Is Goria a Hindu God? ,
[11/10/2009]
R K Debbarma, rkdebbarma@gmail.com
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 Dr. Atul Debbarma's article 'Baba Goria Mwtai Saboni?' published in this website is an important intervention in the ongoing charade about god in Tripura. I agree with his argument that Goria should be taken as indigenous god of the Tripuris, instead of it being imported from the Sikam. He made similar argument a year back when he posted a reply to my article (in this website) The Politics of Durga Puja, where he disagreed with my argument. According to him Durga Puja is not a goddess of Bengali-Hindus. Durga or Osa is originally our indigenous goddess. The Bengali-Hindus adopted or appropriated it. He cited the celebration of Osa by the Manikya dynasty as evidence. On this argument 14 gods Goria and other gods of the Tripuris have been appropriated or adopted by the Bengali-Hindus. No one can dispute his position about these gods. I think, But the problem with his position is that he missed the problem. The problem is not gods. Religion is. And the hegemonic relationship it constructs.
If 14 gods and goria are not hindu gods then why should Tripuris be Hindus? The question I would like to pose is why/how did the individuals and communities who worship Goria (an indigenous god) become Hindu? (Not whose god s/he is) Or what does the appropriation of indigenous gods of Tripuris by Bengali-Hindus entail for the relationship between the two communities? (Not we should worship Durga or Osa because s/he is originally our god/dess). I would problematise these questions, instead of gods.
Modern day Tripuris need to realised one fundamental fact: Tripura kings (like all kings who have walked this planet) were not nationalist (once we realise this we will stop blaming them for the many ills we confront today, their success should be judged by their ability to rule not by what they did to the Tripuris). On the contrary nationalism when it first emerged in the west was responsible for the overthrow of kings and dynasties. Initially nationalism was anti kings (kingdoms), and then we have anti-colonial nationalism. The present epoch is perhaps epoch of anti-national nationalism.
Kings are state-making agents. And as state-making agents they require (in a very rudimentary sense) two things: 1. sedentary population (who produce permanent taxable surplus) 2. a cosmological framework (in order to legitimate and perpetuate their rule). First, communities inhabiting the Hill Tipperah were basically mobile people practising shifting hill agriculture. They are mobile and they do not like paying tax (therefore hate wet sedentary agriculture). Imposition of tax by a wannabe ruler or king would result in the population moving to areas where the ruler has no control. If there is no man power and a population to tax then there is no king. More importantly, these communities have a long history of escaping the state making projects of various kings the Han Chinese, Thai (Siamese) rulers, and Burmese. The only solution available to the wannabe kings of Tipperah was to import and settle Bengalis
Secondly, the wannabe kings of Tipperah needed a cosmological framework in order to legitimate and perpetuate their rule. They had two options: the Buddhist framework as used by the Han Chinese, Siamese(?) and Burmese or the Hindu cosmology. Perhaps their choice was dictated by the religion of their adopted population the Bengali Hindus. This led to self-Hinduisation by the Manikya rulers. They introduced Brahminical protocols and rituals and their old indigenous names (this change in names from indigenous to Sanskrit names is noticible to any careless observer) were abandoned. The disappearance of indigenous script and indigenous Rajmala has to be understood in this context.
The Bengali-Hindu population became the backbone of Tipperah kings Treasury. They produced surplus on which to build the state, make wars and defend and sustain dynastic rule. The manikya dynasty fashioned itself as a lunar race and kshetriya, its caste. If we ignore the mythical content of the Rajmala, this transition can be said to have occurred during 14th - 15th Century. So the padi state built by Manikya rulers had two category of population- the Hindu sedentary plain farmers and the upland mobile shifting cultivators. The first category of population were characterised by surplus paddy producing concentrated population. The second category was of moving-thinning population. Any attempt by the ruler to impose rules, tax and religion was met with their age-old technique of moving away to regions where the king had little or no control (See Report of Tripura Administration since 1872). How to make these upland mobile populations, who constitute the fighting manpower, immobile? This problem was resolved by making the gods objectively identifiable. Let me explain.
