Author Topic: Rajula Malushahi Immortal Love Story - राजुला मालूशाही: अमर प्रेम गाथा  (Read 77615 times)

पंकज सिंह महर

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साथियो,
        आपने राजुला-मालूशाही की प्रेम गाथा के बारे में अवश्य सुना होगा, किस तरह से एक राजा ने अपनी प्रेमिका के प्यार में राज-पाट को ठुकरा दिया था, अविस्मरणीय है।
       इस ऎतिहासिक प्रेम गाथा का कुछ अंश मेरे पास है, जो मैं आपके समक्ष प्रस्तुत कर रहा हूं और इस अपेक्षा के साथ कि मेरे जिस भी साथी के पास इस संबंध में जो जानकारी है, उससे हमें अवश्य अवगत करायेंगे।


Saathion aapne Rajula-Maalushahi ki prem gatha ke baare main to avashya suna hoga, kis tarah 1 Raja ne apni premika ke pyar main Raj-Paat ko thukra diya tha, Avismarniya hai.

Is aitihaasik prem gatha ke kuch ansh mere paas hain, jo main aapke samaksha prastur kar raha hun aur is apeksha ke saath ki mere jis bhi saathi ke paas is sambandh main jo jaankaari hai, usse avashya humein avgat karaenge.

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RAJULA-MALUSHAHI : A BALLAD OF KUMAON

Introduction

  The epic ballad, Rajula and Malushahi, has been sung in the Kumaon Himalayas for at least a thousand years. Set at the time when the Katyuri dynasty was fragmenting into independent fiefdoms, the ballad traces its origins to around the 10th century A.D., when a king no longer reigned from the capital of Kartikeyapur. Instead, the ballad tells the tale of one successor king, Malushahi, who ruled from Bairath, near present-day Dwarahat. The king, although already married to seven queens, falls in love with Rajula, the beautiful and intelligent daughter of Sunapati Shauka, a Bhotiya trader of Tibetan goods. Their romantic adventures in search of one another take them to the far corners of the Himalayas, where intrigue, treachery, violence, black magic, and even death conspire to keep them apart.

 
Furthermore, Rajula and Malushahi is one the most comprehensive ballads of Kumaon. In their travels, the principle characters visit many places and deal with at least three distinct cultures - the Katyuri, Bhotia (Shauka),  and Tibetan (Huniya). Unlike other tales, the characters never become gods, nor are overpowered by them, as Malushahi and especially Rajula use their wits to escape danger time and time again


साभार : http://uttarakhand.prayaga.org

पंकज सिंह महर

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The Balladeering Tradition

As much of the lore of the Uttarakhand Himalayas, Rajula and Malushahi has been passed orally from generation to generation. Known particularly to the artisan/balladeers of the Himalayas, such narrative ballads have been marked with a flair for the fantastic but also for concrete realities that various people have faced since time immemorial. Narration of epic tales, alternating between rythmic and non-rythmic passages, are often whole day affairs, taking 10 to 12 hours to complete. As such a traveling or village bard would command respect and admiration, regardless of caste or creed, by regaling hardworking villagers and relieving them of their daily woes, if only for a single day.

Unfortunately, the old traditions of the people are dying out, much like elsewhere in the world. Folklore, so crucial to the national identity of a people, is being forgotten in the rush for the modern. Manufactured entertainment, in the form of tape recordings of Hindi pop songs, is drawing people away from their sagacious village minstrels. The socio-economic dislocation of Uttarakhandis is also hastening this process, as assimilation into Hindi plains cultural modes exacts its toll on both the national psyche and self-esteem.

In Mohan Upretiâs landmark book, Malushahi: the ballad of Kumaon, the author remarked upon hearing one particular balladeer:

When I heard Mohan Singh , I was amazed at the artistic wealth contained in the ballads, popular in the region. While the heroic ballads sang of the vitality of the race, the romantic ones eulogised true love, which invariably triumphed, regardless of barriers of class, tribe, community, or caste. All this inspired me, opening my eyes to great beauty and the simplicity of folk art; to its vigour and verve, its intense humanism and profound sense of justice; its love of nature, its materiality and emphasis on this wordliness; its tremendous power reflecting the emotions of the community; its derision of the acquisitive instinct, its belief in the power of good and human brotherhood, where gods can coexist with human beings. Above all, I was greatly impressed by its inherent capacity for constant renewal.
         It is sincerely hoped that Garhwali and Kumaoni folkloric traditions survive and thrive in the near future.  It would be a tremendous loss for them to go extinct and end up collecting dust as museum recordings of another vanished culture

पंकज सिंह महर

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इस epic को उत्तराखण्ड के ऎतिहासिक कलाकार स्व० मोहन उप्रेती जी ने संकलित किया था और यह ग्रन्थ १९८० में प्रकाशित हुआ था।

पंकज सिंह महर

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BOOK REVIEWS 313
UPRETMI,O HAN. Malushahi: the Ballad of Kumaon. New Delhi: Sangeet
Natak Akademi, n.d. 73 pp., illustrations, Hindi and Kumaoni texts. Rs
301-.


