The Scribal Life of Folktales in Medieval India

The Book Review, 2023

Book review of Nitin Kushalappa’s Dakshin: South Indian Myths and Fables Retold

2010

In folklore studies it is not possible to be unaware of change-the process of study itself being part of the change. One could say that CHANGE is the keyword for understanding folklore as phenomenon and as individual texts. 'Change' in folklore exists at many levels-as change in performance, change as perceived by the performers, change as perceived by the folklorist, changes caused by technologies, changes caused by ideologies, changes created by designers, changes created by commerce, changes that glamorize, changes that demonize, changes that threaten existence, changes that promise rejuvenation, change that makes folktales disappear, change that brings them to the fore, changes in language, changes in form, changes in modes of dissemination, changes in forms of reception-the list can go on! When we assess change it is imperative that we identify a situation, a point of time as base line and then see the changes that emerge henceforth. This baseline happens to be defined by the following two universally accepted features-that folktale was originally oral expression, and that in modern history its orality was replaced first by the medium of printing and then by the audiovisual language of cinema. Change has often been seen as regrettable, and certainly as deficient of the features of orality. While this may very well be true, but it is probably also true, though not often stated, that change causes the appearance of another phenomenon and another text which has its own features that erase the deficiency of orality. And yet, if the folktale continues to exist, then the change has created a new phenomenon and a new text which also has a different value from that of the authentic, oral text. It is through the creation of this value, rather of new value, that the new form seeks to establish itself over and above the older one, and the more valuable it becomes, more the significance it gains in society and culture and as such becomes as important for the understanding of a culture as folktale has been. In this paper today I am going to discuss two particular types of changes in the form and value of some Indian folktales caused by colonial and cinematic translations. These are changes that have internationally influenced the perception of Indian folktales in academia and in popular spheres of communication.

᭛ ABSTRACT Between 1860 and 1920, a staggering number of collections of Indian folklore was published by British administrators, missionaries, wives and daughters of officials, and Indian scholars. Rich in local detail, these collections of folklore contain copious prefaces, notes and explanatory appendixes. I examine the prefatory material of two folktale collections-Mary Frere's Old Deccan Days (1868), and Georgiana A. Kingscote and S.M. Nat˙eśa Śā stri's Tales of the Sun (1890)-for their display of multiple levels of engagement between co-authors, informants, and representatives of colonial authority, calling into question the concept of a stable authorial center. I argue that these collections comment on how collectors of folklore delineated alterity and subjectivity while themselves experiencing shifting subaltern positions.

Journal of South Asian Literature, 1975

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Indian Folklore Research Journal, 2011

Dialogue: A Journal Devoted to Literary Appreciation, 2018

Folktales are the tales which give knowledge and help to bring harmony among the members of a group or folk. The folktales are an essence of collective consciousness of humanity. This paper aims at the universality and timelessness of folktales. The aforementioned are the core characterstics of folktales. The values they teach are universal in nature and have the power to erase all man-made boundaries. These boundaries are between human race and animals, between human race and plant kingdom. Only in a folktale a prince comes at the doorstep of a poor man demanding shelter, seeking love and help. In folktales we have stories of brave girls and women erasing the stereotypical images of the fair sex. Birth stories of Lord Buddha, better known as Jatakas have erased the political and geographical boundaries as they travelled from India to Burma to Japan. Thus the role of folktales in erasing boundaries could be well established. It also helps in implementing the philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakum (the world is one family). Folktales can play an important role in curing racism, maintaining ecological balance and can create better sensibility in using natural resources. Folktales erase boundaries among various disciplines like history, psychology, medicine, oral traditions and literature. Folktales many times erase boundaries between real and imaginary world. Studies of folktales are always welcomed by different communities all over the world with less or no resistance.

2017

Structure 2.0 Objectives 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Early philology and the Grimm Brothers 2.3 W. J. Thoms and the word 'folklore' 2.4 Folklore and ideology 2.5 Different academic approaches 2.6 Growth of folklore studies in India 2.6.1 The missionary period 2.6.2 The nationalist period 2.6.3 The academic period 2.7 Let us sum up 2.8 References and further readings 2.9 Check your progress: possible answers 2.0 OBJECTIVES After reading this Unit, you will be able to: understand the beginning and growth of folklore studies, in India in particular, and in the other parts of the world in general; explain the ideological contexts for the study of, and interest in, folklore; and explain the diversity of perceptions about folklore in different places and at different times.

STUDIES IN HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES, 2019

Story telling in India has been an age-old tradition. Storytelling through the medium of visual art, masks and puppets has been a common practice in the Indian subcontinent since time immemorial. In ancient India, in the absence of written texts, information and knowledge were transmitted orally from one generation to the next through the practice of storytelling. With the progress of civilisation, written material came in. Texts such as the Panchatantra, Hitopodesh and Kathasaritsagar formed valuable sources of storytelling. This paper emphasises that most of the myths and legends narrated in the Indian subcontinent have found their origins in the Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Puranas. Tales, whether historical or mythological, were told in different regions of the country through the medium of visual art and performing art which today form part of the cultural heritage of India, although some of them are on the verge of extinction. Keywords: Storytelling, bards, visual art, performing art

A widespread belief in India is that at birth a deity comes to write the destiny of the newborn child on its forehead. Like the well-known concept of karma, the motif of headwriting expresses that one must bear one's fate since no amount of effort can alter it. And yet folktales that use this motif often show that one's destiny may be fulfilled in surprising ways. This article examines five instances of the outwitting fate tale type that use the motif of headwriting to argue that these tales contest the deterministic world view supported by karma ideology by rejecting ascribed identities and advocating the use of wit, courage, and, significantly, trade to transform a miserable fate into a good one. I further argue that these values can be identified with upwardly mobile low-caste trading communities who may have been the "authors" or primary bearers of these folktales.