Mountains Painted with Turmeric
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Maina could hear her doves cooing in their nesting hole, and she went back inside once more. The child was howling with all his might, but she was not minded to comfort him. She felt around in the darkness inside, searching for another small earthenware pot. At last she located it and shook out a handful of grain. When she took the grain to the doves’ nesting hole and offered it to them, they were startled.
“Who will feed you when we are gone? What will become of you? Who will fill his stomach with you?” She wept bitterly, leaning her head against the doves’ ledge. Again, Dhané shouted to her from outside, “It’s getting late! What is that woman doing?”
Suddenly Maina remembered the oxen, and she hurried to their stall. When they saw her the oxen blew through their nostrils: “phu, phu.” Maina gave them some of the hay that lay nearby and stroked them. The words came mechanically from her mouth, “Today your new masters will come. They will give you tasty fodder and mash…. Don’t ever kick anyone, work honestly, or else you’ll be beaten….” She was overcome by her feelings, and tears poured from her eyes.
After a while she calmed herself and went back to the yard. There she stepped into the granary and took a good look all around. Every object in there—the millstone and the husking machine, and even the beams, pillars, and roofpole—gave her plenty to remember and weep over for the rest of her life. To one side, an old nanny goat was tied up, and beside her a pair of kids lay chewing their cuds in the straw. As Maina came near, the goat bleated at her, and she stroked it. She picked up the small kids, set them on her lap, and put her cheek against theirs. It looked as if the three beings were whispering to one another. Outside, Dhané shouted with growing impatience, and Maina stood up, wiped her eyes, and came out. Dhané had already stepped out onto the main path, and she picked up her bundle and followed him.
The departure of these three people made a pitiable, utterly pitiable, sight. The departure of three people: husband, wife, and small son. Time and again they turn to look back, and then they go on. It is difficult to find something that compares with their journey precisely. If there had been an onlooker there at this time he would surely have been reminded of Lord Ram’s exile in the forest. Ram went into exile in the forest for fourteen years, and then he came back. But these three have locked up their house and are leaving forever. Their hearts hold no hope at all of ever returning to this place.
Their journey will not lead them to reside in a forest or to reside in a house. Their journey is not planned. They are setting out without knowing where they are going. Where is this journey leading, where will it end, where is its destination? Probably even they do not know.
The house, shed, garden, and granary: all are still, as if the life has gone out of them. Dhané and Maina always used to greet the sun from the garden. Maina would rise to bathe very early, and then she would fetch a jug of water and wait in the garden to offer it to the sun. But today there would be no one there to offer the risen sun a stream of water from that garden.
With the first rays of the sun today, Dhané and Maina’s new life will begin. Perhaps it will be better than their past, or maybe it will be worse. Whatever happens, one thing is certain: when the sun appears to them they will be far, far away from this house, garden, and yard where they spent a very large part of their lives. Far, very far away.
AFTERWORD: NEPALI CRITICS AND BASAIN
Basain is regarded by Nepali literary scholars as a work of social realism (samajik yatharthavad). Krishnachandra Singh Pradhan argues that the novel is primarily a portrayal of village society and that for this reason “the social circumstances of a person’s outer life take the foreground, rather than his inner life. Although Dhané is the hero, the society described in the novel is its central reality, and the author is conscientious in his description of it” (1980:255). Pradhan goes on to say that Dhané’s dispossession is the “economic aspect” (arthik paksha) of the novel, while the flight of Jhuma and Moté Karki is its “social aspect” (samajik paksha) (257). Although the baidar to whom Dhané forfeits his livestock and Nandé Dhakal to whom he forfeits his home are in a sense the authors and beneficiaries of Dhané’s plight, Pradhan argues that they act strictly within their rights and are not really at fault: the fault lies in the way the society in which they live is ordered. This is the context within which all the characters make their choices: Dhané’s are sometimes rash, and he has to face the inevitable consequences.
