Dastans: The ancient art of story telling

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Dastans: The ancient art of story telling

 

"Though the main stories were based on the tours of Hamzah and his

family to far off lands, ostensibly in the cause of Islam, the sub-

plots also included secular activities such as wining, seducing,

abducting and the amorous affairs of men and women."

 

The Hamzanama is nothing but an illustration of a `dastan' that tells

stories. SHRUBA MUKHERJEE speaks with theatre artist Mahmood Farooqui

who is attempting to revive this ancient cultural form.

 

It has enchanted both the prince and the pauper. From the court of

Akbar in Fatehpur Sikri, to the Qissa-Khvani Bazaar in Peshawar, to

the by-lanes of old Delhi, `dastans'— symbolising the perfect bonding

of literature and performing art have not only entertained people

since time immemorial, they have been an outstanding example of prose

narration in Urdu.

 

But in what might be considered as another instance of cultural

neglect, this art of story telling, where the narrator used to

perform the characters through voice modulation, mimicry,

ventriloquism and spontaneous composition, has sunk into oblivion as

today there is no expert, book or account that can shed light on this

remarkable tradition.

 

It is the vitality of the text and the elements of creativity and

improvisation in performance which attracted young theatre artist

Mahmood Farooqui into the magic world of dastans and the dastangois

or the narrators.

 

 

Presently working on a research project, this Rhodes scholar is

trying to revive the "culture of story-telling" by ensuring that this

unique form of verbal art gets its rightful place in Urdu cultural

tradition. Through his project, that includes translating a few

volumes of dastans, performing them at stage shows and making a film

on the art form, Mahmood sets a "modest" goal for himself—

revivification of interest in the craft.

 

Elaborating on the nature of this unique art form Mahmood says, the

word dastan means a tale, but longer than a qissa. Thus, a dastangoi

might carry on for days and weeks telling stories. Originally

composed in Persian, versions of dastans gradually spread to all

languages of the Islamic— from Indonesia to Azerbaijan, East Bengal

to Constantinople.

 

The most famous of these purported to deal with the life and

adventures of Amir Hamzah, the Prophet's uncle. "The stories had a

moral— victory of the righteous over the sinner. But even the

righteous had his pitfalls showing that to err is human and there is

nothing like a perfect human being," says Mahmood.

 

Akbar's patronage

 

Popular in India since the eleventh century, the art form acquired

immense prestige because of emperor Akbar's personal interest in it.

He not only memorised great portions of the story and used to recite

and perform them with élan, he also commissioned an illustrated

version of it, the great Hamzanama, regarded as the crowning glory of

Mughal Art.

 

However, the dastan came into its own in India only in the 19th

century when it began to be composed in Urdu. The "Indianised"

dastans had a lot of common elements and storylines with the

Ramayana, Mahabharata, Jataka and the Panchatantra. For example, the

story of Ram killing the demon Marich, who was in the disguise of a

golden deer, had been modified in a number of dastans. In 1881,

Munshi Nawal Kishore, the legendary publisher from Lucknow, decided

to come out with a multi-volume edition and in 1905, the 46 volumes

of the Dastan-e-Amir Hamza were published.

 

But more interesting than the text was its narration as the dastangoi

used to recite the stories along with the sub-plots from memory and

the quality of his performance used to depend on his capacity to

improvise.

 

Their performance required exceptional command over rhetoric,

delivery, mimicry, ventriloquism and spontaneous composition.

Moreover, dastangoi was one aspect of an oral/performative culture

where the public arena— market place, roads, chowks, was the first

and perhaps the most natural site of performance.

 

"For example, when a dastangoi used to perform in front of a kebab

shop in old Delhi, he used to select his stories according to his

audience. Since there was no stage, no dazzling costume and no music,

the narrator used to chose the language, words and poems in such a

way that he could hold the attention of his audience for a long

time," says Mahmood. Citing the example of the last famous dastangoi

of India Mir Baqr Ali, Mahmood says, "While he was reciting the

dastan, if a king appeared in the story, the listeners felt

themselves standing before an imperious monarch.

 

Sometimes, if he spoke the words of some old woman, he adopted the

very style of speech of respectable elderly ladies, as if he does not

have a single tooth".

 

Whenever, the story had a description of a marketplace, the narrator

used commoners' language. But soon after the narration might have a

court scene and the dastangoi would switch over to sophisticated

Persian with equal élan.

 

Although dastans continued to be published till well into the 1940s

their popularity, both as a printed story and as a live performance,

had clearly waned. While changing times might explain the decline of

the form, what is inexplicable is the way their memory has been

virtually effaced from our literary and performance history, says

Mahmood.

 

Though the main stories were based on the tours of Hamzah and his

family to far off lands, ostensibly in the cause of Islam, the sub-

plots also included secular activities such as wining, seducing,

abducting and the amorous affairs of men and women.

 

http://www.deccanherald.com/deccanherald/jun122005/finearts10332620056

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