Malushahi: the Ballad of Kumaon is at the same time a charming and stimulating volume
and a most frustrating one. Its considerable virtues derive from the author's intentto
record and make available in English a popular and complex regional epic, and
through this to convey the flavor and vitality of Kumaoni folk culture--and from several
striking aspects of the epic he documents. That it is such an interesting piece of folk
literature also leads to frustration, as there is so much more the reader would like to
learn, both about Malushahi itself and about Kumaoni culture.
Kumaon is the northernmost section of Uttar Pradesh, bordered on the east by
Nepal and on the west by Tibet. It stretches from the edge of the Gangetic plain to
the Himalayan ridgeline; most of the population lives in the foothills and river valleys.
Kumaon is quite diverse culturally. The bulk of the population speaks Kumaoni,
an Indo-European language, and practices Hinduism. Kumaoni-speakers include,
however, three major sub-groups: the " aborigines " (p. 2), who now occupy the lower
end of the local caste structure and include professional musicians who most frequently
perform Malushahi; the khasa, upper caste Hindus claiming Aryan origins in central
Asia; and more recent Rajput immigrants who began to enter Kumaon in the tenth
century. Kumaoni-speakers come into frequent contact with Tibetan-speaking pastoralists
and traders known locally as shauka, and all these groups are familiar through
trading and raiding with inhabitants of the trans-Himalayan Tibetan plateau itself.
Kumaon is a border region; its history reflects the importance of trade and the constant
interaction among these varied groups.
The story of Malushahi is lengthy and complex; it better fits the usual generic
criteria for epic than those of a ballad. Its central plot concerns the love of Malushahi,
usually a prince of the Katyuria dynasty, and Rajula, the beautiful daughter of a shauka
couple. Despite the early love of Rajula and Malushahi, and in some versions despite
their parents' pledge that they would be married, Rajula's parents insist on her betrothal
to a wealthy huniya (the local name for Tibetan). Much of the epic focuses upon her
escape from the huniya and her successful flight to Malushahi. Her reunion with
Malushahi does not end the story, however, as she insists that she will return to the
huniya and that Malushahi must rescue her to prove his devotion as she had hers.
Malushahi is somewhat less competent and controlled than she and is poisoned, either
by her parents or by the huniya. He is magically resurrected and the lovers reunite
for good. There is a large supporting cast of gurus, magicians, soldiers and magical
animals. Although Malushahi is a Hindu prince, the epic is not religious in character;
it is a secular romance with a great deal of magical practice tossed in for good measure.
Upreti does not provide a full text of the epic but rather records detailed outlines
of three performers' versions. Two of the performers are low caste musicians, while
the third is a high status Rajput. Upreti's outlines appear to represent a number of
performances by each of the men, so it is difficult to assess individual consistency, but
the differences among the three performers' versions are interesting and well explored.
Upreti's comparisons extend beyond the texts themselves to include musical features
as well.
We are given only the most general sense of what a performance of Malushahi
is like. Upreti notes that the epic is performed at weddings, fairs, musical gatherings
and on long winter evenings and that it does not require any sacred justification or
314 BOOK REVIEWS
ritual preface. Most of the epic is sung; particularly dramatic passages may be reiterated
in spoken prose for emphasis. The lead singer accompanies himself on the hurka,
an adjustable tension hourglass drum. When he is improvising melodically, two male
drone singers also join in.
Two aspects of the text itself are particularly interesting. First, the multiethnic
character of life in Kumaon is central to the story. Malushahi is from a khasa family;
his beloved is a shauka. Her parents wrongly betroth her to a Tibetan for economic
and political gain. The playing out of notions of ethnic characteristics and practices
is fascinating. The more striking feature, however, is the central and very active role
which Rajula plays. She is an exceptionally intelligent and courageous heroine, a
woman of considerable independence and initiative. Rajula is in fact much more
competent than her lover. She stands in marked contrast to the human heroines of
most plains Hindu epics, both sacred and secular, whose virtues are defined more by
what they do not do than by their accomplishments. Potential relationships between
such active notions of female heroism and the relatively less constrained roles of women
in the Kumaon region would be well worth pursuing.
My principal criticisms of the volume are tied to the questions which it does not
ask. The most significant gaps are in its descriptions of performers and the contexts
in which they operate. How are singers trained? How do they decide to become
performers? Are they paid? Do they perform only in their immediate neighborhood,
or are they itinerant? Upreti notes that, despite the secular nature of the epic itself,
members of the audience frequently go into trance. How do the Kumaonis interpret
this? To what extent might it be a manifestation of regional beliefs-associated with
the magical motifs of the story-in distinction to pan-Indian Hinduism? The photographs
and drawings accompanying the text are interesting and often very attractive;
nowhere, however, are captions provided.
On the whole Malushahi: the Ballad of Kumaon is a worthy book. It clearly meets
the author's goal of helping to maintain and make available a central piece of Kumaoni
oral tradition. Upreti never really strays very far from the narrative itself and does
not reflect the broader range of concerns a more analytical folklorist would have. I
would recommend the volume particularly to those interested in hill communities not
only in Kumaon but in Garhwal and Nepal as well and to scholars concerned with
questions of gender ideology in south Asia more generally; it is a provocative document.
Donald Brenneis
Pitzer College, Claremont, CA
Fuc~s,S TEPHENA. t the Bottom of Indian Society, The Harijan and Other
Low Castes. New Delhi : Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers, 1981.
viii+325 pp. Bibliography, indexes. Hardbound Rs 105.
There are nearly eighty million " Scheduled Caste " people and at least one hundred
million " Untouchables " in India. Little attention, however, has been paid to them
by anthropologists. The Rev. Stephen Fuchs has made a special study of the tribes,
the Untouchables and the low castes since 1934, when he first came to India. He has
published several important monographs concerning these groups based on his longterm
field research. The Children of Hari (1951), on the Nimar Balahis of Madhya
Pradesh, and Rebellious Prophets (1965), concerning the messianic (reform) movement,
are the most important of these works.

