Chapter One

Introduction: Folklore and

Folk Ideas as the Moral Police and

Censor Bodies of Society

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Chapter One: Introduction

Folklore and Folk Ideas as the Moral Police and Censor

Bodies of Society

1.1 What is Folklore?

Folklore can be interpreted as an organic history of mankind which is not recorded but

passed on from generation to generation through oral transmission. In common parlance,

"folklore" can be defined as "the lore of the people”. The Britannica Ready Reference

Encyclopaedia (2005, vol. iv) defines folklore as ‘oral literature and popular tradition preserved

among a people’. Jawaharlal Handoo (2014:5) presents a very strong and interesting fact on

folklore-- that there is no known human society which does not possess folklore. All available

evidence leads us to believe that all human societies have folktales, myths, folk songs,

proverbs, riddles, ballads, epics, folk dramas etc. William Bascom (Dorson, 1972:21) mentions

the various functional roles of folklore which are evident in any culture and its heritage

preserved in its language and literature. Explaining Bronislaw Malinowski’s viewpoint in Myth

in Primitive Psychology (1926), Bascom highlights on the several useful roles of folklore as,

“proverbs help settle legal decisions, riddles sharpen wits, myths validate conduct, satirical

songs release pent-up hostilities” (21). Since folklore is culture-specific so is its application

and approach that brings the differences and disagreement among the folklore scholars

regarding its independent area of inquiry and approach distinguishable from cultural

anthropology. It is Ward H. Goodenough who is believed to have been the first scholar to put

such disagreement to rest through his scholarly work (1976) – with a landmark pronouncement.

To quote from his article:

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We are reaching a point when we can say that folklife represents that aspect of cultural

anthropology which concentrates in the study of one's national cultural heritage. When

an American studies Japanese community, he is doing anthropology whereas his

Japanese colleague is studying folklife. When a Japanese anthropologist studies an

American community, he is doing Anthropology, but an American working in the same

community is studying folk-life1 (20).

Allan Dundes in his Interpreting Folklore (1980) says, “folklore can never die or get exhausted

rather it is created a new because we need it”. Apart from having socio-psychological

implications, it is a prime evidence of mankind's traditions and culture in its evolutionary past.

It is Dundes who defined folklore as the “symbolic autobiography of people” In a final entry

in the World Book Encyclopaedia (1970) opposing the selective views on folklore as an

illogical remnant of the past, he calls folklore as old as civilization itself. He presents folklore

as an alive and artistic subject which is always formed fresh as people need it for their

uniqueness and their very own survival.

Folklore acts as a mirror of culture and as a medium to see another culture from being

isolated to that of united one instead of from united to that of an isolated one (Dundes,1980).

Normally, it’s the common tendency of the people on earth, that the way we do things is

“natural” and “right” whereas the same thing others do is “strange” perhaps “unnatural” and

even “wrong”. This very attitude of the ‘othering self’ is one of the reasons that probably

prevented folklorists from gathering on a common platform for a very long time.

1 Ward H. Goodenough.1976. “Folklife Study and Social Change” in Don Yoder (edt.) American Folklife. Texas: University
of Texas Press.
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Although it has existed in literature since time immemorial and appeared under different

nomenclatures and banners, folklore as an academic discipline, is perceived to have emerged

only in the nineteenth century with the combined effort of English antiquarians and German

philologists who began to observe deeply the ways of the laymen and their classes (lower

classes). A glance at the genesis of the term "Folklore" and its evolutionary history hints/reveals

Mr William John Thoms as its father of the discipline for coining the term 'folklore' that he

made use of in 1846 in a letter written on 2nd August 1846 to a magazine called the Athenaeum,

suggesting the new word “Folklore” be adopted in place of the awkward phrase “popular

antiquities” (Dorson1972:1).

Even though Thoms is extremely held high among the folklorists for coining the term

'folklore', before him two German brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm had already referred to

this branch of knowledge/academy as Volkskunde for the oral folk narratives and

interpretations of Germanic mythology that they had published in 1812 (Dorson,1972:1).

Though Thom's coined term folklore came to define a new area of knowledge, it equally caused

confusion and controversy both for the intellectuals of folklife and folklore (folk-art). The

supporters of folklife studies argue that the scholars of folklore are preoccupied more with the

verbal and expressive art neglecting the physical aspect of folklore, which is equally important

and has its own special place (Dorson1972:2). To sort out the debate on ‘folklife’ versus

‘folklore’, Dorson intervenes and gives a precise bifurcation of these two terms (folklore and

folklife) acknowledging their nuances and correlation as:

i. Oral literature also known as verbal art and expressive literature sometimes

ii. Physical folklife or material culture

iii. Social folk custom

iv. Performing folk arts

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Folklore though, actually means the traditions, stories, and customs etc. of a community or the

studies of all these in the laymen’s term yet, together they can be understood as "folk" -

meaning people and "lore" meaning the knowledge. All together they can be understood as

knowledge of the people. Alan Dundes in his essay “Who Are the Folk?” defines the meaning

of the term “folk” to impart the deep understanding of the term in his own words as under:

The term 'folk' can refer to any group of people whatsoever who share at least one

common factor. It does not matter what the linking factor is – it could be a common

occupation, language, or religion – but what is important is that a group formed for

whatever reason will have some traditions which it calls its own. In theory, a group

must consist of at least two persons, but generally, most groups consist of many

individuals. A member of the group may not know all other members, but he will

probably know the common core of traditions belonging to the group traditions which

help the group have a sense of group identity (Interpreting Folklore,1980:6).

1.1.01 Is folklore related to Literature?

Dundes strongly believed that folklore is a product of the mind (an intellectual

exercise), which in turn constructs culture and culture produces literature. One cannot imagine

folk literature without its text based on ballads, epics, myths, riddles and taboos. The links that

connect folklore to Humanities are so strong that ignoring them or segregating them from the

Humanities will be putting them into jeopardy. What Dorson calls verbal art and expressive

literature, for example, myth, fairy tale, romantic tale, religious tale, folk tale, legend, fable,

parable, anecdote, riddles, jokes, taboos and songs composed to perform a specific kind of

ritual and festivities are actually, all literature preserved and intact today, in its orality (oral
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form). In the absence of technology and literacy, it was folklore that helped its transmission

and conservation possible from generations to generations.

1.2 Review of Literature

Leisy, E.E (1946) observes in his work Folklore in American Literature that most

American authors, be they major or minor, consistently refer to the folk materials and motifs

of the folklore in their writings. Leisy further adds the instances from the writers like Walt

Whitman, Robert Frost, Herman Melville, Mark Twain, Dickinson, Edward Eggleston, Owen

Winster, O’Henery etc. to testify that the use of folk sources has enriched most of the works

which later on carved a niche for themselves as the best works on American literature.

