Razen Manandhar
Newars are the indigenous people of the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. They are hardworking, have expertise in agriculture, entrepreneurship and architecture. They have been nurturing, exploiting and decorating the valley for thousands of years. They follow four major religions - Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity and Islam. Now, only the two former are seen in practice. They do not belong to any particular ethnic group or race. It is made of different communities who have been living here together and have developed a sense of harmony and unified history, and have made their culture, traditions, religions and myths.
Nepal has a tremendous treasure of linguistic diversity. This country alone has 123 languages and dialects. One among them is Newa language (once officially named as Nepalbhasha, later turned out to Newa or Newar, and also often misinterpreted as Newari too), which was one of the richest in the region in terms of vocabulary and literature. It has already had large variety of written documents - from books on witchcraft to lyrical ballads around one thousand ago.
Talking about the language, Newa is the original language of the Kathmandu Valley. It is spoken as native language by Newars of the Valley and now by all Newars, regardless of their geographic location. It belongs to Sino-Tibetan language group and is one among a few of this group, which has rich written history and tradition of writing. A book, named Narada Samhita, of 1380 AD states that this language was called "Nepalbhasha" at that time. Around 800,000 people speak it as their native language, which makes 3.19 percent of the total Nepal's population. Till 1950s it was spoken by 75 percent of the residents.
The date of beginning of writing tradition of Newa language is still uncertain. In around 200 ancient Sanskrit inscriptions, belonged to the period 464-879 AD, many non-Sanskrit words are found, which are found to be near to Newa. A palm-leaf document, found in Okubahal Monastery of Lalitpur, dated 1114 AD, has something which can be called the earliest written form of Newa. This language is seen as the common language of most of ancient palm-leaf books, stone inscriptions, metal inscriptions found in monasteries and temples of 9th to 19th century. Thus, it is an essential tool for those who want to study history of Nepal.
About books, Harmekhala (a book about mystery and witchcraft, written in 1374 AD), is said to be the earliest book found so far, written in Newa. Other examples of old books in this language are Narad Samhita (1380 AD), Amarkosh (1381 AD), Gopal Rajvamshavali (1389 AD). And later, as the time passed the Newars learned to write in creative literary genres too. Tantrakhyan (1518 AD) is said to be the first literary book in Newa.
Development of Newa goes side by side with the political history of Nepal. Broadly, the Lichhivi dynasty ruled Nepal from 4th to 8th century. And, after going through a dark age and the Thakuri period, the Mallas emerged as the strong ruling dynasty in the 14th century. They are not Newars, as we generally call, but they have immense respect for Newa as well as art, culture and tradition of the Newars. Thus the Newa literature reached its sublime position in the Malla period that corresponds between the 14th century to 18th century. Not only the common people and the nobles, but the kings and queens themselves were involved in writing poems, songs and dramas in that period. It was indeed a matter of pride to be authors in those days in the palace.
Obviously, it was "golden age" for development of culture, art and architecture as well as literature of Nepal Mandala, that is, today's Kathmandu Valley. Thousands of poems, epics, stories, dramas as well as books on history, art, architecture, astrology, medicine and many other topics were written in those days. This is the time when Newars developed as many as 13 scripts to transfer their knowledge into words. Some of the books are still being recited as letters of religion at homes and monasteries, some are preserved in museums and archives, while many were decayed, burned, destroyed and sold to foreigners. Fortunately, many of the books of that era are now well-preserved in international libraries and lots of international scholars are now doing researches on them and revealing the unfathomable treasure of knowledge the Newars had in those days.
King Mahindra Malla (reigned 1560–1574) is regarded as the first poet of Newa literature. Siddhi Narsingh Malla (Patan, 1619-1669), Pratap Malla (Kathmandu, 1641–1674), Ranjit Malla (Bhaktapur, 1722–1769) and Jaya Prakash Malla (Kathmandu, 1746–1750) are other prominent poets from the royal family.
