Classical art, with its formality, made the past remote. Folk art gave it back some life.
DUSSEHRA TIME, and those three terrifying effi-gies of Ravana, his son Meghnath and brother Kumbhakarna go up in smoke, disappearing amid noisy firecrackers, signalling the just end of evil characters, so the story tells us. It is just as well that the immensely powerful Kumbhakarna of the gargantuan appetite was cursed to sleep for six months of the year; otherwise he would have lustily devoured mountains of men and other mammals and destroyed a world or two because his aggressive, demonic nature would have made him do so, just for the fun of it. Therefore, the universe and all those it contained sighed with relief every time this terrifying asura, second only to Ravana, stretched out on his bed, yawned and nodded and slumbered for months.
One of these long slumbers transpired during Ravana’s ferocious battle with Rama. Ravana began to weaken and desperately needed Kumbhakarna’s help. He ordered that his brother be woken, much before the six months were over. Terrified musicians forced to play and sing as loudly as they could, trumpeting elephants, cacophonous donkeys, and lancers ordered to poke and tickle the sleeping demon, set to work with enough noise and provocation to awaken Kumbhakarna.
This story is from the July - September 2017 edition of The Indian Quarterly.
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This story is from the July - September 2017 edition of The Indian Quarterly.
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