Almost two decades ago, Boa Sr, the last speaker of Bo, a language of the Great Andamanese family, made an impassioned appeal to her interlocutor: ‘Don’t let the language slip away, keep a hold on it.’
The language was native to the only surviving pre-Neolithic tribe, whose earliest members moved out of Africa 70,000 years ago. The tribe maintained its distance from the mainland India, and therefore, there was no linguistic connection with other Indian languages, you can see in the song below.
Elder Boa Sr passed away on 26 January 2010. As far as we know, there are no other living speakers or even ‘rememberers’ of the Bo language. It sounds sad, doesn’t it?
Thankfully, Anvita Abbi has done a remarkable work to preserve this lost language, along with the last traces of its stories, myths and songs. Since her first trip to the Andaman Islands in December 2001, Professor Abbi has worked tirelessly to ensure that the unique linguistic and cultural traditions of the Andamans would not vanish from human consciousness without record. That’s how her book Voices from the Lost Horizon came to be. The book brought together 10 rare stories and 46 songs in Great Andamanese, the only collection of its kind.
Behind the Scenes Work
When Professor Abbi visited the Andaman island in 2005, there were hardly any speakers of the language left. Those who could speak, they were not proficient enough to narrate the detailed stories. That’s what made this project challenging–and the author spend years to compile this work.
The fieldwork in the Andamans was not easy. During her trips, she had frequent encounters with poisonous snakes, crocodiles, scorpions, leeches, and perhaps the worst of all, mosquitoes. The 100-miles journey from Port Blair used to be a challenge. First, there would be a night journey by ship, followed by a bus ride for a few miles, and then a boat ride in narrow creeks with thick mangroves along the coastline. It was here that she would encounter all the above mentioned species.
During those early trips, Professor Abbi realised that the clock was ticking fast and she should start documenting the Bo language before it was completely lost. Thus began this life-long pursuit, aimed at preserving an endangered culture, its stories, beliefs and traditions.
The Story of Dik the Demon and the Fish
At the centre of every culture, religion or nation, you’d find stories and myths. The same was true for Bo people. They also had their creation myth, folk stories, songs etc. Professor Abbi has shared quite a few of them in the book. Let me share one story here.
There used to be different kinds of people in the world. They used to live near the ancient abode of Bo people, Diglipur. They are no more to be seen anywhere.
Dik was a demon but looked like a human. He was bigger than the big trees growing around Diglipur. Dik had a special gift of being able to walk on the surface of water. He was the only one who could do so.
Once he saw a very big fish. He wanted to catch it. As the fish was moving fast ahead of him, he started chasing it and thus did not realise that he had come very far from home. The fish, while trying to escape from Dik, crashed against a rock near Interview Island. A big hole was formed in the rock by the impact. The fish took refuge inside the rock, which still bears the sign of it.
Chasing the fish, Dik reached the rock, but he could not see the fish.
‘Where did it go?’
Then he saw the tail of the fish jutting out of the hole of the rock. He brought a rope and tied the tail with it. Then he pulled the fish out.
Once out of the hill-cave, the fish started again to try to escape, but could not succeed. Dik killed the fish with his arrow. The fish died. The fish tumunye was huge. The fat alone of the tumunye could fill up several bowls.
Dik was no less dangerous himself. He was a headhunter and used to eat humans. Because of this reason, his children had abandoned him. He was lonely and desolate. Later, the Bo people killed him. He is not seen any more these days.
A Popular Song of the Community
Just like their stories and myths, Bo people had really simple songs, related to their everyday struggles. Here is one song which used to be quite popular in the community:
Thu mai khach ra re
su thung khora chera
iia iia khe
thung khora chera
ia ia khe…
Translation:
Oh father, with this work,
my dried finger-buds burn,
giving me pain and pain
my dried finger-buds burn,
giving me pain and pain!
Source: Voices from the Lost Horizon
The kind of work that has gone behind this book deserves our appreciation. I hope the book will preserve the stories of a lost culture and at the same time encourage us to take further steps in that direction.
Note: If you would like to listen to more stories from the book, please click here.
Kalampedia 