I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 93 “aesthetic conceptualization of home and the women” but produced trends that perpetuated gender inequality through practices like dowry. Furthermore, one sees the ‘new patriarchy’ being perpetuated and even strengthened through these “modern means of matchmaking”, thereby further circumscribing the embeddedness of patriarchal structures in the entire matrimonial market. Much scope for research remains yet to be unearthed through a comparative study of comparative Bengali journals. But it can safely be reiterated that though boundaries were transgressed in the means of Bengali matchmaking, the ineluctablity of patriarchal demands and reinforced domestcity for the bride are here to stay with extraneous factors like family income, number of siblings etc playing their subtle role. Such is the imbroglio of the “means of matchmaking!
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 94 BIBLIOGRAPHY Borthwick, Meredith. The Changing Role of Women in Bengal 1849-1905 (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1984) Dipesh, Chakrabarty. Provincializing Europe: Postcolonial Though and Historical Difference (USA: Princeton University Press, 2000) Dipesh, Chakrabarty. “The Difference: Deferral of (A) Colonial Modernity: Public Debates on Domesticity in British Bengal” History Workshop 36 (Oxford University Press, 1993) 1-34. H.H.Risley. The Tribes and Castes of Bengal, Vol 1. Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press, 1891. Majumdar, Rochona. “Looking for Brides and Grooms: Ghataks, Matrimonials, and the Marriage Market in Colonial Calcutta, circa 1875-1940” The Journal of Asian Studies 4 Vol 63 (Association for Asian Studies, 2004) 911-935. Majumdar, Rochona. Marriage and Modernity: Family Values in Colonial Bengal (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2009) Mukherji, Santosh Kumar. Jnanendra Nath Chakravarti. Prostitution In India. Calcutta: Das Gupta & Co, 1934. https://eap.bl.uk/collection/EAP262-1-1 Mukhopadhyay, Madhurima, “Matchmakers and Intermediation: Marriage in Contemporary Kolkata” Economic and Political Weekly 3 Vol 47 (Economic and Political Weekly, 2012) 90-99 Raychaudhuri, Tapan, “Love in a Colonial Climate: Marriage, Sex and Romance in Nineteenth-Century Bengal” Modern Asian Studies 34 (Cambridge University Press, 2000) 349-378 Ananda Bazar Patrika, Matrimonials Section, February-March 2023 Issue.(Bengali Newspaper) Framing Conjugality, Calendar 2005, Photo Archive, Centre for Women's Development Studies
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 95
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 96
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 97 Beyond Wine and Wisdom: The World of Symposium in Ancient Greece Yashaswi Sagar Second year, Department of History, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi Abstract At the intersections of labour and leisure in the classical society of ancient Greece lies the Symposium. These were drinking parties, where the upper-class men met in the specially designated spaces in their houses, called androns. While or after feasting and drinking, they philosophized by indulging in deep debates and discussions on various aspects of life and fantasy, and had sex. While for some it was a time to relax and recuperate from the tiredness, for others it was a means of livelihood. Sex slaves, both Men and Women were an active part of these parties, as workers. So were the instrument players. But they were all placed somewhat lower in the hierarchy that was strictly followed in the space of the symposium. As a social institution, the Symposium reflected the values prevalent in ancient Greek society. The paper gives a glimpse into the world of ancient Greek symposium, its development as a practice and as an institution through the 3 quintessential sympotic elements of wine, women and wisdom and how beyond these elements, the symbolic importance of symposium can be interpreted under the broader theme of labour and leisure. Keywords: Ancient Greece, Symposium, Drinking Parties, Andron, Feasting, Sex Slaves, Philosophizing, Sex, Wine, Women, Wisdom, Labour, Leisure Introduction In classical Greece, the wealthy men often hosted banquets, inviting guests for drinks and dinner, where they often indulged in philosophically deep debates and discussions, and had sex. The word ‘symposium’ (lit. drinking together) was a very important event where people came together in homes, in a special place called the ‘andron’ (lit. man’s space), where they wined, dined and socialized. Thus, in many ways, “the symposium can be visualized as the primitive form of today’s house parties, where people usually gather, have food and drinks, listen to music, or maybe play games or watch movies, and socialize.”1 1 Ashley Rydzik, “The Andron,” in Houses and Households in Ancient Greece, ed. Allison Glazebrook, Samantha Fisher, and Shakeel Ahmed (Ontario: Brock University, 2022).https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/ housesandhouseholdsancientgreece/chapter/the-andron/ The sources to reconstruct the history of symposia are - pottery with drawings depicting scenes from the symposia on them, structural remains of houses, and ancient texts, such as Plato’s and Xenophon’s Symposium. 2 The andron is a specially designed chamber in the house where the symposia is customarily held. Archaeologists typically define an andron as a room in a domestic building with architectural and decorative features that connect the room with elements of the symposium. These features include an off-centre door to accommodate klinai—couch-like seating—arranged along the walls, raised platforms or borders around the walls, and decorative elements 2 Jessika Akmenkalns and Debby Sneed, “The Symposium in Ancient Greek Society,” Department of Classics, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder. June 18, 2018. https://www.colorado.edu/ classics/2018/06/18/symposium-ancient-greek-society
