Many Rammans in Uttarakhand: Jak and Bhumyal Renditions

Abstract

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• Many Rammans in Uttarakhand: Jak and Bhumyal Renditions
• Prateek (bio)

This essay is meant to serve as a compendium to my documentary, Many Rammans in Uttarakhand: Jak and Bhumyal Renditions, which can be accessed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISJ3Mnea0MU. The film highlights the diversity of the folk performance tradition of Ramman in the Indian hill state of Uttarakhand by analyzing two variants of the ritual, each dedicated to a village patron deity: one to Jak (alternatively known as Jakh) and the other to Bhumyal. Although the tradition is prevalent in many villages in the Garhwal district of Uttarakhand, the documentary focuses on the Ramman (dedicated to Jak) of Jaal Malla and Choumasa, two villages in the Rudraprayag district, and the Ramman (dedicated to Bhumyal) of Salud and Dungra, twin villages in the Chamoli district.

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Map of the Jaal Malla, Choumasa, Salud, and Dungra villages in Uttarakhand, India. (Source: Prateek.)

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Before filming, I sought permission to shoot footage in these four villages from the village council or elders. In most cases, I took this permission orally for two reasons: First, the participants felt more comfortable with oral permissions due to my position as a village outsider, as well as their local cultural norms and low literacy rates. Second, some participants insinuated that the written word intruded upon a terrain that venerates the oral traditions of the Himalayas. So, rather than seek written permission, I did what my grandmother, a native of Uttarakhand, taught me: seek the blessing of the village deity in front of those whom I filmed. The villagers also underlined their implicit permission by providing me with accommodation, as these hamlets are in peripheral locations that lack easy road access and hotels.

D. R. Purohit, former faculty member at Hemvati Bahaguna Garhwal University, Srinagar, and a historian of the Garhwal region, provided guidance on identifying the four filming sites, which would have been otherwise difficult to locate. He has remained a significant influence on my ethnographic research. Purohit is a well-regarded expert on Garhwal, with a strong desire to assist other scholars researching the Garhwal region of Uttarakhand. Meanwhile, the credit for the documentary and my ethnographic process goes to my grandmother, Parvati Pandey, who since childhood has enriched me with regional folklore from the hill state while sensitizing me to the nuances of Uttarakhand’s demigods and deities. Her pedagogy instilled in me a critical eye toward oral traditions without succumbing to the desire to sensationalize or exoticize certain rituals, such as the possession ceremony. Nonetheless, I have deemed it necessary to restrict the documentary to audiences ages 18 and above due to the sensitivity of its content. This discerning gaze further allowed me to subject oral traditions to a critical analysis similar to that of written documents, a methodology advocated by Belgian historian and anthropologist Jan Vansina in his seminal work Oral Tradition as History.¹ My grandmother remained a regular port of call whenever the subtleties of the form puzzled me. Her interpretations and interpolations of Uttarakhand folklore set the stage for the documentary and kept me motivated throughout a difficult shoot. We often stumbled along narrow roads on our way to these villages. On one side sat a mountain where landslides are common; on the other lay a deep ravine. The cab driver who accompanied me was scared to drive, especially after a landslide compelled us to change the route. He suggested retreating several times, reminding me of the common belief in Uttarakhand that mountains and lakes seek annual balis (human sacrifices). Writer and Uttarakhand cultural historian Namita Gokhale has articulated this belief when describing how in the hill station of Nainital, Uttarakhand, it is thought that a popular lake “exacts a bali, a human sacrifice, every year . . . locals recognize that the elements are demanding their due.”² These challenges have made me understand the transformative character of these elements. Thus, I pay my obeisance to all beings—humans and nonhumans—especially the mountains who have made it possible for me to make this documentary.

This introductory essay provides context to Ramman and its difference from Ramlila, the...