Kamarupaiya Dhulia Circus
(The ancient
Drum-circus of Kamrup)
Rajinikanth
Bordoloi
(1867-1940): Respected the Late Rajinikanth
was born on November 24, 1867 in Hedayetpur (near Guwahati Club), Guwahati, in
the womb of the Late Swarnamayi Devi.
His father’s name was the Late Narakanta
Bordoloi. He received the Bachelor degree from the Metropolitan College in
Calcutta in 1889. He started his career as a clerk in the office of the Deputy
Commissioner of Guwahati in 1890 and retired as the Deputy Commissioner of
Nagaon in 1918. He opens a tea garden called Hebeda Tea
Estate near Makum Railway junction. But he left this business as he was
unable to run later. At the end of his life, he came to Guwahati and lived on
the banks of Jorpukhuri in Uzanbazar. He passed away on March 25, 1940, at his
residence.
Respected the Late Rajnikant Bordoloi, president of the
eighth session of the Asom Sahitya Sabha (27 December 1925), was a contemporary
of Sahityarathi Lakshminath Bezbaruah.
He was one of the greatest writers to establish Assamese literature in the Jonaki era. He was the man, who
established Assamese novels in its full form. Therefore, he was awarded Novel-Emperor,
Father of Assamese Novels, Assamese Scott, Bankimchandra of Assam etc. His immortal novels are Miri-Jiri
(1894), Manomati (1900), Danduvadroha (1909), Rangili (1925), Nirmal Bhakat
(1926), Temple of Tamreshwari (1926), Rahadai Ligiri (1930), Radha-Rukmini
Rann, Khamba-Khuibir Sadhu etc.
The Story
A very famous Oja-Pali pair of Kamrup arrived.
Oja[1]
sings the verse of Har-Gauri's[2]
marriage in the Kalika Purana[3]. People were fascinated by the elegance of Oja's pose, hand postures and
dance. Dina-Pali's[4]
interpretation of four of those verses made people shudder and pierced the
pulse of the stomach. That's how it was
almost the whole day. At the end of the four o'clock, the Baruah-Chaudhary[5]s
got up & went to their respective residences and washed their hands &
mouths and took some snacks & came to Rava
(performing platform) again at five o'clock.
Then the Madal began to play. Sixty (Tini
kuri) Kachari[6]
males & females stood in front of the people with about fifteen Madals[7]. All the Kachari women sing:—
"jaha jaha jaha oi dhan kalung jaha
choudhari gharat puja patisi
choudhari gharat puja patisi
amio chaongai aha oi
amio chaongai aha ."
After the singing, the Madals were played. With the beats of Madols, Kachari men turned around in a circle and danced. In this way, with
a slight fervour but of their own domestic life & the natural pattern lyrical
songs were sung by the Kachari males
& females and took time till the end of the praying God with fragments (aarti). The evening was filled with
great fanfare. Looking at that aarti,
all the people went around; and arrangements for eating and drinking.
At nine o'clock at the night, the
officials would get up and sit down. The people of the performing platform (Rava-ghar) were in the lurch. There was
no place. The Madhpuria Drummers arrived. There are about eighty to a hundred
people in the group; fifty drums[8];
accordingly cymbals and various instruments. From nine o'clock onwards, the
drummers started playing the drums in a rolling deposit. The sound of that drum
pierced far and wide. The drum is huge. It's hard to describe how many variations were played on the beats of drums. As soon as the night it became dark, it became a heavy
beat of the drum. It can't be said in
how many ways the drum beats turned around and danced! Each and every human
being of the drummers is healthy and strong.
The drummers almost put up all the drums in the drum-playing hall. Only one cymbal player picked up a pair of cymbals
and started playing the race. About thirty
boys and young men came and served the public first and then started somersaulting[9]
at the beat of drums. It cannot be
explained how many types of somersault were given: Straight somersault,
upside-down somersault, alagat's somersault,
tangal-mosra somersault, chandni sarka somersault and many more. Then he stood on people's shoulders and
started throwing somersaults at him. Lately, a few drummers took two drums under both sideways and first climbed onto a
standing drum. And in the meantime, he
pulled out the beat of the drum and stood on the ground with two drums on
either side by alagat's somersault. Then the two drums stood up and paired. He
climbed on top of those two and dug it out of it. Later gradually he put a drum
on the drum and paired up to eight to ten and made it like a tall pillar. That pillar was held by the two men on one's
shoulder and grabbed by another so that the drum does not fall. Later, a drummer climbed the forehead and
shoulders of the people holding the drum and climbed to the top of the eight to ten
(= 20 hands) drums. Two other drummers
picked up two drums from below. The person on top took the two drums under both
sideways and stood on the ground with the beats of the drum played and jumps below
by an alagat's somersault.
