Representation of woman in koch verbal art: A study through the Rajbongshi Proverbs

The present paper will examine the proverbs used by the Koch community in their own communicative context in order to understand the way through which they have perceived the position of women in their day to day life. Proverbs are one of the important sub-genres of verbal art that are used as an oral communication system among different communities for a long time. In almost all societies, elders and parents used proverbs as a personal tool to spread the knowledge and guide the actions of the younger. The reflection of the cultural details of a particular community is very much visible in their practice of proverbs. In the context of the representation of the gender roles in the society, proverbs play a crucial role in distinguishing the space and role as it acts as a guideline and aid in constructing the normative gender roles.

Therefore, this paper attempts to locate the role of proverbs as the traditional communication system among the Koch community in constructing the gender role. The identification of certain proverbs has been related to particular gender specific relations. This paper will look into these certain paradigms while trying to locate how women are portrayed and symbolized in the society. For that, the data has been collected and substantiated from the Rajbongshi language in form of a semi-structured interview and observation method as well as secondary sources like vernacular books, journals and newspaper article to realize the objective.