Khanar Bachan: Bengali Folklore as a Storehouse of Sustainable Agricultural Wisdom

Abstract

Maxims of Khana, popularly known as Khanar Bachan (Khan's sayings) is an indispensable part of folk literature not only in Bengali speaking areas of the West Bengal and Bangladesh but also other parts of South Asia including Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. Traditionally, the bachan has been orally handed down from one generation to another generation and has become a significant part of the folk literature of South Asia. Apart from the literary values, the bachan has always played a key role in the life of the rural farmers. Even in this age of agricultural industrialization, the significance of the bachan has not decreased. Instead, the importance of the bachan has become the most significant and relevant ever. With the rise of rapid industrialization in farming, the world has realized that there is no alternative to sustainable agriculture. In order to ensure the sustainable agricultural values, the agricultural scientists and policymakers are studying the indigenous literatures with a renewed interest in search of the agrarian wisdom stored in those literatures. To this end, Khanar Bachancan plays a vital role. Here in this paper, I am going to analyze some verses from Khanar Bachan and show how these simple folk poems can contribute to the sustainable agricultural model. The research will be a highly interdisciplinary approach that combines literature, social science, environment and agriculture. I will discuss the bachan from the book Kingbodonti Khana O Khanar Bochan by Purabi Basu.