12:00 AM, July 23, 2016 / LAST MODIFIED: 05:25 AM, July 23, 2016
The man with 2,000 puthis
Ananta Yusuf
Until a few decades ago, at a time when electricity and television were not so widespread in rural Bangladesh, puthi, a traditional form of handwritten book, used to be a major source of entertainment. Be it a feudal lord or a farmer, the mesmerising recitation of a rhythmic puthi could make one cry, laugh and dream about faraway lands.
Today puthi as a form of literature is facing extinction. But thankfully, former Chittagong University librarian Ishak Chowdhury, from a remote village in Patiya upazila, has devoted his life to collecting and researching puthi.
Impressively, Ishak has collected and preserved more than 2,000 puthi in his tin-shed house.
These puthi manuscripts cover topics as wide-ranging as literature, legends, astronomy, poetry, mathematics, occult sciences and medicine.
"I have a dream to revive the cultural tradition of puthi in Bangladesh,” says Ishak, “For that reason I have made an archive, which I have named the Abdus Sattar Chowdhury Puthi Shongroho Shala."
The oldest manuscript in the collection is about 300 hundred years old, called Nakshi Sulemani. Ishak explains that the beautiful illustrations in the manuscript reflect the Islamic style that was introduced as a result of the Muslim invasion of Bengal. The small-sized manuscript demonstrates the importance of the various names of Allah which work as a mantra to solve different life issues.
Ishak also has a large number of manuscripts of medieval legendary poets, including Alaol, Doulat Kazi and Sayed Sultan. These works are written on handmade cotton paper called tulot.
Particularly fascinating among the manuscripts in Ishak's collection are those written in Farsi script but recording Bangla words for recitation, akin to how Bangla is often written with the Latin alphabet on Facebook these days.
Ishak began his journey as a puthi collector in 1972. Over the last four decades he has collected manuscripts from across Chittagong's rural areas, where the narration of puthi customarily served as a symbolic representation of society and connected the listener to longstanding local, national and international traditions.
When puthi were performed, they were recited or sung with fervour which proved popular and could attract crowds. While many puthi chronicle tales from the Arabian Peninsula or religious narrations, and reached Bengal via travellers and traders, local translators and also the orators would often place localised and signature cultural elements into each story so that local listeners could easily enjoy and relate to the tale. Such stories, including those of religious value, thereby readily became a part of Bengali culture.
However, the emergence of the printing press in Europe in the 15th century had a big impact on oral storytelling traditions. The printing revolutionary reached the Indian subcontinent in full force in the mid-18th century, ultimately challenging the former oral systems of information dissemination.
As a result, hand-written copies of the puthi were eventually replaced by printed pages. "The oral tradition of puthi recitation survived for a while, but with the rise of television from the mid 20th century, it started to disappear entirely," says Ishak.
Fortunately, the national conscience that began to develop, ironically with the help of printing in addition to other modern forces, as well as motivated individuals like Ishak, have provided enthusiasm to drive the collection and preservation of puthis, which were once so integral to Bengal's cultural identity.
The man with 2,000 puthis
Ananta Yusuf
Until a few decades ago, at a time when electricity and television were not so widespread in rural Bangladesh, puthi, a traditional form of handwritten book, used to be a major source of entertainment. Be it a feudal lord or a farmer, the mesmerising recitation of a rhythmic puthi could make one cry, laugh and dream about faraway lands.
Today puthi as a form of literature is facing extinction. But thankfully, former Chittagong University librarian Ishak Chowdhury, from a remote village in Patiya upazila, has devoted his life to collecting and researching puthi.
Impressively, Ishak has collected and preserved more than 2,000 puthi in his tin-shed house.
These puthi manuscripts cover topics as wide-ranging as literature, legends, astronomy, poetry, mathematics, occult sciences and medicine.
"I have a dream to revive the cultural tradition of puthi in Bangladesh,” says Ishak, “For that reason I have made an archive, which I have named the Abdus Sattar Chowdhury Puthi Shongroho Shala."
The oldest manuscript in the collection is about 300 hundred years old, called Nakshi Sulemani. Ishak explains that the beautiful illustrations in the manuscript reflect the Islamic style that was introduced as a result of the Muslim invasion of Bengal. The small-sized manuscript demonstrates the importance of the various names of Allah which work as a mantra to solve different life issues.
Ishak also has a large number of manuscripts of medieval legendary poets, including Alaol, Doulat Kazi and Sayed Sultan. These works are written on handmade cotton paper called tulot.
Particularly fascinating among the manuscripts in Ishak's collection are those written in Farsi script but recording Bangla words for recitation, akin to how Bangla is often written with the Latin alphabet on Facebook these days.
Ishak began his journey as a puthi collector in 1972. Over the last four decades he has collected manuscripts from across Chittagong's rural areas, where the narration of puthi customarily served as a symbolic representation of society and connected the listener to longstanding local, national and international traditions.
When puthi were performed, they were recited or sung with fervour which proved popular and could attract crowds. While many puthi chronicle tales from the Arabian Peninsula or religious narrations, and reached Bengal via travellers and traders, local translators and also the orators would often place localised and signature cultural elements into each story so that local listeners could easily enjoy and relate to the tale. Such stories, including those of religious value, thereby readily became a part of Bengali culture.
However, the emergence of the printing press in Europe in the 15th century had a big impact on oral storytelling traditions. The printing revolutionary reached the Indian subcontinent in full force in the mid-18th century, ultimately challenging the former oral systems of information dissemination.
As a result, hand-written copies of the puthi were eventually replaced by printed pages. "The oral tradition of puthi recitation survived for a while, but with the rise of television from the mid 20th century, it started to disappear entirely," says Ishak.
Fortunately, the national conscience that began to develop, ironically with the help of printing in addition to other modern forces, as well as motivated individuals like Ishak, have provided enthusiasm to drive the collection and preservation of puthis, which were once so integral to Bengal's cultural identity.
