Renegotiating Truth(s) and Representation of Unconscious in Myths: A Reading of
Mamang Dai’s The Legend of Pensam
Balkar Singh
Lecturer, Lovely Professional University, Phagwara
Abstract:This paper evaluates the usage of myths by Maman Dai in his Book The Legends of Pensam. Myths
are often related to superstition in post-modern world. Once these myths consider as the token of
higher reality but with time science replace these myths. This paper question all pervasive common
sense and so called scientific absolute maximums- truth(s) and realit(ies) with reference to the text.
The Legend of pensam celebrates oral tradition which is well rooted in Indian tradition and teaches
moral value in contrast to Western Knowledge that is more rationality oriented and follows written
traditions. Society blindly acknowledges the dominant discourses and ignores the latent ones. This
paper is an attempt to analyse latent Indian tradition with reference to The Legend of Pensam.
Key Words:Myths, reality, oral tradition, knowledge, discourses, tradition
Research Paper:Truth is the strangest fiction ever generated and recorded by the dweller of any specific
community. It creates a locus point for that community; a centre of its beliefs and realities. In post
modern era- a truth generated by rationality defies all other faculties of human understanding and
metanarrative of science and rationality rules. Mamang Dai in her book The Legends of Pensam- in
which Pensam can be interpreted as “the hidden place of heart” depicts the “in-between” stages of
truth(s) and realit(ies). He defies the metanarrative of accepted truths by quoting:
It is the small world where anything can happen and everything can be lived; where the
narrow boat that we call life sails along somehow in calm and stormy weather; where the life
of a man can be measured in the span of a song. (Dai VIII)
This paper is attempts to decode the mysterious narrative of the first part of the book entitled-‘a
diary of the world’ a proper noun in small letters; thus writer defies the claim of universal truth and
tried to indicate the unnoticed mysteries by making stylistic difference in the title. The narrator of
the stories is an ‘in-between’ dweller as he belongs both paces- Pensam as well as modern society.
These are the stories of oral tradition- in a tradition, where mystery and wonders of mythical world,
are not dead yet. Truth, which we believe in, is a matter of the society and culture in which we live.
In a society when certain discourses become dominant, it become true and gets the currency of
reality for the particular community. “Truth cannot be rescued against systems of power and there is
no escape from the untrue into freedom” (Taylor 70).
Discourses are primarily instrumental devices that can foster common perceptions and
understanding for specific purposes, and the task of discourse analysis is to measure how
effective they are in bringing about certain ends (David 3).
Thus these discourses create our understanding of the world. We start perceiving these versions of
reality as truth. Once the world was ruled by myths, mysteries, and superstition; science was
abhorred- considered as devils’ pitchfork. In post-modernity science and logic had turned the table
against myths and mysteries. Meera Nanda observes:
Once modern science is seen not as a universally valid knowledge about the natural world, but
a particular or “ethno”- construct of Western society, it becomes easy to see science as part of
the imperialistic West’s despotism, which the West’s “Others” must resist in the name of
cultural survival and anti-imperialism. Modern sciences thus becomes a despotism, an object
of resistance rather than an ally of those resisting despotism. (74)
Interpretation of the world by using logic, science or rationality and considering them as the
metanarrator of reality and truth is the product of Western ideology. Mamang Dai defies this logic
in her book The Legend of Pensam. There are total five stories, loosely knitted, logically
bewildering, open ended and sparklingly unreal. Book opens with the story the boy who fell from
the sky refers to Eastern mythology of defying birth-life circle by Gods or some mythical characters.