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 98 like a mosaic floor or coloured walls. The area needs to be close to the front door but separate from the house's more private spaces. This typical perception of the symposium venue might be accurate in certain instances, but not always. Some depictions of sympotic drinking in vase paintings propose potential substitutes, including mattress and pillow placed on floor.3 These rooms were situated near the front of the home. This way, the rest of the house and especially the upper floor, where the women of the household stayed during a symposium, was kept out of sight and mind.4 “It supports the idea of separate gendered spaces for men and women in the classical period. The discrepancies and variations in the style of the androns can be attributed to status: the rich would have been able to adorn their spaces better, show off a higher quality of utensils and drinking ware.”5 The world of symposia was diverse. The kind of symposia that men like Socrates, Xenophon, Agathon and Alcibiades organized and attended were much different and more “intellectual”6 from those which were organized by and for the “general public”. 7 Wine Drinking was an essential part of the symposium. The symposium was always held following a dinner in Greece. The food was the main focus at Athenian feasts, and the symposium, or drinking session, which 3 Kathleen Lynch, “More Thoughts on the Space of the Symposium,” British School at Athens Studies, vol.15, (2007): 243–44. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40960593 4 Zoe Mann , “Socrates Sips Wine & Discusses Love: What Happens at a Symposium?,” The Collector, Nov 25, 2021, https://www.thecollector.com/what-is-platosymposium-ancient-greek-socrates/ 5 Rydzik, “The Andron”. 6 Here intellectual refers to the kind of environment, and themes on which debates and discussions took place at the symposia hosted by philosophers who were socially reputed individuals such as Plato, Socrates, Agathon, etc. followed, was where the intellectual debates took place.8 “Here the most important man was the ‘symposiarch’, chosen by lot or a throw of the dice, who took charge of everything. He decided the proportion of water mixed with the wine, called the entertainers – dancing girls, acrobats, and magicians – and set the guests to entertain one another. A symposiarch like Socrates might pose brain-teasing riddles, but a less intellectual symposiarch would assign a bald-headed man to comb his hair, a stutterer to orate or an ardent fellow to race round the room with the flute girl in his arms.”9 The Greek wine was made in a very strong form that one had to dilute to make it drinkable. This was usually done in a vessel called a Krater. This was the civilized way to have liquor, because the “uncivilized barbarian monsters10 would drink their wine neat. The symposiarch would decide the proportions - how strong the wine was going to be. “According to the literature of the time, the mixing of wine and water also made sure that symposiasts would preserve their composure and self-control, qualities that were highly regarded in ancient Greek society.” Despite the significance of restraint, several vases adorned with pictures from the symposium show men participating in acts that might be regarded as less-than-dignified. For instance, a slave is holding the head of a man who is 7 General public here refers to the individuals from merchant classes, members of the assembly, or anyone who hosted the banquet for mainly entertainment and pleasure purposes. 8 Akmenkalns and Sneed, “The Symposium in Ancient Greek Society”. 9 C.M. Bowra and The Editors of TIME-LIFE Books, “The Persian Wars,” in Classical Greece (Nevada: TimeLife International, 1966), 90-91. 10 My interpretation of the author’s use of “uncivilized barbarian monsters” is basically to refer to people from non-Greek cultures and their practices which might have been considered brutish.
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 99 vomiting into a basin on the tondo of a kylix in the Berlin State Museum.11 A group of partygoers known as komasts are depicted dancing in a drunken procession known as a komos while wearing women's attire on the exterior of a kylix at the Getty Villa12 in California.13 Games were played alongside drinking to increase the fun. The game of kottabos is the one that is most usually linked to the symposium. It involves throwing some wine towards a target. Since the drinker's success depends on consistency in aim and action, talent is more important than balance in this situation. “Depending on the aim that has been picked, the game can take on several forms. Sometimes, little saucers are floating in a water basin that is placed between the guests; the wine must hit and sink these frail boats. Sometimes a flat disc is positioned on top of a tall pole; when the wine knocks it off, it falls and slams into a type of sconce affixed to the pole.”14 There was a wide variety of drinking-ware which was a significant part of the banquet. Plato, in his Symposium, pointed out that Agathon owned a very expensive set of symposiastic ware that included not only a kratêr, but also a psychtêr or wine cooler, an oinochoê or jug for pouring out the wine, plus a number of very elegant two-handled drinking vessels known as kulikes.15 The Greek comic poet Euboulos wrote a play in which the Fragment 9316describes how Dionysus, 11 Maria Daniels, “Tondo: man vomiting with boy assisting,” Photograph. Berlin: State Museum, Prussian Cultural Heritage Collection, Feb-March 1992. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?img=Perseus :image:1992.07.0254 12 Attic Red Figure Cup, c.480 B.C., 86.AE.293, Gallery 103, Athenian Vases, Getty Villa., California. https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103W7H#full -artwork-details 13Akmenkalns and Sneed, “The Symposium in Ancient Greek Society”. 14Francois Lissarrague, The Aesthetics of the Greek Banquet – Images of Wine and Ritual (Un Flot d'Images), trans. Andrew Szegedy-Maszak (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990), 80-81. as a symposiarch, lists the rules for drinking at a Symposium: I mix three Kraters only for those who are wise. One is for good health, which they drink first. The second is for love and pleasure. The third is for sleep, and when they have drunk it those who are wise wander homewards. The fourth is no longer horse, but belongs to arrogance. The fifth leads to shouting. The sixth is drunken revel. The seventh to black eyes. The eighth to a summons. The ninth to bile. The tenth to madness, in that it makes people throw things.17 There has always been a great emphasis on feasting and drinking, among the elite social classes. We can see this as a natural evolution of how communities come together and celebrate their togetherness and identification as Greek. Having a symposium was a great way of ascribing and performing your identity as a member of a particular group. Across the Greek World and adjoining areas, all had their own version of coming together and drinking. Whenever there was a community who really wanted to show off one’s Greekness, one could host a symposium. This also meant that there was a clear distinction, as to who can and who cannot attend the symposium. 