Historicizing the Shibsankirtankavya
Conceptualising the Brahmanical Socio-Moral Order of Early Modern Bengal
Keywords:
Shibsankirtankavya, brahmanical order, agrarianisation, gender norms, early modern BengalAbstract
The Shibsankirtankavya is a mangalkavya that is also part of a larger corpus of popular ‘loukik’ (folk) poems composed about the deity Shiva. The kavya doesn’t include an account of any politically relevant contemporary event, which is the primary reason why it has been neglected by historians to a great extent as a source of Bengal’s history. However, it is replete with an in-depth understanding of the contemporary social and economic conditions of the region of Rarh or western Bengal in the early eighteenth century. The descriptions of an intoxicated and beggarly Shiva’s transition into the role of an agrarian householder; the skirmishes within the God’s household, between the spouses (Shiva and Parvati), reflect a very crude description of early modern rural life. Such humanised depictions of the deities highlight the interdependence of the agrarian and fishing economies within the region. Set in the rural backdrop of 18th century Rarh, the primary theme recognized in this paper is that of agrarian expansion, and its consequences on the Brahmanical religion. Apart from official records, contemporary anthropological surveys too serve as a useful source for understanding both the nature and purpose of the verse narrative. The patron of the text, a zamindar, utilises the didactic nature of the performative mangalkavyas to communicate with his subjects, his source of revenue, in prioritising the aim of maximising revenue-extraction and the setting up of a social and moral order that is conducive for the expansion and effective fruition of the agrarian process within the ambit of a Brahmanical socio-moral order.
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