Myths fascinate young and old, city and village dwellers, artists and academics alike. Breaking through the trajectory of time and space, they wander through villages, towns and cities, private and public spaces. Myths are not the invention of an individual, but of people together. Sometimes they disappear in the crevices of time. At times, they are reincarnated in a form different from their own. Directly or symbolically, myths inspire people and society to communicate their joys and sorrows, entertain themselves or others, and to reflect. Keeping records of journeys of human beings and nature through life and death, myths continue to make individuals and society look at themselves and others differently. Through oral or written stories, audio-visual mediums, plays and research-projects, writers, artists and scholars have been trying to comprehend and analyse the ways myths respond to the nuances of the world around us. Carrying the signposts of the past; being aware of the present, a myth captures the attention of both, creative and analytical minds.

In the 18th edition, हाकारा । hākārā is delighted to join hands with artists and researchers by sharing practices of understanding myths through storytelling, performances and visuals, in the context of changing culture, society and written and visual forms of expression. Our intention here is not merely to compile the information about how the perception of myth has changed over the time. In a non-linear way, our attempt is to share diverse expressions of artists and writers about myths and mythical spaces in contemporary times, anchored in their own languages, forms and methodologies.

In the four sections of this issue, contributors approach myth, on the one hand, in its own form to express feelings and thoughts within a particular mythic time and space. And on the other hand, they consider carrying out a re-discovery of a myth to re-establish it in a different context. In both cases, contributors explore and realise different practices and methods, tools and forms. Of course, these are not two tightly compartmentalised practices. The processes involved may intersect and the expressions could travel across the broad spectrum of mythic understanding. 

While reaching out to the deep layers of an individual and society or transcendental world beyond mundane, the myth shared by Ambika Aiyyadurai and Mamta Pandya in the Reflection section would come across as a timeless vision of how nature, socio-cultural practices and beliefs are interconnected in a daily, eventful life in a community. This myth translated into Marathi by Raghvendra Vanjari is a story of the ākrū’ in the Dibang Valley of Arunachal Pradesh and his curved horns. More than anything else, it is about Idu Mishmi’s love for nature and animals. Aiyyadurai and Pandya, working in the fields of anthropology and ecology, have been collecting such stories of the communities living in the Dibang valley. Akru’s story and the accompanying illustrations by Shrobontika Dasgupta is an example of how folk stories enable different practices of researching and image-making. Besides, through the story, we are happy to have the researchers and artists documenting how myths bring together animals and humans as an integral part of community culture and everyday life. The readers will also read Laya Kumar’s play, Abhilash Jayachandra’s story, Shaktipad Kumar and Surma Bera’s article on the Chhou performance tradition, and Isha Banerjee and Rashmi Dubey’s piece on the myth-based novels to know the multi-dimensional and nuanced nature of mythic communication. 

Five contributions handling different visual forms in the Panorama section concur with the creative contemplation that a mythical narrative not only helps an artist to determine a story for a visual work. It also provides opportunities to build time-specific structure and form within their specific worldviews. Going further, the artists like Nimisha Chandel and Samiksha experiment with various material forms, techniques and intertextuality to reflect on the symbolic nature of myths and domesticity. 

Writers and artists, in the Narrative and Open Space sections, have delved into translation, poetry, drama and short-story while establishing their relationship with a character or event from a known myth. These contributions reiterate the view that the mythical worlds and modern societies can’t be considered poles apart. Instead, they evolve together in the world full of contradictions. 

We hope that the contributions in हाकारा । hākārā enable the readers to critically investigate the stereotypical and simplified versions of myths that are layered and nuanced at the core. The glorification of such myths risks reinforcing hierarchical, exploitative and violent forms by connecting them with a particular religion, caste, communities or an aura of an individual. Hence, it’s significant that we believe in flexibility and subversive power of a myth. 

In this context, it is reassuring to read Uma Shirodkar’s English translation of a Marathi story by the acclaimed writer, C V Joshi. Picked up from Joshi’s well-known collection, Gods of Osadwadi, Mousey Miracles exposes the readers to humorous, sarcastic yet unhurtful and subtle ways of dealing with the Hindu gods and their myths in everyday life. Jerin Anne Jacob’s poems in this edition question the myths in the Bible in the favour of women claiming their own spaces challenging the religious bigotry represented through mythologies. Thus, a creative expression becomes a tool to reimagine myths to nurture open and free spaces of engagement. Differently, Pratiksha Khasnis and Sahej Rahal investigate mythologies through performance, and audio-visual, AI based works respectively.  Their approaches open up newer possibilities of examining stories from the past, rituals and traditional forms. They extend the stories to cope up with contemporary realities and also to produce counter-mythologies to address their own social and aesthetic concerns. Thus, we realise that myth provides artists with a broader vision to look at dilemmas existing in personal lives, complicated everyday realities and unresolved issues from the past. Such vision comes with— in Pratiksha’s words— power of myths. The power of myth is not in cornering the unrepresented public and private spaces. Or, it’s not embedded within identity politics of different kinds. Myths are powered by histories, cultures, heritage and identities. A real power of myth is in its immense potential of broadening the human understanding without getting manipulated by the groups and individuals in power. 

In this edition, we hope to open a discussion on different ways of engaging with myth rather than making a concluding statement on myths or myth-making processes. Myths keep on changing and transforming themselves. Or, the differently experienced human beings look at them differently. Therefore, a fixed archival record of a myth is nearly impossible. We can keep only a few notes of our perception of myths. हाकारा । hākārā serves as a note-keeper of human perception of myths.

Since 2017, we have been bringing out हाकारा । hākārā three-times a year. In the meantime, Dubai based Sharjah Art Foundation gave us a publishing grant in 2020 to research for preparing an anthology (eds. Noopur Desai and Ashutosh Potdar) of the English translation of Marathi writings on art published in four decades, from the 1930s to the 1960s. Recently, the Foundation published the anthology titled as चित्रगोष्ट: Art Writings in Marathi (1930s–1960s). Currently, it can be purchased on the Foundation website. The copies will soon be available in India. It’s heartening that the increasing number of writers, artists, researchers and readers are appreciating the journal. We feel encouraged when they voluntarily help us in creating each edition and reaching out to wider communities. We look forward to your continued support.