Reading the blog of my friend Motiur Rehman (http://matiurrahman.blogspot.in/2012/05/tales-of-piety-culture-and-beliefs-of.html) I was reminded of the similarity between the Satyanarayan Katha popular with the Hindus and the Dus Bibiyon ki Kahani popular with both Hindus and Muslims, especially in northern India. This similarity had struck me some time back,when I was exposed to the Dus Bibiyon ki Kahani for the first time, and reading Mati's blog inspired me to put down my thoughts on this striking similarity, which speaks volumes for the composite culture of India and is also a study in itself of the 'little tradition' lending itself more effortlessly to a spread across religious 'borders'.
Both the Satyanarayan Katha and Dus Bibiyon ki Kahani follow the same pattern: a believing woman listens piously to the story of Satyanarayan or of the Dus Bibiyan and distributes prasad/shirni afterwards, but there are some of her relatives - the wives of her husband's brothers in both versions - who refuse to accept the sweet offering and ridicule the believing woman. These women are later brought to much grief: their husbands die or go missing, their fortunes are lost and they fall on such testing times that anything they touch to eat turns into a rotten mass, or worms appear in it out of nowhere! After undergoing a sufficient amount of tortures, these women either remember or are reminded in a dream that they had turned down the prasad/shirni offered them after the story. Repenting, they decide to listen to the story but have nothing to offer by way of prasad/shirni; they prepare a make-believe version of prasad/shirni out of clay and, covering it with a piece of cloth, sit down in a circle and listen to the story. When the story ends and the time comes for the prasad/shirni to be distributed, the cloth is removed, and - Lo and Behold! the clay items have turned into real sweets! After distributing these sweets and partaking it themselves, they return home to find everything restored - their husbands back and their children in their houses once again full of fine goods.
While the parallel is both striking and unique, I have one question: what is that original Satyanarayan Katha or Dus Bibiyon ki Kahani which the believing woman listens to in the beginning of these stories?
Till I get an answer, even this sketch remains incomplete!
I am glad that you narrated Dus Bibiyon Ki Kahani so exquisitely.. have you heard the story of 'Wood cutter and his wife' which is narrated during Kunda (22 Rajab)? and yeah Dus Bibiyon ki Kahani is listened to by ten women for ten days and 10 laddus are made from rotis mixed with sugar and ghee on the tenth day.
ReplyDeleteI must have heard the story of the Woodcutter and his wife but cannot recall all its details right now. As Rajab has started, I will listen to it again.
ReplyDeleteDus Bibiyon ki Kahani is listened to at times by women more than 10 in number, but you are right, the main participants remain ten and the ten ladoos are eaten by them, without giving any share to anyone. If there are more than 10 women, more ladoos are prepared; after taking out 10 for the main participants, the rest are crushed so that they can be distributed among the rest.