Re-‘Writing’ and Reconstructing History of Tripura through Image-Text-Culture Representation: An Analysis of Comicbook Senapati Ray Kachag

Abstract

This paper attempts to analyze comic book Senapati Ray Kachag based on the fifteenth century chivalrous Reang General of King Dhanyamanikya, as a comprehensive document recording Tripura’s historical and geographical facts, history of art and culture through image and text. It presents a non-conventional and non- canonical history of Tripura. In the course of this paper attempts will also be made to explore the populist appeal of visual texts evidenced by the existing academic pedagogy of comprehending History through story boards. In comic book mould  the historical legend of Tripura, Ray Kachag and his story find an alternative expression using myth, folk-lore, folk life and culture as its ingredients and  reconstructs history concerning oral historical traces defying monolithic ‘writing’ .The inclusion of Jamichalang, a folk hero of Tripura is interesting as he eludes and deludes any historical traces. He is a historical as he denies age and time by resisting the prime determiner of canonical and conventional historical documentation viz. chronology. This paper explores this visual text as an interdisciplinary field of study linking history, culture and literature expanding the frontier of knowledge in the discipline of history. History is always accompanied with some obscurity and half-visibility, and this obscurity in fact, facilitates the canonical history formation that involves the politics of inclusion or exclusion. . Adapting the comic book medium, the writer –illustrator of Senapati Ray Kachag Alak Dasgupta presents a blending of fact and fiction, humour and history. The list of books in acknowledgement section is documented, conventional and canonical history written more or less from the perspective of royalty of Tripura. To consider Senapati Ray Kachag a conventional history or legend would be erroneous as no attempt has been made to situate him in such way so far. This paper thus aims to enforce the idea of folk culture and life of Tripura forming  a distinct thematic perspective,  reconstructing history tracing the presence of a culture  integral to  historical process but absent in  conventional and canonical history.