15 Robert Garland, “Symposium: An Important Part of Ancient Greek Culture,” Lecture series: The Other Side of History: Daily Life in The Ancient World (Colgate University, September 27, 2020). https://www.wondriumdaily.com/symposi um-animportant-part-of-ancient-greek-culture/ 16 R. L. Hunter, ed., Eubulus the Fragments (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983). 185-189. 17 Kassel R, Austin C, ed., Poetae Comici Graeci v5. (Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1986) as cited Christopher C.H. Cook, Helen Tarbet and David Ball, “Classically Intoxicated: Correlations Between Quantity of Alcohol Consumed and Alcohol Related Problems in a Classical Greek Text,” British Medical Journal, Dec 22, 2007, 1302-1304. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/ articles/PMC2151142/#sec-1title
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 100 Women The majority of readings of the symposium place the institution's significance and purpose in the exclusion of women from the household. The idea that respectable women were typically excluded also serves as the foundation for how vase painting is to be understood.18 “The hetaira is a "courtesan" or "mistress," often supported by one or two men alone, serving as their companion at symposia and revels, as well as servicing their sexual desires. The existence of educated, interesting female prostitutes is accounted for by the lack of education offered to Athenian citizen women; in order to find a female companion who could participate in their intellectual interests.”19 Thus, Sian Lewis observes that the symposium is the only scenario in which identification of the hetaira is secure: “by definition all women depicted at symposia would be hired entertainers – musicians, dancers and prostitutes – since the fact of attendance at symposia is one of the touchstones used by orators to distinguish respectable women from hetairai.”20 In her book, Sian Lewis mentions about female sex slaves in Aristophhanes annd Xenophon’s works. In Aristophanes' Wasps the speaker prevented an aulos player from having to perform a sexual act by saying, "You see how deftly I sneaked you away, before you had to give blow-jobs to the diners." The performers in Xenophon's Symposium, in contrast, are those who were employed by a Syracusan slave 18 Sean Corner, “Did ‘Respectable’ Women Attend Symposia?”, Greece & Rome, 59, no.1, (2012): 34-35. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23275154 19 Leslie Kurke, Coins, Bodies, Games and Gold: The Politics of Meaning in Archaic Greece (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), 175-219. owner; they are musicians, dancers, and acrobats, and their only function is as accomplished practitioners of their arts, not as the symposiasts' sexual partners.21 According to Sean Corrner, on Joan Burton’s article, “Burton has argued that the proposition that citizen women never participated in the symposia is a broad generalization. The 'male-defined symposium, which arose during the archaic age, started opening up to include respectable women, at least by the third century B.C., if not earlier'.” She claims that Lastheneia of Mantinea and Axiothea of Phlius "might have attended philosophers' dinner parties" because they were Plato's students. However, there is no evidence that she or Lastheneia attended any symposiums. The only female philosopher listed by Burton who is genuinely reported to have attended symposia is Hipparchia, the wife of Crates the Cynic. Burton notes that "she lived a life far different from the typical upper-class Greek woman" and that "her presence at symposia reportedly sometimes led to unpleasant encounters with men unaccustomed to dining in the company of outspoken well-born women," as in the case of one interlocutor who, after being defeated by her in philosophical argument, responded by pulling up her cloak.22 Corner also mentions how Burton adduces Aspasia and Agariste, the spouse of Alcmaeonides, in addition to female philosophers. Again, there is no confirmed instance of Aspasia attending symposia alone; Burton only hypothesises that it may have happened, perhaps because Aspasia's 20Sian Lewis, The Athenian Woman: An Iconographic Handbook (London and New York: Routledge, 2002), 122-124. 21 Kurke, Coins, Bodies, Games and Gold, 105-108. 22Joan Burton, “Women’s Commensality in the Ancient Greek World” Greece & Rome 45, no. 2 (1998): 143–65 (cited Corner, “Did ‘Respectable’ Women Attend Symposia?”)
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 101 status as a "outlander" allowed her to assume a "unusual status as a woman of visibility and influence" and to mingle with famous men like Socrates. “There is no literary source of a citizen woman attending or organizing a symposium.” Thus, in the end a survey of the evidence confirms the opinion that “the exclusion of women from the household was, at least before the Hellenistic period, an essential and defining feature of the symposium.”23 Homo Eroticism It’s interesting to explore the intricacies of male relationships in the symposium. Most prominent were the ‘erastes’ and ‘eromenos’. Pederasty is a kind of educational relationship between old men (erastes) and boys (eromenos). The erastes taught eromenos everything from philosophy to poetry, politics and partying. In aristocratic families, young men had the opportunity to interact and form political relationships and networks along with their erastes. The art of pleasing mates is also taught to young men in their own time, through performance. “This style of accomplice was socially recognized and popular, especially in a mighty polis like Athens, and it was often depicted on vases.” Of course, not all relationships between men are as respected as pederasty. No symposium would be complete without a selection of pornoi, male prostitutes, depicted on vases as handsome, young naked slave boys serving alcohol to symposiasts until they ask for more.24 23 Corner, “Did ‘Respectable’ Women Attend Symposia?”