Briggs, K.M. (1972) in his ambitious work called Folklore in the Nineteenth-Century

English Literature examines how almost all the English poets of the Romantic period blended

the elements of folklore and brought revival in the English literature bringing it from the high

streets of London to the common man and in their rustic life. He gives examples of Scott,

Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Keats and among the Novelists, Briggs discusses Stevenson’s

dealing with witchcraft, the Bronte sister’s use of the supernatural, Dickens’ use of folk belief

and ritualistic practice in all his novels. Apart from all these writers of the period, Thomas

Hardy’s works stand apart in containing folk elements in all his genres of writings-- novels,

poems short stories and the epic drama the Dynasts. His treatment and portrayal of folk

elements bring a different dimension to his writings. Hardy is the great delineator of rural

England who has a profound knowledge of the Wessex countryside, its distinctive way of life,

and its pattern of culture, and this results in descriptions of outstanding accuracy. There is

nobody to match Hardy in his portrayal of the ordinary people and he does this by using the

folk elements in his plots. Their rich and pithy speech, their strange conversation consisting
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often of home-spun philosophy, and their self-deprecating manner are faithfully recorded. He

was even criticized by the intellectual and critics of the time for patronizing the rustics which

even the intellectuals lacked when it came to understanding the country people.

Similarly, Paul A. Bennett (1952), like many other folklore scholars advocates the three

distinct relationships of folklore to literature. They are, (a) folklore can be used as direct

literature, (b) Folklore can be used as a modified form of literature and finally, (c) folklore can

be used as a flat reference in the creation of literature. An original author always uses folkloric

resources in an adapted form which he collects from the various sources available as a material

(1952:23 {Dutta,2014:91}.

Richard M. Dorson edited Folklore and folklife (1972), which is now seen as the Bible

for folklore studies. It is a highly enriching book in the area of folklore and folklife studies. It

contains eighteen original essays contributed by different folklore scholars based on pure

academic research. It contains deep insight on every aspect of folklore starting from Oral

Literature, Material Culture, Social folk Custom to Performing Folk Arts. This book takes

every feature of folklore with great care that includes the short profile of the scholars, their

theories, their research as well as the firsthand knowledge and practical field experience of the

researchers while conducting their field studies.

Ashton, J.W. (1975) in his Folklore in the Literature of Elizabethan England observes

that folk belief and folk elements were a matter of common belief in the Elizabethan world.

The literature of that period mirrors the folk belief and practice of the period. Quoting the

Fairie Queen and Epithalamion from Spenser Ashton argues the folk materials that Spenser

had used in the Farie Queen, did not function, as ornaments or chance reference in rather, all
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these acts as an integral part and the inner intricacies of the whole work from the beginning to

the end. He also mentions Shakespeare's works like Mid Summer's Night's Dream, The Merry

wives of Windsor, Hamlet, Macbeth and The Tempest that reflect the popular beliefs and folk

elements of the period that used fairy and folklore.

B. A. Botkin (1987) like Dundes believed that folklore can never be a dead and outdated

subject or discipline. Speaking for the academic idea of folklore, Alexander Krappa defined

folklore as survivals, as stories, songs, beliefs and practices of the past which “have ceased to

have any direct and organic connection with actual life (1930:292 {1987}). Responding to

Krappa’s belief Botkin strongly responds arguing “survivals survived because they had

meaning and value to the folk among whom they survived” (Botkin,1987:6).

Manuel da Costa Fontes (2000) in his Folklore and Literature: Studies in the

Portuguese, Brazilian, Sephardic and Hispanic Oral Tradition argues that the modern oral

tradition enhances the understanding of early literature in many ways. It’s the modern folklore

which helps us in understanding the crucial passages of early works which otherwise was

mostly neglected by the learned authors. Every community, ethnic group, clan, caste, race have

their own folklore and stories that change from place to place and region to region. In the

context of the United States of America itself, there are folklore of the New England, the

folklore of San Francisco, the folklore of California and so on. So is the case, with India. India

being the land of many languages and cultural diversities, has as many folklore-folktales in its

states, and within there are many more bifurcations based on the regions within the same state.

Tilottoma Misra’s The Oxford Anthology of Writings from North-East of India – Poetry

and Essays (2011) deals with the literary landscape of North-East of India. It deliberates on the
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two literary genres i.e., Essays and Poetry especially the rising voices from the young writers

from the region where there is a desire to go back to their own culture and language to connect

with their origin and identity. In this anthology, Misra presents the poets and writers from the

region to mention a few names – Temsula Ao, Mamang Dai, Robin S. Ngangom, Desmond

Kharmawphlang, Esther Syiem, Kynpham Sing Nongkynrih, Thanesia, Cherrie L. Chhangte,

Lalrinmawii Khiangte, Easterine Iralu, Monalisa Changkija, Nini Lungalang, and Aruni

Kashyap. They being the new voices of the region have effectively united the tune, pace and

shape of the culture of their region voiced effectively and strongly through the medium of

English language. The anthology brings to light the vibrant oral traditions of the region which

is not only identity but also the pride for the region. Misra mentions that after the print culture

was brought to the province the British could map the ethnographic elements easily for

effective control and administration. Credit goes to the British Officials too, for recording the

social relationship, oral tradition and open face to face communication used by the people in

the region which had a dominant influence not only in the literary creations but also in the

socio-political context.

Folklore in North-East India (2014) edited by Saumen Sen, contains twenty-eight

original essays contributed by the intellectuals, scholars and academicians that covers all the

seven states of North-East India. This book is an outcome of the efforts to study scientifically

and systematically the oral history of the different social groups of the plural society of North-

East India. This book discusses the different folklore and their variations to understand the

culture of the people, their belief systems, their history of origin and identity as well.

Juri Dutta's deep research in the field of ethnographic writing is the latest contribution

in the writings from the Northeast region that deals with Assamese writings and literary
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scenario. Her book, Ethnic World in Select Indian Fiction (2014) is a crucial milestone in the

area of Assamese research and innovations in the ethnographic writings from the region that

deals especially with Assamese literature. In this book, she reveals the fascinating world of

ethnographic fictions that has its own and special niche in the Assamese literary scenario. She

tries to reach and read the author’s mental make up through the portrayal of society and the

ethnographic elements used in them. She has successfully attempted to unveil the rich and

vibrant representation of the ethnic world through her cross-cultural and intertextual

investigations based on the selected fiction by the authors – Lummer Dai, Narayan, Rong Bong

Terang, Yeshe Dorjee Thongchi and Shishuram Pegu along with other feminist writers i.e.,

Mahasweta Devi, Maitreyi Pushpa and Pratibha Ray.

