Indian Folktales: Folk Stories, Legends, and Anecdotes: Folk Stories, Legends, and Anecdotes

By Pradeep Atrey

Indian Folktales is a collection of folk-stories, legends, and anecdotes, collected and translated from Hindi by Pradeep Atrey. These enchanting bedtime stories present the colourful world of their characters- kings, queens, gods, goddesses, o

• Language: English
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Release date: Aug 24, 2023
• ISBN: 9781738079001

Book preview

Pradeep Atrey

Indian Folktales

Folk Stories, Legends, and Anecdotes

ALSO BY PRADEEP ATREY

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Indian Folktales

Folk Stories, Legends, and Anecdotes

Indian Folktales

Folk Stories, Legends, and Anecdotes

A Selection of Oral Tales Compiled, Translated, and Edited by

Pradeep Atrey

Copyright © 2023 Pradeep Atrey

All right reserved under international copyright conventions.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission from the author, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Originally published eBook in 2023.

Indian Folktales: folk stories, legends, and anecdotes /

compiled, translated, and edited by Pradeep Atrey

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN: 978-1-7380790-0-1

Imprint: Independently Published

1. Tales – India. 2. Oral tradition – India.

I. Atrey, Pradeep

Book design by Pradeep Atrey

Illustrations by Pradeep Atrey

Title page illustration by Akshra Atrey

Cover page: ‘Fairies and Traveler’ by Pradeep Atrey

To,

My Parents

Saraswati Devi

and

Zile Singh Sharma

The two great storytellers

Contents

Preface      xv

Introduction            xx

Lion and the Priest      3

Monkey and the Demon      8

Sellers of Parents      15

Savior is Greater than Killer       23

He, Who Speaks, Dies      28

The Daring Girl      35

Service to Humanity, the Greatest Virtue      43

The Boy Looking for Answers      47

The Story of Roop-Basant      53

Atithi Devo Bhavah (A Guest is God)       61

The Most Deserving Prince            66

Selfless Service      70

Nomad’s Wisdom      75

Cold Meal            78

Shelter of Saints      80

Where Does Man Go after Death?            85

The World is Just a Blow of Breath!      89

Two for You, Three for Me!            93

Hermits      97

Lawless Kingdom, Eccentric King      101

What is That?      109

Donkey and the Lion      113

How Much?            117

Elephant and the Sparrow      121

Haanji / Naaji      125

The Quick-Witted Tradesman      129

Weaver and the Mouse      132

Cat on a Pilgrimage            137

The Moon-shooter            145

Sheikh Chilli’s Family      150

Ears of the King      153

The Valiant Simpleton      157

Shepherd’s Wisdom – I      163

Shepherd’s Wisdom - II       170

Lion and the Mosquito      173

The Idiots      176

Donkey Turned into a Man      180

The Forgotten Dish            184

Revenge of a Cheated Woman      189

Phoolazadi            196

Fairies and the Traveler      200

Snake and the Hermit      211

Sharan De Keeps Her Word            215

The Gurukul Boy      221

The Endless Story      226

References       230

List of Illustrations

Lion and the Priest      4

Monkey and the Horse-Rider      9

Sellers of Parents      16

He, Who Speaks, Dies      29

Farmer and His Bullock in Shade      36

The Long Pole      39

King Serves the Monks      44

The Boy Looking for Answers      49

The Ill Queen in Her Bed      55

Mohan and His Wife Welcome the Guests      63

The Most Deserving Prince            67

Pilgrim at the feet of  Deity            72

The Maid Refuses Buttermilk      81

Funeral Procession            86

Spiritual Guru Makes a Dead Bird Fly      90

Two for You, Three for me!            94

Hermits      99

Soldiers Arrest the Disciple            104

What is That?      110

Donkey and the Lion      115

How Much?            118

Elephant and the Sparrow            123

The Quick-Witted Tradesman      130

Weaver and the Mouse      133

Cat on a Pilgrimage -1      138

Cat on a Pilgrimage – 2      141

Cat on a Pilgrimage – 3      143

The Moon-shooter            147

Sheikh Chilli Falls off the Roof      151

Ears of the King      154

King and the Valiant Simpleton      160

Shepherd’s Wisdom            165

Lion and the Mosquito      174

The Idiots on the River-Bridge      177

Potter and the Clerk            182

The Forgotten Dish            186

Woman and the Cheat with Millstone      193

Phoolazadi            197

Fairies and the Traveler      203

Boys Teasing the Snake      213

Sharan De and the Prince      218

The Deserted Garden      227

Preface

The stories in this collection were our childhood bedtime stories. My father, like Mahatma Gandhi writes about his father in The Story of My Experiments with Truth, had the habit of his feet being pressed at bedtime, and my brothers and I would take turns to press his feet. It was at this time that we would put forward our request for a story. Father would close his eyes, delve deep into thought for a while and then there would issue forth a story from his lips, Once upon a time, long ago…. In those moments he appeared to us like the Gangaram of the stories ‘Gangaram and Bulaaki Nai’ he told us many, which have slipped deep down in the recesses of my memory. Gangaram traveled a large swath of India, accompanied by his favorite companion, Bulaaki the barber. Gangaram could not only foresee future events but also possessed the powers to visualize the past related to a present event in minute details without being told about it. Bulaaki was his travel companion and also a handyman during the journey, so, when the duo stopped for a while in a town, Bulaaki would shop for the utilities and food items; he would cook food, feed their horses, and run errands whenever required.

