Myth, Ritual, and Ecology: Indigenous Environmental Consciousness in Kantara

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this research paper is to analyse the Kannada film Kantara (2022) as a cultural text that portrays the dramatization of indigenous environmental consciousness through myth, ritual and living customs in the context of ecological practices. The paper examines the articulation of the relationship between humans, land, spirits, and nature. It also investigates the challenges of anthropocentric and modern developmental narratives in the framework of indigenous cosmologies and environmental ethics.

Methodology and Approach: This paper is qualitative research and an interpretative methodology inherited from ecocriticism, indigenous studies, and myth criticism. The film is studied as a narrative and visual text concerning landscapes and the interaction of the protagonist and the community with nature.

Outcome: The exploration of the film concluded that nature is not a passive resource but a living, spiritual, and moral force. Rituals like ‘Bhoota Kola’ and the narratives of the community, the myth of the place, are all embedded in such a way that they maintain balance between humans and nature. The film also gives a lens for the conflict between indigenous ecological ethics and modern capitalist exploitation of land, focusing on the violence of displacement and environmental degradation.

Conclusion and Suggestion: It establishes it within native myths, cosmological traditions, land ownership discourse, and the never-ending conflict between humans and nature. It discerns the land not as property in a materialistic manner but as a living entity in a sacred way.