1.3 Folklore in the Indian and the pan-Indian landscape

The ancient Indian folk traditions are a treasure house of knowledge that runs into

uncountable collection and records of folklore and tales engaged from across various ethnic

and linguistic groups. Despite India’s ancient traditions, in the modern context its origin is

traced to the colonial time with the establishment of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1784 and

the inception of the Journal of Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal in particular under the British

lawyer and orientalist, Sir William Jones to encourage Oriental studies. In India too different

traditions of storytelling existed under different nomenclature that has survived time and exists

even today like the Dastongi of Delhi, Radio stories of Uttar Pradesh city, the Punjabi qisse,

bhands, Rajasthan’s Kawad traditions, Akhyan of Gujrat, ancient Villapattu of Tamilnadu and

Kerala, Burrakatha of Andhra Pradesh, Pandavani of Chhatishgarh, Healing traditions of

Samanism from Darjeeling Hills and the mysticism of the Baul singers from West Bengal,

(Ahuja,2017:20-33). But in contrast to the oral traditions of Northeast India, they are more of

a ritualistic nature practised during certain special, ritual or religious occasions. The Northeast
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of India possesses a lively storytelling tradition that has survived time and competitions. These

oral and storytelling traditions are as organic and authentic as their lives are. Most of the

communities of Northeast possess and practice these vibrant art forms till date. Customs, rites,

rituals and folklores have been passed on from one generation to the other orally with complete

exactness. The indigenous knowledge system embedded in its culture and traditional practices

has been passed on since time immemorial so that they retain the sense of continuity. One can

further understand the relationship between folklore and literature with a greater conviction

through A.K. Ramanujan who in his essay, “Where Mirrors Are Windows: Toward an

Anthology of Reflections” advocates, one of the best ways to define the diversity of India is

the Irishman's quintessential answer, who when being asked about a pair of trousers whether it

was singular or plural, replied: "singular at the top and plural at the bottom". So, are the Indian

traditions organised as a homogenous Indian Sanskritic Traditions in singular and many

marginal and peripheral traditions as plural. In other words, as Ramanujan explains, the

Folklore and its traditions can be best understood through the authorized Indian literary

academy, the Sahitya Academy, that in its motto says, “Indian literature is one but written in

many languages”. Ramanujan validates his argument quoting, as the Ramayana, the

Mahabharata and the Puranas are for the elite so are the Folktales, the little, little traditions

for the little little people, that is, semi-or illiterate, rural, regional people who are competent

only in their mother tongue with no difference in kind except in its quality (1989:213-14).

In a way, it is equally controversial as it is capable of showing both the upstairs and

downstairs view of the cultural panorama. Similarly, if Brahminism and Sanskritic traditions

are for the elite, then so are the tribal traditions, folklore and tales for the laymen and women.

From Ramanujan’s point of view, folklore can be defined as the cultural traditions for the

commoner.
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The great traditions of the elites involving classic literature and the little traditions of the non-

elites (laymen/women) can be best understood and stated through Ramanujan's given structure:

Great Traditions Little Traditions

Text Vedas etc. Local Puranas etc

Performance Vedic ritual Local sacrifices etc.

Social Organization Caste hierarchy Sects and cults

Mythology Pan - Indian deities Regional deities

Source: A.K. Ramanujan, History of Religion (1989:210)

Folklore and folk traditions offer another dimension of relativity and understanding

through its presentation of classical texts, language and even the rituals that are so aloof and

vague at times, that it does not incorporate the commoner’s imagination and shared experience.

As a result, it fails to connect to their common narratives thus, creating an eternal warlike

situation of Prakriti (nature)versus Sanskriti (culture). If the high culture text is based on

destiny the folk culture is based on free will and volition. The gods of mythology are shown as

eery bodies, who do not perspire, stink, sneeze and so are their goddesses who do not bleed,

but in folklore traditions they do. According to Ramanujan, epic stars like Sita, are virtuous,

compliant, wait to be liberated but the folk variants make Sita warlike, leading battles against

demons2. Ramanujan believes, folklore is more grounded, universal and logical with an

effortless connect to people that made it survive time and traditions. He gives a very convincing

and strong comparison between the classic and the folk goddesses as under:

2 Cited in David Shulman’s “Battle as Metaphor in Tamil Folk and Classical Texts” in Blackburn and Ramanujan edited pp-
105-30.
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i. The Sanskritic great goddesses are created by God for a purpose allowing them with

their weapons while the folk goddesses are primal and even outwit their male

counterparts.

ii. The Sanskritic goddesses are shown subordinate shown sitting at their male’s lap

and or massaging their feet while the folk goddesses are not subordinate to their

male counterparts.

iii. The classic goddesses have their carved bodies and features unlike the folk

goddesses.

iv. The goddesses of the great traditions are graceful and vegetarian but folk goddesses

accept animal sacrifices.

v. The Sanskritic goddesses of the great traditions are birthless and eerie while the

local goddesses of the little traditions are humans. A stark contrast can be drawn

here between the epic Draupadi of Mahabharata who cries helplessly and prays for

saving her honour from being disrobed while Mahasweta Devi’s Dopdi (Draupadi)

is an illiterate tribal female who faces Senanayak with her naked and multiply raped,

battered body challenging his authority and thus, putting him to shame.

vi. The classic goddesses come down to earth while the village goddess is a human

who rises to Godhood (Ramanujan,1989: 213-14).

Ramanujan appreciates the folk traditions, that alone gives multidimensional reflections of

Indian myth and story unlike the other forms of art and literature (Ramanujam,1989).

Folklore, which was dismissed by the western scholars as 'popular antiquities' and even

as the fantasy of the rustics and the homespun stories of the laymen and women for their

entertainment, has always been highly revered and cherished among the Indians. No doubt, it
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is true that the studies of folklore in the modern context began with the Grimm brothers who

made it a household names in Europe that saw intensified studies being carried out in the area.

Yet, it is also true that India enjoyed a prestigious position of having a great tradition of folklore

that was taught and heard with equal zeal and fervour. Works like the Kathasarita Sagar,

Panchatantra, Jataka Kathas, Hitopadesha and the Baital Pachchisi, are some of the

masterpieces that testify India’s heritage of folklore and their excellence. All these mentioned

works are much older than the works of the German Grimm brothers.

The Kathasarita Sagar (Bhatt, 2019: vii-viii) is believed to be compiled by a Kashmiri

scholar Somadeva Bhatta towards the end of the eleventh century. The Kathasarita Sagar can

be translated into English as "Tales from the Ocean of Streams". The tales follow directly from

the mouth of Lord Shiva who, on being coaxed by goddess Parvati on narrating a story that no

one has heard or told before. The original tales of Lord Shiva that the Lord himself had orally

delivered are believed to have been compiled and written in seven different parts, of which six

originals were lost and the seventh and the last collection of tales is believed to be salvaged by

the Satavahan King and preserved to date as Kathasarita Sagar.

In India, many believe that the first book on folklore is the Panchatantra, composed by

Acharya Vishnu Sharma, as a collection of folktales and fables believed to have been written

originally in Sanskrit to tutor the dunce princes. The exact date and authorship are contested

among the scholars that vary from 1200 BCE to 300 CE. The stories of the Panchatantra aim

to impart the deeper wisdom of life, through the simple portrayal of animal characters.

