ours where we tend to consciously forget the things which give us immense pain and also about the fickleness of human mind. 
Rather then getting worried about the future the couple dedicated their energies in bringning up their son in the best possible way and happily wishing away the future. The fear might have lurked somewhere in their subconscious but they didn’t let that hamper their joy. Once engrossed in their happiness they completely lost sight of the approaching misery. But the jogi remembered the promise very well and returned after the stipulated time and demanded that the boy be returned to him. This reality shattered their world and they begged jogi to spare the child and take whatever he wanted.
The aspect of ‘moha’, is underlined here . The couple and their seven daughters had grown extremely fond of the boy and they wept , wailed and tried to get the sympathy of the jogi. But the latter had given up the world and along with it all the materialistic passions. He remained unmoved, untouched by the extreme emotions displayed by the family and would take nothing but the child.He harshly reminded them of their fateful promise. The moment of realization of the actual implication of the promise must have been so painful!
Greatly aggrieved and pained the parents obliged with a heavy heart and called Akanandun, a young ,energetic and handsome lad of 12 who had shown great promise in all the fields. Jogi asked the boy to be cleansed and draped in new clothes .When the child was ready Jogi took him to a side and beheaded him in full view of his parents. What a shock it must have been to the parents! But the miseries didn’t’ end  there. He started cutting the body in small pieces and patiently separated the flesh from the bone. The hapless parents could hardly believe their eyes. In front of them was their dear son ,killed and chopped to pieces. Imagine the condition of the mother who was then ordered by the jogi to wash the pieces of meat and cook them for him.The fact that she complied with such gruesome order somewhere points to an underlined faith because just  fear will not let a mother take such an extreme step. Somewhere the trust in the Jogi who had given her the greatest happiness of her life can be deciphered here. He even ordered her to taste the flesh to see if it was properly cooked and later to serve the dish in seven vessels and cover them with a white cloth. She complied again, almost mechanically.But she could control her feelings no more when the holy man asked her to call Akanandun to take his meals. She burst into tears and said it was impossible. She cried her heart out but Jogi once again was adamant. There must have been something in Jogi’s voice which made her call her son in most pitiful a voice..a wail of a lamenting mother..to whom the extent of her loss had just dawned upon completely.As  she was undergoing these extreme emotions Akanandun rushed in the room and took his place ready to take his meals. The family  could believe their eyes no more and turned their questioning glances towards the Jogi , only to find no one there.The holy man had disappeared along with the seven vessels. There was nothing which could remind them of the dreadful act they had witnessed sometime back.
The story capable of creating macabre and violent imagery, filled to core with Bhibatsa Rasa, able to arouse tremendous Jugupsa (disgust) somewhere I feel has a cleansing power. A Catharsis of sorts is achieved by reading and sure enough by watching the story being enacted.  The narrative takes us to a different planes of emotion, increases our heartbeats , purges us of all the emotions of pity and fear that delve in our physche. On one hand it gives a glimpse of extremely fickle nature of  human beings on the other it talks of miracles that can happen if only we have faith. Faith alone has the power to conquer duality. Probably this is why the narrative has had a great appeal for poets like Samad Mir, Ahad Zargar, Prakash Ram and otherswho have identified the story with Sufi thought.
Similar motif of resurrection can be seen in the well known biblical story of Abraham and Issac
Gen 22 NIV states that God ordered Abharam to take his only son, Isaac, to the region of Moriah and sacrifice him as a burnt offering to the god.
. It is to faithful and trusting devotees that He shows the most enchanting of the miracles. Miraculous truths are not meant for people who are skeptical of faith and tend to employ their limited reason to question the declarations of faith. The aspect of underlined faith and trust comes across through the following lines:
“Heb 11:17-19 NIV) By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had received the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, "It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned." “
Abraham is stopped by an angel and is asked to replace his son by a ram . So the entire ordeal was to see if Abraham had enough unquestioning faith in his God or the human weaknesses would take the better of him. Perhaps one the best visual representation of this incident is this painting by Caravaggio, a 17th Century Italian Baroque  Painiter.
Somewhere in our story too the faith and trust of the family especially the mother in the Jogi seems to have been tested. .One sees a willful submission to the wishes of someone who had blessed her with a  son.
Interestingly a story narrating the myth of Resurrection is also found in Egyptian Myth of Osiris , the god of afterlife. who was cut into pieces by his arch enemy Set and was brought back to life by his wife Isis. Isis collected all the body parts and arranged them in order and started singing a song while going around the pieces until her husband came back to life and later on came to be known as the ‘god of afterlife’.Though the same motif may be found repeated in various myths and folktales ,everyone of them unique in their  own way , the feeling of faith and turst seems to be the intersecting point for all of them.
Idea of Paroksha or paradox as observed by Subhash Kak in Epic myths can be extended to folk literature too. As Kak observes in such narratives the moral ambiguity works like the hubris of Greek myth and drama, creating a space that is not quite in the realm of gods, although it is superhuman. The story of Akanandun has definitely an other worldly aura about it. Today we might not be able to relate to what to our rational senses would appear too irrational or illogical but the violent imageries replete with deep phychological meanings have been a part of Indian culture since hoary past.Disowning such stories or art works shows our tremendous disconnect with our own past. Maet or Malangs as they were known in Kashmir were a reality just two decades back and probably exist to this day. Our parents and grand parents are witness to their mystical powers and seemingly mad actions.  Existing on a different plane of reality nobody dared question them. I have heard how people used to fear Nand Mot and what he had to say to them.Mysticism is part of our culture and unfortunately we are losing touch with it.Unfortunately we have..turned ourselves into a fearful bunch ..thinking about the dangerous consequence before embarking on anything new…Years of submissive behavior has made us puppets in the hands of our own apprehensions which it is a high time to fight.