. 24Kenturah Sergeant, “Pederasty, Pornoi and Parties: the Greek Symposium and Homoeroticism,” The Oxford Student, October 26, 2021, https://www.oxfordstudent. com/2021/10/26/pederasty-pornoi-and-parties-the-greeksymposium-and-homoeroticism/ 25 T. Hudson Williams, “Theognis and His Poems,” The Journal of Hellenic Studies 23 (1903): 1–23. https://www.jstor.org/stable/623754 Several poets have named their favourite boys, some even recording competitions to win over individual boys for the night, or for life. “All elegies of Theognis in his Book I, contain the name of Cyrnus, the young noble to whom the poet addressed so many of his didactic and political poems. In announcing his intention of writing poems for the special benefit of Cyrnus, Theognis assumes the tone of a man who has wide experience and talks to his protégé like a father.”25 Book II of Theognis emphasises on homoeroticism and his affection for Cyrnus. “Happy is the man who goes home and engages in amorous exercise, sleeping with a handsome boy all day long” (1335– 36).26 Wisdom The symposia were held quite often and for various purposes – to celebrate athletic and other successes with entire families being lauded for the achievements of a champion in their ranks. Fathers would celebrate with their sons but respectable mothers and daughters tended to stay away.27 One’s social position and occupation determined who attended which banquet. The symposia attended by Socrates, Plato, Agathon, etc. were different from the ones held purely for entertainment by the general public. The heart-to-heart conversations and philosophical discussions of the ancient symposia produced Socrates, Plato and Xenophon. The famous speeches made by these attendees, were foundations of their philosophies. Some of the proceedings and discussions of the symposia have been 26 Sergeant, “Pederasty, Pornoi and Parties: the Greek Symposium and Homoeroticism”. 27 Patrick O’Sullivan, “Wit and Eroticism of The Greek Symposium, Revealed,” News: University of Canterbury, September 13, 2019. https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/news/2019/wit-anderoticism-of-the-greek-symposium-revealed.html
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 102 recorded in the works titled “Symposium” by Plato and Xenophon. Plato’s Symposium starts with Apollodorus narrating how someone approaches him, asking about Agathon’s party, the one attended by Socrates, Alcibiades, Aristophanes, Eryximachus, Pausanias and Phaedrus, where they had a feast together, followed by some erotic speeches. This symposium is held to celebrate the victory of Agathon with his first tragedy. It’s a collection of speeches made by the attendees praising and eulogizing the Greek God Eros. It is in this symposium that the infamous idea of Platonic Love originated. For them, love (eros) is a god, on whose beauty and goodness they compete with one another in praising.28 Phaedrus begins by expressing that Eros is the most wondrous, oldest, virtuous, and great god both among humans and the gods. Pausanias then expresses his disagreement and says that one must eulogize Eros in the most noble way as Eros provokes one to love in a noble way, as opposed to the general idea of people who are stupid and ignorant beings, who are in love with bodies and not souls. If one loves openly and not in secret, love the noblest, one would reap the greatest reproaches levelled against philosophy. He also gives the idea of a double Eros. Eryximachus later adds to his part by saying that Eros presides not just over the souls of humans but also in all the other living things. He applies the idea of Double Eros to medicines, gymnastics, farming and even in the rhythms and harmony of music. Aristophanes, speaks in a somewhat different tone by explaining human nature and its afflictions. He talks 28 Donald Levy, “The Definition of Love in Plato’s Symposium,” Journal of the History of Ideas 40, no. 2. (April-June 1979): 285-286. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2709153 about the genesis of sexes and the development of their body structures. He further explains the ideas of heterosexuality and homosexuality, love as the desire and pursuit for the whole. Agathon expresses how Eros is the happiest, youngest and most tender of all Gods, that he neither commits injustice nor has injustice done to him.29 Donald Levy in his article titled “The Definition of Love in Plato’s Symposium”, explains the ideas of ‘platonic love’, as emphasised through the speeches by Socrates in Plato’s Symposium. “Socrates is prominent in saying that love is neither bad nor good (although he does not mean that it is ugly or bad).” Love cannot be beautiful because it is the desire to possess what is beautiful, and one cannot desire what one already owns, argues Socrates, "there is nothing good in itself, but it is simply a means of achieving what is good in itself." This is emphasized again at the end of Socrates' account of Diotima's speech when he says that "human nature can find no helper but love" (212b). Even Socrates' preference for testing the opinions of others was not exempt from this new test; just as Socrates surprised Agathon by asserting that love is not beautiful, Diotima confounds Socrates with the idea that "the object of love is to reproduce and bring about the presence of beauty" (206e). “It seems to her that the philosopher, lover of wisdom, is not yet enough to witness the birth of ideas in others, playing the role of midwife, herself infertile (to which Socrates often pares himself), examining emerging ideas for sanity.” Such activities have no intrinsic value; they are only valid if they lead the philosopher to create his own theories. "The genuine lover of 29 The views are based on my interpretation from the translation of the original work of Plato, Symposium, trans. Seth Benardette. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986).
