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Folklore in Modern India. ISFNR XI Congress Papers, Volume 3. Ed. Jawaharlal Handoo. Mysore: Central Institute of Indian Languages, 1998. Pp. 232 The articles in this collection discuss various aspects of folklore in India and its neighboring countries. All are based on papers delivered at the Congress of the International Society for Folk-Narrative Research, organized in Mysore in January 1995. In the theoretical introduction, editor Jawaharlal Handoo interprets the roles of oral traditions in modern India from a historical perspective. Starting with a discussion of the "colonial paradigm" that has both devastated and revived folk culture, he proceeds to the topics of discourse and power, myth and nationalism, festival and socio-political contexts. Finally, he stresses the importance of studying the emerging Indian mass culture and reveals the folkloric patterns in popular Indian films. Handoo's introductory article ties the book together; the other contributions are on more specific topics. For instance, Carsten Bregenhoj reviews the Indian theory and the Indo-European theory in the history of folkloristics and shows the continuity of some mythopoetical images of Rig Veda in later folklore: riddles and Aarne-Thompson tale types. Jennifer Haswell studies the relationship of emotional responses of the faithful to sacred texts in Buddhist literature written in the Pali language. Mehri Bagheri discusses the "water of life" motif in Indian and Iranian sources (Avesta, Shahname, Rig Veda, Mahabharata). Carlos S. introduces the ancient Tamil grammatical and poetical work Tolkappiam, which sees text as a relation between two voices: the utterer and the listener. He synthesizes this indigenous poetics with the modern approaches of R. Bauman, A. Dundes, H. Bausinger and others, while analyzing the genre of modern Tamil ballads. In addition, Nita Mathur observes some Santhal mythical narratives and suggests that a thesaurus of indigenous folk concepts should be compiled. While the first part of the book is mainly dedicated to the ancient roots of Indian folklore, the second part discusses the changing functions of traditional narratives. Birendranath Datta shows how the mythical and epical traditions of tribal peoples of northeastern India are preserved and developed in modern cultural and political settings. C. M. Bandhu discusses changes in Nepalese folk ballads, considering their characters, themes, and the beliefs and customs that are reflected in them, while F. M. Bhatti surveys the folktales of Punjab, providing examples of many narrative texts. V. J. Newall has dedicated her article to the group known as Mirasis, specialists of genealogies, oral history and entertainment. Pulikonda Subbachary interprets Kulapuranas as narratives of caste identity and social dignity that act as a counter-system to classical Sanskrit puranas. Finally, Soumen Sen demonstrates the social dimensions of the folklore of the Khasi community in Meghalaya. The third part of the book is titled "Epic Themes and Folk Performance." Ann Grodzins Gold and Lindsay Harlan discuss the epic themes in Rajasthani women's ritual narratives and their connections with Sanskrit epic, while Susan S. Wadley investigates the North Indian epic Dhola as a form of native anthropology. Joyce Burkhalter Flueckiger studies the regional performances of Mahabharata in Chattisgarh, Richa Negi introduces Pandava dance performances in the Garhwal Hills, and Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy analyzes variants of a story about Amar Singh, a seventeenth century Rajput chieftain. The volume concludes with two articles on urban folklore: Leela Prasad discusses ethnical themes in joking questions in modern multilingual India, while Sadhana Naithani touches upon politicization of folklore and reviews three contemporary Indian singers and composers who have gained immense popularity. "Folklore in Modern India" is a rich book that presents a variety of topics, as well as a number of approaches to the folkloric genres and traditions of this subcontinent. Some articles illuminate theoretical insights; others present folklore material descriptively. The book should interest not only specialists in Indian folklore but also other readers who want to know more about the diachronic and synchronic dimensions of oral traditions on a global scale. Ülo Valk |
