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A review by theeditorreads
Folktales from India by A.K. Ramanujan
5.0
Before you start reading the stories, be sure to check out the Notes at the end. The author has mentioned the source of each and every story which will enrich your reading experience.
Synopsis:
By selecting and compiling folk tales from all over India out of its twenty-two distinct languages, Ramanujan gives us one-hundred-and-eight (wow, coincidence?) folktales from India. Because to understand the culture of India, one needs to study not only it's written classics but it's oral traditions as well.
Review:
It was such a joy to read these stories in small doses. While a few languages had one too many tales, some others had only one to their credit. After all, it depends on the tales that survived. These tales are as varied as they are entertaining, with some stories overlapping two or three languages. As Ramanujan says,
The compiler mentions in the Introduction about how consciously he chose the tales which reflected many aspects of our culture. There were male-centred tales; women-centred tales; tales (usually two contrasted ones) about families; tales about fate, death, gods, demons, ghosts, and such; humorous tales or tales about a jester or a clever person; tales about animals; and stories about stories. So much effort has been put in by Ramanujan that the subtitle should have read Selected and Edited after Due Analysis.
Some tales like Shall I Show You My Real Face? from Tamil made me wonder if we got shapeshifters and twisted romances from there, while The Lord of Death from Punjabi reminded me of the movie Species (in a totally unpleasant way).
Some stories even had hints of incest, like The Princess Whose Father Wanted To Marry Her from Tulu. Then there's also Mother Marries Son from Marathi. Another interesting thing worth mentioning here is the way intimacy was described in The Kurumba in the Parrot's Body from Kota. Even though ancient India gave us Kama Sutra, I have rarely read any graphic scenes in old Indian stories.
The longest is Raja Vikram and the Princess of China from Hindi. The same Vikram from Vikram aur (and) Vetaal (Vampire), though it's a different tale. But something that bothered me was how in most of the women-centred tales, the names of the central characters weren't mentioned. Like Tenali Rama or Gopal Bhar or Birbal as court jesters had names, but when a story of a clever female was there, she was without an identity. Makes me wonder if it was an attempt to keep women in obscurity. Then there was also multiple women with one man but none of the stories did a vice-versa. And even if they did, unlike four women living happily with their husband, the stories were always of one woman with a husband and a lover. Of course, it involves cheating. Ramanujan may not have been bothered by this, but as a woman reading these stories they bothered me a lot.
Some stories are grisly as hell. Some others are as staid as can be, while some are really quirky and naughty. Some instances are so gross with grotesque situations. While some are so wise, there are others that make no sense. And some are downright absurd. But I did get to know some things, like how Tenali Rama came to be a vikata kavi (it's a palindrome! vi-ka-ta-ka-vi, speller in Hindi too), a jester, that is.
My favourite among all of them is A Tall Tale in Urdu which is a ridiculous one and delivers exactly what the title says. It starts at one sphere and ends at an entirely different one. Another favourite is The Village Rogue, the City Rogue, and the King of Rogues from Oriya which ends with a droll moral:
Last, of all, there's also A Plague Story from Bengali which is along the lines of how the Kingdom of our country prays to save itself from bubonic plague that is sweeping across Asia. A deal is struck with the personified Plague that it will spare everyone except one. But, ninety-nine more die. The reason for the remaining deaths is revealed to be fear.
P.S. It has some pretty illustrations accompanying the stories. And there are a handful of printing errors. Also, there is an error in the blurb, it seems two short passages introducing Tenali Rama and Akbar & Birbal have been counted as stories. The author mentions in his notes at the end about how there are so many yet undiscovered and uncatalogued tales out there. I borrowed a copy from the Delhi Public Library.
The twenty-two languages from which stories have been taken are:
Angami Naga, Assamese, Bengali, Didayi, Gondi, Gujerati, Hindi/Malwi/Kumaoni, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Kota, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Tulu, and Urdu.