Panchatantra shows us the way, as to how the everyday life could be made more meaningful,
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insightful and enriched through the wisdom and vision as shown in the book3.Vishnu Sharma,

picked parables as an effective medium to tell the tales through the beasts personified as

characters portraying greed, treachery, stupidity, jealousy, deceit, distrust and other human

attributes. Every tale of Panchatantra is full of morals, but they do not preach the victory of

virtue over vice and good over evil rather they are realistic and hint that good or bad whatever

one puts into it, it bounces back. Franklin Edgerton, the Yale University Professor known for

his authority and scholarship of the Bhagwat Gita calls the Panchatantra as he marks:

This is a textbook of artha, worldly wisdom, or niti, polity, which the Hindus regards

as one of the three objects of human desire, the others being dharma, ‘religion or

morally proper conduct' and kama 'love'. The so-called 'morals' of the stories glorify

shrewdness and practical wisdom in the affairs of life, and especially politics, of

government.4

This Panchatantra written in five cantos is one of the most widely translated secular

books in human history. It is believed that through Borzuya, it entered the middle east Persia

in 570 CE and into the Arabic world through its translation in the Arabic language in 750 CE

by a Persian scholar Abdullah Ibn Dimnah. Al-Mansur, the second Abbasid Caliph

commissioned translated Panchatantra in the Arabic language is believed to have been the

most popular in Baghdad, second only to the Qur’an. The etymological meaning of

Panchatantra is combined into two words ‘pancha’ and ‘tantra’ meaning five principles.

3 This book was written by Bidpai or Vishnu Sharma around 3rd century BC, Sanskrit scholar from Banaras who was the
official guru of then prince of Kashi. He composed this book to impart wisdom to three dull headed princes of Amarashakti,
King of Mahilaropya, in Southern India.

4 The Free Press Journal, 19th April 2015. Accessed on 25th June 2020.
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Franklin Edgerton’s in his book, The Panchatantra Reconstructed (1967:271-73) illuminates

on the five frame stories defined by their theme headings which can be elaborated as – Mitra-

bheda (the loss or separation of friends); Mitra-laabha or Mitra -Samprapti (the gaining of

friends); Kakolukiyam (war and peace); Labdhapranasam (loss of gains); and Aparikshitakam

(considered action or rash deeds). The specialty of these stories is that while they entertain

outwardly, they also enlighten the readers with their solemn inner meaning.

Alongside the Panchatantra, India also has Hitopadesha which means to counsel or

advice with benevolence for the welfare and general good of all. Hitopadesha is a collection of

Sanskrit fables both in prose and verse based on the model of the Panchatantra. This book is

believed to be written by Narayana or Narayan Pandit in and around 14th century AD. It gives

the knowledge of the way of the world in a simple and elegant language on the affairs of public,

administrative and political life.

Similarly, John Platts’s Baital Pachchisi, the English version of which was first

published in 1881 (Platts,2000) is one of the highly acclaimed translations into English from

the original Sanskrit. It is a collection of twenty-five stories based on the interaction between

the baital (spirit) and King Vikramaditya of Ujjaini. These stories are not only insightful and

entertaining but also act as a pedagogy on moral science and ethical behaviour. Tracing its

genesis in the preface, Platt says, under the reign of Muhammad Shah, Raja Jaisingh Sawai of

Jainagar orders his poet Surat to translate the Baital Pachisi from classical Sanskrit into Braj

dialect which later on again was translated into English during Marquis Wellesley, the then

Governor- General of India by John Gilchrist.

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India has the ancient surviving tradition of storytelling in countless forms laden with

their own meaning, purpose and intention. Hence, each of them influences and leaves a long-

lasting impression. Some stories entertain while others make one think. In mainland India, such

storytelling traditions have survived time and one can hear and entertain them even today. The

storytelling traditions like Dastongi of Delhi, Radio stories of Uttar Pradesh city, the Punjabi

qisse, bhands, Rajasthan’s Kawad traditions, Akhyan of Gujrat, ancient villapattu of Tamilnadu

and Kerala, Burrakatha of Andrapradesh, Pandavani of Chhatishgarh, Bhauna or Vauna of

Assam, the healing traditions of Shamanism from Darjeeling and mysticism of the Baul singers

from West Bengal exist till date (Ahuja,2017:20-33).

1.4 Folklore in the North-eastern scenario

Like the storytelling traditions of mainland India, the Northeast of India too can take

pride for owning a lively storytelling practice and tradition. Most of the communities of

Northeast India possess and practice these vibrant art forms till date. Customs, rites, rituals,

folklore and tales are passed on from one generation to the other orally with complete

exactness. Most of the languages of Northeast India, which do not have the written scripts of

their own have survived time due to its strong oral traditions that made the transmission from

generations to generations possible. As a result, they are still alive and spoken both in its

language and dialect variants. In all the folkloric traditions of the North-eastern region of India,

the woman is always portrayed in the domestic servitude of every day’s chores --- dusting, wet

mopping, cleaning (floor and utensils), washing clothes, cooking, weaving, knitting, stitching,

tending domesticated animals, looking after young children and nursing the old ones especially

the in-laws. The archetype instance is Lummer Dai's Kargum in Bride Price (Koinar Mulya)

who exclaims on realising the indispensable value of woman as an asset to her parents as:
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Is n’t it the duty of a wife to look after the household, the fields, the livestock and the poultry?

Is n’t it her sole responsibility to rear the children and to look after her husband’s parents? A

woman has so many responsibilities on her shoulders, no wonder her price is so high (Misra,

1982:1-16).

Folklore and tales play a very dominant role in the socializing process of a child in

every culture. No other dictum has damaged the status and notion of women as the folk and the

fairy tales that have always portrayed women as an eternal homemaker, caregiver, domestic

help, tied in eternal servitude, beautiful and hardworking labour, enchantress, seductress

waiting patiently to be rescued by her man. A child grows up hearing such stories and

knowingly or unknowingly the seeds of discrimination and everything else that is highly

gendered in terms of work culture, human virtues, attributes and identities are sown in the

germinating mind of the child that he/she takes as a real value and sacrosanct on being an adult.

Unfortunately, we never seriously contemplated that young minds develop their critical

thinking skills and judgement, good or bad depending on the stuff that is fed in their young

fertile mind. As every story heard and told are so symbolic with multiple levels of meaning and

interpretations that control their behaviour and thinking on being adult.

In almost all the oral tradition across the pan-Indian culture, many folk tales and

narratives share similar plots and morals except little changes in terms of their settings and

characters. One such narrative commonly heard and told across borders is about a young

woman who remains hidden in a shell, egg, tree or a shrub, and comes out from her insulated

space only at the middle of the night to complete all the domestic chores overnight and again

retires to her shell before the sunrise. The young man of the house seems curious to know this

magic happening in his deep slumber and decides to spy on the creature who performs the daily

household chores. After days of observation when she is spied on and caught by the man or the
 18

young man of the house, she ceases all her power to disappear and hide in her cocoon. Thus,

losing all her spell she remains in the servitude of the same man and his households by marrying

him. To hold the thread of this argument the following two folk tales have been taken from two

different regions of Northeast India:

The first story is taken from the Tripura’s Kokborok folk tale titled “Shrub Spinster”

from the Tunes and Tales of Tripura Hills (Murasingh 2007:90-95). The story runs as -- the

village named 'The Village of 126 Families' has a farmer's family of seven married brothers.