Rajendra Subedi describes Basain as “an example of idealized reality” (adarshonmukh yatharthata) (1996:91). He argues that, although it is an honest portrayal, it proposes no solutions for the problems it identifies:
Unable to swim in a sea of debt, Dhan Bahadur goes abroad [videshincha]. The soldier makes Jhuma pregnant and satisfies his selfish ends and goes abroad, and Moté Karki takes Jhuma and goes abroad because he fears that his reputation will be tarnished by his acceptance of a wife who has been made unchaste by another man. Both kinds of disorder are the realities of the society of that time. But when Dhan Bahadur departs he leaves the oppression of a feudal and exploitive character like Nandé Dhakal unaltered, and when Moté Karki departs he leaves an immoral philanderer like the soldier to his own devices. Both Nandé Dhakal and the soldier are criminals, in both economic and moral terms, and they are spared the punishment for their crimes. (92)
Subedi’s criticism of the novel is perhaps a mark of the Marxist influences that have entered Nepali literature and literary criticism in recent decades and given rise to a style of fiction termed socialist realism (samajvadi yatharthavad), which first appeared around 1950 and still retains some currency today. Socialist realism requires a more incisive class-based analysis of character and society, and although Dhané’s reflections on his fate contain hints of an incipient political consciousness, this analysis is largely absent from Basain. Chettri writes that he had heard of Marx and Marxism when he wrote the book and had a nodding acquaintance with Marxist ideology, based on his reading of some pamphlets published by the Communist Party (of India, presumably). He believes that his understanding of Marxism might have contributed to the atmosphere of the final sections of the novel and admits that it made him “somewhat impassioned” (kehi bhavuk) as he was writing it (1992:36). That the villains of the piece are never confronted with their crimes may disappoint the seeker of fictional justice, but this is probably in closer accord with the reality the novel sets out to describe.
NOTES
FOREWORD
1. For instance, when they enumerate something, the characters of this novel use the old formula of goda (an old form of the numeral classifier -vata that follows the numeral in modern Nepali but precedes it in this style of language) + the number + the numeral ek, “one.” Thus godaduek = 2, godatisek = 30, and so forth.
2. These terms are explained in more detail in the notes to my translation of the novel.
3. “Bitter-leaves” is a literal rendering of the plant’s Nepali name, titepati. Shrestha (1979:36) and Turner (1930:283) both translate it as “artemisia vulgaris.”
4. Bangdel’s Muluk Bahira is discussed in Hutt 1998 and in more detail, along with discussions of Bangdel’s other novels, in Chalmers 1999. Both articles contain excerpts in English translation.
MOUNTAINS PAINTED WITH TURMERIC
1. Phagun: mid-February to mid-March.
2. Baidar is probably a corruption of the word bahidar and is defined by Turner as “clerk, writer” (1930:459). The baidars fulfilled an important role in village communities in eastern Nepal, acting as advisers to village headmen on legal issues and drafting documents for them.
3. A proverb meaning that livestock can never be a sound or permanent investment because of its vulnerability to disease, old age, natural calamities, and so on.
4. In the old currency system, an anna was one-sixteenth of a rupee.
5. Dhané is the diminutive form of Dhan Bahadur’s name, and the name is chosen ironically: dhan means “wealth” and dhané means “wealthy one.”
7. Nepali prose narratives such as this switch between present and past tenses more frequently than an English translation can reflect. The present tense is often used to depict physical settings or to analyze psychological or emotional conditions, producing a period of reflective stillness in the text, while the events of the story are usually recounted in the past tense. In this text, the present tense is also sometimes used to recount the unfolding of events, and this is reflected in the translation as far as possible. There are a few instances, however, where a paragraph begins to describe events in one tense and then switches to another for no apparent reason: the translation departs from the original in such instances so that this switching between tenses (which can be confusing in English prose) does not occur within the body of a single paragraph.
8. The baskets (doko) are carried on the back and shoulders and secured by a strap (namlo) around the forehead. The ghum is a boat-shaped covering made of interlaced bamboo strips that protects its carrier from the rain.
