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Articles: Arts and Culture | Culture and Civilization-8
- Mr. Vachaspati V.
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Universal or Parochial: A Method to study ‘Culture’.
These are another two features of the world in General, India in particular. We are concerned with our own Indian culture.
One is ‘‘Universalisation’’ and the other is ‘‘Parochialisation’’.
Indian culture can be understood by observing these two processes as there is a continuous process regarding socio-religious process.
‘‘Universalisation’’ is a process by which cultural traits of a ‘Little Tradition’ are absorbed into a ‘Great Tradition’. Thus, this universalises a local phenomenon.
For example, the festival of CHARM TYING in which sisters ties a charm around their brother’s wrists and exchange sweets for gifts could have been universalised into the Raksha Bandhan festival. Actually, this tradition started some where in his town of Lord Krishna. And thus universalised from the religious texts.
‘Parochialisation’ is opposite process to ‘Universalisation’ by which some written or literate of Shastriya or Sanskrit elements of the ‘Great Tradition’s are learnt about, and reformed or modified by the folk people or villagers to become a part of the cult.
For example, the Sanskrit work Bhagavata Purana of the ‘Great Tradition’ is a biography of Lord Krishna. It refers, in one episode, to Krishna directing his cowherd boys to worship the nearby hills rather than Indra; Indra angered by this, showers violent rainstorms but Krishna who is the ‘Cow Nourisher’ or Govardhan protects the cows and cowherds by lifting up the hill on his little finger as a huge umbrella. At the actual hill in Madhura district, an annual ceremony of worship is enacted. But in ‘Kishangarhi’ a Village in U.P. this story of the ‘Great Tradition’ has been parochialised into a crude form. What is ‘Cow Nourisher’ worship has turned to ‘Cow Dung Wealth’ worship i.e. ‘Go+Vardhan’ has been crudely transmitted to ‘Gober+dhana’. The sacred hill at ‘Kishangarhi’ a Village in U.P. is nothing but a pile of cow dung decorated for the ritual enactment. Another example of ‘Parochialisation’ comes from the festival of Navarathri in which Nine Durgas are worshipped for nine successive days. In ‘Kishangarhi’ a Village in U.P., a female deity called Naurtha made of mud is worshipped for nine deities. Naurtha has been parochialised term deriving from nava ratra or ‘nine nights’.
Here what is important to realize is, since both Great and ‘Little Tradition’s exist within the religion of little communities and these communicate, study of the religion of a little community can contribute to understanding of processes of ‘Universalisation’ and ‘Parochialisation’, which are generally operative in Indian civilisation. Study of the religious contents of ‘Kishangarhi’ a Village in U.P. indicates that both Great and ‘Little Tradition’s may remain in equilibrium within the little community, neither tending to exclude the other: elements of the ‘Great Tradition’ undergo parochial transformation as they spread, while ‘Great Tradition’ itself, where it originates as a ‘Universalisation’ of indigenous materials, lacks the authority to eliminate or replace the elements of ‘Little Tradition’. It can be seen everywhere. Poleramma, Nukalamma, Valluramma are local deities that represent Goddess Kali or Durga. Communication between indigenous greater and lesser traditions may proceed vertically without necessarily affecting any contiguous lateral enlargement of the community of common culture.
These two processes are complementary to each other.
These are not applicable not only to Hindu culture, but all cultures.
In one of my previous response, I already explained you about the ‘‘Little Tradition’’ and ‘‘Great Tradition’’.
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