Folktales from India

Table Of Contents

Preface xi
Introduction xiii
Twenty-two Languages of India (map) xvii
 
Tell It to the Walls (Tamil) 3
Untold Stories (Gondi) 4
Gopal Bhar the Star-Counter (Bengali) 5
Bopoluchi (Punjabi) 7
The Jasmine Prince (Tamil) 11
Sona and Rupa (Hindu/Malwi) 12
Brother’s Day (Rajasthani) 15
The Brahman Who Swallowed a God (Bengali) 20
One Man’s Virtue (Oriya) 23
A Crow’s Revenge (Kannada) 25
 
A Story in Search of an Audience (Telugu) 26
The Clay Mother-in-Law (Tamil) 30
The Clever Daughter-in-Law (Kannada) 33
The Barber and the Brahman Demon (Bengali) 39
Why the Fish Laughed (Kashmiri) 41
A Parrot Called Hiraman (Bengali) 46
A Plague Story (Bengali) 51
The Monkey and the Crocodile (Kannada; Tamil) 53
 
What Happens When You Really Listen (Telugu) 55
Tenali Rama (Kannada; Tamil; Telugu) 56
        How Tenali Rama Became a Jester 57
        Tenali Rama’s Ranayana 57
Two Sisters  (Santali) 58
Sukhu and Dukhu (Bengali) 60
One, Two, Three (Santali) 65
The Wife Who Refused to Be Beaten (Kashmiri) 66
The Ogress Queen (Kashmiri) 73
Killed by a Tiger (Santali) 79
Outwitting Fate (Tamil) 81
Four Girls and a King (Punjabi) 88
If It Isn’t You, It Must Be Your Father (Kannada) 92
 
Why Audiences Laugh or Cry (Punjabi) 93
Akbar and Birbal (Urdu) 94
        The Best of Flowers 94
        Make It Shorter 94
        Bring Me Four 95
        Sons-in-Law 95
The Night-Blind Son-in-Law (Kannada) 96
Shall I Show You My Real Face? (Tamil) 99
A Malcontent Cured (Kashmiri) 103
The Kite’s Daughter (Assamese) 104
A Flowering Tree (Kannada) 110
A Musical Demon (Tamil) 119
Other Lives (Kashmiri) 123
Living Like a Pig (Telugu) 124
 
A Heron in the Mouth (Bengali) 125
Tenali Rama’s Art (Kannada; Tamil; Telugu) 127
One More Use for Artists (Gujerati) 128
Heron Boy (Tulu) 133
The Tiger’s Adopted Son (Didayi) 136
How to Live on Half a Pice (Konkani) 138
The Magic Bowls (Tamil) 143
The Four Jogis (Santali) 146
A Friend in Need (Malayalam) 148
 
Winning a Princess (Tulu) 149
Crossing a River, Losing a Self (Kannada; Tamil; Telugu) 157
Prince Sabar (Gujerati) 159
The Lord of Death (Punjabi) 168
The Shepherd’s Ghost (Telugu) 170
The World and the Other (Bengali) 174
If God Is Everywhere (Bengali) 175
A Tiger That Didn’t Know Who He Was (Bengali) 176
 
Gandharva Sen Is Dead! (Bengali) 177
Tenali Rama’s Dream (Telugu) 178
A Feast in a Dream (Rajasthani) 179
In Search of a Dream (Santali) 181
The Princess Whose Father Wanted to Marry Her (Tulu) 186
Mother Marries Son (Marathi) 189
A Cure (Bengali) 191
A Tall Tale in Urdu (Urdu) 193
The Greatest (Angami Naga) 197
 
A Story for Sundays (Marathi) 198
Tenali Rama and the Brahmans (Kannada; Tamil; Telugu) 203
A Hair’s-Breadth Escape (Tamil) 204
Between Two Wives (Tamil) 207
The Dead Prince and the Talking Doll (Kannada) 207
The Serpent Mother (Gujerati) 212
Teja and Teji (Assamese) 219
The Dove’s Egg: A Chain Tale (Malayalam) 224
A Drum (Hindi) 226
In the Kingdom of Fools (Kannada) 228
Nonviolence (Bengali) 233
 
The Barber’s Secret (Tamil) 234
Gopal Bhar Cures a Dreamer (Bengali) 238
A Scavenger’s Dream (Oriya) 239
The Boy Who Sold Wisdom (Gujerati) 240
Two Jars of Persian (Punjabi) 243
In Another Country (Punjabi) 245
One Man’s Pleasure (Urdu) 250
Raja Vikram and the Princess of China (Hindi) 251
Walking on Water (Bengali) 262
The Guru and the Idiot (Telugu) 262
Grateful Animals, Ungrateful Man (Hindi/Kumaoni) 263
 
When a Black Dog Dies (Urdu) 265
The Village Rogue, the City Rogue, and the King of the Rogues (Oriya) 266
A Qazi with a Long Beard (Marathi) 273
The Priest Who Could See as Far as Mecca (Assamese) 273
Adventures of a Disobedient Son (Kannada) 274
Hanchi (Kannada) 285
Buffalo into Rooster (Marathi) 290
The Prince Who Married His Own Left Half (Kannada) 293
A Buffalo Made of Lac (Tamil) 296
 
A Contest of Lies (Hindi) 299
It’s Done with Mirrors (Telugu) 305
The Kurumba in the Parrot’s Body (Kota) 306
The Eighth Key (Sindhi) 312
How the Weaver Went to Heaven (Urdu) 318
The Tiger-Makers (Kannada) 319
When a Tale is Finished (Oriya) 320
And Then, Bhurrah! (Marathi) 321
 
Notes 323
Permissions Acknowledgments 347