Later, the tradition of writing drama developed in the palace of the Kathmandu Valley. King Siddhi Narsingh Malla was the first playwright of Newa literature. Ekadashi-brata (1633 AD) and Katti Pyakhan (1641 AD) are some of his finest creations. Parts of the latter are still performed every year in front of his royal palace. A few noblemen in those days were poets and dramatists.
Lot of things changed after the King Prithvi Narayan Shaha invaded Kathmandu Valley in 1768 AD. The cultured Malla kings either had to go in exile or were imprisoned for life. Nepal's development in art, culture, religion, festivals and urban development took an abrupt end with the new dynasty that never tried to respect the identity of the local people. Then started heinous series of conspiracies, assassinations; ambitious noblemen started making illicit relations with queens to come to the power and taking away the national coffer for their personal amusements. Still, a few poets like Sundarananda, Amritananda and Vijayananda continued writing devotional poems.
The situation of Newa and its literature worsened after a series of conspiracies and mass assassinations, in 1846, the power of the king shifted to the Ranas, who took whole of the state power as prime ministers and started raising restrictions in Newar creativity. Despite of the government's restrictions, some kept composing songs at this time too till 1906, when the government declared that any documents written in Newa would be named illegal afterwards. This is the unfortunate and "dark" age of Newa literature.
That was the time like autocracy. Even when writing anything in Newa was a deadly crime, some writers kept showing love to their mother language anonymously.
People were prohibited from using their mother language in business and literary creations. Still, it was also time of revival too. The more the autocratic Rana rulers tried to detach the people from their mother language, the stronger the people's love for it turned out to become.
1909 AD is considered as the beginning of Renaissance of Newa literature. Thanks to the suppression, so to say, a new generation of poets emerged; they were not only writing in their mother language, but were also defying the autocrats. On the top if it, they were in fact laying foundation stone to development of Newa literature that has to flourish one day like this. Their efforts handed over energy to the later generation to galvanize the lost glory of the history and also to explore new genres of literature.
It was the year 1909, when a priest of Newar Buddhistm, Nisthananda Bajracharya, translated a popular Sanskrit book on Vajrayani Buddhism Ekvimshanti Pragyaparamita into Newa, that is also by developing his own way of printing press and adopting Devanagari script, leaving traditional Nepal script aside. This is how the history was made. Siddhidas Amatya's translation of some chapters of Ramayana into Newa in 1913 was another step. As it was not possible to publish anything like magazine in Kathmandu, Dharmaditya Dharmacharya managed to publish a magazine in Newa, Buddha Dharma wa Nepalbhasa, from Kolkata, India. Jagat Sundar Malla launched a campaign to teach children in Newa in around 1925. Yogbir Singh and Shukraraj Shashtri were other prominent writers of those days.
In that critical situation Fateh Bahadur Singh dared to publish an anthology Nepali Vihar by various poets in Nepalbhahsa, from Betiya, India in 1939. No sooner he brought the copies in Kathmandu, the copies were seized and he was arrested, along with many other poets. Altogether 32 poets and writers were arrested and their property confiscated by the government. Their crime was writing in their mother language, although some were given political charges too. Yogbir Singh, Fateh Bahadur, Chittadhar Hridaya, Kedar Man Byathit, Dharma Ratna Yami, Hari Krishna Shrestha, Purna Narayan etc. were other victims of this episode. While it threw a wave of panic in the society, this very mass imprisonment developed a new energy among the inmates and they started composing poems secretly in the jail. Many of masterpieces of Newa literature were composed there. They were sentenced for life but all were freed in four years, following the changing political scenario.
Lots of things changed after the Rana rulers were ousted from Nepal's political arena in 1950. Even though the government did not announce any official liberation or official recognition of Newa, writing and publication in Newa took some speed. Publication of literary magazines started in this period, which also provided materials frequently for the readers. Publication of daily newspaper Nepal Bhasha Patrika in 1955 was indeed a adventurous step in those days. Establishment of institutions to promote Newa language and literature as well funding for prizes and awards for Newa writers were positive trends at that time.
