Rudrajit Paul
“Heyali” is a specific type of poem, mainly of the folk oral tradition, in rural Bengal. By “Bengal” the author here means the entire geographical area of the Indian subcontinent inhabited by Bengali speaking people over millennia. These poems were composed and handed down from one generation to the next by village people over centuries. Besides entertainment, these poems were an important tool for children’s education, as subsequent discussions will show. Although the exact origin of these poems is unknown, it is thought that most of these puzzle poems were composed by women as part of their oral tradition.
“Heyali”s are puzzle poems. Each poem, usually 4 to 6 rhyming lines, carries a specific meaning. The meaning comes from local social tradition, religious iconography, folk knowledge and/ or historical events. Therefore, these poems are small mirrors of the local cultural milieu and collective memory of the people. Unlike the established literary texts like “Mongolkabyo” or epics, where the authors are predominantly male, the “Heyali”s are composed by women. This is significant because the “Heyali”s preserve the feminine point of view of the society through oral traditions.
The reader should here realize that unlike classic puzzles like, let’s say, the “Moscow puzzles”, where the answers are universal, “Heyali” solving requires familiarity with the specific dialect and wordplay used in certain locations. Let’s now look at a few examples of “Heyali”. People who are not familiar with the Bengali culture may find these puzzle poems too complex at first.
নহে বীর দশ শির
নহে তো রাবণ
কাটিলা কুটিলা
উত্তম ব্যঞ্জন।।
So, what do you make of this? To solve this puzzle, you have to realize that the ridges of ridge gourd (ঝিঙে) are called “শির” in daily lingo. Therefore, the word “শির” has been used in dual meaning here. It also means head. So, the meaning of the poem is, this vegetable which has ten “শির”. And, you make a tasty curry with it. The answer is –ঝিঙে। As you can realize, people not familiar with daily culinary details or vegetables of Bengal will not be able to crack this one. Let’s now look at another one.
আমরা পাঁচজন ভাই
একসাথে ভাত খাই।
This is a simple puzzle about a body part. The answer is –human hand. There are five fingers, who are called five brothers. And people in Bengal eat rice with their hand, not with spoon or fork. Thus, a simple 6-word poem has got a lot to unpack. At this time, it may be pertinent to mention that Satyajit Ray used a variation of this same folk puzzle poem in his movie “Joy Baba Felunath”.
These “Heyali” poems are very much linked to nature. Let’s look at two such poems: –
১। একটা গাছে তিন তরকারি
বইসকা আছে রাজবেহারী।
২। গাছের নাম মুগুর মাথা
এক এক ডালে এক এক পাতা
গোড়ায় ধরে ফল,
এই তো মজার কলরে ভাই
এই তো মজার কল।
Unless you know about the popular plants in Bengal villages, you would probably find no meaning here. The first one says—one plant has three types of vegetables. The answer is banana plant. It has কলা, মোচা and থোড়। We use different parts of the banana plant for different types of curry.
The second poem deals with another common plant—কচুগাছ। This is a herb where each stem has one leaf. And the main vegetable—arum is a modified root tuber, at the base of the plant.
A few more—
৩। ইনসিং বিনসিং মাথায় তিনটে শিং
পশু নয় পক্ষী নয়, জলে পাড়ে ডিম।
৪। আঁকা বাঁকা নৌকাখানা দিক পারাপার যায়
সোনার পাখির কৌতূহল কাঁকর খুঁটে খায়।
So, dear reader, what do you make of these two apparently nonsense poems? Before, I tell you the answer, you must realize that you should not try to find deep academic meaning or syntax in these folk poems. And secondly, you must be able to visualize the meaning of these words. Only reading them is not enough. So, what are the answers?
The first one is পানিফল or water chestnut. This fruit has three thorns, which are imagined as three horns. And plants bearing this fruit are found in water bodies.
