Manipulating the Cosmic Hierarchy: A Practical Act of Conceptual Blending

The tale of Gaji Pir, his half-brother Kalu, and his wife Campavati, parodies the prior Ray mangal. To win the Hindu Campavati’s hand, Gaji’s tigers defeat Daksin Ray’s crocodile army granted by the goddess Ganga, defeat Ray’s hungry ghosts granted by the goddess Candi, and defeat the brahmin king Mukut Raja’s revivified army. The king relents, Gaji marries Campavati, and they depart. Just as it did with the prior text of the Ray mangal, Bonbibi’s story appropriates Gaji’s tale intertextually, thereby changing the message of both predecessors. The Bonbibi tale reorders the worlds of Daksin Ray and Gaji through complex acts of conceptual blending, as articulated by Lakoff and Johnson, pointing to the pragmatic goal of establishing the sole divinity of Allah.