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THE MOTIF OF CHILDLESSNESS IN NATIONAL FOLKLORE
Isakov R.U.
Nukus, Uzbekistan
Karakalpak Department of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan
PhD Student, Karakalpak Institute of Humanities and Research
Annotation:
This article discusses the issues of childlessness of fathers in
the traditional life of the Karakalpaks from an early period, which are reflected in
folk epics. The epic direction and various motivations are revealed.
Key words:
Myth, genetics, typology, transformation, totemism, anemism,
magicism.
Аннотация:
В
данной
статье
рассматриваются
вопросы
бездетности отцов в традиционном быту у каракалпаков с раннего периода,
которые отражены в народных эпосах. Выявлены эпические направление и
разнообразные мотивации.
Ключевые слова:
Миф, генетика, типология, трансформация,
тотемизм, анемизм, магизм.
The folk epics of Karakalpak are extremely complex and large-scale from
the compositional level, and in their content, they preserve the traces of several
period coverings. We can mainly divide them into groups such as introductory
plots, formative plots, developing plots and concluding plots. Among them, the
opening plots (exposition) are of different importance. The reason is that these
plots stand at the edge of the events that will happen in the epic and pave the way
for their further development. Directions and solutions of events are directly
related to them.
One of the most important of such motivational data is the program of
childless fathers wishing for a child from higher powers, enriched with
mythological and mystical elements, and is considered an epic factor determining
the fate of childless fathers. At the beginning of the poems, fathers without
children are mentioned. In this direction, we will try to study the epic information
about how childless fathers got children, which are often found in the poems of
Karakalpak people. These are thematically different, and the typological features
of our ancestors' beliefs and worldviews, which have taken place from the life and
traditions of our ancestors, are isolated. That said, this topic is directly dependent
on the beliefs of mythology, totemism, magic and others from the genetic point of
view. For example, in the above-mentioned fairy tale «The Prince Worthy of
Harassment» («Obrechenniy tsarevich», XIII century BC), «He asked the gods of
his land, because he was childless, for a child... spent one night with his wife. The
woman became pregnant. when the time came, she gave birth to a son» [1, p. 63].
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Usually, childless fathers thanking God and asking for their ticket, the program of
asking for a child takes a large place in epic essays. However, as early as the 13th
century BC, simple forms of asking for children from higher powers were used. F.
Urmancheni, a well-known folklorist, explains that just such a simple and «light»
program of wishing a child from God belongs to much earlier times» [2, p. 119].
Epics, fairy-tale plots or episodes that represent the latest category of this motif
have managed to preserve the necessary attributes of their source.
Elderly people think of having only one child, they sit in pain with each
other and intend them to get married. His stable formula in epics tends to be in this
direction. «...From a deceiver, we became childless and passers-by. If you have a
son, if I have a daughter, we would both be godparents» [3, p. 5]. In the epics of
the Karakalpak people, the program of betrothed to their unborn children by
agreement must be related to the belief in the power of the word in ancient times,
the concepts expressing the magical character of the word. The reason for this is
that «the wish was accepted in the form of prayer» [4, p. 212]. The program of
begging for children from the higher forces is also embodied in the epics
«Mahabharata» and «Ramayana», which are ancient Indian epics. In the opening
(expository) sections of the epics, the stories are almost entirely devoted to the
theme of childlessness, and the kings ask God to give them children when they get
older. In the epic «Ramayana» King Dashartka becomes childless. He «begged
God to give me a child.» The Gods blessed King Dashartka with the overthrow of
the kingdom of Rauanan, the king of Lanka, the leader of the group of giants, and
gave him a child [5, p. 14]. It is important to emphasize here that the gods took
purposeful actions in accepting Dasharatkan's wishes, thinking of putting their
earthly concerns in order. The reason for this is that in our epics, the intentions of
the gods who give children to the childless or some miraculous forces to
implement measures for their own purposes are almost never realized.
It is necessary to understand the circumstances that led to the birth of the
child and the stages of understanding should include many time alliances. The
reason is that before the «ability» of the gods to give birth to a human child
appeared, the role of men in the conception of women was not sufficiently broad.
According to the observation of ancient people or their own thinking, there were
reports of women who became pregnant after drinking the water. The reason is that
water cannot be ignored. Water energizes a person, makes flowers bloom, gives
life to herbs, and more. Raindrops are also understood to have their own
characteristics. For example, the god of the Rota tribe living in North America
raised a womb from a drop of warm rain and gave birth to the first man. In Greek
myths, Zeus turns into a drop of golden rain into the underground palace where
Nafarya lies, causing Perseid to come to the world [7, p. 3].
It is a national achievement of certain eras that the stories of the Karakalpak
population contain information about mothers, who are burdened with the help of
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the impressions of people close to them, even if only a few of them paves the way
for our recognition as ours. In the epics, «when he was dying, when his beard was
white, when he was blind, he drove horses to the cemetery, drove sheep to
Khorasan, spent the night without leaving the cemetery, and walked like a bush,
giving birth to one son and one daughter. A verbal formula like «ldi» is stable.
These are in the version of Zardaeniyaz Jirov Iyimbetov (volume 15) of the epic
«Er Sho'ra», Tasadduqbai Tájibaevtıń in the epic «Bo'zaman» (volume 40, p. 355)
of the same title «Jahansha» (volume 43, p. 9), Aytbay Cho'kichbay's son's «Gul
Khiromiwar» epics read three of them. Here we can see that the motives of
childlessness have taken a new shape under the influence of Islam. Beyond these
plots, the archaic examples of the worship of supernatural forces, which do not
exist in the country of the bride, have been preserved. For example, the program of
children's prayers in cemeteries shows signs of the worship of the spirits of
ancestors (animism), since childhood children's prayers have a general content and
resemble the transformed forms of cosmogonic beliefs that come from early times.
Beliefs synthesized in the environment of Navki peoples living in Central Asia and
people of Karakalpak can be found in folk epics.
