Mukherjee

as ‘Charbak’ which is an important part of Indian philosophy. Madhabacharya

reviews this as an inner voice of the common people. Haribhadra argues that folk

culture denotes everything perceivable through sense organs. 2 In a word, folk

culture can be said to be an attribute of the ideological trends of common people.

In the nineteenth century the two main trends in Bengali culture were reflected by

a host of folk songs, rituals, poetries, verse-plays which had developed through

social and occupational customs of the labouring classes as well as through popular

religious beliefs and secondly, by lyrics and songs of a Classical nature composed

in Sanskrit or highly Sansritized Bengali, patronized by the aristocrats of Bengal. 3

However, a popular culture developed in Calcutta in the nineteenth century with

the amalgamation of folk culture and urban patronage under a stylistic unity.

One important expressions of popular culture that developed in Calcutta was the

dramatic performance done through the medium of jatra pala , theatres and folk

plays.

The form of jatra originated from the ritual of songs and dance which formed

part of the religious festivals in villages. Dramatic elements in the compositions

of these songs and dances like conversations among the various characters of

the mythological stories on which they were based, and were given histrionic

interpretations by the performers. Jatras were performed in a square or round area

of flat ground with the audience, sitting all rounds. There were reserved entry or

exit points, and the actors moved into the square from the midst of the audience.

The chorus and the musicians had their places on one side of the acting area. 4 In the

jatra pala during the eighteenth century drums were the most popular instrument.

Later the tanpura (Indian tambourines) and by the end of the nineteenth century

many western instruments like tabla , harmonium became essential parts of Jatra

orchestra. 5

A leading proponent of jatra pala during the mid- nineteenth century in Calcutta

was Gopal Uday (1817-1857). He introduced Jatra pala in a new style. He

formed his own troupe and rewritten ‘Vidya-Sundar’. In jatra pala dialogues were

composed in short verse forms and the songs became very much popular. ‘Gopal’s

songs became popular because of his ability to make the characters in the jatra

narrate their loves and woes in the familiar terms of the social lives of the poor

people. They could, thus, immediately touch a sympathetic chord in the minds of

the audience’. Gopal also introduced a special type of dancing in his Jatra pala ,

popularly known as Khemta which was a ‘jhonty dance’ performed by men and

2 Ibid .p.5

3 Banerjee,Sumanta. The Parlour and the Streets: Elite and Popular Culture In the

Nineteenth Century Calcutta .Calcutta.p100

4 Mukhopadhyay,Harimohan. Dashu Rayer Panchali (in Bengali),Calcutta.pp.60-65

5 Banerjee,Sumanta. op.cit ,.p.110

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