Similarities and differences of Kyrgyz and Kara-Kalpak epics

Бюллетень науки и практики / Bulletin of Science and Practice

UDC 947(575.2):39:398                             

Dastan (from the Persian ا س تاند dastan “narrative”, “story” or “history” ‒ “history”, as a story about past events) is a common epic work in the folklore or literature of the Middle East and South-East Asia. On the other hand, Kyrgyz folklore conventionally includes the poem (epic) as a new form of the epic genre, such as the heroic story or epic in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Therefore, the epic is considered as a complex branch of the genre in the literature of most Turkic peoples (Azerbaijan, Turkmen, Uzbek, Tatar, Karakalpak, Kazakh, etc.) in oral and written form. So, most often epics ‒ folklore or heroic myths, legends and fairy tales contain a literary plot. They describe fantastical and adventurous situations, often have complex plots, slightly exaggerated plots, and idealized characters. Therefore, it is an interesting and unique genre that is present in all nations of the world.

For example, one cannot ignore the fact that Karakalpak researchers have paid attention to the cultural value of the Karakalpak epics. Many readers got acquainted with the heroic epic "Forty Girls" translated into Russian and other languages. E. Bertels and S. Tolstov were prominent scientists and academicians who appreciated its literary and historical value [13, p. 70]. And the French writer Louis Aragon compared this epic with the heroic characters of the famous "Songs of Roland". It describes the aspirations of the Karakalpak people for freedom and equality and their heroic struggle against foreign invaders.

The struggle began with the fact that the Kalmaks destroyed the fortress of Allayar Sorkon, stole his property, captured his people and drove them to their land, and ended with the fact that forty girls, led by Gulaim, showed exceptional heroism and bravery and defended their people from the Kalmaks. That is why the epic is called “Forty Girls”. Forty girls led by Gulaym won such an honest victory in the fight against the khans of Khiva and the Shah of Iran. It consists of 20,000 lines of poetry and was recorded in 1939-1940 from the words of the folk storyteller Tadjibayev Kurbanbay. And in Kyrgyz language it was published in 1960 [13, p. 70].

Also, descriptions of women in the epic begin with the praise of the beauty of Gulaim:

The girl is thin and flexible, Almond-shaped eyelids,

Polished like gold Her mouth is like a beautiful valley.

Black eyebrows, thick hair Broad-mouthed and white skin

Rainy-eyed, eloquent, White teeth, fairy color

Creamy lips, straight nose, Gulaim was the only girl [6, p. 7; 6, p. 57].

In general, the image of forty girls is widespread in Turkish folklore. For example, the legend “Kyrk Kyz” (Forty Girls) plays a significant role in the ethnonym of Kyrgyz. We also wanted to share an interesting legend about the concept of totems in the distribution of Kyrgyz tribes. Here, 40 servant girls of the Khan's daughter drank the foam and became pregnant. Khan ordered them to be killed, but the Khan’s soldiers took pity on the girls and took them into a deserted forest. The yellow dog followed them. 30 boys and 10 girls were born there. The dog caught small creatures and took care of them. When a boy and a girl cried and asked who their father was, they answered that their father was a dog (a yellow dog) [1, p. 205].

Ch. Valikhanov compares the first Kyrgyz legend he cited with similar legends of other peoples and makes a reasonable conclusion that their creation is associated with a totem. He writes the following: “The legend of the Kyrgyz that came from a wild stone, red dog and a princess with her 40 girl servants is very ancient”. One of the characteristic features of the legends of the ancient Central Asian peoples is the myth of origin from some animal [1, p. 205-206].

One of the greatest and most original works of Karakalpak folklore is the romantic fairy tale poem “Sharyar”. The poem Sharyar was recorded by the writer Amet Shamuratov from the words of the narrator Kulemet-zhirau in 1939 in the Kungrad region of the Republic of Karakalpakstan.

The main characters of the work are the young hero Sharyar and his brave sister Anjim, who depicted with the qualities of real folk heroes: courage, loyalty, justice, spiritual nobility. In the epic about Sharyar, the fairy-tale plot in ancient Eastern folk poetry is given with poetic means and psychology as one of the monuments [11, p. 265-266].