9. Kahila means “Fourth Eldest Son.” Very few characters in this novel are addressed by their given names, and this reflects colloquial speech, in which kinship terms and birth-order names are used much more commonly. The birth-order names that occur in this novel are Kancha (m), Kanchi (f): “Youngest”; Kahila (m): “Fourth Eldest”; Sahinla (m): “Third Eldest”; and Jetha (m), Jethi (f): “Eldest.” A dhami is a shaman or diviner.
10. Bankalé: a malevolent forest spirit.
11. The Damai are an artisanal caste who traditionally work as tailors. They occupy a low position in the caste hierarchy.
12. “Jadau” is a deferential greeting used by lower castes when addressing a member of a higher caste (Turner 1930:207). Leute’s use of this form of greeting would appear to contradict the author’s claim that he “did not need to defer to anyone”: the inference is perhaps that the status acquired by birth remains a more powerful factor than any status acquired though wealth. Alternatively, in view of the ensuing tirade, it could also be construed as sarcasm.
13. Bulls are not generally confined but permitted to wander at will and are often held up as symbols of lustfulness and irresponsibility.
14. A mohar is half of one rupee.
15. Chait: mid-March to mid-April.
16. Bhadau: mid-August to mid-September.
17. Nani: “Child”; Bahini: “Younger Sister.”
18. Limbugaon: literally, “Limbu Village.”
19. A kos is a notoriously vague measure of distance that is usually defined as two miles but sometimes as “the distance that can be covered on foot in half an hour.”
20. Nepali has a complex pronominal system. The informal second-person pronoun, similar to the French tu, is timi, while the politer version, similar to the French vous, is tapai. The soldier uses the latter on this occasion.
21. Strictly, the term dai means “elder brother,” but it is used more generally to address or refer to men who are older than the speaker, and here it clearly refers to the soldier’s cousin.
22. Dhané’s family name, Basnet, proclaims his Chetri (kshatriya) caste. He either knows that the soldier belongs to the same caste (nowhere in the story is his caste or ethnicity made explicit) or assumes that he does because of the soldier’s occupation (in the classical varna hierarchy, the kshatriya are kings and warriors).
23. Bhaujyu: “Elder Brother’s Sister.”
24. The literal meaning of sangini is “female friend.” Sangini songs are sung as dialogues between women, particularly among the Chetri caste (according to Weisethaunet 1997) and especially in eastern Nepal. The singers exchange their joys and sorrows in song.
25. Mugalan: an archaic and, it seems, exclusively Nepali name for India as the land of the Mughals.
26. The festival of Teej (tij) falls during late summer, on the third day of the bright half of the month of Bhadau (mid-August to mid-September). It is a women’s festival celebrated almost exclusively by Bahuns and Chetris, during which a woman must undergo purificatory fasting to ensure the long life of her husband. Traditionally, women indulge in a feast on the eve of the festival, and on the day itself they dress in their red wedding saris and dance before temples dedicated to Shiva—activity that represents “a complete reversal of the Hindu ideal of womanly behaviour” (Bennett 1983:225). Teej is followed by the festival of Rishi Panchami, on the fifth day of the bright half of Bhadau, during which Bahun and Chetri women purify themselves by taking ritual baths in a river. For further detail, see Bennett 1983:218–34.
The Sorah Shraddha is a collective honoring of all the ancestors of a lineage during the fortnight leading up to the festival of Dasain.
Dasain is the major social and religious event of the year, especially for Bahuns and Chetris. The warrior goddess Durga is worshipped during the Nine Nights (navaratri) leading up to the tenth day of the bright half of the month of Asoj (mid-September to mid-October), when the festival reaches its climax. Family members renew their kinship ties by daubing one another’s foreheads with a mixture of yogurt, red powder, and rice in an action known as “giving tika.” Animals (principally goats) are sacrificed and eaten during the festival, and the head of each household must provide each family member with a new set of clothes.
27. “Victory to the goddess Bhairavi!”
28. A song sung during the Dasain festival in honor of the great goddesses of Hinduism.
29. In his study of Chetri households, John Gray records that maize was generally considered to be the least desirable staple, far inferior to rice. His informants often described poorer or lower-caste households in terms of the fact that they had to eat dhiro, a maize flour paste, for their main meals, instead of rice or wheat (1995:133).