An unwritten pact between Gangaram and Bulaaki was that whenever Bulaaki happened to witness an unusual event in the town, he would request Gangaram to explain it. Upon hearing what Bulaaki saw in the town, Gangaram would close his eyes, delve deep into thought for a while and then there would emerge from his mouth the whole story behind the incident. For instance, once Bulaaki came with this incident: at the city gates lay the severed head of a camel, the rest of the body of the camel standing and bleeding profusely. At a distance from it stood a royal-looking man with a clean sword in his right hand. Outside the city gates were a few soldiers excitedly scampering to and fro, shouting ‘catch him, catch him, he should not escape, don’t let him escape!" Bulaaki requested Gangaram to narrate what all this hullabaloo was about; who that royalty was and who the soldiers were looking for, though there was none in sight looking like a culprit.

The narrative mood of our mother, however, was easier to appear– one of us just requested her to tell us a story, and lo and behold! There the story was. The only precondition was that one of us must grunt in assent to mean ‘yes’ whenever she stopped after a meaningful sentence or scene, to indicate that we paid attention to what was being narrated. That was also meant to make sure that we didn’t fall asleep listening to the story, and of course, falling asleep was all but natural!

But surprisingly, the stories told by our parents were entirely different in nature and focus. Of course, both of them told stories involving trees, water bodies, animals, and the deeds of kings, queens, men, women, and demons, yet their focus on characters and thematic content were entirely different. Mother’s stories were centered more on the lives of ordinary men and women, especially the lives of suffering women, though kings and queens did play roles in some of her stories too. And, to be honest, the stories that reflect a strong patriarchal attitude and men characters dominating women characters are the ones told by my father, whereas, the women-centered stories or the stories where women characters are predominant, stronger, or worked and behaved to their will are narrated by my mother. Sensible readers can easily gauge from the themes of such stories that the idea of empowerment of women has always been predominant in the hearts of Indian women.   

No written story, that too translated into a language different from its original language, can bring forth the magic and the relish the audiences enjoy listening to it told orally, and that’s the reason orature as a genre is completely different from written literature in form and focus. Orature is essentially performative. However, one of the functions of literature, oral or written, is to provide a window to its parent culture. The purpose of this book is aligned with this particular objective of literature. Stories in the present collection largely mirror the culture of India in a particular time-frame, and maybe even of a particular locale, let’s say north India. I must hasten to add, though, that the stories in this collection ideally reflect a pan-Indian cultural milieu, still a few minor differences in the ways the tales collected here and the tales told in southern Indian states mirror various images of Indian culture, may be pointed out.

The collected stories are not arranged in any particular sequence or categories, except that the last story in the collection is The Endless Story. I have added folk stories, legends and anecdotes as sub-title of the book since not all the stories in the collection may fall in the category folk-stories. Legends relate the lives and deeds of heroic kings and queens, so, in a sense, they are not mere folk stories but oral histories, whereas anecdotes are real/imagined incidents from the lives of common men and women. The stories in this collection are commonly told and retold in India, and to many readers they must be quite familiar. Nevertheless, taking the present-day social sensibilities into consideration, these stories are to be read with caution. These stories may not reflect the realities of present-day Indian society, so, they cannot be judged from the present-day social standards and viewpoints. Vast social, economic, and political changes have taken place in India and Indian society has been changing at a faster rate, and along with the socio-economic-political changes come changes in social sensibilities. Some of the stories in the collection may reflect a social sensibility entirely different from what they are today. I would not say the present-day Indian society is totally free from prejudices against women, the so-called ‘lower caste’ people and other social outcastes, still some of the stories may reflect such prejudices more prominently; some of the stories may reflect a strong patriarchal mindset, which has been, and undeniably still is, part and parcel of Indian social fabric and social milieu. Therefore, the bottom line is, the stories are to be read just as stories and enjoyed as stories.