The second one is a bit interesting because there is a hint of poetic imagination at play here. The answer is duck. This aquatic bird has been imagined as a small boat traversing water bodies. And the second line is obviously about its peculiar food habit.
Not only plants and animals, but various objects of daily household use have been depicted in various puzzle poems.
ক] চন্দ্রের আকার তারা ভাই দুইজন
জীব নয়, জন্তু নয়, করিছে ভক্ষণ।
খ] পেট কাটা, পিঠে কুঁজ
এই কথাটা ছমাস বুঝ,
পান সুপারি খাবে যবে
এই হেঁয়ালি ভাঙবে তবে
গ] চার কোণায় চারটে দড়ি, ড্যাবার মত পেট
রাজা আসুক, প্রজা আসুক, মাথা করে হেঁট।
As is mentioned earlier, these are “Heyali”s about common household objects. The first one is জাতা। This is a stone instrument used to grind pulses or cereals. There are two heavy stones, one above the other in it. This has been imagined as “two brothers”. Since the stones are round, they have been imagined as “full moon” shape. One has to put the pulses in the space between the stones to grind them. This is mentioned as the stones devouring the food.
The second one is a common domestic handheld equipment—জাঁতি। Now, this is almost obsolete. But there was a time when the womenfolk of the house would break areca nuts with this instrument. The first line of the poem refers to the geometrical shape of the instrument. And obviously, mention has been made of betel leaves, which was the main ingredient of this concoction involving areca nut, lime and tobacco flakes.
The last one, I think, is obvious. The answer is mosquito net. Everyone has to enter the net by lowering their heads.
Now, lets look at some other aspects of the Heyali.
There are many snippets of the Indian epics in Heyali poems. Ramayana and the Mahabharata have been interpreted by folk poets and common people in various ways. A similar transformation has also taken place for the Hindu Puranas and mythologies. For the village people, these mythologies are not academic subjects or objects of analysis. Rather, the characters from the Hindu mythologies have become familiar figures in their minds. Their Heyalis also reflect this proximity of the mythological characters with Bengali public psyche.
১। তিন তেরো মধ্যে বারো
চার দিয়া পূরণ করো।
এই আমার স্বামীর নাম।
২। দ্বিভুজা রমণী কিন্তু পতি দশভুজা
পশু পতি নয় তবু পতি পশুমুখ
পুত্রহীন শ্বশুর যে অকালে মরিল
কেবা সেই নারী হয়, চিন্তা করি বল।।
These two puzzle poems are wonderful pieces of children’s literature for more reasons than one. Firstly, they can be used to teach people about Hindu mythology. But more importantly, these poems can also be used to teach basic maths. How? Let’s see.
The first poem has some numbers. Let’s add them up. 13×3+12+4. How much is it? 55. Or পঞ্চান্ন। Right? Now, in village dialect this becomes পঞ্চানন। in other words, the supreme God, মহাদেব। And, his place of stay is Nandigram.
The second one’s answer is Draupodi, the wife of Pandavas in Mahabharata. See how cleverly this has been depicted. Her husband has ten hands and five heads, but that husband is not Shiva. So? There are five husbands, whose combined number of hands is 10! The rest, I think, you can decipher for yourself. So, as I said, both mythology and children’s education are packed into these four lines.
Let’s look at a similar one here.
উনিশ নয়ন, বদন সাত
অষ্ট জিহ্বা, দুই হাত।
শাস্ত্র বিচারিয়া পাও
কোন জীবের ছয় পাও।।
This one may seem a little difficult because we are not used to puzzles like this. When we think of puzzles, we think of the western variant, where single answer, precise answer is the norm. But Heyali, which represents Eastern puzzles, has a different approach. Here, the reader is encouraged to make the answer broad. Analysis of this above Heyali will make it clear.
