How a chance encounter with Tamil traditional storytellers sparked a decades-long fascination with Tamil folklore and inspired two new books by a UTSC Anthropology Professor.
Dr. Brenda E. F. Beck, is a leading Anthropologist, folklorist and South Asia expert, and Adjunct Professor at UTSC’s Department of Anthropology. Since beginning her fieldwork in the Tamil Nadu region of Southern India in the 1960s she has published countless articles and books on the subject of Tamil culture and folklore. But one story, which she heard first almost six decades ago, stands out to her in its scale, beauty and cultural importance.
Dr. Beck was in a village in Tamil Nadu in 1965 when she first heard Tamil bards perform The Story of the Elder Brothers. Dr. Beck recalls being called to the village square, where two Tamil bards with a hand drum and finger cymbals were standing surrounded by a huge audience of people. Sensing an opportunity, she asked the bards if she could record their story.
“I turned on my tape recorder, and they started to sing,” recalls Dr. Beck. “It went on and on, and my batteries were getting low. It was maybe 2 hours into the night when they paused, and said, ‘Well, that's enough for tonight. We'll come back tomorrow, after dark.’ It turned out to be a 38-hour long story that took 18 nights to tell!”
With the help of a local lineman who helpfully connected her recorder to the main line on the road to save on her dwindling supply of batteries, Dr. Beck was able to capture the entirety of the story on tape. The story is a saga of three generations of a royal dynasty dating from at least the medieval period. The recordings have informed decades of Prof. Beck’s research, which saw her collaborating with animators and artists to create a 13-hour, 26-episode animated series of the story which aired on both Canadian and Indian TV as well as a series of graphic novels based on the tale.
Her latest works are a translation of the story entitled Land of the Golden River and a book called Hidden Paradigms, comparing the themes, characters and plot structures with other epic tales from across the globe. She argues persuasively that the story deserves to be recognized as an epic of the same importance as more well-known stories from European cultures and taught as widely, especially in schools with diverse student bodies, as well as the importance of oral literature and its value in understanding traditional folk cultures around the world.
The title Land of the Golden River was not one arrived at easily. “I've struggled for years with the name,” explains Dr. Beck, “And the problem is in Tamil the story is generally called the Elder Brother's story. I've always been annoyed with by that title, because these two brothers have a sister. And that sister is absolutely key to this rich tale. Her religious and magical energy, combined, are fundamental to the entire story.”
The story is an intergenerational family epic centering on the titular brothers and their younger sister. It follows three generations of their family as the transition from farmers, to warriors and eventually to the rulers of a great kingdom. Along the way there are appearances from gods demons, and talking animals. Dr. Beck points out that the story mirrors Canadian history in many interesting ways, focused as it is on an immigrant dynasty and their relations with the Indigenous people of the area.
The works of Tamil-speaking oral storytellers has been crucial in imparting the culture and history of India’s state of Tamil Nadu to its rural residents for centuries. Modern India is a society where the cultural institutions honored in Sanskrit-based texts have, for many centuries, been given a special status and where Tamil epic-length tales, have been largely overlooked. But the role of itinerant bards and minstrels remains strong and their major contributions to the cultural fabric of this part of the world is just now starting to be seriously explored. “These men are professionals and make their living by wandering around singing stories,” explains Dr. Beck. “They are the historians. They are the sociologists. And so how people learned about their culture was from these storytellers, and it's interesting that although most professions in South India are caste linked, being a storyteller is open to people from any caste. So, this special calling tends to recruit people who are passionate about their ancestral legends, and that very passion is what makes them successful tale-tellers.”
In Hidden Paradigms, Dr. Beck examines the similarities of themes between the story and other epics from across the globe. She notes key themes that are of great importance in South India, such as rain, emerge not only in story but also are symbolized in unexpected places, such as in the local architecture. She discusses the key role played by very powerful wild boar in the story, similar to the early Babylonian story of King Gilgamesh. She also discusses the importance the story gives to patterns seen in the stars; constellation patterns that closely resemble an ancient progression of yearly sky-stories referenced by ancient Babylonians.
Beck suggests that the roots of the story may indeed stretch back to ancient Babylon, a theory that has recently found some support due to new archaeological and DNA studies. “People think these star references must have come from the Romans, or maybe even Greeks. It is true that we do have solid evidence of Roman and Greek trade with early Tamils” says Dr. Beck “But I think these roots may link to an even earlier set of Middle Eastern traditions. The Tamils were terrific sailors and traders. They traveled by boat all the way to China and left temples there, and we know they traded with residents living on the African continent too. It seems likely that they made have established very early trading links with some particularly adventurous Sumerian and Indus Valley merchants.”
Understanding the importance of storytelling as a carrier of culture is crucial to the work of Dr. Beck. She is the President of the Sophia Hilton Foundation of Canada, an organization that focuses on the promotion of storytelling. In addition, she oversees the Storytelling Fellowship Program at the UTSC Library, which gives students the opportunity to learn about Tamil storytelling and how to perform it. Each student performs a piece which is recorded for the library’s archive. “We believe that storytelling is a very powerful tool for one's professional future,” says Dr. Beck. “The tricks and techniques of oral storytelling can be used in many contexts.”
The Fellowship is one of many initiatives around the University Dr. Beck is currently involved in promoting Tamil culture. An upcoming initiative aims to establish a Chair in Tamil Studies in the University. Dr. Beck points out, the Greater Toronto Area is home to the larger population of Tamil community than anywhere outside of the Indian subcontinent, making the establishment of a formal centre for learning about Tamil language and culture in Toronto even more crucial. Also at the library, Dr. Beck has made many of her documents and resources available as part of the Digital Tamil Studies Project.
Dr. Beck is also one of many scholars from across the world involved with the Tamil Wiki project, which intends to create repository for knowledge on Tamil literature, art and culture, in both English and Tamil.
Students interested in learning more about Tamil storytelling can contact Dr. Beck by email.
