National Seminar on

Foreign Languages, Literatures and Cultures: The Interfaces, with Special Reference to
the North-East
19-20 September 2019

Title:

Rabelais ’carnival in Kerala through the eyes of Bakhtin

Author:
JIBIN P S
Institution: The English and Foreign Languages University, Shillong Campus,
Meghalaya
Course: MA in English Literature (1st semester)
Contact: Psjibin007@gmail.com , +91-9656430904
ABSTRACT

The word carnival denotes the annual catholic festival during the week before lent in
Medieval Europe. The sixteenth century French writer François Rabelais in his work
Gargantua and Pantagruel (1532) portrayed carnival as a day in which everyone becomes
equal and celebrated together forgetting all the norms of the society. In 1965 Russian writer
Mikhail Bakhtin published Rabelais and His world and analysed Rabelais’ work and
presented the importance of carnival in the medieval European society. A carnival has a
variety of cultural significances in a society, it is something which is the backbone of a social
structure and for the peasants and people from lower social class it is a motivation to work till
the same day in the next year. In Kerala, people celebrate Onam which is a harvest festival in
the first month of Malayalam (Chingam) which is celebrated by people from all classes of the
society in the memory of the good king Mahabali who saw everyone as equals. This paper
aims to do a detailed study on the Festival of Onam and its cultural significances in
comparison with the works of Rabelais and Bakhtin.

Keywords: Carnival, Society, Culture, Onam

 INTRODUCTION

FRANÇOIS RABELAIS (1494– 1553) was born on a property near Chinon, where
he did his primary education. He entered the Franciscan community near Angers and was
ordained as a priest in 1524. In the same year, he left to join a Benedictine order, where he
became the secretary of Bishop Geoffrey d’Estissac. In 1530, he left the Benedictines and
became a secular priest, and later enrolled as a medical student at Montpellier. He was
sensitive to the social, religious, political, and intellectual developments and preoccupations
of his age. In 1532, he was appointed to a post at the Hôtel-Dieu in Lyons and qualified as a
doctor in 1535. During these years, Rabelais also did the editing of a number of medical
works in Latin and Greek. In this time, he came across the myth of the giant Gargantua that
would provide inspiration and material for his first two novels, Pantagruel (1532) and
Gargantua (1534), both published under the pseudonym, Alcofribas Nasier. The texts are
comic but what is discussed in these volumes is the serious matter of Pantagruel’s education,
which allows Rabelais to reject medieval practices and stress the new humanist and all-
around character-forming activities of the period. Both the books were banned by the Church
and by the theological faculty of the Sorbonne in Paris. Rabelais draws on all sources from
farce and the fabliaux to sermons, philosophical treatises, classical texts, and political tracts.
In the third volume, Le Tiers Livre (1546), the physical and gigantic elements are greatly
reduced and the emphasis is on knowledge and understanding, light heartedly treated in the
search for an answer to the question of Pantagruel’s feckless companion Panurge: “Should he
marry?” The search is continued in the Quart Livre (1552) and involves farcical, exotic, and
highly satirical journeys and episodes. Rabelais is a supreme storyteller, a satirist, a comic
writer who frequently used a mixture of biblical allusions, mythology, and legend; much is
pure invention. He advocated reform, especially of education and the Church; he stood
against dogma, rigidity, and mediocrity. His influence both in France and abroad was
considerable. He died in Paris, probably in April or May 1553.

Carnival originated in Egypt as a pagan festival in ancient Egypt to usher out winter
and celebrate spring, when alexander the great conquered Egypt Greeks adopted the festival,
from there it went to Rome from where it got overlaid with a Christian meaning, carne=
meat, vale= farewell. Feast before the fasting during lent. During the Colonialist period this
festival spread all over the world. Now it is one of the biggest festival in Europe and South
America.
 Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) was a Russian philosopher and literary critic. His notable
ideas are Heteroglossia, dialogism, chronotope, carnivalesque and polyphony. His notable
works include Art and Answerability: Early Philosophical Essays (1990), Rabelais and his
World (1965), Problems of Dostoevsky’s Poetics (1929; trans. 1973), The Dialogic
Imagination: Four Essays (1930s; trans. 1981), and Speech Genres and Other Late Essays
(1986). His important early essay Towards a Philosophy of the Act (1919) was not published
until 1986. Rabelais and his World is translated into English in the year 1968. He starts the
book with “Of all the great writers of the world literatures Rabelais is considered as the least
popular, the least understood and least appreciated”. Bakhtin gave a new dimension to
Rabelais ‘works by noticing things that was unnoticed. He considered carnival as an escape
from all social constructs and norms. He coined the term carnivalesque to show this
subversion of power order. For Bakhtin, carnival create an alternative social order,
characterised by freedom, equality and prosperity. During carnival, rank (otherwise pervasive
in medieval society) is abolished and everyone is equal. People were reborn into truly human
relations, which were not simply imagined but experienced on that day. "so that foolishness,
which is our second nature and seems to be inherent in man might freely spend itself at least
once a year. Wine barrels burst if from time to time we do not open them and let in some air.
All of us men are barrels poorly put together, which would burst from the wine of wisdom, if
this wine remains in a state of constant fermentation of piousness and fear of God. We must
give it air in order not to let it spoil. This is why we permit folly on certain days so that we
may later return with greater zeal to the service of God." This is a letter from a theology
school in 1444, which states that such a festival is important for the existence of a social
structure.