Author grips the fantasy world of readers and takes them to the unexplored mysteries of life. The
first reference of Hoxo- “the boy who fell from the sky” (Dai 7) is strikingly strange as “he was
being carried on the back of a man whom he was later to call his father” (Dai 7). Thus defying
societal bonding of ‘moah-maya’ by referring his father- a man whom he was later to call father
rather than calling him father directly. His dream of “blazing sun” and his preference to darkness to
“terrifying light” challenges the norms of common sense. He was never asked by anybody either he
loves his parents or hate them like the portrayal of mythical character in Indian metanarratives is
devoid of these trivial emotions. In the collective memories of these Adis the image of Biribik- the
serpent with horn is fixed, that may seem illiterate’s hell to the strangers but these nature dwellers
this was the tragic reality. This was the emblem of unexplored nature, that was considered dead by
the worshipper of logic and common sense, who had accepted its non existence without exploring
the nature in its real life throbbing existence. But in this world logic still did not placed itself to a
solid ground. As author observes;
In these small clearings in the middle of the forest, people have premonitions. Women dream
dreams. Babies are born who grow up unnaturally fast, like deer or lion cubs, Infant mortality
is high. Old women still braid threads of vine and pray for safe passage. (Dai 10)
Birbik is the sign of death for Hoxo’s father, who dies in a hunting accident. Person, who had
mistaken him for the prey was sent to the forest to live like animal rather than giving to the
imprisonment. There was one small fish that was found in the dead man’s pocket. Nobody knows
its reason, for logic dwellers it is just a coincidence, but for Adis it was the manifestation of the
spirit. “Death of Lutor, famous chief of the Ida clan, father of the boy, who fell from the sky, was
mourned for and wide” (Dai 11). Death is treated like part of the life, not end of life by Adis. Thus
in the very first story author invites readers to venture into the world of myths and mysteries. The
prerequisite of these journeys are to leave behind Western understanding of the world. Whereas in
Western Ideology these myths are mere superstitions for these Adis Western Ideology is not more
than a myth itself.
Just as medieval society was balanced on God and the Devil, so ours is balanced on
consumption and its denunciation. Though at least around the Devil heresies and black magic
sects could organize. Our magic is white. No heresy is possible any longer in a state of
affluence. It is the prophylactic whiteness of a saturated society, a society with no history and
no dizzying heights, a society with no myth other than itself. (Baudrillard X)
The second story is the strange case of kalen, the hunter. Story is narrated by Hoxa’s son, born
from “boy who fell to earth” and “river woman”, to Mona, a magazine editor. Thus writer
juxtaposes two binary opposite world together. Kalen has been suffering from strange sort of fever.
Every time fever seized him he swears to beat it by finding a cure for it. One day he went on
hunting venture, where monkeys were behaving strangely as they were calling men. Kalen
mysteriously got shot and die soon. His body was brought back by his companions but the bridge
broke and all group returned “ill and dazed, as if they had come back from the realm of malevolent
spirit” (Dai 15). But this incident did not kill existential urge of these Adi’s. They live life “without
stopping to pine or utter recriminations” (Dai 15).
It was resilient in an unconscious way, as if programmed to be so. In the midst of injury and
death, newly-weds fought, stormed out of their homes, deserted the children and hurled abuse
at one another, as if the business of loving and living was a temporary arrangement. (Dai 15)
Some people die or never return to normal life, but life does not stop for them. Those they left
behind learned to live without them. “Sometime they are remembered in songs and stories, like the
dead” (Dai 16). Death is like a part of the story and mysterious death are the part of metanarration,
which teaches moral values rather than how to acquire materialistic advantages. Everything and
every action have its consequences and every existential question has its answer in these stories.
Stories, which defy logic and establish moral victories, are the part of life.