One need to be cautious of the fact that self-Hinduization of the kings did not move beyond the palace. This is evident from the fact that traditional and indigenous forms of worship have been retained by almost all the communities inhabiting the upland regions controlled by the Tipperah kings. These mobile upland communities do not worship idol (idol worship is possible only by people practising sedentary agriculture). Mobile people do not carry images of their gods. Neither do they put them in walled houses. Their worship them in abstract form and rituals are signified by the use of bamboos. This way it is easy to move and carry them. The worship of fourteen indigenous gods images, sanctioned by the palace, is an imaginative incorporation by the Tipperah kings in order to please his mobile subjects who are the backbone of the states fighting men. However, one need to keep in mind that these images are head-images with tiny horns (Hindus idols are generally full images) and their gender is neither male nor female. The chontais still offer the worship on erected bamboos and use chuak, and also eggs and animal sacrifice. This make the 14 gods distinctly indigenous, non Hindu. Goria is till worshiped in the form of carved bamboo poles. The one image of Goria, now jealously owned and guarded by the Jamatia community is also one such category.
The images of the fourteen gods and of the goria need to be seen as outcome of state-making projects- to make the Tipras immobile. Successful state-making enterprise depends on making land and people legible and appropriable. To appropriate and control the belief system of the mobile population the rulers need to transform their gods into observable object (no more abstract figure which is portable and worshiped anywhere) and the residents of the gods made sacred (this made possible for gods to be worshiped in a particular constructed sacred spot). Once the entire gods of the Tipperas had been made identifiable objects, and placed or housed in holy sites, the kokborok speaking communities (especially the groups who today write the permanent last name debbarma) became more or less immobile population who served the kings in various forms. Others who refused and resisted these state-making projects had to change their gods, adopted different style of speaking kokborok and moved about for another few centuries till the English came and started marking boundaries and fixing people.
This then is the historical and political context within which we have to discuss the religious conundrum confronting Tripuri society. From this I want to argue that Osa was not appropriated by the Bengali Hindus from the Tipras (Osa is full image idol). Durga may have been appropriated by the Hindus from others but that does not constitute sufficient reason to conclude that to be from Tripuris. For one thing Tripuris do not worship images and never full images of gods. On the contrary it make more sense to consider it as appropriation by the Tipperah kings from the Bengali-Hindus in order to legitimate rule over them (Durga is worshiped by Hindus every where). This brings me to my final point the hinduisation of the formerly mobile subjects.
The gods have been appropriated by making it objectifiable, and giving them a resident with address where individuals must turn up in order to worship them, and make sacrifice. So, like the Bengali-Hindus, the subjects for whom the kings erected temples all over its dominion, invented sacred Hindu places, Shrines (Unokuti, Tirhtamukh etc), the Tipras now have their gods no more everywhere, but captured and walled by the ruler. The model provided successful rule over the two categories of subjects. Then the British showed up swallowing one kingdom after another, and gobbling up hitherto unconquerable hills and chiefs in the region. In the struggle with the British for supremacy over people and land the Tripura rulers learnt the importance of maps and census two important instruments of modern state-making projects. Maps made vast encompass of the rulers territory objectively identifiable. S/he could now see the entire territory on his or her desk and rule, give away and annexed by merely making a mark on the map. Maps made rule easy, ordered and rational.
If maps made lands classifiable, census made people classifiable. Both are projects of control. The rulers of Tripura were not able to classify much of its hill population. In the first census (1290 Tipperah Era) population was Tripura was shown as 10.22 percent Hindu, 61. 48 percent Animist or worshipers of spirit and the rest as Muslim. But from 1310 Tipperah Era the entire population classified as animists before, were categorised as Hindus. This was the beginning of fixing Hindu religious identity on the people who worship indigenous gods.
