Animistic Shamanism or Futuristic sustainable life vision

From Sanatana dharma to Animistic Shamanism: Dr A.D. Pusalkar in `Studies in Epics and Puranas in India’ wrote that ‘Primitive people all over the world think and act alike. Hence some basic principles run through all the ideas.’ In the words of Winternitz : Indeed some of these magic songs like the magic rites pertaining to them , belong to the sphere of conceptions which are spread over the whole earth They even recur with surprising similarity with diverse people of all countries. Among the Indians of North America, among the Malays, and Mongols, among the ancient Greeks and Romans, and frequently still, among the peasantry of Europe we can find exactly same views, exactly similar strange leap of thoughts in magic songs and magic rites as have come down to us in Atharva Veda of the ancient Indians.’ A Wati Longchar has listed the main features of the tribal ways of life • Animals are personified • Supreme being and earth participate in the process of Creation of the world • Humanity is inseparable part of creation • History is related to space • There is unbroken continuity in Nature and Culture • Nature and religion are not separate • Time is considered circular He says that the tribal view is creation oriented and not man oriented hence it can provide better response to today’s ecological and existential crisis. Dr. Verrier Elwin has compiled folktales of tribals in India under an appropriate title: `When the world was young’ He wrote that in those early days it is believed that all living and non living creatures used to live together. Imagine animals, serpents, men, birds, moon, sun, trees and mountains… all living as one family! They all spoke same language, used to address each other as brother, sister, mother, etc. The same God created them; sometimes earth mother and Sky father were their parents. Sometimes they were limbs of the same giant or deity. It is largely believed that tribals all over, when compared to so called civilized, have less developed reason and logic. But it is curious to see how there is a constant attempt to find reason for different things. There are stories in tribals about why there is snow on mountains (Gods eating in heaven dropped rice on mountains!) why peacock has beautiful colours, why trees should not be cut, why rain comes, why man suffers, why this happens, why that happens … today the reasons given may look unscientific, but they are necessary and sufficiently convincing to their minds and are in fact very interesting. After major rituals like Mithun (a buffalo like animal) sacrifice in Arunachal Pradesh entire village observes a taboo. Felling of trees is prohibited during that period, indiscriminate use of natural resources is not allowed as there are strict rules about it. Fire, Ginger, knife are poisons for evil spirits. Water, Air, Trees are manifestations of Sun God (Donyi) While crossing a stream, there is verse to be uttered: `O Water deity, before you saw me I have seen you, please forgive me for I am going to cross you.’ In many tribes trees, water and women are believed to have same biological structures. Women are mysteriously thought to be closer to the Almighty. The dances and rituals in festivals, the rituals like putting medicinal leaves in river for her health, to pray for fertility of land, all these are very unique way of thinking. Tribals pray Sun more than anything for the forest as well as agricultural life clearly sees him as the centre. Donyi Bonam a festival for sun is to please him. He is the lord and they say :` O sun please come back to us, the long days of rain are punishing us … O sun please cure this illness, O sun with your permission we start this court of justice,… O Sun let this marriage be auspicious,…. etc. Any tree which is old is highly revered. If at all it is required to be cut, a ceremony is done with chants to seek permission. There is a god for forest and he must permit to enter and cut / use the things in his area. Even then Apatanis believe that Banyan, Cane, Pippal are some trees which should not be cut at all. If by mistake they are cut, then the forest God gets terribly angry. Mopin festival prays for wellbeing of all like this : let there be good harvest, let the earth be full of minerals, let the nests of birds be full of eggs and chicks, let earth be full of wealth, knowledge, let bamboos grow, hearths burn, leaves unfold, rivers flow, fishes swim… let the whole life be full of abundance. In Manipur U Kongba festival is for marriage of trees. U Yanlon is ceremony required to cut any tree. In Bodo Kacharis Sizu plant is worshipped for it is a symbol of Shiva. Bihu festival in Assam is to pray Sun (coincides with Sankrant) and it includes marriage of Shiva and Parvati. Deodhani dance of Deories is important part of their festival. Deodhani means sound of God and it also means women of God. Folk medicine’s approach is also unique and holistic. It is based on Natural elements available locally, to be swallowed along with chanting of a mantra and the diagnosis is done by a person who is priest as well as doctor. Divination and ordeals are also there as a part of the diagnose and curing processes respectively. The cause of illness is intimately linked to patients social and cultural environment, and his failure to follow moral order. The individual’s disorder is inseparable from social disorder and thus many times individual issues are discussed in front of big gathering. Because both individual’s issues and those of society are believed to be interrelated, court of justice and dispensary of a doctor (to use modern names for similar functions) are similar, or by same authorities and even together. The principle aim of curing an individual disease or a group dispute is to relink them to the right order or cosmic order. Word for medicine in Native American is Wapiya meaning going back to right order. The health can be very visible even after using such primitive medicines. Tribals work for the whole day in fields or forests and carry heavy burden on their backs while climbing, their wrinkled faces are all smiling and age has no effect on working cycles. The morning and evening doses of rice beer may be bit liberal but rice beer has some nutritional value and is better than its modern replacement as liquor or drugs. The aesthetic sense of majority of tribal is remarkable. They are generally good in at least one of the arts: painting, dance, music, bamboo/ cane works, wood carving. One of the prerequisite for becoming a priest is to be good in some art. The synchronization in dances, melody in songs, symmetry in drawings, and colors in apparels, poetry and humor in folktales … they force us to rethink on the prevailing definition of a primitive. The way the artists join their hands in any group dance is similar to the way they weave the bamboo articles, is again same to the patterns weaved on cloths. It is always multiple connections, interrelatedness, seamless flow, The same understanding is reflected in all facets of life. The unity of life and that of the existence, its interrelatedness and harmony is underlined by such commonalities in diverse fields of expressions.