Book Review by K.S.Loganathan
The acclaimed Indian author Amitav Ghosh and the American- Pakistani illustrator Salman Toor have collaborated to retell the nineteenth century Bengali epic poem ‘Bon Bibi Johuranama ‘ in the form of a graphic verse novel . In the Sundarbans villages travelling jatra ( folk theatre) troupes regularly enact the fable as a stage-play with Bengali couplets admixed with Persian and Arabic which are chanted, sung aloud or voiced . Amitav Ghosh has adapted the secular legend to the modern Anglophone audience ,sticking to the meter of twenty- four syllable couplets. It is an allegory for human greed and human- caused ecological disasters.# The Bon Bibi legend combines Islamic, Hindu and animism elements common to forest peoples. Bon Bibi ,the benign forest goddess ,and her warrior brother Shah Jongoli ended the tyranny of the tiger – avatar Dokhin Rai and confined him to the delta region so that humans could live on forestland without hindrance. This treaty is breached by an avaricious rich merchant who ventures into the area to extract wealth ; he makes a pact with Dokhin Rai to sacrifice the poor lad Dukhey . How Dukhey escapes his fate forms the rest of the story.
The story is told in 374 rhyming couplets arranged in seven sections. Amitav Ghosh tries to replicate the cadence of the Bengali original in which the power of words rendered in poyar- meter gives the voice magical wings and the spell invokes Bon Bibi to bring succor. Salman Toor’s illustrations shed light on the text. The last couplet goes: A world of endless appetite is a world possessed,/ is what your munshi’s learned , by way of this quest.
It is an interesting way to tell a magical realism fable to a western audience while sticking to the essential aspects of folk tales. In as much as it connects Sundarbans , its tigers and human inhabitants with ecological preservation in the modern context ,it is a welcome addition to the verse book genre.
