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Jungle Nama
Jungle Nama is a graphic verse novel written by Indian author Amitav Ghosh and illustrated by Pakistani-American artist Salman Toor. It is a verse adaptation of the medieval Bengali tale about the Sundarbans Forest goddess, Bon Bibi. The book was first published on 12 February 2021 by Fourth Estate India and then in Great Britain on 11 November 2021 by John Murray Press. It is Ghosh's first book in verse. The story explores themes of greed and ecological misadventure. (1,3) Ghosh states that the story is an allegory for human caused climate change.
The story is set in India's Sundarbans region. The Sundarbans are located across the western coast of Bangladesh and the south coast of India's Eastern state of West Bengal. The region is characterised by vast natural forests and deltas. At greater than ten-thousand square kilometre, the Sundarbans are the world's largest mangrove forest. They are divided by three main rivers, the Ganga, Brahmaputra, and Meghna, which branch to form a major wetland that discharges into the Bay of Bengal. The Sundarbans are everchanging and composed of thousands of islands, many being uninhabitable. The Sundarbans are a UNESCO World Heritage site with four protected areas being held under reserve forest and wildlife sanctuary. The name Sundarbans comes from the common Mangrove trees which populate the area, known locally as Sundori trees.
The Sundarbans experience extreme environmental conditions including climate catastrophes such as cyclones and flash flooding. This major weather events and climate change has resulted in habitat loss, saltwater intrusion (sea water moving further inland), sea-level rise and the submerging of islands.
The region also experiences social pressures including poverty, illegal immigration, climate refugees, and government oversight. The region has a history of poverty with many locals relying on the shrimp seed industry for income by working as seed collectors in the forests. Fieldwork researcher Annu Jalais notes that the Sundarbans region is sometimes referred to as 'Kolkata's Servant' ('Kolkatar jhi') in reference to the many locals that become servants within the households of Kolkata's wealthy.
Jungle Nama is a retelling of the traditional Bengali folk story of Bon Bibi. The first print version of the legend was produced in the 1800s and was written in a Bengali verse meter called dwipodipayer. Dwipodipayer (the payer cadence) was the primary cadence of Bengali literature during the Middle Ages and is an alteration to the aksharvritta which uses 8/6 syllables. Jungle Nama is a loose reworking of this legend, translated to English and written in a payer-style meter which replicates the flow of the original myth.
Ghosh attributes the inspiration of Jungle Nama to a trip he took to a remote Sundarbans Island with a group of local villagers in 2000. Together they travelled on rowboats and performed a Bon Bibi puja (ceremonial worship) on a mudbank next to a fresh set of tiger pawprints.
According to Ghosh, the culture of Sundarbans’ locals places value on maintaining the balance between the needs of the natural world and those of humans. Their practices and belief system emphasise the importance of limiting greed which Ghosh states is an important lesson for the rest of the world in the age of the climate crisis.
The story is written entirely in a poem-like style which replicates the cadence of the original legend. On average, each line has twelve syllables, and each couplet has twenty-four syllables. After each line there is a natural pause or a caesura (a break within the middle of a line).
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Jungle Nama
Jungle Nama is a graphic verse novel written by Indian author Amitav Ghosh and illustrated by Pakistani-American artist Salman Toor. It is a verse adaptation of the medieval Bengali tale about the Sundarbans Forest goddess, Bon Bibi. The book was first published on 12 February 2021 by Fourth Estate India and then in Great Britain on 11 November 2021 by John Murray Press. It is Ghosh's first book in verse. The story explores themes of greed and ecological misadventure. (1,3) Ghosh states that the story is an allegory for human caused climate change.
The story is set in India's Sundarbans region. The Sundarbans are located across the western coast of Bangladesh and the south coast of India's Eastern state of West Bengal. The region is characterised by vast natural forests and deltas. At greater than ten-thousand square kilometre, the Sundarbans are the world's largest mangrove forest. They are divided by three main rivers, the Ganga, Brahmaputra, and Meghna, which branch to form a major wetland that discharges into the Bay of Bengal. The Sundarbans are everchanging and composed of thousands of islands, many being uninhabitable. The Sundarbans are a UNESCO World Heritage site with four protected areas being held under reserve forest and wildlife sanctuary. The name Sundarbans comes from the common Mangrove trees which populate the area, known locally as Sundori trees.
The Sundarbans experience extreme environmental conditions including climate catastrophes such as cyclones and flash flooding. This major weather events and climate change has resulted in habitat loss, saltwater intrusion (sea water moving further inland), sea-level rise and the submerging of islands.
The region also experiences social pressures including poverty, illegal immigration, climate refugees, and government oversight. The region has a history of poverty with many locals relying on the shrimp seed industry for income by working as seed collectors in the forests. Fieldwork researcher Annu Jalais notes that the Sundarbans region is sometimes referred to as 'Kolkata's Servant' ('Kolkatar jhi') in reference to the many locals that become servants within the households of Kolkata's wealthy.
Jungle Nama is a retelling of the traditional Bengali folk story of Bon Bibi. The first print version of the legend was produced in the 1800s and was written in a Bengali verse meter called dwipodipayer. Dwipodipayer (the payer cadence) was the primary cadence of Bengali literature during the Middle Ages and is an alteration to the aksharvritta which uses 8/6 syllables. Jungle Nama is a loose reworking of this legend, translated to English and written in a payer-style meter which replicates the flow of the original myth.
Ghosh attributes the inspiration of Jungle Nama to a trip he took to a remote Sundarbans Island with a group of local villagers in 2000. Together they travelled on rowboats and performed a Bon Bibi puja (ceremonial worship) on a mudbank next to a fresh set of tiger pawprints.
According to Ghosh, the culture of Sundarbans’ locals places value on maintaining the balance between the needs of the natural world and those of humans. Their practices and belief system emphasise the importance of limiting greed which Ghosh states is an important lesson for the rest of the world in the age of the climate crisis.
The story is written entirely in a poem-like style which replicates the cadence of the original legend. On average, each line has twelve syllables, and each couplet has twenty-four syllables. After each line there is a natural pause or a caesura (a break within the middle of a line).