Some of the stories in this collection are spiritual-moral tales, particularly oriented towards spiritual awakening of man, such as He, Who Speaks, Dies; Service to Humanity is the Greatest Virtue; The Most Deserving Prince; Selfless Service; The shelter of Saints; and The World is Just a Blow of Breath. These stories are narrated by my mother. I am sure these stories were a later addition to the repertoire of stories in my mother’s memory. These stories must have been told by the Jain monks who stayed at our place for a few days during their annual Chaturmas, for many years. A few stories, such as The Story of Roop-Basant, relate the harrowing experiences of children under the care of step-parents. This is a recurrent theme in Indian stories, and perhaps the phenomenon is world-wide as it reminded me of Charles Dicken’s David Copperfield. David’s stepfather, Edward Murdstone, believes in stern, rather extremely harsh, methods of parenting, and calls it firmness. Murdstone's sister, Ms. Jane, is even harsher than her brother. The two of them tyrannize not only David’s mother, but also make David’s life miserable at home. David bites Murdstone as he attempts to thrash him for falling behind in studies. As a punishment, David is sent away to a boarding school run by a ruthless headmaster, Mr. Creakle. 

My nephew, Akash, and my sister, Anuradha, have contributed to the present collection of tales in their own special ways. Akash wrote down almost all of these stories in Hindi since, after my graduation, I could hardly stay home and spend time with my mother. My mother told these tales to Akash, and he transcribed them on paper. I had forgotten the details of some of these stories and only vaguely remembered their outlines. I requested Anuradha to write them down filling up the skeletal outlines and send me the tales. She did an excellent job.

My sincere thanks to both of them.

Pradeep Atrey

Vancouver

August 2023

Introduction

The genesis of the idea to translate, compile, and publish these stories lies in my nostalgia – nostalgia for India where villages as close-knit communities have been the center of life. I heard these stories roughly fifty years ago, so, I consider that past too – early nineteen seventies – as a long time in my memory since India, and particularly Indian villages, where I come from, have undergone drastic, irreversible changes during the last fifty years. Almost all the stories in the present collection revolve around life in Indian villages and the backbones of those villages– trees, water bodies, animals, insects, green fields, and a clear sky at night. The kind of life I enjoyed in India in my childhood days is no longer there, and I feel nostalgic about it. Stories in this collection reflect that life to a large extent.

To be sure, I neither eulogize the past as the ‘golden age that once was but never would be’ since Indian people in the past, during my childhood days too, have lived difficult lives full of social and economic problems; nor do I wish to romanticize the India of the past as the ‘ideal nation’ past its glory since the roots of a host of socio-economic and political issues we face in India today lie buried in our past and still nurture the tree of which we eat the fruit today; nor do I intend to malign the modern age as the root cause of all social evils and moral decline, and therefore, campaign for return to the past. I rather agree with Mastroianni and Gilbert (2023) that moral decline in the present age is an illusion since, considering some points on social behaviour, our ancestors may have been morally more corrupt. And yet, I miss something, that I can’t lay my hands upon to pinpoint exactly what it is, that I have seen and experienced fifty years ago. Just a few days back I met a man, who, like me, is an immigrant in Canada, from Punjab. He has been in Canada for thirty-eight years. In our casual talk he said what he missed most in Canada was the joy of life in India, the free time one can easily steal from the busiest schedule to have a little fun and frolic. He lamented that in Canada it’s only work, work, work! So much work that if someone visits you from India, stays with you for a while and wants to have a casual drink with you at home, after spending an hour or two with him, you’d look at your watch and say, Oh! Time to go to work! Bullshit! I wanted to say, ‘my dear friend, the state of affairs in India too are the same now. People have no time for friends, and the days of collective enjoyment are gone,’ but I didn’t voice my opinion.

The genesis of the idea to come up with this book has a history too. The idea sprouted in my mind thirty years back, in the early nineteen-nineties, when I was a student (rather a participant) at Central Institute of English & Foreign Language (CIEFL), Hyderabad (present day EFLU – English and Foreign Languages university). Professor Jawaharlal Handoo from Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, came to CIEFL to visit his daughter, our batchmate, Heemal Handoo. Heemal invited two of us, Debasish Mohapatra and me, to a dinner hosted by her father. As we talked, Heemal told her father that I tell folk stories, and Prof. Handoo asked me to narrate one. I narrated ‘Donkey and