30. Budho is an adjective meaning “old”; “Budhe” is used as a nick name here, meaning “oldie.” The Kami are an artisanal caste who traditionally work as blacksmiths. Like the other artisanal castes, they occupy a lowly position in the caste hierarchy.
31. A woman’s peva is usually simply her dowry (more commonly called daijo). In some instances, it can denote possessions that a woman brings to her husband’s home when she marries him but that remain her own personal property.
32. Kubera, the king of the Yaksha and Kinnara demigods, is proverbially wealthy.
33. The hat bazar, a temporary open-air market that is set up regularly at a particular location on a particular day of the week or month, is an important feature of social and economic life in the hills of eastern Nepal (see Sagant 1996:213).
34. Kanchi Didi: literally, “Last-Born Elder Sister.”
35. Moro (m) and mori (f), derived from the word for “corpse,” are used as terms of either abuse or endearment, depending on the intentions of the speaker and the tone in which the word is uttered.
36. The traditional measures of weight or capacity are gradually being displaced by the metric system in Nepal today, but they retain their currency in many rural areas. A pathi is equal to 8 manas, a mana being equivalent to 0.7 liters or about 20 ounces of grain.
37. Khasi goats are castrated goats, reared especially to be eaten.
38. Khet is fertile irrigated or irrigable land, usually located at some distance from a farmer’s house, while bari is nonirrigated land. The general pattern is that during the wet season, rice is grown on khet land and maize on bari land; in the dry season, wheat may be grown on khet land and either wheat or mustard seed on bari land. Khet land is valued more highly, both because it is more fertile and because it yields rice. A vegetable plot located close to a farmer’s house is also known as bari.
39. Kanchi: literally, “Last-Born Girl” or “Youngest Sister.”
40. “The most typical and sometimes the biggest markets emerge at a neutral, uninhabited place, a mid point in the jungle between those living at the bottom of the valley and those at the summits” (Sagant 1996:214).
42. The English word “recruit” appears in the original.
43. Married women wear vermillion powder (sindur) in the parting of their hair. The episode is probably intended to demonstrate that the soldier has forgotten an aspect of his own culture, thus emphasizing his status as an outsider. This is amplified in the exchanges that follow.
44. Naraz means “angry” and is commonly used in Hindi and Urdu. References to anger in Nepali most commonly make use of the verb risaunu, and the word naraz is known only by those who have had some exposure to Indian plains languages.
45. Accha: a Hindi-Urdu word meaning “good” or “okay.”
46. Ferris wheels or rotary swings (roteping) are erected on the edge of many rural villages for the Dasain festival.
47. In Nepali, maula-nishana. A maula is a rock or a stone on which an animal is sacrificed. Before the ritual takes place the maula is worshipped and sanctified. A nishana is a religious flag or banner.
48. On “bitter leaves,” see note 3 of the foreword.
49. Marriage is often defined as kanyadan, that is, a father’s gift (dan) of his virgin daughter (kanya) to the groom’s family, symbolized here by his tying her to her husband with a shawl, as in the marriage ceremony. The idea of courtship is antithetical to the ideals of kanyadan. See Bennett 1983:71–73.
50. Dobaté means “situated at the junction of two (do) roads (bato)” but can also mean “a shopkeeper at a corner; a pedlar who swindles passers-by” (Turner 1930:320). Sahinla is a birth-order name meaning “Third Son.” It might be that the name Dobaté (literally, “two ways” or “two-wayed”) is intended also to imply that this character is two-faced or hypocritical.
51. Magh: mid-January to mid-February; one of the coldest months.
52. It is usual for a man to refer to and address a friend’s wife as “Elder Brother’s Sister” (Bhaujyu) if he is in the habit of addressing that friend as “Elder Brother” (Dai), and in fact it is deemed quite inappropriate for a man to refer to or address a friend’s wife by her given name. This is perhaps a logical corollary to the custom by which men between whom there is no family relationship very frequently address each other using kinship terms, especially Bhai, “Younger Brother,” and Dai or Daju, “Elder Brother.”