e." DOCUME1T RESUME ED 126 518 CS 202 849 AUTHOR Wadley, Susan S., Ed. TITLE Folk Literature of South Asia. INSTITUTION. Michigan State Univ., East Lansing. Asian Studies Center. PUB DATE 75 NOTE 173p. JOURNAL CIT Journal of Sduth Asian Literature; v11 n1,2 Entire Issue,Fall, Winter, 1975 EDRS PRICE MF -$0.83 Plus Postage. BC Not Available fromEDRS. DESCRIPTORS *Asian Studies; *Folk Culture; FolkDrama; Legends; Literary CriAcism; *Literaturei- Mythology;Non Western Civilization;, Poetry; Prose IDENTIFIERS' *Folk Literature ; ABSTRACT. / The collection of articles in this volumefocuses an different kinds of folk literature from Bengal, Tamilnad,Bihar, Ijindi-speakingNorth India; and Nepal. An introductoryarticle by S.S. *Wadley discUsses types of folk literature inKarimpur. The remaining articles are organized accordingto cultural themes: "The Lustful Stepmother in the Folkloreof Northwestern India" by V.P. Vatlik and S. Vatuk; "Songs of SocialDistance" by D. Jacobson; "North Indian Wedding Songs" byI.O. Henry; "A Praise-Poem for Hurugan" by B.E.F. Beck; "A Few Bengali Vaisnava Folk Songs" _byR.D. Munda; "The Mundane and Prosaic in Bengali Folk Songs" byE. Friedlander; "Selections from 'Jarigan,' the Folk Epic ofMuslim Bengal" by M.F. Dunhain; "Twelve Jadur'Songs" by N. Zide; "ThreeNepalese Jokes" by J. Fisher; and "Four ,Folk Tales of the Gorum"by A.R.K. (JM) 4 *********14******#**f*********************31444************************* * Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublised * * materials not available. from other sources1ERIC makes every effort * * to obtain the bes copy availa\ble.'Nevertheless,jtems of marginal * * reproducibility are often encountered and thisaffetts the quality * * of the microfiche and hardcOpy reproductionsERIC makes available * via the ERIC D,bcument Reproduction Servide(EDRS) .EDRS is not * 're onsible fdr the quality of the originaldocument. Reproductions * * supp by EDRS are'the best that can be made from the.original. ********************************************************************** si - 4 - gal . ti N.- 7-- 11. literature on which they dr is ext nsive.Frot this one idea of 'woman, we move to Jacobson's paper -whiawe see women's concern with affinal relationships as found in various songs focusingon the distinctions between husband' s house and father' s house.Henry's paper on women's marriagesongs is specific in terms of the context of theiroccurrence, but broad' in terms of the cultural and social themes found th many song feasts surrounding a marriage. ""- Brenda Beck's trsl.ation and commentary on a Tamil poem in praise of Murugan provides a transition point to the next series of articlet,which are concerned with broader social themes:in the Murugan poem, those of ' feTaleness' or 'wifeness' "coexist with issues ofcaste, 'purity, eating habits, gods' versus men, nature versus culture.Lover - beloved 'themes as well as-implicit nature-culture ones link Munda's translation of .Bihari 1:-:hd<t-:: songs to the preceding Tamil poefn.Devotional themes from another religious traditiT (I 1- pervade the selections from clarigen provided 'by1.1.F. Dunham. Eva Friedlander moves us consciously from\ hespiritual' concerns of devotional Songs..to the prosaic themes which arequally-O. t of much folk literature-- social and political developments, loc4events, etc. Thes-e"themes,-though with fewer overtones of change,are also fod in the Mundari songs tjianslated by N. If 'spirituality' dominated th middle section of this volume, the ndane' de tely takes over the end, pti- cularly -E.,he Nepalese jokes of James Fisher, most notable for their. obscene humor.Arid three of the ;ales translated by Arlene Zide bring out similar themes:trickery involving food;an unacceptable (ghost) husband; and the stupidity of the old. On a broader scale, we see a different thernatic-unity-- the concern with proper action versus improper. action, with' socially acceptable themes versus the socially unacceptable ones' which continuously reapped.rs'through- out volume -- for example, the step-mother attacking.her stepson; the obscene songs sung by -women at weddings; and ambiguous status of Murugan's econd Wifei the Nepalese jokes, and Gordm tales,Clearly direrent3 modes f folliterature have varying.rolei in d-;44;bing with the problems of culture.The folk operas and praise poejuxtaet see proper action and improper action and provide some kind ofesolu ibn: ,the jokes, tales, and obscene songs themselves provide no res6lun for their blatant expression of social .,,roper theines -- we must assume that the laughter which they are int- ed tprovoke does. - Thicouerpoint between 'socially acceptable behavior and socially unacceptable behavior, between culture an=d nature, appes to ba dominant theme in South. Asian folk littraturero..As Brenda Beck s ggests her commentary, the fluidity of literature alelowb the vario ects of this . theme to be developed'and resolVetiln Ts manner impossible for, other artistic foxins-wtir-4ii!ulpture--and -painting.; And it may well be that one of the importairt."comP nent "and values of. folk literature isa fluidity unavailable to pridtedfo 4,efagore747.,Ach, as the 8s tic epics and their olk liferaEure,:iby.nit keinlio stet c,:,: by beingcon- tuously- r_ent A eted and manipAated by tellercan more easily deal w h t ge= cblitriolictionF of. se.ceidpg',. with the Ceti ng changing relation-. ships of.