In general, one of the characteristic features of the Kyrgyz epics is that they are composed mainly of poems, and they are told in a melody worthy of their content. In addition, each piece has a tune worthy of its content. Some epics were sung to the accompaniment of komuz or kyl kyak. The pronunciation of melody is also different. The story starts slowly and becomes interesting and tense as it progresses. Gradually, the tune turns into an upbeat tone. This shows that there are many folk tunes in the Kyrgyz epics, and they are expressed in different forms.

In recent years, a well-known researcher of Karakalpak folklore, Professor Sarygul Bahadirova has published several articles in scientific publications on the performance of songs of the Karakalpak people on the musical instrument “kobyz”.

So, the content of heroic epics as a whole develops in accordance with the high folk idea of the struggle to defend the independence of the people from external invaders, then the family and marriage relations of the Kyrgyz people are reflected in the life epic and the opposite traditions of the patriarchal-feudal society are exposed. In addition to a skillful description of the past life and aspirations of people, it is valuable because it depicts of such high qualities as high patriotism, humanity and stability [10, p. 192].

Among the works of Karakalpak folklore, there are remarkable examples of epics, which were passed down from generation to generation. We tried to find the answer to the question, what kind of method is used here. Parents to their children, teachers to students told about the special melodies performed with musical instruments by talented singers and bahshi. And these Kyrgyz students go to their masters, learn mastery, sit around the fire for several nights in summer and winter, tell stories to others, perform and praise them in front of people. Here we can point out that teaching a student method is used.

In the folklore of Karakalpak, the storytellers are called “zhyrau”, they tell to the accompaniment of kobyz. In addition to poetry, the repertoire of “zhyrau” also includes poems and lament songs. Lament songs and improvisions are performed by singers, the epic-poems are performed by bahsys [13, p. 170].

In each period, the text was continuously developed in accordance with the ideas of the people and the requirements of the society, and the inner world was enriched according to the content. Therefore, people who performed songs deserved special respect among the people. In the past, the wedding ceremony was not held without singers. Those who were interested in it came from far away on horseback to listen to it [8]. And among the Kyrgyz (Ichkilik (tribe)) and Southern Kyrgyz)), feasts and weddings were accompanied by songs (oleng). Poetry is a rare genre in Kyrgyz folklore, and those who read a lot are called poets. It developed like a conversation between a boy and a girl. It is told at weddings as jar-jar (wedding song) [12].

First, in the works of Karakalpak folklore researchers Najim Davkaraev [5], Ismail Sagitov [9], Kally Aiymbetov [2], Kabul Maksetov [7, 8] and Sarygul Bahadyrova [3], performance skills and peculiarities of epic are mentioned in detail.

Researcher Najim Davkaraev writes that performers of Karakalpak forklore are talented folk figures and performers: “They are recognized as creators, keepers and bearers of forklore” [5, p. 23], ‒ and Karakalpak Zhyrau schools ‒ student school Sypyr Zhyrau Soppasly, noting that they are recognized as teachers of traditions and students of Karakalpak Zhyrau and Bakhshy, each member in his repertoire has epics and music [5, p. 36]. Also, in his work, the author gives a scientific interpretation of the changes in the repertoire of bahsi and zhyrau based on the dreams and wishes of the people and connects them with the mastery of the performers.

The Professor Kally Aiymbetov in his book “People's Wisdom” gives rich material about: 54 poems, 52 storytellers, 73 stories, their names, life and death in 1968. Folklorists refer to the term “singer” (singer-storyteller) as bahsy, zhyrau, kisachi (storyteller), poets, singers, storytellers, etc. In short, all created, performed and carried folklore belong to narrators. He mentions that the Karakalpaks had songs in ancient times, songs were performed with kobyz in the context of heroic epics, historical (songs) stories, lament songs, (fragments).