19 eyes, seven faces, eight tongues and two hands. Does it make sense? Yes, it does if you are familiar with Hindu mythology. Lord Shiva has five faces. Each face has three eyes. So, he has fifteen eyes. Now, Lord Shiva is always found with his companions, the Bull and the snake. Those animals have two eyes each. So, a total of nineteen eyes. What about eight tongues? Lord Shiva has five, the bull one and the snake two (forked tongue). Thus eight. The rest, I think you can decipher. Thus, answer to this poem is—Lord Shiva in full, that is with the Bull and the snake. If you think only of the image of Lord Shiva without his “Vahana”, you will not be able to solve this Heyali.
Urban readers would often assume these folk “Heyali”s to be essentially simple minded. But there are multiple examples, where these short poems can hide a lot of nuanced meanings.
এক বৈরাগীর এগারো ছেলে
চার ছেলে তার কাতুর কুতুর
চার ছেলে তার ঘৃত্য মধুর
দুই ছেলে তার সেগুন কাঠ
এক ছেলে তার পাগলনাথ।।
Not so easy to solve. Is it?
The answer is a cow. The entire body of the cow is mentioned as a বৈরাগী or ascetic and the different body parts are mentioned as the children of that ascetic. First four legs, then, four mammary glands, from where we get milk and Ghee. The two horns are imagined as wooden structures and finally, the tail, which the cow moves frequently, is mentioned as a crazy child! So, a total of eleven.
বাড়ির পিছে গাছের গাই
বছর বছর দুধ দোয়াই।
Again, a nuanced Heyali. A wooden cow. What can it mean?
Well, just as the village people use the cow to get milk frequently, this is a tree which gives fruit frequently. So, wooden cow is a tree with fruits. Now, the second line describes a tree which gives something like milk every year. And you have to extract that juice from the tree. So, does that ring any bells?
The answer is—Date palm. Every year, in winter, this palm tree exudes a sweet syrup, which has to be extracted carefully. Thus, getting milk from the cow has been likened to extracting date palm juice.
উড়ে তো হীন হীন, বসে তো পাখা দোলান
লক্ষ জীব বধ করে, নিজে না খান।
A simple poem. The answer is –mosquito. This poem, evidently composed by illiterate rural people, nevertheless depicts the lethal role of mosquitoes as vector of various diseases. If we compare this to the multitude of government programs aimed at raising public awareness about mosquito borne diseases, we can see a clear difference. While public health programs would try to bring in hard scientific data, this simple folk poem achieves the same outcome with simpler language. Maybe, in future, such rural poems can be considered for public health messaging.
There are innumerable number of themes on which such “Heyali” poems have been composed. Sadly, since Bengal suffered major social upheavals in the last century, a good many of these puzzle poems have been lost forever. But there are some academics who are trying to preserve such poems as a labour of love. Let’s see a couple more.
কালো গাই, কালো বাছুর
বিন বিনাতে যায়
হাজার টাকার মরিচ খায়ে
আরও খাবার চায়।
Again, as you can see, there is heavy reference to the cow. Urban people may find it repetitive. But the fact is, rearing the cow is an integral part of rural life in Bengal. Thus, poems or epithets about other objects often use bovine references in an idiomatic way. Cow and calf—this imagery evokes the image of a pair—one big and one small and essentially inseparable. The answer to this is —-শিলনোড়া। Two chunks of stone of varying size, which are quintessential to the Bengali kitchen.
And the last one:
ইন্দ্র নয়, তবু তার সহস্র নয়ন
লোহা নয়, তামা নয়, তামাটে বরণ
মোরগ নয়, ময়ুর নয়, শিরে ধরে চূড়া
তারে পেয়ে খুশি হয় ছেলে মেয়ে বুড়া।
Think a little before seeing the answer. Quite an ingenious description, I must say.
Answer is—আনারস।।
Dr. Rudrajit Paul
Dr. Rudrajit Paul is a consultant physician in Kolkata with a passion for creative writing. He has published poems and short stories in Bengali and English in many magazines.