It was the state which fixed Hindu identity on the Tripuris. One must remember that actual census took place only after merger with independent India (the census during manikya rule was based on Talukdars and village chiefs assessment based on house tax). This policy of the state (fixing Hindu identity) provided the Bengali Brahmins opportunity to establish its supremacy, in the name of imparting Brahminical teachings, over the kokborok speaking groups. The ills committed by these religious gurus do not need mention (these gurus were finally hounded and driven out during TUJS-TSF ascendancy). Mention may be made that during the 1880s, the then ruler of Tripura claimed himself as a Kshatriya caste and launched a movement to raise the status of Tripuris to Hindu caste. Tripuris were prohibited from eating pork, foul, she-goat and were ordered to wear sacred thread. When the Reangs, under the leadership of Ratanmani, rose in revolt in the early 1940s (against forcible conscription, corvee labour, exorbitant house tax etc...) large number of Reang men were brought to Agartala, their head shaven and forced to wear sacred thread and given Hindu names.
In conclusion, I want the readers to notice the shift in target of attack and control. First it is the indigenous gods (more importantly it was the mind) which had to be appropriated and controlled. Then the target shifts to the body - shaven head, sacred thread and name change. Many student of Tripura history would remember the Cow and Plough campaign among the Tripuris. Tripuris do not rear cow (they rear buffalo, pig and foul) and therefore the campaign to teach them the importance of cow and plough. At the heart of all these is the political project of making the unruly, wild, independent loving population of Tripura docile subjects (who will not revolt against the state as they are wont) to adopt sedentary agriculture and pay tax. Today Tripuris have lost their restive, assertive, defiance nature. They have become a timid population. No longer merely ruled.
The question I would ask in not Baba Goria Mwtai Saboni? But what is goria today and how did it become what it has become?
(The writer is a Senior Research Fellow, Department of Political Science, University of Hyderabad)
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| ".. i really enjoyed reading this article and came to know more about our past. thanz a lot Mr. RK i feel we will get more of this type in the days to come from you. .."
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david debbarma, david_db@indiatimes.com
, 11/11/2009 |
".. One of the best article I have ever read,
I can't stop reading this article.
Great work by the writer, hat off to your writing skills and problem understanding.
It will be a great source of knowledge for young tiprasa/jwk. .."
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A Debbarma, adebbarma@tiprasa.com
, 11/11/2009 |
| ".. ..2 Mr. RK ...A good insight and a well thought emperical analytical article. But ur article gives rise to some questions like "Were the 'manikyas' really from'debbarma'clan?","what was the relation between the king and the indigenous people of Tripura?"...and the names of the kings seems to be sanakritised from the beginning itself contrary to your observation..Any way good effort, Keep it up... .."
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satong, borokdb@rediffmail.com
, 11/12/2009 |
| ".. Da RK, u deserves a big round of applause for your article. You are right when you said that the 14 gods Goria and other gods of the Tripuris have been appropriated or adopted by the Bengali-Hindus. This art of adoption helped the Bengali Brahmins to establish its supremacy. Even today influences keep us pining. You also rightly said that the suckr of Tripura claimed himself as a Kshatriya caste in order to raise the status of Tripuris to Hindu caste. Perhaps we should realize Kshatriya caste never existed within Tipperah communities if am not wrong. This is really a good work from you, thanks to the team of triprasa.com. .."