One day all these seven brothers go to the jhum field accompanied by their wives. At the

worksite the youngest brother finds a beautiful shrub and brings it home. The youngest brother

has a wife who not only resembles an ogress in look but also in her action, behaviour and

manner. She is unclean and, untidy, and also keeps her house dirty and untidy. Ever since the

shrub is brought home the youngest brother attends to it with love and care and warns others

not to touch and tamper it. The same night when the shrub was brought home, in the middle of

the night when there is silence all around a beautiful girl comes out of the shrub and finishes

all the household chores within a short while --- washing, cleaning, cooking a variety of foods

and keeping everything in its place including some rolled betel leaves tucked perfectly and then

before the dawn, she enters into that very shrub and disappears. This tale gets concluded when

the girl from the shrub marries the young man (the youngest brother of the house) called Lakai,

who starts a new conjugal life with the shrub spinster.

There is yet, another story of similar type taken from Assam’s Rabha (a plains tribe of

Assam) Folk Tales titled “the Tale of the Peacock and Peahen” (Sharma 2010:67-72) where a

young man named Lemba catches a salika bird in his noose and hands over the same to his

mother for a meal. When the old woman is about to kill the salika to be cooked for the food, to
 19

her astonishment she discovers the bird begging for life as she is not a bird but a heavenly

creature who had descended to tour the earth but by misfortune, she got caught in Lemba’s

noose. The bird, salika as a human maiden performs all her domestic chores in the absence of

Lemba and by the time he returns home she is already turned into a salika (bird) again. Here

too, like the kokborok folk tale the story gets concluded when the salika appears in her human

form and marries the young man of the house Lemba.

There are myriad such stories read, told, and narrated to the young children of which

the above two are just a few examples. These stories create and construct the notion of females

with limited calibre and talent, who does not go beyond managing the housekeeping and

domestic chores. In all cultures around the world, there is no restriction on a man’s

marriageable age. As, a man is paired easily with a woman who could be of his age, or younger

to him and even sometimes older than his own age. In men's case, their sexual virility and

activeness define their youth while in reality, both man and woman age together but culturally

the notion of woman's ageing faster than man has been eulogized so much that it has come to

be accepted as a fact that has been highly instrumental in subverting her role (Martin,1991:485-

501).

In the Northeastern region of India, folkloric traditions can be felt and experienced in

all its vibrancy to date. The dark, deep and dense forest surrounded lands facilitates the natural

life and way of living even today as it has been in past. The foods, the different culinary

knowledge, taste and practices, the dress and attires used by both the tribal and the nontribal

population has remained intact without getting lost or diluted despite the tough competition

from the inland and the foreign markets. Each linguistic community, however, small in number

and strength has saved its distinctiveness in its oral tradition from getting depleted and wiped
 20

out by the cultural invasion that came through during the ‘bhakti movement’ from the mainland

India (Misra,2011: xiii-xiv) as with Bhakti movement came reformation followed by

colonialism and Christian missionary that damaged the traditional forms and gave rise to new

cultural norms that endangered the already prevailing traditions. Correspondingly, when one

turns to folkloric traditions, there too one finds that each community has its own oral (folktales)

traditions that is unique in itself, rich in the collection and its artistic presentations. The themes

of moral triumph over turpitude, social direction and restrictions, archaic myths, fertility,

creation and social taboos, and above all the themes of fate and destiny, are predominant. Side

by side, it also emphasizes human ethics, emotions and relationships which are most sought

after even in today’s artificial intelligence’s era.

The celebrated Kokborok poet and the founder of Kokborok Sahitya Academy

Chandrakant Murasigh hinting at the ancient history of the Northeast region of India (Tripura),

writes in his compiled and edited book Tales and Tunes of Tripura Hills (2007) that during the

days of the legendary kings of Northern India this northeast region was known as the 'forsaken

land by the Pandavas' which was known as the land of inaccessible hills and turbulent rivers

with dark deep forest and treacherous marshes. It was considered infested with ferocious wild

animals, poisonous reptiles and insects – the land of the 'Kirats and Rakshasas'. Pandavas came

here during their camouflage period of the vanavasa. It was here that Bhim married Hidimba,

the daughter of Kachar and Arjuna likewise fell in love with Chitrangada, the Manipuri princess

whom he married and deserted soon. The Pandavas spent their brief period of stay here but

soon they left and everything was forgotten. The Mahabharata provides a link to the ruling

houses of this region whose valour, greatness, bravery and the other divine qualities are

attributed either as the descendants or the rivals of the Mahabharata characters.

 21

The renowned academic cum historian who taught History in Gauhati and North

Eastern Hill University Dr. N. N. Acharya (2006) slightly differs from Chandrakant Murasingh

on his research and understanding of history in the northeastern region of India. According to

Dr. Acharya it was through the penetration of Aryans during the period of Kamrupa kingdom

that the Vedic and later Vedic literature refer to ancient Assam by its different names and

sometimes by its rivers known in ancient Assam by different ancient names. Dr. Acharya’s

mentioned sources can be understood and studied from the below-mentioned sources:

i. The Satapatha Brahamana, it describes Aryan scattering up to Sadanira that is identified

with the Karatoya rivers that marked the western boundary of ancient Pragjyotishpur

(ancient Assam).

ii. The Grihaya and the Dharmasutra throw light on the political and cultural life of

India along with Assam.

iii. The works of Panini and Patanjali talk about the same.

iv. The Sankhaya Yana and Grihaya Samgraha describe Pragjyotisha as sacred land. It

is also known as the land of sunrise (chapt.II.38 Banaras Sanskrit Series) as quoted

in Acharya Dr. N.N (2006).

v. The Markandya Purana and the Brihatsamhita of Varahmihir describe Assam as

the land of rising sun.

vi. In the Arthasastra, Kautilya too refers to Assam in connection of the economic

products of Kamrupa.

vii. The Epics -- the Ramayana and the Mahabharata illuminate the readers on the

socio-political life of India which equally mentions many important source

materials for the history of ancient Assam.

viii. The Sabha, (xxvi-xxx), Asvamedha (xxv-xxvi), Udyoga (xviii), Drona (xxvi-xxx),

Bhisma and Karan (v) parvans of the Mahabharata bear many references to the
 22

Pragjyotisha kingdom together with the references to Bhagadatta, a descendant of

the family of Naraka, along with the Kiratas, China and other inhabitants of this

region which help us in studying the general socio-economic conditions of the

kingdom during the time of the Epics.

ix. The Brihat Samhita of Varahamihira (written and compiled in 5th century AD) in

the Kurma Bibhaga section refers to Pragjyotisha and Lauhitya as two different but

contagious land (as quoted in H. Kern, Introduction to Brihat Samhita, pp-2-3).

x. From Varahmihira to Kalidas, Vanbhatta to Arya Manjushri Mulakalpa, a Buddhist

work everywhere Assam finds its mention either as Kamrupa or Pragjyotisha.

xi. Even in the Puranas, Tantric Works, in the Buddhist Sources everywhere Assam

finds its mention as Pragjyotishpura. Apart from these even in the foreign sources

too, Assam finds its mention and record.

