Folkways! It denotes the ways of living, thinking and
acting in a human group, built up without conscious design but serving as compelling
guides of conduct. So, it is descriptive
of a unique characteristic of a social group.
Aamba/Ambe Paaduni
When I came across the term
mentioned in the introductory para, I remembered the phrase ‘Amba/Ambe Pāđuni’(ಅಂಬ/ಅಂಬೆ
ಪಾಡುನಿ) in
Tulu. Even a half century or
so after its near extinction, the Ramponi
and its high-spirited cry of action ‘Amba/Ambe’
in ‘Ambe Pāđuni’ has
been haunting my mind. It is more so because of the inscrutable sound of
concord for moving and lowering the Ramponi boat, called Pađavu' (ಪಡಾವು), to sea and pulling it up from sea.
A ‘kontala’ (ಕೊಂತಲ = small boat) is sent
to the sea, manned by two or three skilled and experienced persons, with keen eyes, to look out for
shoals of fish, moving towards break-water area. On discovering the shoals, the headman
signals to men waiting on shore, gesturing the length and breadth of shoals and
showing the direction for covering the nets.
Normally, it is a secret signal so as not to be understood by rival
Ramponi’s kontala. The call of ‘amba’ stirs the members resting in shades of groves on the shore. Commotion
and enthusiasm ensue on the discovery. Ethically,
as an unwritten law of the community, rival ramponi is not allowed to snatch
these shoals detected by the first one but sometimes small skirmishes arise due to misunderstanding.
History of Ramponi
The coastal fishing method of
‘Ramponi’ style was more powerful, vigorous and popular. It was giving
livelihood to all, besides the community people. It was successful up to the
last leg of 20th Century. It
is documented that this method of catching fish was introduced in the first
decade of 20th Century in Goa by Ramponi, a Portuguese missionary
and hence the name ‘Ramponi’ for this fishing method. It may be true that such
type of catching shoals of fish was originated in Goa but we deduce that the
random fishing (without waiting for shoals of fish) must have been there even
earlier in western coastal belt. We see that small version, named ‘Kairamponi’,
is still extant.
The introduction of mechanized
boats for fishing proved a death-knell for traditional shoreline fishing. This is mainly because of fall in shoals of
fish coming shore-ward because of disturbance.
‘Ramponi Fund’ is an
organization, created on unique co-operative principle (when no co-operative
laws were in place then). It is for coastal fishing and managing its moneys for
the benefit of its members, including Hamgamies
(temporary workers without contributing to stock of the Fund).
We do not wish to burden the
article with descriptive sketch as our purpose is to explain the meaning of
‘amba or ambe paaduni’. How the system
works can be visualized by reading the Book: ‘ಮೊಗವೀರ ಸಮಾಜ – ಒಂದು ಅಧ್ಯಯನ (Mogaveera Community – A Study)’. It is also available on
Internet, both in Kannada and English.
Etymology
The phrase is not known outside
the world of fisherfolk and the people connected with them. This vocabulary of Tulu language is now
included in the Tulu Lexicon; thanks to the Compilers! But we differ with the Lexicon as it
generalized the meaning whereas it has a specific connotation. Let us explore the distinctive description.
Amba paaduni = Rowers’ song (TL Vol.1, pg. 27)
Amba/Ambe/Ambo = Bellowing, lowing, a cry, noise, cry
of a cow. In children’s vocabulary,
‘amba’ means cow.
Amba also means: Divine Mother like Goddess Bhavani or
Mahalakshmi.
Ambe Kaar Paaduni (Tulu Lexicon, page 31) &
Ambgaalikku, Ambalikku Ambegalisu (Kannada) = Child’s crawl on hands and knees. Eg. ಆನೆ ಮರಿಯವೊಲಂಬೆಗಲಿಸಿ ನಡೆದ ಕೃಷ್ಣಮ್ (Aane mariyavolambegalasi
nadeda Krishnam = Krishna crawled
(awkwardly) like a child-elephant).
English equivalent to ‘Amba Pāduni:
Yo-heave-ho = It is a chant shouted by sailors to
maintain a steady rhythm when hauling something together. So, it is a cry in rhythm formerly used by
sailors while pulling or lifting together.
Clearly, rhythmic songs
of rowers and sailors are different from Amba-yali utterances in ‘Amba Pāduni’. These are exhorting utterances for pushing,
pulling, raising or lifting of such big boats loaded with nets for lowering it
to sea. It is a speech for action by a
skilled leader, showing high spirits. To avoid striking of padāvu (resting on logs of wood called ’ dade/tade’) to sandy ground, he
moves around up and down to goad members to start and stop as and when
necessary. The boisterous sound is full oflife, vitality or high spirits.
The bending, lifting or
raising and pushing, using human body is like a child’s awkward crawl,
measuring up in unison to the catchword utterances. The
'Amba' call is met with 'Hi Josh, Hi Josh' by men concentrating their energy by
backing the Padaavu on both sides to raise and push. When padaavu starts moving,
the echoing sound ‘yaali yaali’ (ಯಾಲಿ, ಯಾಲಿ) continues. Visualize
this unified action from the picture, put elsewhere
in this article.
Tulu & Kannada Catchword Chants
O aalambeyaali, Elambe yaali, Aile yaali,
Chambon embar yaali, Javanere marji yaali, Bandor baare yaali, Jor javana
yaali, Kiniyaan maareyaali,C hiniyaanmaarae yaali, Yaalsolama yaali, Yaalre
salama yaali, Deen solama yaali, Kaabanre (Captain) baage yaali, etc.
Reflecting on these
utterances, we can infer that they are like an echolalia, i.e. the imitation by
a baby of the vocal sounds produced by others.
It is not worthwhile to divine any meanings to such expressions. Nevertheless, we can deduce some story
occurred in the past. There were
instances in coastal history of rubbing shoulders with strangers with
fisherfolk by drawing inference from words like, Aile (Mackeral in Byari Bhase),
Din, Dinre, or Dinar, Alla, Solom or Salaam (Arabs), Kiniyaan (Kenya), Chin
(Cheena), kaabarne or captain (of foreign ships of marine trade of yore), etc. Later,
new ‘Amba’ chants were coined to make fun on idiosyncrasies of people in a
village or neighbouring villages. These
are based on dress, appearances and peculiar habits.
Summing up
‘Amba’ is invoking per se
the mother’s love. Readers are best
judges to decide whether this statement comports with facts. ‘Amba, amba, amba
paadula (ಅಂಬ, ಅಂಬ, ಅಂಬ ಪಾಡುಲ) is just like a call of loving mother, putting food or other attractive
things in front of her child. When she
moves her child sitting on lap or legs, she repeats the word: aane, aane (ಆನೆ, ಆನೆ = elephant), bale aane, aane.
Accustomed to this expression, child moves to and fro without the help
of mother. Fisherfolk considers rivers and seas as ‘Gangamāta’ (Mother Ganga) and naturally,
some of them regionally have assumed Gangamatastha,
Gangakula or Gangaputra as caste
names.
“Every day begins with an
act of courage and hope, getting out of bed.”
This is an aphorism by the renowned US Aphorist Mason Cooley (b.
1927). This aptly applies to these
toilers of sea, who are not slugabeds.
References
1. ‘Folkways’: Dictionary.com (based on Random
House Dictionary). It is a term used by
W.G. Sumner in his Book of the same Title (1907).
2.
Ambegaalikku: Kannada Champu Nudigannadi by Dr. P.V. Narayana
3. Mason
Cooley: Columbia World of Quotations.
-Hosabettu
Vishwanath (Pune)
July 19, 2017
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