-caltUre and n4ture. / ,.. , a - C JOURNAL OF 14 AI IJ LITERATURE (fbrmerly . Editors: Carlo. Coppola: A - Siirjit S. Dtilai C.M. Nairn '. VP ..i - Managing Editor:. Marilyn Wilcox A Editorial Associates: Nancy Fitch Donald Nelson W Steven Poulos Richard Williams .Subscription Rates:,:U.S. Individuals$6.00 U:S. Institutions$7.00 Out-of-the Country$8.00 Subscriptions and communications relating to subscriptions should be addressid to: JOURNAL OF SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE Asian Studies Center Center for International Programs Michigan State University' East Lansing, Michigan 48824 Pktces: Single issues $1.75 9ouble, issues $3.50 ti Manuscripts,: Anmanuscripts and books for review should be-sent to,the editors at: 1/ JOURNAL OF, SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE Box 39, Foster 'Hall University of Chicago Chicago. Illinois 60637 The JOURNAL OF SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE is Publishe /parterly by the ikSian Studie§ Center, Michigan State University, East Lans g'-Michigan. 3 a. SILVESTRUM-TENUI MUSAM MEDITARIS AVENA: Vergil JOURNAL OF SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE Volume XI Fall and Winter 1975 Numbers' and 2 - FOLK LITERATUREfOCS0UTHASIA 1" Guest Editor: Susan S. Wadley ) CONTENTS S INTRODUCTION 3 FOLK LITERATURE IN KARIMBUR', Susan S. Wadley: 7 THE LUSTFUL STEPMOTHER ILL THE FORKLORE OF NORTHWESTERN INDIA Ved Prakash Vatuk and Sylvia Vatuk ,19 SONGS OF SOCIAL DISTANCE Doranne JacCbsdn 45 NORTH INDIAN WEDDING SONGS Edward 0. Henry .61 A PRAISE-P091 FOR MURUGAN ) Brenda E. F. Beck ps A FEW BENGALI VAIOAVA FOLK SONGS Ram Dayal Munda 117 THE MUNDANE AND PROSAIC IN BENGALI FOLK SONGS Eva Friedlander . 131 SELECTIONS FROM JARIGAN, THE FOLK EPIC OF. MUSLIM BENGAL Nary Frances Dunhan 147 TWELVE JADUR SONGS .. Norman-Zide 157 THREE NEPALESE JOKES James -Fisher 163 FOUR FOLK TALES OF THE GORUM Arlene R. K. 'Zide 167 OTES ON CONTRIBUTORS 175 Copyright C)JOURNAL OF SOUTH ASIAN LITERATURE, 1975 US ISSN 0025-003 ' PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPYRIGHTFT, MATERIAL BY MICRi) FICHE ONLY HAS BEEN GRANTED BY Jourpal of South Asian Literature__ TO ER.0 AND ORGA4tZATIONS OPERAT iNG UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE NA THONAL INSTITUTE REF EDUCATION FURTHER REPRODUCTION OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM REOU1RES PERMIS SION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER' 4 Susan S. Wadley INTRODUCTION An Overview 'and Consolidation This Voilime on South Asiah folk literature presentsus with a broad spectrum of types of folk literature and topics found in it. First, a defihition: by lk literature; we mean literature which isusually transmitted orally rom generation to .gederation\(and thuseliteratute most often in theL4i,of andkopologists,as indicated by their,pre- dOmimance in" this volute). The articles included here come from anthropologist" and humanists and us with both translations and analysis of what firstappears to be a heterogeneous assortment of folk literatdre styles and-themes. ,Yet despite appearanEes,various types-cq unity exist: I will brieflyfigett4on-some of. these andth d cuss4 two in .detail.-,7--\ \-"---,___ ) --.., ,, . Some( QS___the-orally_ transmitted literature is that of "culture brokers" or specialists (see the Vatuks' article on,North Indian folkoperas or '-- Dunham's onBengali Muslim bardic poems); someof it belongs to women only (who comprise a less-specializedgroup of'.!",cUllurbrokers" -- see.articles by- Jacobson on women's songs in Madhya Pradesh, Henryon marriage songs_in .eastern U.P. and Friedlander on'girls' ritual Songs in Bengal);someof it, in contrast, seems to be in general circUlationyin.localized areas (see_ isher's Nepalese "jokes ", N. Zide's Mundari song's;Munda's Bihari songs, Beck's epic poem from Tamilnad, and A. 'Zide'S Gorum tales.) This volume could have beeeordered-ard.the type oftransm f the given oraf literature, or the leglof-hpeciaAzation repre ..,._ the purveyor of- ,. (that-',type of literature. ., .. -,,. -- . The volume could also be ordered geogr phical -- Bengal, Tamilnadt Bihar, Hindi - speaking North India, Nepal. r we could look.at the form;, song (Henry, Jacobson, Friedlander, Munda, unham, N. Zibie); tale (Fisher., A. Zide); poem (Beck); or play (Vatuk and atuk). We could also ordep it by the types' of occasions when4theseva ious'forms are used, the When and 'Where of-their use (although Manyaut rs-give us little or no infor- maxion-onc "context"). Studies on folk literature in.both uth Asia and elsewhere face two concurrent problems: those of translatip (after collection) and those of analysis. Mot of the scholarSrepresendoeintthis volume haejse-at empted --- to cope, in varying ways, /with bog of tuseissues. The repultingominan impression, to this reader\z2t--lea , is f cultural tHemes poipxed o t to us by a group of very competent students 4 of South Asia. I might7idetthat another type of analysis, that of interal form, is totally lacking -1- ,perhaps due to the anthropological bias Of theontributors.