Every piece of literature bears the imprint of its cultural ethos. This is true when a writer

writes about his or her own culture or some other which s/he has studied, lived, experienced

and even closely observed. As a result, the author creates what s/he knows, what s/he

experiences and what s/he is familiar with; to express this in terms of poststructuralist ideology

will be to say that an author always creates out of what has ‘always and already’ existed (Dutta,

2014:90-91). Every culture, society and community have innumerable traditional beliefs,

rituals, customs, legends and myths which play a vital role in shaping the evaluations of the

natives of such societies.

 23

1.5 Theories of folklore

i. Historical-Geographical theory

This theory of folklore is based on the assumptions that any tale that is found in different

existing versions must have found its origin in one fixed time and place through an act of

sensible innovation. These tales which origin in one place get spread far and wide like the

pollens by the wind in a free flow manner. Similarly, these folklore and oral tales must have

diffused and disseminated through travel and trade routes including the manuscripts and the

printed texts into the expanding geographical area over time. The prominent critics of this

school —Albert Wesselski, Carl Von Sydow, Reidar Christiansen etc. criticized this Finnish

method as the statistical abstracts, summaries, symbols, tables and maps, ignoring aesthetic

and stylistic elements and the human side of the narrator.

ii. Historical-Reconstructional theory

Scholars of this school perceive folklore and folk materials as the source to recapture

the lost and the vanished historical events and past for which tracing the actual evidence is very

rare and insufficient. This method attracted Grimm brothers too who reconstructed German

gods and goddesses of Teutonic mythology through folklore materials. George Lawrence

Gomme strongly believed that one can trace the actual historical evidence and facts by

segregating layers of folk traditions deposited by different races successively settling and

conquering on the same terrain. In Japan too, this method was successful in tracing the later

historical accretions of imported Buddhism and Shintoism to arrive at the earliest lore of

cosmological beliefs.
 24

iii. Ideological theory (folklore as an Ideological instrument)

This ideological theory has been highly manipulated as a weapon cum instrument of

political goal and identity as an Ideological theory of folklore. The much talked about Romantic

Nationalism of nineteenth and twentieth century is based on German poet Johann Gottfried von

Herder’s findings who advocated that the soul of people lie in the native dialects, the regional

folksongs and tales carried in those dialects, literature with the themes of the folklore and the

history glorifying the national heroes – which emerges out of the folklore traditions. This very

folklore, later, became the political ideology and fierce nationalism of Nazi Germany and

Russia. The ultimate players of the world war two that changed the course of mankind’s history.

The Russian academic cum folklorist Y.M. Sokolov in his work Russian Folklore (1950)

openly proclaims that ---

a. Folklore is a reverberation of the past, yet it is also the strong voices of the present.

b. Folklore always has been a manifestation and the armament of class conflicts be it in

past or in the present time.

Y.M. Sokolov collected, compiled, and edited his folklore and tales during the most crucial

time of Russian history. The above-mentioned points throw light on the State’s censorship and

official policy that shaped Sokolov’s Folklore and tales (Krader,1952).

iv. Functional theory (folklore as a functional theory)

The American cultural anthropologists are the chief founders of this theory. This theory

is based on these scholars’ prime question that “how does folklore function in the culture? The

chief folklorist of this group is Franz Boas, who is also considered to be the father of the modern

American anthropology. His successor Ruth Benedict, who went on to become the editor of

the American Journal of Folklore, counters Boas, who had said that “the tribal narratives

mirrored the ethnography of the culture”. She counters him and his claim in her Zuni Mythology
 25

(1935) citing explanations that the folklore often flouted the cultural norms as a means of

pleasing desires and imagination and expressing the antagonisms of the culture bound. She

argues with her research that the Zuni tales are full of the narratives of the abandonment of the

babies which is unheard of in the Zuni culture. She explains this paradox with her convincing

assertion that the suppressed tension in the society is released through the manifestation in the

oral literature. The purest articulation of the functional thesis on folklore comes from William

Bascom, a student of Melville Herskovits, who was a student of Franz Boas. Bascom refers to

folklore as a ‘verbal arts’ as a creative composition of a functioning society, that is dynamic,

integrated and central elements of the culture. Referring to Malinowski's work in Myth in

Primitive Psychology (1926), Bascom brings attention to various functional roles of folklore

as: “Proverbs help settle legal decisions, riddle sharpens wit, myth validates conducts, satirical

songs release pent up hostilities” (Dorson,1982:21). Therefore, the cultural anthropologists

search for both the text as well as context. These very parameters of functional theory make it

most receptive among the young generation of folklorists with strong support in Europe than

America.

v. Freud’s psychoanalytical theory of folklore

The psychoanalytical theory reads folklore and myths as a substitute for sexual

symbolism. Freud's theory rests heavily on myths and fairytales, social bans and jokes and

misconceptions to support his exploration of the unconscious. Freud in the Interpretations of

Dreams (1900) presents his thesis that the dreams express the hidden suppressed wishes and

fears of juvenile sexuality in symbolic disguises. Karl Abraham too in his Dreams and Myths

(1913) draws a parallel theory based on Freud's psychoanalytical theory. Abraham mentions

the dream is the myth of the individual. If the dream uncovered the infantile desires of one

human being, myths revealed psychic repressions of the childhood of the race. Freud's theory
 26

is too raw that sees the symbols through the use of naked sexual terms. This very nakedness of

sexual terms and symbols makes Freud’s very own disciple C.G. Jung to separate ways from

him. Freud’s psychoanalytical theory uses pairs of opposites in sexual terms while Jung’s Neo-

psychoanalytical theory uses metaphysical terms in place of sexual terms like consciousness-

unconsciousness, life-death, God- Satan etc.

vi. The structural theory of folklore

The structural theory of folklore that surfaced in the 1960s in America is one of the

most significant and attractive theories of folklore. Vladimir Propp the Russian formalist is the

most renowned scholar among the other scholars of this theory. His first Russian publication

appeared in 1928 which was translated in English that came out in 1958 titled Morphology of

Folktale (1958). It went on to become the Bible of this theory that increased his reputation with

its reissue in 1968 by Allan Dundes, a supporter of the new creed of folklorists. Dundes own

work- The Morphology of North American Indian Folktales (1964), applied structural analysis

to the body of tales previously considered formless and advocated his conception of the

structural theory as an extensive intellectual possibility. Propp is considered the true father

figure of this theory whose thesis is based on an idea that displaces taxonomic interpretations

of folklore by Antti Aarne. Vladimir Propp argues that classifying folktales by dramatic

personae is misleading as the same actions in the variant tales can be performed by humans,

animals, devils and demons as well yet, the action remains constant though there is variable

among the actors.