Sometimes the epic becomes more or less depending on the ability of the narrator. For example, Kally Aiymbetov published short biographies such as Shankot (Shanghai) zhyrau (poem), Jimurat zhyrau (poem), Nurabulla zhyrau (poem), Erpolat zhyrau (poem), Kurbanbay zhyrau (poem), Tore zhyrau (poem), Oteniaz zhyrau (poem), Ogiz zhyrau (poem), Esemurat zhyrau (poem), Kiya zhyrau (poem), [2, p. 62]. Therefore, when studying the poetic art of the Karakalpak people, the researcher’s thinking deserves special attention.

After Kally Ayimbetov, the professor Kabul Maksetov also created several valuable scientific works on the biography, performance and creative skills of performers of the Karakalpak folk epic and a school of teaching students forklore.

For example, the events in the book “Karakalpak epic”, published in Russian in Tashkent in 1976, prove that the events of the Karakalpak heroic epic are closely related to the work of the famous folk performer Kurbanbay Tadzhibaev. The personal peculiarity, his improvisational talent of Kurbanbay Zhyrau testifies to his scientific knowledge [4, p. 34].

And in the book “Karakalpak zhyrau and bahshy” (Nukus, “Karakalpakstan”, 1983) with the aim of introducing the people to the famous performing arts of zhirau and bahsi, Soppasly Sypyra zhyrau, Nurabilla zhyrau, Kurbanbay zhyrau, Karakalpak zhyrau in Bukhara (Shankot zhyrau, Begmurat zhyrau) in the books about the artists Yesemurat zhyrau, Kiyas zhyrau, Kulemet zhyrau and Zhapak Bakhsy, Eshan bakhsy, Karazhan bakhsy, Amet bakhsy, Gendzhebay bakhsy, the author tells about his observations, thoughts and creative treatment about the masters of music and speech, their biography and self-sacrificing work for people. [7, p. 47].

In 2017, S. Bahadyrova conducted an extensive study on “Who are Karakalpak people?” ‒ Tashkent, “Navruz”, 2017.). The researcher notes that the Karakalpak use their musical instrument “Kobyz”, the Turkic-speaking people, call “dastan” and its performers are as follows:

A voluminous epic, poem-epic (many people call the word “dastan” as its term) in most Turkic peoples it is a dastan, in Yakuts it is olonho, in Kazakhs it is song (zhyr), in Kyrgyz it is song, in Bashkurts and Karakalpaks it is a kobair, and its performer ‒ zhyrau, and Kazakhs also call zhyrau, jyrshi-poet (singer-poet), Uzbek-poet, bakhshi, Turkmen-bakhshi, ozan, Kazakhs call them ozan, ajan, ashug, vanshag, among Azerbaijans and Turks. the Yakuts ‒ Olonho, the Khakas ‒ Kachi, the Bashkurs ‒ sesen, kobairshi [4, p. 69]. Therefore, all of them are the idea and theme of the narrators (songs) of large, voluminous epic works ‒ about the exploits of heroes who defend their homeland from enemies.

Undoubtedly, it was customary to invite performers to wedding parties and celebrations, to listen to their songs at public events.

Results of the research: So, in both countries, dastan performers know about a million texts, perform them, distribute them to the public, and teach students who are interested in it. This is a comprehensive perfect look in the art. It was noted above that epics with large texts pass on from generation to generation through the school of a mentor-student, and it has "its own tradition, theory, way, mechanism and law."

In both nations, along with inequality, epics also demonstrated deep respect for women. Then the following conclusions can be drawn:

— Keeper of the hearth, family; the creator of a peaceful family, the manager of the household;

— Bearer of generation, continuation of life, mother of children;

— Teaches children to preserve the national tradition;

— Comprehensively educate a girl in the family, form a skillful personality, devoted to traditions and customs, and able to manage the household;

— In the cultures of both peoples, a dowry is prepared for the future bride (daughter).

Therefore, the folklore of both peoples, which has been told and preserved for centuries, is invaluable as a carrier of the spiritual culture of the nation, which has conveyed to us its wisdom and philosophy. As another way of preserving spiritual values in modern society, it is necessary to take up the method of disseminating and preserving the epics studied above.