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 103 wisdom himself conceives." The new story of love introduced at the end of Diotima's speech, she said, was one she wasn't sure Socrates could understand. This seems to be Plato's way of signaling a major change in what follows the relatively simple attempt to define love by finding the element common to all types of love (typical of Socrate’s method of law) when no valid distinction between types of love is made (202d-209e), with Plato's new approach.30 Alcibiades then finally replies to Socrates. The relation of Alcibiades and Socrates can be described as one of “lovehate”. He praises Socrates as an admirable and charming man during his speech. Although Alcibiades praises Socrates he also blasts Socrates for what he has done to him as a person who is possessed and haunted by him.31Discussions at symposia were based on wide ranging topics, from everyday lives to personal fantasies. Wisdom at symposium went beyond debates and discussions, on wide ranging themes and issues, to include the larger emphasis on importance of knowledge and ideas, just like how Plato explains the love for wisdom as the supreme form of love. Conclusion “The importance of the symposium did not lie in the event itself, but rather the overall atmosphere it produced.” Intentionally fostering and emphasising group identity was the goal of communal drinking events, which was a concept that was just as important to democracy in classical Athens as it had been among the nobility in ancient Greece. People from all around Attica and from various socioeconomic backgrounds converged during the transition to democracy, necessitating the creation of a cooperative social atmosphere among the citizen men. Drinking was the most socially acceptable method to do this. However, egalitarianism and an agonistic attitude were two fundamental but incompatible aspects of Athenian society. Since there was an underlying idea of equality as well as the need to receive individual acknowledgment among one's peers, the symposium breeds this same tension.32 At the intersection of labour and leisure, the Syposium developed as an occasion for men of social privileged class to relax, have wine and enjoy women, and an institution which involved the labour of people who were placed somewhat lower in the social hierarchy. Today it has evolved into various forms of convivial and formal gatherings. On one hand, the modern-day Symposium, in literal sense is characterised by boring boardroom meetings or official seminars with slideshow presentations and graphs. While on the other hand, it encompasses informal gatherings and parties to celebrate achievements, anniversaries, or simply have a good time together with your loved ones. The best way to summarise the the core value of the Symposium of classical Greece can be as follows - “a well-conducted symposium was the centre for the transmission of traditional values, as well as an event that provided liberation from everyday restraints within a carefully regulated environment.”33 30 Levy, “The Definition of Love in Plato’s Symposium,” 285-286. 31 based on my interpretation from original work of Plato, Symposium, trans. Seth Benardette. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986). 32 Rydzik, “The Andron”. 33 “The Symposium in Ancient Greece,” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Department of Greek and Roman Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, last modified October, 2002, Accessed on 24 June, 2022, https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/symp/hd_symp.htm
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 104 BIBLIOGRAPHY Akmenkalns, Jessika and Debby Sneed. “The Symposium in Ancient Greek Society.” Department of Classics, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder. (June 18, 2018) https://www.colorado.edu/classics/2018/06/18/symposium-ancient-greeksociety Attic Red Figure Cup, c.480 B.C., 86.AE.293, Gallery 103, Athenian Vases, Getty Villa., California. https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103W7H#full-artwork-details Bowra, C.M. and The Editors of TIME-LIFE Books. “The Persian Wars” in Classical Greece, 90-91 , Nevada: Time-Life International, 1966. Cook, Christopher C.H., Helen Tarbet and David Ball. “Classically Intoxicated: Correlations Between Quantity of Alcohol Consumed and Alcohol Related Problems in a Classical Greek Text.” British Medical Journal, Dec 22, 2007. 1302-1304. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2151142/#sec-1title Corner, Sean. “Did ‘Respectable’ Women Attend Symposia,?” Greece & Rome 59, no.1 (2012): 34-35. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23275154 Daniels, Maria.“Tondo: man vomiting with boy assisting.” Photograph. Berlin: State Museum. Prussian Cultural Heritage Collection, February - March 1992. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/image?img=Perseus:image:1992.07.0254 Garland, Robert. “Symposium: An Important Part of Ancient Greek Culture.” Lecture series: The Other Side of History: Daily Life in The Ancient World. Colgate University, September 27, 2020. https://www.wondriumdaily.com/symposium-an-important-part-ofancient-greek-culture/ Hunter, R. L., ed., Eubulus: The Fragments, 183-185. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Kurke, Leslie. Coins, Bodies, Games and Gold: The Politics of Meaning in Archaic Greece, 175-219. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999. Levy, Donald. “The Definition of Love in Plato’s Symposium,” Journal of the History of Ideas 40, no. 2 (April-June 1979): 285-286. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2709153 Lewis, Sian. The Athenian Woman: An Iconographic Handbook, 122-124. London and New York: Routledge, 2002.
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 105 Lissarrague, Francois. The Aesthetics of the Greek Banquet – Images of Wine and Ritual (Un Flot d'Images). Translated by Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1990. 80-81. Lynch, Kathleen M. “More Thoughts on the Space of the Symposium.” British School at Athens Studies, vol. 15, (2007): 243–44. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40960593 Mann, Zoe. “Socrates Sips Wine & Discusses Love: What Happens at a Symposium?,” The Collector, Nov 25, 2021, https://www.thecollector.com/what-is-plato-symposium-ancientgreek-socrates/ Metropolitan Art Museum. “The Symposium in Ancient Greece.”Accessed on 24 June, 2022. https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/symp/hd_symp.htm O’Sullivan, Patrick. “Wit and Eroticism of The Greek Symposium, Revealed.” News: University of Canterbury, September 13, 2019. https://www.canterbury.ac.nz/news/2019/wit-and-eroticism-of-the-greek-symposiumrevealed.html Plato. Symposium. Translated by Seth Benardette, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1986. Rydzik, Ashley. “The Andron.” Houses and Households in Ancient Greece, edited by Allison Glazebrook, Samantha Fisher, and Shakeel Ahmed. Ontario: Brock University, 2022. https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/housesandhouseholdsancientgreece/chapter/theandron/ Sergeant, Kenturah. “Pederasty, Pornoi and Parties: The Greek Symposium and Homoeroticism.” The Oxford Student, October 26, 2021. https://www.oxfordstudent.com/2021/10/26/pederasty-pornoi-and-parties-the-greeksymposium-and-homoeroticism/ Williams, T. Hudson. “Theognis and His Poems,” The Journal of Hellenic Studies 23 (1903): 1–23. https://www.jstor.org/stable/623754 You Tube. “How To Party Like an Ancient Greek with Historian Michael Scott.” Posted May 6, 2022. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5jYGzrGDPY
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 106 Dance as a Form of Leisure and Labour: A Historical Perspective on the Chhau Dance Bhavya Srivastava Second year, Department of History Jesus and Mary College, University of Delhi Abstract This paper attempts to trace how the Chhau dance, originally seen as an ‘act of leisure’ and celebration, got transformed into an ‘act of labour’. The essay begins with theoretical concepts and scholarly debates on the academic perception of labour and leisure histories. The first part is essentially a compilation of some of the debates and approaches utilised while dealing with the topic of leisure. Then, the essay focuses on the case of leisure studies in India and specifically in regard to the practice of dance. The next part is dedicated to the Chhau dance, its geographical foundations and three of its known schools. It then delves into the theme of the paper which is the original nature of the dance as a form of entertainment and leisure and how later, under state patronage the dance became a domain of trained dancers, performing the dance as a means of subsistence. Labour and leisure history holds ground for research into the various aspects of humanities. The essay relies heavily on secondary sources due to the lack of available literature pertaining to the Chhau dancers. However, the aim of the essay is novel, to pick up and discuss the issues of leisure-labour from Indian history as well as to document the changes and evolution that have taken place in the Chhau dance, an intangible part of the country’s heritage. Historical Background: The Study of Labour-Leisure The meaning of the terms labour and leisure as well as the activities that these terms encompass within them has been a matter of study, from the time of the ancient Greek scholars of Greece and Rome.1 Labour, in the simplest terms, is paid work, which is work exchanged for incurring salary or wage.2 Defining leisure is a complicated task, for scholars have interpreted the idea in different contexts. Some historians believe that leisure is the time of one’s freedom, exclusive of work and other obligations (Joffre Dumazeider), while others associate it in line with the 1Harold Wilensky, “Labour and Leisure: Intellectual Traditions,” Industrial Relation: A Journal of Economy and Society 1, no.2, (February 1916): 1. 2 Jan Lucassen, “Outlines of a History of Labour”, International Institute of Social History 51, (2013): 6. 3 Shaun Best, Leisure Studies: Themes and Perspectives (Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, 2010), 3-4. image of self (Josef Piper).3 It is seen as a celebration of human values.4 It can be stated from the scholarly discussions that the idea of leisure centres on the autonomy of an individual and its core revolves around other similar ideas of freedom, selfworth, autonomy, et cetera. The scholarly studies, however, began investigating leisure as a field of academics in the 1970s, as it was seen as a new field of study and a newly discovered social problem of the time.5 The historical study of leisure, as noted by historian Robert A Stebbins, generally falls into three categories: general history, history of leisure provision, and activity-specific history.6 A brief 4 Best, Leisure Studies, 3-4. 5 John T. Haworth and A.J. Veal, “Introduction.” in Work and Leisure, ed. John T. Haworth and A.J. Veal, (London: Routledge, 2004): 3. 6 Robert A Stebbins, “The Role of History in Leisure Studies.” Leisure Reflections 45, (March 2017): 1-6.
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 107 description of Stebbin’s classification becomes essential to look at for it provides relevant information for the case study of the paper:7 ·General History: The General History, looks at leisure as an institution or a part of the institution, delving into the origin, changes, and evolution of the institution. It is essentially a macroscopic model of study, chronicling leisure. ·Leisure Provision: The leisure provision approach typically centres on the vehicle or carrier of leisure activities as the theme of historical inquiry. The leisure service or physical facility, for example, swimming pools, casinos, coffee houses, etc, serve as the focal point around which the historian poses questions of changing nature of leisure activities. ·Activity-Specific History: The very act of leisure is an approach, a method to understand leisure history. It becomes especially relevant when the activity is casual in its occurrence, and therefore rarely documented or talked about. This approach deals with amateur hobbies, and the actors performing such activities may not be linked to the tasks of professionals. At the centre of this approach can lie both the actors as well as the consumers of the activity. These segregations, however, are in no way, water-tight compartments and historians have combined various approaches while dealing with work and labour histories. Another important note from Stebbin’s theory is to understand that leisure has at its ends, both consumers and actors. The labour of the actor thus becomes a mode of leisure for the consumer. 7 Stebbins, “The Role of History in Leisure Studies,” 1-6. 8 Ishwar Modi, “Leisure and Social Transformation.” Sociological Bulletin 61, no. 3, (2012):390. 9 Modi, “Leisure and Social Transformation,” 389. Leisure Studies in the Context of India Leisure, as a discipline of academic studies, is growing in India, but most of the literature available deals with contemporary issues or historical topics of post-colonialism and colonialism. The pioneer of leisure studies in India, sociologist Ishwar Modi, believes that leisure in Indian society was a concept synonymous with culture, for leisure was a group-oriented, hierarchical, and normative idea.8 The influence of tradition on the nature of leisure in the Indian case cannot be ignored, however, it should also be borne in mind, as Modi points out, that differences in economic and social levels, also, determine the meaning of leisure for an Indian individual.9 It should also be noted that leisure activities continued for a long period of time, because of their rooting in culture and traditions, the acts of leisure, themselves kept changing in different historical periods.10 Ishwar Modi’s work highlights the changing nature of leisure in the subcontinent and also helps in critiquing the early colonial, Orientalist perception of the Indian notion of time and history as cyclical, lacking the lofty Western ideals of change and progress.11 The study of leisure in this aspect will help researchers to use leisure as a means for studying change and progress in the Indian scenario. Ishwar Modi’s work “Mapping Leisure and Life Through the Ages in India”, is a crucial study to understand the evolution of leisure in India, historically. While talking about the ancient period of Indian history, Modi directly states that dance as a form of 10 Modi, “Leisure and Social Transformation,” 389. 11 Karl Spracklen, Constructing Leisure: Historical and Philosophical Debates, (Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011): 103-104.