vii. Cross-cultural theory

This is one of the practically sensible theories of folklore that appeared in the second

half of the nineteenth century which is based on the strong broad view that covers all culture.
 27

Edward Taylor, Andrew Lang, Edwin Sidney Hartland to name a few, are the prominent

scholars of this theory. According to Dorson (1972), these folklorists advocate that folklore

illustrates the existence of primitive views held by all races of men at the lower stairs of the

civilization. James G. Frazer advocates in his book the Golden Bough, that all myths and

folklore originated from the ancient sacrificial fertility rituals.

viii. The Contextual theory

The contextual school of thought on folklore has been brought to the limelight by the

energetic young generation folklorists of the United States who are the renowned alumni of the

folklore studies program from the University of Indiana and Pennsylvania in the 1960s. They

share a common thread in their thought through their doctoral training that they received from

these universities. Folklorists like Roger Abrahams, Dane Ben-Amos, Alan Dundes, Robert

Georges and Kenneth Goldstein are a few influential names from the field. All of them share

the common belief that linguistics, anthropology, sociology and psychology are the prime

discipline without which folklore cannot be understood and interpreted in the real sense of the

term. They strongly assert their argument that concept of folklore applies not to a text but to an

event in time in which a particular tradition is performed or communicated.

1.6 Role and function of folklore. How does folklore act?

Merskin in her book Media, Minorities and Meaning: A Critical Introduction (2011, p-

8)5 cites Campbell’s paraphrased version of Schopenhauer and argues, that it is the practices

and illustrations of childhood and early adolescence that becomes a standard for our view of

5 Campbell as cited in Merskin’s Media, Minorities and Meaning: A Critical Introduction (2011, p-8)
https://books.google.co.in/books/about/Media_Minorities_and_Meaning.html?id=PSz8ZH823yMC&redir_esc
=y accessed on 8th October 20202 at 12:7 pm
 28

the adult life. The way one looks at things, interprets, gives it a name and even reacts is based

on one’s upbringing that influences one’s perception of the world (Campbell,1988:38 quoted

in Merskin,2011). Folklore and folk stories consisting of myths and legends play a pivotal role

in one’s life. The type and pattern of knowledge a person gains, understands, experiences and

imbibes in one's psyche right from his/her childhood is very crucial, for it serves as a foundation

for the person’s later views of the world. Campbell (1988:38) emphasises the power of myths

that constructs the reality by performing the following functions:

i. Metaphysical – it gives the sense of the transcendent of someone or something

greater than the self or I and my attitude.

ii. Cosmological -- it provides an idea that all of us are connected to the mysterious

external reality and that there is a special providence that has designed our roles in

the order of things, it may be real or an imagined one.

iii. Sociological – it transmits the correct code of conducts to be passed on to the next

generation so that there will be connectedness across the generations. And,

iv. Pedagogical – It guides us how to live in a progressive world and to achieve specific

growth through interpersonal communication. (Cited in Merskin,2011: 8-9)

Campbell says, the modern-day constructions of, for example of masculinity, are the

spawned ideas straight from the fundamental psychological constructs that germinated in our

myth that glorifies, heroism, courage, strength and the ethos and their order that have been

perpetuated in our popular culture. Campbell further enlightens on the pedagogical function of

myths that it not only energizes a particular culture but also shows a way how this very culture

under its pedagogical influence is used oppressively and repressively in terms of limiting views

of gender, race, class, sexuality and even religion by turning the archetypes into stereotypes
 29

which at times creates and supports political atrocity as well. Warning us to be very careful

with the use of myths Campbell cites Schopenhauer by paraphrasing his work thus:

The experience and illuminations of childhood and early youth become in later life the

types, standards and patterns of all subsequent knowledge and experience, or as it were, the

categories according to which all later things are classified – not always consciously,

however. And so, it is that in our childhood years the foundation is laid of our later view of

the world, and with that, our perception of its superficiality or depth: it will be in later years

unfolded and fulfilled, not essentially changed (quoted in Merskin,2011:8).

As M C Elroy says, “the big stories that shape our lives…are very often those that came

to us in our childhood” (MC Elroy 2004:12). Hence Folklore and stories are major intricacies

of any society across nations and culture through which every child gets socialized to fit in

his/her society and surrounding as an adult of which he/she is a product. Every child brings

along his/her own baggage of culture and values that are imbibed right from their childhood

and this very sense of identity, belongingness and values are strongly grounded on one's folk

traditions (the folklore and folktales) in which one is born and brought up.

1.7 Significance of the study

Folklore as the machinery of patriarchy to control women and their space/s

The study of folklore is no more regarded as remote as it has attained a worldwide

dimension in the present day. As a result, folklore as an independent discipline has come to be

accepted by all concerned with it. The academic discourse on folklore will be impossible

without the historical, psychoanalytical, cultural, linguistic, and literary projections which are

considered to be the primary factors. A nation in its totality cannot be known without knowing

its literature, its subject matter, and its techniques. It is here that folklore and folk literature
 30

play a crucial role – by being instrumental in understanding the same. Folklore and Literature

together form an integral part of a culture and their accurate knowledge expands our

understanding and knowledge of its creators and contributors and their authentic possessor as

well. The study of folklore especially literature in its oral and written form reveals the

continuity and relationships between the two forms of art. Hence, the study of literature in

relation to folklore offer in depth knowledge and understanding (insight) into both the lore and

the folk, allowing one to see the lore as a part of the complete whole having function and

meaning in the lives of the people.

Literature like any other forms of art shares a rational relationship with culture and with

its past and topography and no wonder the writings from the North Eastern part of India shows

a major impact of the recent histories made across the region. Besides, there is an actual absence

of information in the majority of the mass media about this area which gets attention only when

there is some political conflict or communal and ethnic violence. Most of the communities

from Northeast India possesses a very lively storytelling tradition (Misra, 2011) even today

that has survived the cruel time in the form of oral transmission from generation to generation.

It is here that the folklore comes handy in understanding and interpreting the writings from the

region in a sound and healthy way. Above all, through the literature of the region one can trace

the roots of violence and suppression that is inflicted against women that blocks their way to

progress by controlling their freedom, movements and even their spaces. These folklore and

ideas are plaited so well in the everyday traditions and culture that one sings to these tunes and

dances to its rhythm without decoding its implied meaning which coils their life restricting its

expansion.
 31

Priyanka Dubey in her book No Nation for Women: Reportage on rape from India, the

largest Democracy of the World (2018) shares her insight that how the savage mentality and

the barbarian attitude of the people and society shock the human conscience with its unheard

and untold stories that are deeply rooted and fashioned after our folklore. The multitude of

crimes committed against women perhaps, could be traced to the Folklore, that promotes,

justify, and neutralise rape and many other grave crimes committed against women as an apt

punishment -- a tit for tat. A fitting punishment for women who transgress their space and limit.

These big stories come from the small stories that are planted in the formative years of children

through folk traditions and the fairy tales listening to which they grow into adult beings.

