তারাশঙ্কর বন্দ্যোপাধ্যায়ের ‘ডাইনী’ গল্পে লোকবিশ্বাস ও গ্রামীণ সংস্কৃতি : কুসংস্কার, সমাজ ও নারীর অবস্থানের পাঠ/ Folk Beliefs and Rural Culture in Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay’s ‘Daini’ : An Analysis of Superstition, Society, and the Status of Women

Abstract

Folk culture in Bengali literature does not merely comprise folk customs, beliefs, legends, religious practices, and rituals, it also includes the ways of life, social relationships, fears, values, perceptions of nature, and psychological tendencies of a particular community to explain the unknown. In the fiction of Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay, the relationship between the rural life of Rarh Bengal, the existence of lower-class people, and folk beliefs is particularly significant. His short story Daini gives this relationship a profound social and psychological dimension through the life experience of a marginalized woman.

The central character of the story, Soradhani, is regarded by society as a ‘witch’. However, an analysis of the narrative reveals that her identity as a ‘witch’ is not established on the basis of any definite supernatural truth. Rather, it is constructed through folk belief, rumour, social suspicion, fear, accusation, and prolonged social rejection. Gradually, Soradhani herself begins to accept the prevailing perception about her as true. Thus, folk belief in the story is not merely superstition, it becomes a cultural force that controls individual identity, social relationships, and human existence.

This paper examines Daini through the interrelationship of folk culture, folk belief, social power, and the marginalization of women. It particularly discusses the construction of Soradhani’s identity as a ‘witch’, the folk belief surrounding the evil eye or nazar, the transformation of social accusation into self-belief, the social insecurity of a lower-class woman, and the influence of caste discrimination on love and marriage. It also examines the social consequences of folk belief in the final outcome of the story.

Tarashankar’s artistic achievement lies in the fact that he does not portray the ‘witch’ merely as a supernatural character. Through folk belief, he constructs the history of a woman’s human desires, inner conflict, humiliation, and social exclusion. In this sense, Daini is not simply a story of superstition, it is a significant exploration of the social and psychological dimensions of folk belief and the marginalized position of women in rural society.