Onam is the official state festival of Kerala. It symbolizes harmony and unity. It is celebrated in the
first Malayalam month of Chingam. The history behind this festival can be traced back to almost 1000
years. The temple manuscripts gives earlier ideas about the festival. The Thrikkakkara temple in
Ernakulam district in Kerala have documents dating back to the 10th century AD about Onam and the
Banquet served in the temple. The story of Mahabali is the myth behind Onam. Once Kerala was
ruled by Mahabali who was an asura king who has conquered all the three worlds. During his reign
there was prosperity, unity and harmony, because of this he was loved by his people which made the
Gods jealous who complained to Mahavishnu about Mahabali. Mahavishnu was hesitant to do
anything against Mahabali who was a devotee of Vishnu but he couldn’t refuse other Gods, so he
decides to solve this problem. He incarnated into the form of Vamana who was a dwarf mendicant
Brahmin and visits Mahabali during a Yaga. Mahabali offers him everything below the sky but
Vamana asked for just three paces of land to meditate. Mahabali promises to give it, then Vamana
starts getting bigger and bigger and he starts taking steps. His first step covers the earth and the
underworld and the next one covers the heavens and for the last one Mahabali offers his head on
which Vamana stands and sends him to the underworld. Before sending him into the underworld
Vishnu grants him an opportunity to see his people every year. Onam is the day on which people of
Kerala receives their good king with everything they have. Historians have found similarities with
Mahabali and Assyrian king Asurbalipal. During the feudal period Onam was the day on which the
peasants presents their harvests to the landlord for which they will be provided with a meal and new
clothes(Onakodi). From an harvest festival now Onam has become an integral part of the Malayalam
culture.
ANALYSIS
 Rabelais’ depiction of carnival is identical to Onam and many other festivals. These festivals
bring a joy to everyone by letting them to become what they can never become during their normal
life. In Rabelais’ world nuns and priests got opportunity to flirt with women which they were not
allowed to do, kings and the nobles walked without having the pressure of a king and the peasants and
the lower section of the society spends the thinking that they are equal to everyone else. In Kerala
during Onam Dalits, peasants and other lower castes were allowed to get into the compound of the
landlord to have a meal with everyone else and to receive new dresses. On the day of Onam everyone
is treated as equals and everyone gets enough food and new dress. There is a tradition of flower
carpets, it is made to receive the king to one’s house, everyone does it and Mahabali visits everyone’s
houses, here also everyone from all the social classes are seen as equals. Street performances and
fancy dressing is another aspect of the carnival; it is also present during the time of Onam in the name
of Pulikali (a traditional street play). The celebration of carnival is related to Christian beliefs but the
celebrations and motifs of it has no relationship to it, similarly Onam is related to Hindu Mythology
and the story behind it is taken from the Vedas but the festival has no relation to it. If one goes back to
check their beginnings it can be understood that they were not what they are later, Onam is a mixture
of an Assyrian festival and the story of Vamana and Carnival is an Egyptian festival and Catholic faith
combination.
CONCLUSION
Onam, carnival or any other festival is the same thing wrapped in different colour papers. None
of them have any connections with the myths they represent. All these are celebrated above all
religious, social and cultural differences. It is to keep the wine barrels from exploding. During the
feudal periods these days acted as a motivation for the peasants to work for a year dreaming this day.
Beyond all the cultural, religious and social definitions we give for a festival, they have a bigger
purpose. The subversion of order during the festivals is what kept the order in those days. Even now
the presence of festival in a society is as important as it was in the old days. What Rabelais depicted
was not just satire and pun it was also the mechanism of the then society. Laws and hierarchies may
help a society to grow but it is the lawlessness of festivals is what unites everyone.

WORKS CONSULTED

BOOKS
1) Bakhtin, Mikhail.Rabelais and his World ,Indiana university press,Bloomington,1984
2) Cuddon,J.A,Dictionary of Literary Terms& Literary Theory,Penguin,Delhi,2014

ELECTRONIC SOURCES

1) https://literariness.org/2018/01/24/key-theories-of-mikhail-bakhtin/

2) http://radicalanthropologygroup.org/sites/default/files/pdf/class_text_103.pdf

3) https://balodiite.wordpress.com/2013/11/06/critical-evaluation-of-mikhail-bakhtins-
theory-of-carnivalesque-concepts-in-modern-popular-culture/amp/