“The Goddess Is Singing on a Neem Branch”
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 22432424 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rakesh Kumar Pankaj (0000-0003-2376-8760, Vellore Institute of Technology University), Dibyakusum Ray (0000-0002-9537-3277, Indian Institute of Technology Ropar) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 18 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 398-412 |
| Publication date | 2026-07-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Environmental Humanities (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2201-1919 • E-ISSN: 2201-1919 |
| Publisher | Duke University Press (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1215/22011919-12383930 |
| OpenAlex | W7169517192 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 18 |
At the overlap of Indigenous and religious tradition, ethnomusicology and ecocriticism, this article offers a detailed thematic analysis of Magahi folk songs, an Indigenous oral tradition of Hinduism practiced in the Magadh region of eastern India. Focusing on the theme of harmony between nature and human beings, this article argues that Magahi folk culture provides a unique perspective in modern ecocritical thoughts by answering the recurrent questions asked by the discipline. Ecocriticism, throughout its three-decade history, has repeatedly queried whether nature can be perceived in nonanthropocentric terms by removing the human being as the sole purveyor and savior of ecology. This article argues that—in spite of the vast geopolitical difference between Western ecocriticism and Indian ethnic culturalism—the Magahi song-texts can be read as a nonanthropocentric philosophy that regards nature as an irreducible, agential deity that should be feared/revered, avoided/pleaded to, collaborated with/worshipped by the human beings. Divided into two parts, this article first discusses the discourse of perceiving nature while avoiding anthropocentrism, then posits the archived and translated samples of Magahi song-texts as a possible response, providing an intersection of academic theory and pragmatic, Indigenous eco-activism.
Ecocriticism · Ethnomusicology · Harmony (color) · Hinduism · Indigenous · Singing · Theme (computing) · Trance · Diverse Musicological Studies · Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature · Indian and Buddhist Studies
The Historical Roots of Our Ecologic Crisis
From Material to Posthuman Ecocriticism
The Ecocentrists
The Limitations of Religious Environmentalism for India
Bio-divinity and Biodiversity
Myth as a Site of Ecocritical Inquiry
Mutating Goddesses
Ecocriticism
Exploring the roots of village Hinduism in South Asia
The Problem of Village Hinduism
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |