A Comparative Study of Folk Tales of UP Tribes and European Fairy Tales

Sahitya Akademi

A Comparative Study of Folk Tales of UP Tribes and European Fairy TalesAuthor(s): Seemin HasanSource: Indian Literature, Vol. 53, No. 2 (250) (March/April 2009), pp. 202-208Published by: Sahitya AkademiStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23348059 .Accessed: 08/04/2014 01:18

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A Comparative Study of Folk Tales of UP Tribes and

European Fairy Tales

Seem in Hasan

Story telling, a distinguishing proclivity of the human race, is as old

as time itself. The birth of mankind, the birth of speech and the

birth of stories were simultaneous events. In primeval times, storytelling was simply an oral tradition that involved a narrator and an audience.

Maneuvering expressions, gestures and suggestions into the tale, the narrator

created an experience and the spell-bound audiences soaked in the messages.

Narrators often conversed with the audience, modifying the tales to suit

the listeners. Listeners, thus, became the co-authors of the stories.

The oral tradition represents a repository of universal history and fosters compassion and humanitarianism. It is a phenomenon common

to all societies. All cultures depend on the oral tradition for the maintenance

of continuity. The oral genres transmit a primordial, pristine vision. They validate aspects of culture and provide rationalization when conventions

and tradition are challenged. The oral genres include a variety of forms

such as epics, myths, legends, folktales, fairytales, fables, proverbs, riddles,

songs and jokes. Folklore encourages group cohesion or the 'sense of

belonging'. The element of fantasy provides a compensation for something

lacking in reality. The didactic element of folklore often educates. It may highlight the history or geography of a region, teach social norms such as perseverance, honesty and truth; and even answer curiosity questions. Reynold Price an American novelist and recipient of the William Faulkner

award, once commented:

A need to tell and hear stories is essential to the species

Homosapiens - second in necessity apparently after


nourishment and before love and shelter. Millions

survive without love or home, almost none in silence, the opposite of silence leads quickly to narrative, and

the sound of story is the dominant sound of our lives, from the small accounts of our day's events to the vast

incommunicable constructs of psychopaths.

Academic interest in the study of folklore developed in mid-nineteenth

century as part of the ideology of Romantic nationalism propagated by Herder. The publication of Children's and Household Tales by the German

philologists Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm in 1812 heralded a revolution. Collections of enchanting tales were produced by Andrew Lang and Hans Christian Anderson. The Grimm brothers noted the parallels in themes,

plots and characters between German and other European tales. Later

anthropologists discovered similarities between European folktales and those of other continents.

The Grimm brothers invited storytellers home and transcribed what

they heard. The storytellers included peasants, middle-class housewives and sometimes even aristocrats who narrated tales that dealt with a medley of fantastic creatures. The editions that followed contained scholarly notes,

explanations, annotations and classifications and were meant to be treated as serious research. Thus, the Grimm brothers took the first essential

step towards a modern, systematic study of folklore. The Grimm brothers introduced the concept of a common Indo

European origin for all folktales. Theodore Benfey, a German philologist, and William Clouston, a Scottish writer, claimed that travellers to and from India told and retold and diffused stories. Further reshaping leading to modern ideological goals was achieved by the publication of Sir James George Frazer's The Golden Bough (1890). He propounded the theory that folktales represent ritual based and religious truths. Joseph Campbell in The Hero With a Thousand Faces (1949), on the other hand, found archetypal and psychological interpretations. The German scholar Max Muller said that folktales originated when Sanskrit and other ancient languages began to deteriorate. Andrew Lang contradicted the theory and claimed that

myths, legends, and folktales are part of the evolutionary processes. Jung identified apprehension and integration of deep forces and motivations

underlying human behaviour as the significant factor behind dreams, folklore and mythology.

Initially, oral literature survived only through the memory. Folklore studies in modern times treat oral literature as a site of compromise between the remote past and post-colonial present. Oral narratives nurture

Seemin Hasan / 203


a sense of identity for communities struggling to define themselves. Oral

traditions serve as catalysts of change within such societies and encourage

the comprehension of such transformations. Scholars like John D. Niles, author of Homo Narrans: The Poetics and Anthropology of Oral "Literature

(Philadelphia, 1999) talk about the artificiality of the distinction between

the 'oral' nature of less familiar folktales and their status as literature and

the assigning of a greater degree of authority to European collections.

They consider this a detriment to true appreciation. Folklore studies in India in the colonial period were conducted by

Orientalists as well as Indians. WR. Gourlay in the Preface to The Folk

Literature of Bengal (1920) wrote:

To those of us who come from the west, it comes as

a pleasing surprise to find in the folktales of India, scenes

and incidents which are familiar to us from our early

readings of Grimm's Fairy Tales and Hans Anderson's Fairy Tales... possibly the tales of the Middle Kingdom were

carried by means of the ships which sailed from the

coasts of Bengal to the ports of the Persian Gulf and

that thus they travelled, with those who transported the

merchandize, to far away ports of Europe - long before

any translations of the Vanchatantra or Hitopadesa or

translations like our fables of Pilpai were known.

The University of Calcutta nominated Research Fellows to undertake folk studies. Scholars located the connections of India in different European works. In Boseching's Volk-Sagen, in a tale entitled The Frog Bride, King Arthur desires cloth so fine 'That I can draw it through my golden ring' His porter produces a length of cloth which he claims he brought from 'India the Great and India the Lesser.' Parallels were also drawn between

boatmen's songs and nursery rhymes, Indian lori and western lullabies. This resulted in abundance of literature on Indo-European folklore and

also on life and civilization of the natives which had been the primar)' burden of the white man.

The tribes of India found no place in all the illustrious treatises. In pre-colonial times, the adivasis or tribal people were notionally part of the unknown frontier of the respective states where the rule of the

king did not extend. In 1793, the establishment of the Zamindari system

brought vast territories including adivasi lands under the control of feudal lords for the purpose of revenue collection by the British. The tribes were rendered homeless and relegated to the bottom rung of the social

ladder.

204 / Indian Literature: 250


The tribes had already been excluded from die chaturvarna system. In the early years of the colonial rule, a number of these tribes were

branded 'criminal tribes' and were looked upon as born criminals. They were hounded from village to village, starved of civic amenities, deprived of livelihood and possessed with the fear of persecution.

In post-Independence India, scheduled tribes, as they are called for

administrative purposes, are put into a variety of social categories that

are neither analogous nor comparable. They are found living in the relative

isolation of the hills and the forests. Their treasure of memory, their

only inheritance provides them with a comprehensive cultural ethos that

incorporates institutions, beliefs, rituals and folklore.

The text used for the comparative analysis is a volume of tribal

folktales collected direcdy from the storytellers and translated into English. The volume entitied Folktales of UP Tribes deals with tribes living in three

geographical areas. The Rajis, Bhotias and Jaunsaris live in the Himalayan

region. The Tharus and the Buxas in the Tarai - Bhabar tract and the

Bhuniya, Ghasis, Gonds, Kharwar, Kols, Panika, Pathari and Saharija in

Mirzapur district.

The primitive people mentioned above have a patriarchal and

patrilineal social order. However, women have considerable freedom in matters of separation, divorce and remarriage. The custom of a woman

marrying two or more brothers is still prevalent. Some of the smaller

tribes like the Rajis and the Korwa are still at the food gathering stage. Those in more advanced stages of evolution like Tharus and Buxas have taken to agriculture. The Bhotias carry on trade with Tibet and weave

carpets. However, a large percentage is landless.

All these tribes love singing, dancing and story telling. Storytelling is, infact, considered a fine art. A Tharu storyteller begins his story in the following manner:

Talk within talk

Mischief in talk

The talk is neither false

Nor is it sweet

The teller gets merit

But the listener gets a reward

Queens will be the mothers-in-law

Of those who listen to this tale

One-eyed are the mothers-in-law

Of those who ignore this tale

Seemin Hasan / 205


Tribal folktales, like European fairy tales, appeal to the imagination. They are rich in themes, symbols and imagery. They project that struggles in

life are unavoidable but if one perseveres against the unexpected and

unjust hardships one can be a winner. They also provide channels for

dreams and hopes. In both collections, time is set as an introduction as 'Long, long

ago ...' or 'once upon a time ...' Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Hansel and

Gretel, The Frog Prince, etc. begin with either stock phrase. In the tribal

collection Two Brave Bojs (Bhotia), The Role of Kismet (Buxa), The Miracle

of the Golden Tank (Tharu) The Arrangement that Tailed (Kol) commence

in the same manner. The lack of a date emphasizes, in both cases, the

timeless universality of the tales. The locations in both cases are generalized. Grimm's Snow White lives in a palace; Anderson's Hansel and Gretel

live in a hut; and Rumplestiltskin lives in a forest. In the Rope of Ash

Gajab the king of Ajab Desh lives in a palace; the kisan in And the whole

Village Perished (Bhotia) lives in a hut; and Hintu of How Hintu Became

King of Indrasan (Tharu) lived in the forest. The remoteness of the locations

once again highlighted the parallels. In all stories, the characters are

introduced and action is started right away. Plots are exciting, swift moving, with lots of suspense and conflict. Though magic is frequently used, the

plot is usually logical and plausible within the setting. Conclusions are

extremely satisfying. The tales appease the sense of justice and morality because the good are rewarded and the bad are punished.

Thematic similarities can be discerned in numerous tales. The theme

of a giant in conflict with an ordinary boy appears in Grimm's The

Spirit in a Bottle and also in the Tharu folktale The Clever Boj and the

Demon. The hero in both the tales is required to use his wits to extricate

himself from a dangerous situation. Both stories play out the theme of

the intellect being superior to muscle power. The daughters in A Midnight Feast (Buxa) are ousted by their poor parents like Anderson's Hansel and

Gretel. Whereas Hansel and Gretel used pieces of bread to chalk the

homeward route, the seven daughters of the Brahman use pua an Indian

delicacy.

Talking beasts and inanimate objects are found in both collections.

Cunning jackals, malicious wolves, hardworking horses, lazy donkeys, simple

sheep, helpful birds, industrious ants, moralizing stones and pebbles crowd

through the pages of volumes like Charles Perrault's Mother Goose Tales Hans Christian Anderson's Fairy Tales Told For Children and Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book. Characters like sailors and soldiers, women stolen from their tribes, captives of war, traders and merchants, minstrels, bards,

206 / Indian Literature: 250


robbers, peasants and priest are divided clearly into good and evil.

Stepmothers and witches feature in a number of stories.

A Jaunsari folktale A Wicked Tiger narrates the story of a sheep who had a beautiful kid. She made a hut out of straw and securing the kid, went out to graze. She warned die kid not to open the door without confirming that his mother was at the door. A trickster tiger persuaded the kid to open the door and made a meal of it. The sheep found the kid missing and wept hard and went away. In Grimm's counter

part entitled The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids, the role of the tiger is

played by a wolf and that of the sheep by a goat. The kids, too, are seven in number and they give the wolf a harder time. Eventually, he succeeds in fooling them and swallows them whole. The goat, much more enterprising than the sheep, slits open the wolf's stomach, rescues

her kids and finally pushes him down a well. The contrast is probably the outcome of the variant perceptions of the colonizer and the oppressed. The striking analogies between the two folklore groups highlight ethical similarities. These stories also have their match in Aesop's Fables, Teutonic folklore and also Arab and Persian folklore. In all these cases, the original stories may be altered to some degree, characters may be changed, the

ending may be changed but the ethos remains the same. The Indo-European or Aryan Myth theory promotes the belief

that all folktales descended from the myths of the Indo-Europeans or

Aryans. Since all European languages descended from Indo-European sources, possibly many folk elements have also descended alongside. Sociologists however, give another explanation. They believe that people everywhere, at a given stage of evolution, have the same experiences and hence tell the same stories. Freud claims that folktales arose from

our unconscious needs and desires.

In the case of tribes, their marginalization resulted in the need to create a sense of communal solidarity through oral literature. As the Kols of Banda recite at the conclusion of a story session:

Neither the story teller is at fault

Nor the listener is at fault

Storytelling is to while away time

And to teach a moral.

Bibliography 1. V. Raghavia, Tribes of India, (Bhartiya Adamjati Sevak Sangh, Madras, 1969).