Anubhav / अनुभव उपाध्याय

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Wah Mahar ji chhaa gaye aap +1 karma aapko is exclusive stoty ke liye.

पंकज सिंह महर

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thx anubhav da

राजुला का चित्र

मेरा पहाड़ / Mera Pahad

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Mahar ji good work hoping to get more stories from you soon. +1 karma to you.

एम.एस. मेहता /M S Mehta 9910532720

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RAJULA-MALUSHAHI : A BALLAD OF KUMAON

Introduction

  The epic ballad, Rajula and Malushahi, has been sung in the Kumaon Himalayas for at least a thousand years. Set at the time when the Katyuri dynasty was fragmenting into independent fiefdoms, the ballad traces its origins to around the 10th century A.D., when a king no longer reigned from the capital of Kartikeyapur. Instead, the ballad tells the tale of one successor king, Malushahi, who ruled from Bairath, near present-day Dwarahat. The king, although already married to seven queens, falls in love with Rajula, the beautiful and intelligent daughter of Sunapati Shauka, a Bhotiya trader of Tibetan goods. Their romantic adventures in search of one another take them to the far corners of the Himalayas, where intrigue, treachery, violence, black magic, and even death conspire to keep them apart.

 
Furthermore, Rajula and Malushahi is one the most comprehensive ballads of Kumaon. In their travels, the principle characters visit many places and deal with at least three distinct cultures - the Katyuri, Bhotia (Shauka),  and Tibetan (Huniya). Unlike other tales, the characters never become gods, nor are overpowered by them, as Malushahi and especially Rajula use their wits to escape danger time and time again


साभार : http://uttarakhand.prayaga.org

Mahar JI,

Great. I was really looking for a lot informaiton on this subject.

एम.एस. मेहता /M S Mehta 9910532720

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Rajula and Malushahi is a ballad prevalent in the Kumaon region of Uttaranchal. This ballad is believed to have originated about a thousand years ago.
It is based on the love story of a king named Malushahi and Rajula, daughter of a trader. As in most love stories, this story also has its share of romance, adventure and tragedy. The episodes contain the eloping of the lovers to the far corners of the Himalayas. The wit exhibited by the lovers during times of danger is the highlight of this ballad.

The performance involves a main singer accompanied by his team of supporting singers and musicians. The main instrument is the ‘ Hudka,’ a two sided drum struck with a stick. This ballad is a major feature during the fairs and festivals held in the region.

 

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