Originally posted on:
Shaina's Musings
Synopsis:
By selecting and compiling folk tales from all over India out of its twenty-two distinct languages, Ramanujan gives us one-hundred-and-eight (wow, coincidence?) folktales from India. Because to understand the culture of India, one needs to study not only it's written classics but it's oral traditions as well.
Review:
It was such a joy to read these stories in small doses. While a few languages had one too many tales, some others had only one to their credit. After all, it depends on the tales that survived. These tales are as varied as they are entertaining, with some stories overlapping two or three languages. As Ramanujan says,
... in a folktale that goes on changing from teller to teller, the structure of the tale may remain constant while all the cultural details change.
The compiler mentions in the Introduction about how consciously he chose the tales which reflected many aspects of our culture. There were male-centred tales; women-centred tales; tales (usually two contrasted ones) about families; tales about fate, death, gods, demons, ghosts, and such; humorous tales or tales about a jester or a clever person; tales about animals; and stories about stories. So much effort has been put in by Ramanujan that the subtitle should have read Selected and Edited after Due Analysis.
... stories are metaphors in search of a context, waiting to be told and given new relevance.
Some tales like Shall I Show You My Real Face? from Tamil made me wonder if we got shapeshifters and twisted romances from there, while The Lord of Death from Punjabi reminded me of the movie Species (in a totally unpleasant way).
Some stories even had hints of incest, like The Princess Whose Father Wanted To Marry Her from Tulu. Then there's also Mother Marries Son from Marathi. Another interesting thing worth mentioning here is the way intimacy was described in The Kurumba in the Parrot's Body from Kota. Even though ancient India gave us Kama Sutra, I have rarely read any graphic scenes in old Indian stories.
The longest is Raja Vikram and the Princess of China from Hindi. The same Vikram from Vikram aur (and) Vetaal (Vampire), though it's a different tale. But something that bothered me was how in most of the women-centred tales, the names of the central characters weren't mentioned. Like Tenali Rama or Gopal Bhar or Birbal as court jesters had names, but when a story of a clever female was there, she was without an identity. Makes me wonder if it was an attempt to keep women in obscurity. Then there was also multiple women with one man but none of the stories did a vice-versa. And even if they did, unlike four women living happily with their husband, the stories were always of one woman with a husband and a lover. Of course, it involves cheating. Ramanujan may not have been bothered by this, but as a woman reading these stories they bothered me a lot.
Some stories are grisly as hell. Some others are as staid as can be, while some are really quirky and naughty. Some instances are so gross with grotesque situations. While some are so wise, there are others that make no sense. And some are downright absurd. But I did get to know some things, like how Tenali Rama came to be a vikata kavi (it's a palindrome! vi-ka-ta-ka-vi, speller in Hindi too), a jester, that is.
My favourite among all of them is A Tall Tale in Urdu which is a ridiculous one and delivers exactly what the title says. It starts at one sphere and ends at an entirely different one. Another favourite is The Village Rogue, the City Rogue, and the King of Rogues from Oriya which ends with a droll moral:
Mere cheating is no good. It adds color to life only when it's done with wit.
Last, of all, there's also A Plague Story from Bengali which is along the lines of how the Kingdom of our country prays to save itself from bubonic plague that is sweeping across Asia. A deal is struck with the personified Plague that it will spare everyone except one. But, ninety-nine more die. The reason for the remaining deaths is revealed to be fear.
P.S. It has some pretty illustrations accompanying the stories. And there are a handful of printing errors. Also, there is an error in the blurb, it seems two short passages introducing Tenali Rama and Akbar & Birbal have been counted as stories. The author mentions in his notes at the end about how there are so many yet undiscovered and uncatalogued tales out there. I borrowed a copy from the Delhi Public Library.
The twenty-two languages from which stories have been taken are:
Angami Naga, Assamese, Bengali, Didayi, Gondi, Gujerati, Hindi/Malwi/Kumaoni, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Kota, Malayalam, Marathi, Oriya, Punjabi, Rajasthani, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu, Tulu, and Urdu.
Originally posted on:
Shaina's Musings