However, in 1960, the multiparty democracy was restrained and a party-less Panchayat system was introduced by the King Mahendra. Along with many other aspects, it also made the emerging Newa literature suffer. Specially in 1965, the government channel Radio Nepal banned Newa program. The Newa writers organized weekly literary programs as a protest against the government's decision. This eventually developed a new generation of writers in Newa and directed to a new age of commotion, especially in Kathmandu, for conservation of Newa literature. At the same time, this is the period that Newa was introduced to modern literature. Many trend-setting works were written in this time, mainly on the field of modern poetry.
As a result of this, in a way, strong organizations like Nepal Bhasa Manka Khala were formed, which turned out to be literary as well as political organizations to fight against the party-less Panchayati period that raised voiced for language rights too. It was a time when even organizing rallies to celebrate New Year according to the Nepal Calendar was considered as agitation against the system.
The People's Movement reinstated multi-party democracy in 1990. It opened doors to all kinds of literary organizations and also institutions to develop Newa. Everything just boomed after 30 years of suppression of the Panchayati System. But, as the time passed, it also became visible that most of the literary organizations were in fact working as sister wings of so and so political parties. This later developed a sense of detachment among lots of activists from language movement. Later, again, they realized that political right is a must to have their language recognized by the state. May be, the liberation from suppression is to be blamed, the movement for language rights and literary works both faced slackness in energy and velocity in this period. It still does not mean that people stopped writing, publishing or reading in Newa. May be, due to changing time and introduction of TV, the age-old tradition of performing social and political dramas on raised platform in streets also slowly disappeared.
After the People's War of 1996-2006, that has taken lives of 17,000 people, and the new constitution, which has been promulgated recently, the government is seen a little positive to rights of ethnic communities.
Along the way, no matter how difficult, inconvenient and obstructive the political, economic and social situation is there for development of the Newa, and no matter how other factors are attracting the Newars to abandon their long-earned rights and to be indulged into other like Khas-Nepali or English, the trend to learn, use and develop their mother language is there in veins and brains of the Newars, at least in the Kathmandu Valley. This is the reason that when the government has no support for the Newars, they have around 50 books on literary and other genres are published each year. In literature, books on short stories, novels, poetry, travelogues, biographies and essays are published. Apart from this, books on non-fiction category are mostly related to language, religion, culture and tradition of the Newars. Books from other languages are translated into Newa and vice-versa. Over a hundred schools have introduced Newa voluntarily. It is now studied up to Masters' Degree in the state university. A dozen or so newspapers and magazines and half a dozen news portals are functioning. Around a dozen music albums and similar number films are released every year. This all reflect the people's love and respect for their mother tongue.
And though not recently, it is now seen that Newars, living wherever in this world, are concerned about their language, art, history, religion and culture. There are Newar organizations almost in every country they are living now. Annual gatherings, celebration of festivals, cultural programs, interactions as well as language teaching programs take place frequently. Sikkim is one of the finest examples, where they have successfully got Newa recognized by the state and the bond among the Newars, of all social and economic strata is so strong.
Definitely, the efforts the Newars have so far been making, to revive, reinstate has not been too strong. While there are still elements in the federal republic government, which does not want to see Newars enjoying any of facilities with government support. In addition, in our society also can be found that type of people, who assume that doors to opportunities will be open only once you abandon your langue, culture and identity. And perhaps, this is the reason that those Newars, who live out of the valley, pay little attention to learning and using their language.
Now, while the language has become a topic of research for national and international scholars, the number of speakers is reducing day by day. So much so, it is now considered as one of the language in-danger by international organizations. However, the situation is also not that much pathetic. May be because of this, a new movement to revitalize the Newa language is growing. Love for their language, dresses, cuisine, songs, books and festival is budding among the youths.
In this connection, after going through the vicissitudes in past millennium, the Newars now are convinced that language is their identity. They are at least convinced that despite of all the hurdles by the government and some negative attitude of the people themselves, the language is growing and there is no chance of its being dead, as some in past decade used to assume. This is the reason that they are more concerned about conservation of their language than any other ethnic community in Nepal. Yes, they are obsessed with this.
Published in Indrajatra 2017, a Souvenir from Sikkim Newar Guthi, on 2017 09 05
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