Seemin Hasan / 207


2. Rai Sahab Dinesh Chandra Sen, The Folk Uterature of Bengal, (B.R. Publishing

Corporation, N. Delhi, 1985). 3. S.C. Dube, Tribal Heritage of India, (Vikas Publishing House, New Delhi, 1977). 4. Susan S. Wadley, Essays on North Indians Folk Traditions (Chronicle Books, New

Delhi 2005). 5. Dilip D'Souza, Branded by Law (Penguin Books, New Delhi, 2001). 6. Amir Hasan & Seemin Hasan, Folktales of U.P. Tribes (The Academic Press,

Gurgaon, 1982). Websites

www.grimmfairytales.com

www.andersonfairytales.com

www.cln.org/themes/fairytales.html

208 / Indian literature: 25C


Article Contentsp. [202]p. 203p. 204p. 205p. 206p. 207p. 208

Issue Table of ContentsIndian Literature, Vol. 53, No. 2 (250) (March/April 2009), pp. 1-248Front MatterREFLECTIONS: Vyasa and Ganesa [pp. 6-8]SPECIAL FEATURE: MARATHI SHORT STORIESContemporary Marathi Short Story: A Common Reader's Grievances [pp. 9-13]Lagna [pp. 14-30]The Ostracized [pp. 31-39]Once There was A Crow [pp. 40-49]A Conundrum [pp. 50-63]Companion [pp. 64-88]

POETRYFirst Kiss [pp. 89-89]Young Jungle [pp. 89-90]Seeing Off at a Station [pp. 90-90]Till the, End [pp. 90-90]An Autograph [pp. 91-91]The Remains [pp. 91-91]The Lips [pp. 91-92]Three Pieces of Moon [pp. 92-93]I Touched Her [pp. 93-93]Loving Very Closely [pp. 93-93]Come! [pp. 94-94]Water [pp. 94-94]How Will She Say? [pp. 95-95]Stone Making Love in Khajuraho [pp. 95-95]Sadhyasnata (A woman who has just taken bath and is still dripping) [pp. 96-96]Father's Shoes [pp. 96-97]So That You Know [pp. 98-98]Tensile [pp. 98-99]Classic [pp. 99-99]Calling [pp. 99-101]The Other Half [pp. 102-102]A Demon or a God [pp. 103-103]Veranda [pp. 104-104]Gyanen, You Died in Falkland [pp. 105-106]Those Who Won't Come Back [pp. 107-108]I Never Asked Them (This poem was written in reference to the Mumbai Blasts) [pp. 109-109]The Days that Are Gone [pp. 110-110]Trot [pp. 111-113]The Air Is Still Fragrant [pp. 113-114]U Tiew Pathai [pp. 114-114]The Bird that is Free [pp. 114-115]Make Me a Moon [pp. 116-117]The Blue Splendor [pp. 117-120]A Wet Butterfly [pp. 120-121]A Poem for a Young Poet [pp. 122-122]The Story of the Wooden Sword [pp. 122-123]For Words [pp. 123-123]

TEXT INTO TEXTFrom Maithili to English to Tamil: Nachiketa's Reflections Through Ripples of Translations [pp. 124-131]

REVISITING A CLASSICPrayers/Insults, Blessings/Curses, and Conditional Clauses in "The Mahabharata" [pp. 132-141]

SHORT STORYA Door [pp. 142-149]The Eye [pp. 150-157]The Gravel Path Stretches on [pp. 158-163]

LITERARY CRITICISMNissim Ezekiel's Critical Nationalism and the Question of Indian English [pp. 164-169]Daruwalla's Art of Character-sketch [pp. 170-179]Location of History in a Spiritual Eco-System: Looking at "Madhuram Gayati" by O V Vijayan [pp. 180-185]

IN MEMORIAMRemembering K.P. Appan: The Critic as Cultural Hero [pp. 186-190]K.P. Appan: Readable Criticism at a Premium [pp. 191-193]

EXCERPT FROM A NOVELY2K, The Crow in the Pot and Dearest Bittoo Exiled from the Village [pp. 194-201]A Comparative Study of Folk Tales of UP Tribes and European Fairy Tales [pp. 202-208]

BOOK REVIEWSGhalib Again [pp. 209-212]Bhasa in English [pp. 212-214]A Narrative in Lines [pp. 214-217]A Gallery of Images [pp. 217-220]The Writer and the Biographer [pp. 220-223]Speaking Wives [pp. 224-227]Sad But Satisfying [pp. 227-230]On Partition Fiction [pp. 230-234]Poetry of Introspection [pp. 234-236]Back to Life [pp. 236-238]Interpreting Satyajit Ray [pp. 238-240]

JOURNALS [pp. 241-241]Our Contributors [pp. 242-247][Illustration] [pp. 248-248]Back Matter

A Comparative Study of Folk Tales of UP Tribes and European Fairy Tales

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