Third story is the silence of adela and kepi. In this story author welds the gap between two
worlds mysteriously and depicts the contrast of attitude for the similar incident happening in two
different realms. Mona is of Arab- Greek extractions and proprietor of glossy magazine, ‘Diary of
the World’, name in capital here, which carries unusual life stories. By stylistic reference of using
Capital letters author refers here the metanarrative logical interpretation of usual stories of this
world as unusual in another world- world of written traditions pitted against oral traditions. Mona
had a daughter- Adela. Jules, her husband and Mona hires a maid for their daughter. The woman
performed her duties very well, but one day suddenly Adela refuses to speak. Mona goes to doctors,
consultes her relatives to trace any family history, but no connection found with the mysterious
autism condition of Adela. Mona accuses the maid and Jules accuses Mona for the condition of the
girl. Finally they had put Adela in a school for autistic children. Hoxo juxtaposes another incident
from Adi’s world with Adela’s incident. This story was of Togum’s son Kepi. The boy suffered
from mysterious fever and Togum considered his wife responsible for his condition. When the child
was not cured by medicine, Hoxo, the shaman, is called to perform a serpent ritual. The child’s
condition is related to the hunting experience of his father Togum. He had killed a King Cobra that
was hidden in a log of wood with a gun and according to Hoxo serpent is responsible for Kepi’s
condition. Sometimes these spirits can be recalled and negotiated but sometimes they move far
away to recall. Hoxo challenges the all pervasive metanarrative by referring its flaws, ‘these things
happen all the time. We only began to know about them when they happen to us. Two different
worlds’ reaction was explained in contrast in a very beautiful manner by the author.
It was as if he (Hoxo) would never be surprised by any condition or behaviour of man or
beast. When I had spoken of Adeila’s autism, he had listened and understood, and been able
to express his sorrow for Mona quietly. Whereas I had had to look up the term in the library
when she first told me, I had been too troubled and agitated to share her grief. (Dai 24)
Two kids have few things common. They love music and did not recognize their kin. Author also
recognizes these unsaid narratives by referring, “life moved on quite normally, except that like so
many others in so many recesses all over the world, they hid their pain, while the seasons turned”
(Dai 24). This way author challenges the normal as ignorance of these incidents, which are peculiar
in nature. Author discarded all pervasive logic of post modern world by referring these incidents,
where science fails to answer. These exceptions believed when happen to somebody till that these
events are denied as superstitions.
So we live, sheltered by signs, in the denial of the real. A miraculous security: when we look
at the images of the world, who can distinguish this brief irruption of reality from the
profound pleasure of not being there? The image, the sign, the message -- all these things we
`consume' -- represent our tranquillity consecrated by distance from the world, a distance
more comforted by the allusion to the real (even where the allusion is violent) than
compromised by it. (Baudrillard, 34))
Fourth story, pinyar, the wodow, is a tragic story of Pinyar, who loves a boy from another clan
and gives birth to a boy named Kamur. Orka abandons her and takes the boy with him. She gets
married to Lekon, who dies in a hunting accident. She tries to make her living by farming, but one
day in an unfortunate incident her home gets burn. This act is symbolically related to the tiger spirit
so Pinyar started living in the outskirt of village as an act of taboo. She tells the myth of miti-mili.
This race used a sacred powder to make rice beer. This beer was not supposed to take before
hunting. Sometimes men ignore the rule and then they suffer from tragic death. A man, who shots
someone during a hunt, would be rarely accused of murder. The tragic life of Pinyar does not end
here. Her son, Kamur, who was a clerk in a government department, killed his baby girl and injured
his wife. Town failed to understand the meaning of such strange incident.
They understood that it was a nebulous zone that divided the worlds of spirits and men- in
fact, at one time men and spirits had been brothers. They knew that what was real could well
be an illusion, and that reality might only be the context that people gave to a moment. (Dai
31)
Old people of the village relate it to the wrong type of marriage and blood. It turns people towards
evil. Kamur saves her son from angry town and brings him with her. Nobody blames him as they
believe, “truth exists only in portions, and rest is a matter of words changed by each person’s
perception” (Dai, 32). Pinyar describes these experiences in three words- “faith is everything”
(Dai,35). These myths are actually representing the psyche. These myths depict those elements of
psyche that are not explored by science and do not get its expression in common language or the
language of rationality. As Jung observesMyths are first and foremost psychic phenomena that reveal the nature of the soul is
something they have absolutely refused to see until now. Primitive man is not much interested
in objective explanations of the obvious, but he has an imperative need-or rather, his
unconscious psyche has an irresistible urge-to assimilate all outer sense experiences to inner,
psychic events. It is not enough for the primitive to see the sun rise and set; this external
observation must at the same time be a psychic happening: the sun in its course must
represent the fate of a god or hero who, in the last analysis, dwells nowhere except in the soul
of man. All the mythologized processes of nature, such as summer and winter, the phases of
the moon, the rainy seasons, and so forth, are in no sense allegories of these objective
occurrences; rather they are symbolic expressions of the inner, unconscious drama of the
psyche which becomes accessible to man's consciousness by way of projection-that is,
mirrored in the events of nature. The projection is so fundamental that it has taken several
thousand years of civilization to detach it in some measure from its outer object.
