Banga

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Context

Banga is Pontius Pilate's faithful dog. Piiatus was his master, the man «whom he loved, respected, and considered the most powerful man in the world, the ruler of all men, thanks to whom the dog considered himself a privileged, lofty and special being».

Banga's loyalty was unconditional: «He wanted to comfort his master and was ready to meet misfortune with him. He also attempted to express this with his eyes, casting sidelong glances at his master, and with his alert, pricked-up ears», and at the end of the story he accompanies Pontius Pilate on his last journey along the moonlit path. For «he who loves must share the lot of the one he loves».

The love was mutual, because during the interrogation of Yeshua Ha-Nozri, the latter noticed that Pilate has a headache and said: «You can’t even think about anything and only dream that your dog should come, apparently the one being you are attached to».


Prototype

Banga was not a lap dog, on the contrary. After all, it was «a gigantic sharp-eared dog with a grey pelt and a gold-studded collar». He must have been very large indeed, for «the dog rose on his hind legs, placed his front paws on his master’s shoulders, nearly knocking him to the floor».

Bulgakov does not give any further description of the breed in the latest version of The Master and Margarita, but from earlier versions of the novel we can conclude that it is a so-called Great Dane.

The Great Dane is one of the largest dog breeds. The physique is powerful and elegant. Males reach a height of 80 cm and more. Their weight is between 50 and 100 kg. The breed already existed among the Assyrians in 2000 BC, but the name Great Dane was first proposed in Berlin in 1878 and dates back to when these dogs were kept in the courts of royalty in Germany for the purpose of hunting bears, boars and deer. They were reportedly even able to kill these animals on their own.

There are three varieties: a grey, a yellow and a white with black spots. In the last version of The Master and Margarita Bulgakov talked about a gray dog, but in the second version of the novel, The Engineer's Hoof, written in the years 1928 and 1929, his preference was for the yellow version, and he described him as «the yellow fighting dog Banga, with a studded collar, with one green emerald».


Bulgakov's Banga

Bulgakov found the name Banga in his own inner circle. The petname of his second wife Lyubov Yevgenevna Belozerskaya (1895-1987) was Lyubanga - abbreviated as Banga.


Banga in music

Banga and Pilate inspired the American rock group Pearl Jam to write the song Pilate. The song was recorded in 1998 for Yield, their fifth album.

Click here to read more about Pilate and listen to the song

Banga also inspired American rock legend Patti Smith to write the song Banga in 2012. It became the title track of her eleventh album.

Watch an acoustic version with guitarist Lenny Kaye here



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