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 108 leisure was enjoyed by the members of the aristocratic class and people from wealthier backgrounds.12 This implies that dance had been, since the ancient period, a mode of leisure for the rich and powerful, while for the performers, it was an act of earning their subsistence, an act of labour. However, Modi points out that even when the affluent sections were consuming the ‘dance labour’ of the poor for their leisure and recreation, the common people did take up other forms of recreation like wrestling, animal fights, and folk forms of arts and music, in the case of this paper, the folk dances.13 The folk dances were thus, the form of leisure and entertainment for the common people in the early periods of Indian history. The exploration of looking out for the evolution of dance, will not be substantial without putting forward a discussion over folk and classical dances. It is important to understand that the segregation of the two forms of dance took place in colonial India, inspired by Western aesthetics.14 When the British encountered the various dance forms of India, their understanding grouped them as either the religious dances or the dances which were ‘primitive’ in nature, the latter expressing sexual urges, without constraints.15 The dichotomy was well established by the Indian musicians associated with the nationalist ideology like Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande and Vishnu Digambar Paluskar, who identified one group of dance with courtly culture and elitism, while folk dances were looked down upon, as rustic and a means of leisure for the lower castes.16 12 Ishwar Modi, “Mapping Leisure and Life Through the Ages in India” Mapping Leisure: Studies from Australia, Asia and Africa, ed. Ishwar Modi and Teun J. Kamphorst, (Singapore: Springer Publications, 2018): 71. 13 Modi, “Mapping Leisure and Life Through the Ages in India”, 71. It should, however, be noted that even in the ancient period, when folk dances were seen as forms of leisure performed by the common people, patronage to these folk dances also existed and several of the dancers took it upon themselves, to take up their folk tradition as their occupation. It is therefore difficult in any historical period, to neatly classify folk dances as simply a form of leisure or labour. Due to the lack of available literature and personal writings of the people practising the dance form, only assumptions can be made from the vantage point of literature, mostly produced under or by the patronage of rulers and elite sections of the society. Chhau Dance: A Form of Leisure and Labour The folk dances of India associate their art with daily life activities, and the dancer borrows his or her inspiration from nature.17 Therefore, acts like hunting, harvesting, fishing, and food gathering are prominent themes in these dances.18 The folk dances are centred around events and celebrations from everyday life while also acknowledging the worth of human beings. This lies strongly in line with the academic definition of leisure, “a celebration of human values”, as discussed earlier in the paper. The Chhau dance is performed in the Eastern parts of the country, namely in regions of Jharkhand, West Bengal, and 14 Spracklen, Constructing Leisure, 104. 15 Spracklen, Constructing Leisure, 104. 16 Spracklen, Constructing Leisure, 104. 17 Kapila Vatsyayan, Traditions of Indian Folk Dance. (New Delhi: Indian Book Company, 1976): 13. 18 Vatsyayan, Traditions of Indian Folk Dance, 13.
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 109 Odisha.19 The Chhau dance, today, is performed every year in March and April to celebrate the onset of the agricultural season. Even today, the Chhau dance in Purulia is performed to seek the blessings of the lord for rainfall and a successful harvest.20 It is also performed at secular celebrations like weddings, birth, and other social-political events.21 The Purulia Chhau especially is known for retaining many vigorous movements indicative of its status as a folk dance, a keynote that DN Pattanaik talks about, distinct from the more sophisticated dances of Seraikella (Bihar) and Mayurbhanj (Odisha), where the dance received royal patronage. Pattanaik states how in both Seraikella and Mayurbhanj forms, the dancers worship Bhairav (a terrific aspect of Shiva), while no deities are worshipped in the Purulia form. The dance is basically a tribal martial dance that comes from the primitive lifestyle of the tribals when they were dependent on hunting and other natural sources for their livelihood.22 The steps and movement of the dance depict the same as if they are trying to catch animals or hunt them.23 Though very little is known and researched about the early nature of the Chhau dance and its origins, based on the themes and style of dancing, it can be asserted that the Chhau dance, originally would have been a means of leisure, community participation, and overall celebration. In the case of Mayurbhanj, the Chhau dance got ‘organised’ and was performed in a more ‘disciplined manner’ under the 19 Subodh Kunwer, “Understanding Chhau Dance and the Mask in it through Mimesis.” Theatre Street Journal 6, no.1 (March 2021): 102. 20 Cardinale Stefania. “Intangible Heritage and Livelihoods: a case study on the heritage of Purulia Chhau dance from India.” (PhD diss., London Metropolitan University, 2019), 41-43. 21 Stefania, “Intangible Heritage and Livelihoods,” 41-43. patronage of the Bhanja rulers, in the nineteenth century.24 Various religious elements were included in the dance form and the dance was manoeuvred to be included in the dominant Hindu tradition of the performance of the Ram Leela.25 Rabindra Kumar Behuria, in his research of the Chhau dance in Mayurbhanj, attributes the Chhau as a martial art dance form that was performed by various tribes of the northeast in their ‘leisure’ hours until the dances were adopted in the courts of the rulers.26 A change seen in Mayurbhanj Chhau, after the establishment of the Bhanja rule, was the gradual waning of the practice of wearing masks at the time of performing the dance. Patnaik notes, ‘Chadaya’ a masked dance element in Mayurbhanj Chhau, got extinct when the dance took place as a form of a royal dance. Another change, seen under the state patronage, was the introduction of Hindu mythological themes. Subodh Kunwer explains that the rulers sought to project such themes although the prominence of hunting and war related elements survived. While the dance practice was transforming into a distinct state-operated culture practice, the dancers were also excluded as a separate category of professional dancers. The dance, in itself, has little historical literature pertaining to it and hence even little information about the dancer. However, careful reading of the works of the contemporary scholars who have been working on the dance practice, show how the dance of leisure, was 22 Kunwer, “Understanding Chhau Dance”, 102. 23 Kunwer, “Understanding Chhau Dance”, 103. 24 Pradeep Kumar Gan and Dr. Sanjeeb Kumar Mohanty, “The Chhau Dance of Mayurbhanj: Its Growth and Royal Patronage.” Orissa Review 61, no. 9 (April 2005):46-47. 25 Gan, “The Chhau Dance of Mayurbhanj”, 46-47. 26 Rabindra Kumar Behuria, “Chhau Dance of Mayurbhanj.” Orissa Review 63, no. 2-3 (2006): 48-49.
