Order and Chaos: The Pastoral Ideal and the Chaotic Wild in Kesar- the Son of god

Abstract

The paper studies the Balti epic Kesar – The Son of God from an ecocritical perspective using the conceptual tropes of the Pastoral and the Wilderness proposed by Greg Garrard (2004). Despite the vast literature devoted to this epic in terms of its folklore and historical aspects, this paper seeks to fill the current knowledge gap concerning its ecological imagination. Through the textual analysis of the epic collected by Abbas Kazmi, the paper demonstrates how the “Old World” wilderness is represented as an unruly and monstrous place of test that needs to be mastered for ensuring collective existence. On the other hand, the pastoral world is shown to be not an innocent and harmonious nature but a precarious socio-political order sustained by ethical management and work. Thus, by bringing Balti indigenous mythology into dialogue with modern environmental thought, the paper emphasizes the timeless wisdom contained in the epic about human-land relations.