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swapan, swapandebbarma83@gmail.com
, 11/12/2009 |
".. Dear Satong,
certain words embody meaning only within certain framework. I doubt if the category 'clan', which is colonial anthropological invention, would constitute meaningful reference to the modern classificatory 'debbarma'. I find the two inevitably unrelatable.
permanent last name, like debbarma, I argue is a product of modern classificatory grid (census). It was only after 1920s the aristocracy of Tripura (thakurs?) started using the permanent last name 'debbarman'. The state classified the subjects into various 'nations' as HIndu, Tipperah, Reang and Kookee. It was only after late 1930s these people began to be divided as 'tribes'. my conclusion is that many kokborok speaking individuals started adopting the permanent last name debbarma in order to link their geneology to the kings of Tripura and thereby construct their superiority to other kokborok speaking groups. Therefore, I would treat ur first problem as meaningless. However I accept that my conclusion may be wrong.
secondly, about the name of the kings, pls refer to the names immediately prior to the king who ordered the writing of his forefathers history in 1458?. These names
are Dangar fa, khadangfa, chengfalai, chengthungfa achong, khichong etc.. one clue, dont begin from the top. names at the top are attempts by the Dharma manikya to give glorious geneology and lineage to his throne. imagine recollecting the names of his forefathers by the chontais since B C era. the names of his immediate predecessors are easy to recollect. Before them the names are inventions to claim to great hindu past. and after him(dharma manikya) the names are hindu inscription, to give continuation to the invented great hindu past. .."
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rkdebbarma, rkdebbarma@gmail.com
, 11/12/2009 |
".. Hello Mr.Hathai
Before talking about building a society first you must know what is society means. Society does.t means that merely perticipation of Educated people. Our society was well binded and systamatic where there are
understanding each other, youngers respect to elders helping one to another, people go door to door to pay respect and obeisance to each other on the occation.Traditional Ker system in every village take important role to get together the villagers in a roop. This type of society you will find no where i am sure that we can get back our past if we all tripuris follow and pursuit our own relegion. There is nothing dengerous to come to our community if we follow our own.Our ancestors gave us reach culture,tradition and glorious History.
Mr. Hathai you have seen only the assesination of Gurudev Shanti Kali but you hav,nt seen that thousands of Shanti Kali has been born and being born. There is enough time to revive our society through our own way. So my dear come back home and work to protect preserve our culture History and tradition . .."
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Shibrai DebBarma, tripursamaj@yahoo.in
, 11/23/2009 |
".. Mr. Amon
Majority of Educated people are not turnning to Christianity but a few selfish and so called educated are left their own. They are not educated in real sense who are denied to accept their parents upter education. .."
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Khayok DebBarma, tripursamaj@yahoo.in
, 11/23/2009 |
| ".. Mr. R K Debbarma, Thanks for your reference of my article. You have agreed to disagree with me, and I disagree to agree with your views. I find that you are separating the Gods from its religion; it would be taking fish out of water. The God of particular religion can not be separated from its religion. You are confusing between the Vedic religion, Brahmanism and Hinduism. Hinduism has more than 330 million god and goddess as per its scriptures and had absorbed all the god and goddess of India and its neighbourhood. It has been described as "all absorbing sponge. In that matter it has absorbed all the god and goddess of Tripura also. That is why people out side of Tripura also worship, pay homage to our 14 gods, Tripureswari and Goria apart from Bengalis. The Europeans, English in particular identified Tripuris as Hindu, all the priests of various religious places of India considers Tripuris as Hindu. Our kings and we all considers our self as Hindu, So who is not terming us as Hindu? Only the propagators of western religion are. Detail of origin of Hindu can be viewed at http://www.tripura.org.in/hindu.htm .."
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Atul Devburma, tripuraorg@gmail.com
, 11/26/2009 |
| ".. ".. SO CALL TIPRASA WHO IDENTIFY THEM SELF TO BE KNOWN, KNOWS ONLY TO ARGUE and criticize each other whoever brought this argument or debate in this forum he has nothing to do at home he or she has never understand the real problem of Tiprasa but knows only to define oneself as critical and intellectual but never realize many serious issue are underlying day to day life no body is worried and concern or no one seem to be responsible of society but worried about religion and other jobless activities, so my humble submission and request would be please think of broader perspective of our future existence and open the debate, then that will be worth full for the younger generation to understand and create the space to think for better future. .." .."
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Debasish Debbarma, debasishdbarma@gmail.com
, 8/30/2010 |
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