“PADDA PURAN” AND THE RITUAL CONSTRUCTION OF BANGAL IDENTITY IN TRIPURA: A CULTURAL MEMORY STUDY

Abstract

Padda Puran or Manasa Mangal holds a pivotal role in the ritual, mnemonic and cultural world of the Bangal people of Tripura. This paper studies the role that the ritual enactment of Padda Puran plays in the creation and maintenance of the Bangal identity in Tripura. Based on theories on Cultural Memory by Jan Assmann and Maurice Halbwachs, Ritual Theory by Victor Turner and Catherine Bell, and Folklore Theory by Alan Dundes and Postmemory Theory by Marianne Hirsch, the study proposes that the Padda Puran is not just a religious text or ritual act but a mnemonic archive through which displaced communities reconstruct memory, negotiate belonging and preserve cultural continuity. The paper also reveals that the ritualization of memory as it occurs in Manasa worship is a way of making folklore ‘alive,’ as a living cultural practice helping migrant Bangal communities maintain collective identity. Oral storytelling, ritual singing, folk performance, seasonal worship, and intergenerational transmission reveals Padda Puran as a powerful place of memory and cultural resilience in the post-partition scenario in Tripura. The study also examines the possibilities of the transmission of Padda Puran in the twenty first century through the mediation of digital media, social media circulation, performances on the platform YouTube and the reinterpretations of Padda Puran by folk in the present times.