Imaginary Maps: Three Stories

246 Pages·1995·30.715 MB·English

by  Mahasveta Debi, Mahasweta Devi

IMAGINARY
MAPS
I lA
Three Stories by
IMAGINARY
Translated and introduced by
Mahasweta Devi
MAPS
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
Routledge • New York • London

FOR ALL THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES OF THE WORLD
Published in 1995 by
Routledge
29 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001
Published in Great Britain by
Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane
London EC4P 4EE
Copyright © 1995 by Routledge
This edition published by arrangement with Thema Publications.
er.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or repro
duced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical or
other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photo
copying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Devi, Mahasweta.
Imaginary maps I by Mahasweta Devi ; translated by Gayatri
Chakravorty Spivak.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-415-90462-5 (HB). - ISBN 0-415-90463-3 (PB)
1. Devi, Mahasweta-Interviews. 2. Authors, Bengali
-20th century-Interviews. 3. Short stories, Indic-Trans
lations into English. 4. Indic literature-20th century-History
and criticism. 5. India in literature. I. Spivak, Gayatri
Chakravorty.
II. Title.
PK1718.D4737Z465 1993
891'.4437-dc20 93-1284
CIP
Contents
THE AUTHOR IN CONVERSATION IX
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE XXIII
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE XXXI
THE HUNT 1
DOULOTI THE BOUNTIFUL 19
PTERODACTYL, PURAN SAHAY, AND PIRTHA 95
AFTERWORD 197
vii

The Author in Conversation
The following is a lightly edited version of a conversation, originally
in English, taped in Calcutta in December, 1991. The questions are
mine, the answers hers. -GCS
History and fact first.
The tribal population of India is about one-sixth of the total
population of the country. The tribes are divided into many
groups. India belonged to these tribals long before the incursion of
the Aryan-speaking peoples. The Ramayana, one of India's two
ancient epics, seems to contain evidence of how they were op
pressed, evicted from their homeland, and then forced to occupy
the lower reaches of the mainstream culture. Bits of their old cul
ture can still be glimpsed. In the nineteenth century, for example,
mainstream Indian reformers had to struggle to pass a Widow
Remarriage Act in caste-Hindu society, the society that is generally
called "Indian." Among the Austric and Dravidian tribes of India,
on the other hand-in the states of West Bengal and Bihar alone
there are Oraons, Mundas, Santals, Lodhas, Kherias, Mahalis,
Gonds, and more-widow remarriage has always been the custom.
In tribal society, there is no dowry system, only bride-price. It is
difficult to discern at this late date who borrowed from whom,
especially since the tribals relied upon an oral tradition. Their
word for Hindu is Diku-outsider. Remember, Draupadi in the
Mahabharata is a black woman. She must have been a tribal. In
the State of Himachal Pradesh we still find the sort of fraternal
polyandry that Draupadi was supposed to have practiced in
the Mahabharata. The polyandrous tribal women of Himachal
Pradesh are said to belong to the Draupadi Gotra or clan. Among
the South Indian tribals, Sita, the Queen of King Rama in the
Ramayana, is not a human being. She is the wind in the grass, she
is the flowing river, the fruit-yielding trees, the harvest to be gath
ered. She is Nature. Glimpses of their history remain in their songs
and ballads. They were advanced in agriculture, though some
groups were forest dwelling hunters: the Sobors. 1 The modern
ix