Folktales and Folksongs in Indian Subcontinent

The Rigveda is considered to be the oldest treatise of the world in which we find the specimens of the earliest folksongs and ballads. Folktales can be traced back to the Vedic akhyayanas (stories). The Atharvaveda is the storehouse of charms, superstitions, rites, and rituals practised by the people. In the Grihyasutras, we come across many folksongs sung on auspicious occasions like marriage, child-birth and other ceremonies.

It is to be noted that right from the Vedic age, side by side with the highest doctrines of religion and philosophy, abundant sources are available in the form of myths, fables and legends of various kinds, meant for amusement and instruction. The Panchatantra (“Five Treatises”) is the oldest book on fables. However, the traits of Indian folktales appear in the Vedic literature, well before the origin of the Panchatantra. Many akhyayanas in the Rigveda may be regarded as the precursors of the Panchatantra. The Upanishad also records the story of Nachiketa and Yama, the philosophic discussion between Yagnavalkya with his learned wife Maitreyi and other interesting tales. The Jatakas include the legends or stories of various incarnations of Lord Buddha before he attained enlightenment. These instructive stories have various beasts and birds as characters, teaching a moral which has much ethical value. Nevertheless, these legends are important sources which help us to reconstruct the social, economic, political and religious conditions of our ancient past.

The two great epics – the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are inexhaustible sources of folktales and legends. These contain the skillful narration of the stories of many legendary kinds and heroes who were famous for their achievements.

The Puranas, which are 18 in number, may rightly be regarded as the storehouse of Indian mythology, legend, popular religion, belief and superstition. According to Pargiter, the Puranas are the “Encyclopaedia of Indian religion and mythology”.

The classical Sanskrit literature is the storehouse of folktales, fables and legends. The Hitopadesa (“Salutary Instruction”) composed by Narayan Pandit of Bengal in the 14th century is the most popular of these. The author explains that this book was meant to instruct the royal princes in the art of politics, morality and worldly wisdom.

The Brihatkatha (“Great Story”) of Gunadhya is a great contribution to the folktales and fables in Indian tradition. Unfortunately, the originally composed Brihatkatha is now lost altogether, but fortunately, we have three Sanskrit translations of this great work. These are Brihatkatha-slokasangraha of Buddaswami, Brihatkathamanjari of Kshemendra and Kathasaritasagar (“Ocean of Story”) of Somadev. Of these, the Kathasaritasagar is the most important, which was composed by a Kashmiri Brahmin between 1063 and 1081 A.D. in order to divert the troubled mind of Suryamati, the princess of Jalandar and wife of Ananta.

The Vetal Panchavimshatika was written by Shyamlal Das. It has a collection of 25 folktales, which are related to King Vikramaditya, the legendary king credited with starting of the Vikram Era (58 B.C.). The title ‘Vikramaditya’ was later adopted by Chandragupta II of the Gupta dynasty. Shuka-Saptati is another book of folktales, which has a collection of 70 folktales told by a parrot. Its translation into Persian is called Tutinama. Singhasan-Dwatrinshika is another popular book on Indian oral tales. It has been translated into Hindi as Singhasan-Battisi and in other regional languages with different titles.

The folksongs or folk ballads and folktales have been moving side by side since our ancient past. The gathas (ballads) mentioned in the Vedic literature may be regarded as the oldest representative of folk ballads. Many hymns of the Rigveda refer to a singer as gathin. In other words, the gathas were the laudatory hymns sung in the praise of a particular king or hero in ancient India. In the Aitreya Brahmana, the gathas have been termed as Yajnagatha (sacrificial hymns). Sometimes these gathas are also mentioned as slokas (verses). In the Aitreya Brahmana, a number of verses were sung in praise of Bharat, the son of Dushyant.

In the Grihyasutras, there are many folksongs meant for the auspicious occasions such as the marriage ceremony. Some Grihyasutras mention the gathas sung in the praise of divinities. A notable example can be that of a gatha sung in the praise of Soma in the Ashvalayana Grihyasutra.

The Jatakas also include many gathas, which may be regarded as the ancient folksongs. Many plays and other literary works of ancient period also record the heroic gathas or songs. For example, the Raghuvamsham of Kalidasa mentions the singing of the glorious deeds of Raghu by the maidens, who were guarding the rice-fields sitting under the shadow of sugarcanes. The historical tradition of these gathas may be traced upto the Mahabharata. However, these gathas can be differentiated from narashansi. The gathas were regarded as human whereas the other forms were divine.

The tradition of folktales and folksongs continued in the later periods of our history. These were written in various regional languages in different parts of the subcontinent. However, the history of folkloristic study in India is still young. The establishment of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal at Calcutta in 1784 by Sir William Jones was a landmark in this direction. This institution, besides many other subjects of Indology, undertook the publication of folklore and encouraged the study of folklore. With the dawn of the 20th century, there arose a new inspiration to collect, preserve and publish the valuable folkloristic treasure of our past. The efforts of the scholars resulted in the compilation and translation of the folklores and folktales of different regions. Many folktales and folksongs were composed during the National Movement, which helped in awakening the masses. It is interesting to observe that now-a-days during the general elections, various political parties adopt folklore as medium of their party propaganda. A number of folksongs are composed by different parties to attract the voters. Thus, folklore plays a significant role in the political sphere too. In this respect, folklore can be used as the best medium for emotional and national integration. Nevertheless, this continuing tradition would help in the preservation of the oral literature of any region.

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