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 110 becoming a professional sector, ie, the dance of labour. In the case of Mayurbhanj, in the late nineteenth century, the Maharaja and his close confederates took it upon themselves to train the dance groups that were recruited in the court, keeping a shrewd check on even their diet.27 These dancers received payments from the court and later, were even sent for performances outside their native regions and in front of other delegates.28 Maharaja Sriram Chandra Bhanj Deo had curated a special kind of ‘war dance’ of Chhau which was performed outside Mayurbhanj for the first time in Calcutta in front of British Emperor George V and Queen Mary in 1912. The critical element of leisure freedom and the idea of self were both disassociated with the dancer due to the royal interventions. The dance was no longer a means of celebration, performed by an individual after rendering their obligations, but was actually a sanctioned form of work or labour commissioned by the king or the monarch. However, as D.N. Patnaik has pointed out, while the Purulia Chhau remains a ‘rustic’ village dance, a hierarchy was seen in the case of Mayurbhanj and Seraikella, where at one level the rural dance survives and exists along with the professional state formulated Chhau dance. This could possibly mean that while a professional class of dancers would have been created, the dance form as a means of leisure would still have prevailed among the village communities. Conclusion This paper is an incipient attempt at exploring labour and leisure histories in the Indian context. The essay through the study 27 Gan, “The Chhau Dance of Mayurbhanj”, 47-48. 28 Gan, “The Chhau Dance of Mayurbhanj”, 47-48. of available literature establishes the state of transformation of the acts of leisure to the acts of labour, through the case of the Chhau dance. The impact of state intervention brought substantial changes in the practice of Chhau dance and the study pitches the idea that the creation of a professional class of dancers created the rift between Chhau dance as a form of labour and as a form of leisure. The extensive intervention and control exercised by the Bhanja rulers in the case of Mayurbhanj Chhau in the nineteenth and twentieth century brought changes in its theme and use of equipment in the dance. It is also mentioned briefly how the dancers were appointed on state patronage and how a distinct class of dancers were created which would have separated them from other sorts of military or agrarian labour requirements. In this respect, it is shown how dance became a form of labour and the dancers became labourers. However, the paper has several limitations, the most pressing related to the collection of information on the Chhau dance and its dancers. This limitation could have been overcome if interviews of contemporary Chhau dancers and teachers would have been taken up for popular memory and could be used cautiously as a potential tool of oral history to document communities, of whom little has been written historically. The perusal of such rigorous, ground-level research, is out of the scope of the paper, but in the future, oral history can be used to document as well as research the Chhau dance as well as several more elements of the intangible cultural heritage of the country.
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 111 BIBLIOGRAPHY Bakhle, Janaki. Two Men and Music: Nationalism in the Making of an Indian Classical Tradition. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005. Behuria, Rebindra Kumar. “Chhau Dance of Mayurbhanj.”Orissa Review 63, no. 2-3 (2006): 48-50. Best, Shaun. Leisure Studies: Themes and Perspectives. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications, 2010. Bhattacharya, Kumkum. “Non-Western Tradition: Leisure in India.” In A Handbook of Leisure Studies, edited by Chris Rojek, Susan M. Shaw and A.J. Seal, 75-93. New York: palgrave macmillan, 2006. Gan, Pradeep Kumar., and Mohanty, Sanjeeb Kumar. “The Chhau Dance of Mayurbhanj: Its Growth and Royal Patronage.” Orissa Review 61, no. 9 (April 2005): 46-50. Haworth, John T., and Veal, A.J. “Introduction.” In Work and Leisure, edited by John T. Haworth and A.J. Veal, 1-13. London: Routledge, 2004. Lucassen, Jan. “Outlines of a History of Labour”, International Institute of Social History 51, (2013): 6-46 — “The History of Work and Labour.” Tijdschrift voor Sociale en Economische Geschiedenis 11, no.2 (2014): 67-83. Kunwer, Subodh. “Understanding Chhau Dance and the Mask in it through Mimesis.” Theatre Street Journal 6, no.1 (March 2021): 101-09. Modi, Ishwar. “Leisure and Social Transformation.” Sociological Bulletin 61, no. 3, (2012): 386-403. — “Mapping Leisure and Life Through the Ages in India.” Mapping Leisure: Studies from Australia, Asia and Africa, edited by Ishwar Modi and Teun J. Kamphorst, 67-89, Singapore: Springer Publications, 2018. Pattnaik, D.N. “The Chhau Dance of Mayurbhanj: I.” Sangeet Natak 125-126, (1997): 19-31. Stebbins, Robert A. “The Role of History in Leisure Studies.” Leisure Reflections 45, (March 2017): 1-7.
I j t i h a d V o l u m e 9 | 112 Spracklen, Karl. Constructing Leisure: Historical and Philosophical Debates, Hampshire:palgrave macmillan, 2011. Stefania, Cardinale. “Intangible heritage and livelihoods: a case study on the heritage of Purulia Chhau dance from India.” PhD diss., London Metropolitan University, 2019. Vatsyayan, Kapila. Traditions of Indian Folk Dance. New Delhi: Indian Book Company, 1976. Wilensky, Harold. “Labour and Leisure: Intellectual Traditions.” Industrial Relation: A Journal of Economy and Society 1, no.2, (February 1916): 1-13.