Later two men again took a fat
bamboo on their shoulders. How many descriptions of how many
types of wrestling[10]
a drum started climbing on top of that bamboo! Today's wrestling of the Drummers of Kamrup
will also leave even the current circus in place. Who knows how many wrestling habits the Drummers
of Kamrup had in those days! We have also heard such things that in those days
a drummer jumped on the roof of the skin of the house with bamboo and fell on
the ground with an alagat's somersault
from there. At the end of this kind of
crushing, wrestling, the six drummers, wearing beautifully round jamas, began to sing in the same voice
as a group of uri jatras[11]. The verse sings what will be pretended like the
Sutradhar[12]
of Bhaona[13].
While singing the verse (pada) one
comes out wearing a mask[14]
on his face. A drummer takes the lunge of fire and catches it before the
mask. The mask taker dances to the beats of the verse (of the jury). In some masks, only dance. In some masks, there is also a lot of humour. Maybe one of the two drummers wears a male's
cloth and takes an old man's mask on his face — the other wears a mask of an
old woman on his face wearing a dress like a female. Both of them danced first.
Then one of the drummers might have asked the old man about it. The old man
began to condemn the old woman. While asking the old man again, the old woman
scolded the old man and then slowly the two old men and woman started fighting
in society. The minor fighting makes the crowd laugh and rip the pulse (nadi) off the stomach. Maybe both of them say very wise things. The
six-verse (pada) singers sing
verses about the love of the old gentleman & lady from time to time. Sometimes
a pair of dolls of two monkeys will be brought out into society. The young man began to sing:-
"u u kare more
haire malowa
gasse garh jopia
haire malowa
..................
more moluwak kone maril
hainer maluwa ray”
Thus, it was about three o'clock in
the night in song & dance. It was
during this time that many even fell asleep in their eyes, so the famous actor
(bhaoria)
vela-bhai of this Madhopuria Drummer enters
with his team. As soon as Vela-bhai entered the show, there was a
loud laugh among the crowd. Vela-bhai started laughing by showing
the way people of various movements of different professions with different poses talking. May have sometimes, he started imitating birds' calls. Sometimes maybe, he had imitation the voice
of deer. Then he pretended to go hunting
the deer. The verse singers started
singing the verse:-—
"vela bhai pahu khedival yaaya."
Vela-bhai's hand posture made people laugh and
half-dead with a gesture on his face. Vela-bhai also occasionally started
issuing such rural Sanskrit (colloquial speech) that it was difficult to sit
together with father-son or elder-younger. Vela-bhai
does not have a limit to humour and acting. The public could not stop at the heat of
laughter and saved it only by offering money with many humble requests to Vela-bhai. At the morning six o’clock, Vela-bhai end his shows.
The same day & night fun show
continued on the eighth & ninth lunar days.
Needless to say that the somersault and Wrestling of the Shalmaria Drummer pair were
better than one - the verse song & dance of Barnibaria was unique. All in all, I can tell you about the depth of
the Kamarup Drummer Theater (Bhaona)
these days as well. The circus, the acting,
the humour, the dances, and the songs are all present in the same way.
Translator's observation:
The article titled Kamarupiya
Dhulia Circus collected by me is a fraction of Rajinikanth's novel Danduadroha.
This part was taught by the little grandpa
while going to my maternal residence during my childhood. The translated article
gives the sequences of performances in the same way that the tradition of the
Drummer of Kamrup prevalent 110 -115 years ago is described. As a result,
writing itself has become a heritage. It is to be noted that in the Kamarupiya Drummer
play, during that period, dance according to the beats of the drum, that is Nrityanuga (1), cymbal player’s cymbal-playing,
that is, the subtle technique of metallic-musical instruments (2), various percussion
instrumental compositions of the dancing part of the mati-akhra are somersault,
that is, Vadyanuga (3), demonstration
of 'wrestling' on physical activity (4), verse singing ancient theatrical
tradition (5), mask dance with the humour acting (6), toy dance based on the
story according to the rhythm of the drum (7) and the humour acting of the
Drummer.
Special Note:
I am the
collector of this article titled Kamarupaiya Dhulia Circus is the
great-grandson of the Late Rajnikant Bordoloi,. The picture of the author was
shared by our mom (the Late Sarat Kumari Changkakati), and the grandchildren of the
Late Rajnikant Bordoloi) from our Maternal Residence.
[1] The maestro
[2] Lord Shiva & Goddess Parvati
[3] The scripture descript of the ancient Kamrup region & others. Scholars remarked that this scripture was written between the 7th to 10th century
[4] The accompanies stand on the right of the maestro called Dina and on left called Pali
[5] Some digitations of royal officers
[6] An indigenous plain tribe of Assam
[7] Madal – A kind of Drum (percussion Instrument)
[8] Drums – cylindrical shape percussion instruments
[9] The jag used in dance is special, Straight somersault, upside-down somersault, alagat's somersault, tangal-mosra somersault, chandni sarka somersault and many more
[10] Wrestling is a kind of sport. It mainly displays strength and physical skills.
[11] A kind of drama of Bengal province
[12] One who has the principal role in the representation of a drama
[13] The drama
[14] Masks — masks, the big shaped actor’s face covered worn decorated with hangul haitals and Golden/silver colour represents a human being, God/Goddess or a demon.
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