From the Desk of the Editor-in-Chief

It is my great pleasure that the second volume of Oriya e-folklore journal Lokaratna is coming out during 2009. Lokaratna was initiated in 2008, and we got very good response from the readers across the world.

Since folklore represent the many voices of the society and supports in reframing the epistemic domain of the mankind from its context, and connect with the invisible world as well, its definition has also to be revised. First , in post modern world, coexistence of ‘many’ in the web of global knowledge again challenges the folklorists whether they would be infatuated with the globalization and allow the folklore to fit in to their objective is a moral question. Second, if folklore is to be seen from the marginalized point of view representing many local culture , then how the voices of many is represented in folklore research and support for humanizing the global world is another moral question. Next is the issue of ethics of the researchers. If folklore is the marker of ‘many ‘identities, is it not necessary to use folklore for local identity and maintain the cultural diversities than to pose a monolingual and mono cultural domain? Therefore, the definition of folklore in 21st century needs to be revised. It means we have to ask ourselves, how folklore can be useful for social justice or remain as the utopia of the people in power, where the kings and queens will reign in modern form? Alan Dundes, the noted Social Anthropologist turned folklorist lamented that during the later part of 20th century, many universities in Europe and United States have separated from the main folklore domain and started the sub- folkloric discipline like Department of Ethnomusicology, Performance study,
Dept. of Music and Dance, Department of Folk Life Study and department of Cultural Study etc. What are the reasons of such a degeneration of folklore study in the globe? AS a lay man we should know what folklore study means and how it is helpful to the human development. Why this happened when Folklore as a discipline influenced for quite a
century in the history of humanity studies? Why the discipline slowed down in many universities? The story does not end here. Take example of India. In a multicultural and multilingual country like India, how many universities have the
departments of multicultural and multilingual studies? Is this the inefficiency of our cultural leadership which failed to influence the policy makers? We witness how the departments of Language and Literature, Socio -linguistics,
Buddhists / Jaina Studies, and Cultural studies are closing down. On the other hand when the Central Universities are opening in the country, not a single university has thought of opening the department of folklore. This clearly indicatesthat our folklore scholarship has failed to influence the National and International attraction.

The pity is that while the same language, literature, culture, music and performance etc. are very well alive in our socio -cultural domain as cultural performance, why the academic domain fail to connect it with human / social development ? Is it the replica of our colonial mind set inherited from the academic domain to enjoy folklore as a means of intellectual imperialism? Do the folklore scholarship consider the folk as a partner? We have to examine, is
there any village in India, to invite a folklorist to his village and to ask for a study to explore the meaning of their performance and culture. Our esteemed folklorists would certainly agree that the folk have nothing to do with the folklorists, and nonfolk have nothing to do with the folk. The gap between the university and multiversity is much wider. Researcher of culture fails to educate themselves with the community knowledge. Where the knowledge of the community meets with the knowledge of the researchers? Do the researchers value the community knowledge? Do the researchers share their interpretative meaning of the item of folklore with the informants or the community at large? How the knowledge generated by the scholar does help the community to promote their human knowledge?
These are some ethical questions which need to be solved by the people in academic domain. In some point of time the hierarchy of researcher over the informant must end. Instead of learning from the laboratory the villages
and cities of the country should be the laboratory and the persons those who are interviewed should be considered as the practitioner of knowledge of this multiversity.

The University Grant Commission of India recognizes Folklore as a discipline. South India and North East India have some department of folklore research. Many Hindi speaking region of India don’t have folklore department as a discipline. Orissa has more than 7 universities, added with a Central University in Koraput. But the study of folklore / multicultural and multilingual education is not taken as a discipline anywhere.

II The second volume is coming out with more strength and more support from the scholars and professionals from academic domain. Each of them is conscious of the socio – cultural situation and also has the voice of representing the pulse of the power relation between the social forces. The writers have contributed the best of their mind in this volume. Each of them is the authority on their respective discipline. Most of the articles that are contributed
are based on empirical evidence and authentic sources, based on field work, followed by keen observation and interpretation. Thematically this volume can be broadly divided in to two sections ; one is visual and oral performance and another is Ideology and cultural practices in Hindu religion. The cultural context is Odisha. Dr Armia Mishra has contributed an article drawing the facts from the Kalaynsinghpur Block of Rayagada district of Orissa where the tribal and nontribal people mutually share their day to day life and this create a composite culture.

The cultural performance and symbols that she witnesses do not fit in to the dichotomy of western sociological model like that of great and little tradition, but it is beyond that. Dr. Jharana Mishra and Dr Sawat Pujari have contributed the structure and function of Desia Naat – a performance of the people of Koraput. The naat represent the social memory of the local culture heroes contested the oppressors. The stories of oppression by the local landlords, and its protest by the local heroes, who are obviously from the lower castes are the themes of Desia naat. Mr Dilip Padhi, a scholar of Koshali culture in Sambalpur has contributed his empirical essay on ethnography of Dalkhai- a ritual dance. The socio religious significance of Dalkhai base on its space, time, character and
association of the community is narrated in the essay. Padhi has witnessed the Dalkhai dance as a resource of human culture that is manifested in dance and music connected with the transcendental word.
Dr Kailash Patnaik has analysed the performance of Dhanuyatra as connection between the myth and Reality. This ritual – drama is performed in a city where the mythic character of Srikrishnakatha is interwoven for a week. The
presence of mythic living Gods in a modern city life becomes a stage where the time takes the audience to the remote past and modern space becomes ancient . The characters and events co exists in the socio- cultural context.