(Jung 6)
Fifth story, small histories recalled in the season of rain, is about the ‘return to nature’. Author
observes that “the village had quality of absorbing visitors into a forgotten newness of things.”
Mona started feeling affinity even with the horrible insights of rainy seasons. Hoxo’s birth story
was recalled again and how everyone believes on unrelieved is rethought. War, migluns and
America’s shouting for war considered as the enchanting of evil. Hoxo’s father opposes the
recruitment in war but later on Rakut and Hoxo’s father represent their village in the war. When
villager did ask about the child he said, “It is a child. There was great noise and fire in the sky and
then our son fell to earth” (Dai,40). Whereas his knowledge from library author knows that these
tribal people are speaking about famous Stillwell road. He wonders how two explanations of one
thing can be contrastingly different. Hoxo’s interpretations of things shocked the author as he
observes;“he never offered anything conclusive, but suddenly, like he had done now, he made you
realize that he was aware of everything and thinking deeply about what you had said” (Dai 41).
Whereas author was always remain in ‘in-between’ stage Mona passes the bridge from rationality to
belief. When author said he wants to know “how he knew everything”? Mona answers, “but why
should you want to understand everything? Strange things have happened in the world. Let it be”
(Dai 41). Jules describes how spirits are drawn from the “virgin land” when big trees were thrown
down. He refers to the loss of nature because he refers, ‘people seemed too eager to sell out
everything to anyone who comes with little money and with designs to decimate our forests. Hoxo
agreed with Jules about what was happening “but life, he said, its own pace. Everything, good and
bad is inevitable. We need courage and fith in the face of change. That is all we can do” (Dai 43).
Author feels that Rakut, Hoxo, and Jules can get on with anyone, no matter where in the world you
put them because they do understand the nature of life.
Mamang Dai in her mysterious book The Legend of Penssam narrates the legends of Pensam by
telling stories threaded with mythsThese myths represent the psyche and naive nature of its
believers.
Tribal lore is always sacred and dangerous. All esoteric teachings seek to apprehend the
unseen happenings in the psyche, and all claim supreme authority for themselves. What is true
of primitive lore is true in even higher degree of the ruling world religions. They contain a
revealed knowledge that was originally hidden, and they set forth the secrets of the soul in
glorious images. Their temples and their sacred writings proclaim in image and word the
doctrine hallowed from of old, making it accessible to every believing heart, every sensitive
vision, every farthest range of thought. (Jung 7)
The images and metaphors used by author strikingly contrast scientific knowledge and create a
counter narrative to the metanarrative of logic. These stories are journeys in the dark part of the
psyche where ordinary language fails and myth prevails to give us glimpse of mysterious realities.
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Print.
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Print.
4. Jung, C.G. The Archetypes and The Collective Unconsciousness. Ed., Sir Herbert Read, Michael
Fordham and Gerhard Adler. C.G. Jung: The Collected Works. London: Routledge.1981. Print.
5. McNally, David. “Language, History, and class struggle” ed., Ellen Meiksins Wood and John
Bellamy Foster. In Defence of History. Delhi: Aakar Books, 2006. Print.
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