Encyclopaedia of Indian Folk Literature

INDIAN FOLK LITERATURE has traditionally been a rich depository of the beliefs, customs, superstitions, and knowledge of a diverse culture of the people throughout the land, transmitted orally or by observation. This body of traditional material is preserved and passed on from generation to generation with constant variations shaped by memory, immediate need or purpose, and degree of individual talent. Folklorists have realised that Folklore and Folk literature as a part of folk tradition are not restricted to ritual communities, as might be believed, but are commonly found in cities, and that, rather than dying out in the modern world, it is still part of the social and ethnic groups, albeit changing in form and function. Folklore as a creative activity and as a body of assertions and beliefs has not vanished. In India Folk literature has come to be regarded as part of the human learning process and an important source of information about the history of human life. These include ideas about the whole range of human concerns, from the reasons and cures for diseases to speculation concerning life after death. Indian folk literature is replete with folkloristic beliefs, superstitions, magic, divinations, witchcraft, and apparitions such as ghosts, and fantastic mythological creatures. Traditionally this has also included material dealing with festivals, customs, rituals, folk traditions, tales based on real characters or historical events bringing forth the character of the community life.

The richness, diversity and maturity of Indian folk literature is brought forth for the first time collectively in this pioneering collection – ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF INDIAN FOLK LITERATURE. This collection covers material from all parts of India and is representative of all major ethnic communities.