Dr Sanjaya Kumar Bag has conducted his research on traditional games of western Odisha. His research is based on children’s and adults play that reflect the socio – cultural realities. His empirical study reveals a rare genres of folklore which is represented in the performance of the children and supported by the adults. This knowledge is an inherited practice of culture that is created for the intellectual, emotional and socio- cultural development of the children. But this genre is rarely found in the village children. In view of understanding the parent’s role for their children’s development role of traditional games can be regenerated. Dr Bag’s work is a new area of research in folklore of Odhsia that need to be applied in village and schools. This has been discussed in the National
Curriculum Framework -2005 published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training, New Delhi.
The essay on folk Sayings contributed by Dr. Nimai Charan Panda is a blend of experiential knowledge that is generated from the wisdom of the communities. The folk sayings are the essence of the experience and knowledge
that is tested by the society and accepted as a social behaviour. Now a Days, it is called every day folklore. African society resolves the social and family conflict through traditional sayings that is inherited from the ancestors. Dr Panda, as one of the experts of folklore of western Odisha has explored the rich knowledge from the community sources and interpreted the deeper meaning of the sayings which is always relevant for all time to come to analyze the human behaviour. Dr Anjali Padhi’s article on gender role is based on exploration of symbolic representation of oral tales in a given community. She has examined the tales of her locality and interpreted it from the purity and pollution point of view looking at the narratives form gender lens. The cross cultural analysis of the tales
available in two different spaces of the country, again reminds of the polygenetic evolution of takes independent to the time and space. Ms. Priyadarshini Mishra’s article is based on gender disparity in Odisha affecting the universalisation of elementary education. She has critically examined the socio- economic and socio- psychological issues that are responsible for development of girls. Examining the gender stereotypes from the oral tradition she
observes the issues and challenges of girl’s education. Her findings reveal that culture plays a vital role in determining the gender role. In traditional society some negative stereotypes perpetuate the gender discrimination through its cultural practices, where as education as the instrument of liberation foresee the cultural materials from equity point of view where male female have equal role to play.

Dr Umakant Mishra explores the nature of Vajrayana Buddhism in the backdrop of recent exploration and excavation of around 150 Buddhist sites in Orissa. He contests the twin representations of Vajrayana Buddhism as an imitative corrupt on the one hand and as a religion involving regressive practices anchored to the charnel ground. On the other hand he argues from archaeological, iconographic and textual perspective about the religion as instrumental and oriented towards laties. He adduces various instrumental functions of deities, their ritual, etc. He then presents the poser: why and how did Buddhism then decline in Orissa after 1th-13th century AD. “Even if one accepts that the Vaisnava saints, while popularising the Jagannatha cult, appropriated Buddhist idioms or a state-sponsored inclusive Jagannatha cult led to the decline of Buddhism, they do not explain the decline in its entirety.” If they were the decisive factors, how did other cults, particularly Saivism, retain its popularity in Orissa?”His argument is that, despite the Lingaraja temple being subject to Vaisnava invasion it continues to remain an important Saiva centre
and in some measure contests the imperial Jagannatha cult” but why Buddhism declined in Orissa. Dr Lohia has such a critical question. That is ,why Rama ,Krishna and Siva are worshipped over a period of thousands of years in the subcontinent, where as why Buddha was not in India? I hope the article of Dr Mishra is the best answer to understand the historical realities of the socio – religious hierarchy and the power- patronisation to the religion that was determining the fate of propagation of dharma in the country. Article of Dr Fanindam Deo on Mahima Dharma is based on counter claim of the rulers “challenging the authority of the temporal Kings”. Xxx According to him the land and country is the creation of God and the Mahima followers roam there by the grace of God and not by the mercy of the king.” Dr Deo , as a professional of social history has examined the revolutions of the voices of the deprived which was self inspired and challenging the system.Bhima Bhoi as a symbol of such a protest is still remembered by all those who try to understand the power contested.

In his article Dr Chitrasen Pasayat discuss on “Temple legend of Huma” and has examined the myth and ritual of the leaning Temple Huma. He also examined how the Chauhan rule of Sambalpur were patronising the Shiva Temple Huma and were validating their rule. The peculiarity of Huma temple is that it is a leaning temple and it is worshipped by thousand devotees every day. Mrs. Sharmistha Barik is an independent scholar on folk culture and psychology. Her work is based on supernatural healing from the traditional devices, and relates it to the modern psychiatry. Her treatment on a folk ritual of Jarasingha reveals the inner meaning of the ritual attached to the traditional healing practice of the locality. Any individual irrespective of her disability is not alone. The community role to the mentally retarded children and barren women is treated through a supernatural device- represented in a symbolic ritual. This is the positive psychological sanction that a community has created through a ritual for the disables. I am thankful to the contributors for their kind contribution to Lokaratna – II. I am thankful to Dr Chitrasen Pasayat, co- editor of this journal, who is all along with me to support and shape the journal. I am also thankful to Director, National Folklore Support Center , Chennai for their enormous support to keep this efforts in Odisha and create a solidarity among the thinkers, writers and the community so that the study of folklore would be more accepted and disseminated in public domain and substantially support the academic domain to revisit folklore to create a bond between the folk , non-folk and folklorist.

Mahendra K Mishra