Cultures across the world have been very biased and unfair in portraying women thus,

damaging their psychology and instilling fear in them perpetually. To testify and authenticate

the same the following proverbs can be taken from Leghorn and Parker (1981). They quote

some quintessential proverbs present across cultures as: “A man may work from sun to sun, a

woman’s work is never done” (an American proverb); “a woman’s heaven is under her

husband’s feet” (an Indian/ Bengali Expression); “her looks had been her only capital” (a

Southern Italian expression); “women and camels need to be beaten” (a South African

expression); “women like walnut trees, should be beaten every day” ( a French proverb) and

“a wife married is a pony bought; I will ride her and whip her as I like” (a Chinese saying).

The list is endless though. One may dismiss these expressions as mere primitive one, but their

impact and effect cannot be ignored and dismissed. The cross-cultural theory of folklore

believes that the folklore across cultures represent the existence of primitive thoughts held by

all races of men at the lower strata of civilization. James G. Frazer advocates in his book The

Golden Bough (1890{1915}), that all myths and folklore originated from the ancient sacrificial
 32

fertility rites where male found the dominant place in the primitive society whose dictum and

orders were compiled by the female species without any resistance.

The paradoxical issue that is faced by women in every sphere of their life (including

public and the private) have remained largely uninvestigated despite the explosion of research

papers and publications all over the world. My intention in choosing the topic of my

dissertation – Reading Influence of Folklore and Folk Elements in the writings of Indira

Goswami, Temsula Ao and Lummer Dai with special reference to A Saga of South Kamrup,

These Hills Called Home - stories from the war zone and Bride Price– is an attempt to interlink

the issues of discrimination, oppression and violence that women are subjected to in plural and

intensified forms, that ensues from possessing the female body and gender whereby patriarchy

works towards legitimising different discriminatory ideas from folklore to control and oppress

them.

1.8 Research problem and hypothesis statement

The present proposed research is based on the hypothesis that Indira Goswami’s A Saga

of South Kamrup (1993), Ao’s These Hills Called Home (2013) and Dai’s Bride Price

(1978{2004}) reveal the gendered role of women, the stereotyped hegemonic notion of sex,

gender, caste, race and female’s space which is deeply constructed in the human psyche which

again is essentially foregrounded and rooted in the folk traditions and beliefs of the region that

has been passed on from generations to generations. The prototyped roles and controlled spaces

of women have been imposed on them through social traditions and beliefs which are heavily

grounded in our folklore, folk beliefs and social traditions that dictate a value-added judgement

for both men and women differently. Allowing individuality and freedom to men while denying
 33

the same to women. As a result, women’s individuality, mobility, and private and public spaces

have always been censored and controlled by the ultimate force --- Patriarchy.

On the other hand, women’s everyday docile obeisance has been so idealized and

eulogized by the scholars, thinkers, and writers across time that they became commandments

and the mandatory code of conduct for every woman and most interestingly, every child grows

up listening to all these idealized and eulogized roles coming to them from their folk traditions

thus, enabling these children to differentiate between bad and good women without discretion.

The following excerpts from Leslee Udwin’s6 interview with Mukesh Singh, one of the

convicts of "Nirbhaya" case is not only shocking but is equally an eye-opening on India's

treatment of its women. When being interviewed the convict Mukesh Singh says:

A decent girl won’t roam around at nine o’clock at night. A girl is far more responsible

for rape than a boy. Housework and housekeeping are for girls, not roaming in discos

and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20% of the girls

are good. People had a right to teach them a lesson. The woman should have put up

with it. When being raped, she shouldn't fight back. She should just be silent and allow

rape. Then they'd have dropped her off after 'doing her', and only hit the boy. ……. The

death penalty will make things even more dangerous for girls. Now when they rape,

they won't leave the girl as we did. They will kill her. Before, they would rape and say,

“Leave her, she won’t tell anyone.’ Now when they rape, especially the criminal types,

they will just kill the girl. Death (BBC News,3rd March 2015).

6 Leslee Udwin is a Jewish British filmmaker and a human rights activist. Her world-famous documentary film India’s
Daughter is based on the 2012 Delhi Gangrape and murder of a twenty-three old year physiotherapy student. It recaptures the
event of the fateful night of the 16th December 2012 and the spark and protests that followed after it.
 34

1.9 Research Objective

The objective of the present study is to focus on the folk elements in the writings of

Indira Goswami, Temsula Ao and Lummer Dai with special references to A Saga of South

Kamrup (Assamese translation of Une Khowa Howdah), These Hills called Home and Bride

Price (translated from the Assamese novel Koinar Mulya). The researcher here, proposes to

make a detailed study of the novels mentioned above and the use of folklore materials in their

writings. The primary objective of the proposed research is to make an analysis of the texts and

the folk elements used in them to understand the social and cultural intricacies of a particular

caste and community that always exercises control over its women by dictating their lives with

certain terms and conditions along with a prototyped gendered role. The secondary objective

of the research is to locate the correlation between folk elements and their influence on human

psyche, human relations, social behaviour, and cultural notions raising the issues of sex,

gender, caste, culture, ethnicity, and identity as well.

The present thesis is also an attempt to explore and understand those crucial nodes and

instances through which the oppressive forces of patriarchy control and exploit women in

different and ever-changing guises. It also calls into question the folklore traditions and folk

ideas that enhance patriarchy to control women, their spaces and mobility in a very subtle but

fixed manner.

Emily Martin in her landmark research titled “the Egg and the Sperm: How science has

constructed a romance based on stereotypical Male-Female Roles” (1991:485-501) comes out

with the astonishing fact that both folklore and science come hand in hand together as brothers

in arms to show the female species their place. It’s the culture that shapes how biological

scientists describe what they discover about the natural world (Martin,1991:485-501). In the
 35

field of biological and medical sciences all the available texts – read, taught, and quoted always

described sperm as penetrating the egg and egg is described as a passive partner, a damsel in

distress waiting to be rescued by the sperm. It is the recent investigation/research at a

biophysics lab at Johns Hopkins University that discovered and restored the egg from passive

to the active role.

Unlike Gerald Schatten and Helen Schatten in their essay “The Energetic Egg” compare

the egg to a Sleeping Beauty an analogy taken from the folk traditions “where an unconscious

bride waits for her partner’s magic kiss, that instils a new life in her” (1984:51-53).

Biophysicists at Johns Hopkins University, along with another researcher Paul Wassarman

(1987) conducted a research on the sperm and egg of mice that led him to conclude after he

investigated that it's the egg that chooses a suitable mate, fixes him for union, and then guards

the ensuing progeny from damage. Sperm is, an actor who shows the role to make it happen

but in reality, it's the egg's choice that lets the sperm let it happen.

Like Emily Martin in her "the Egg and the Sperm: How science has constructed a

romance based on stereotypical Male-Female Roles" Ao too, seems to be dead against the

suggested outdated notion of man and woman that has been passed on to people since time

immemorial that, a man retains his masculinity or manhood through pretence. In 'Soaba' the

protagonist Boss Imlichuba is already the middle-aged man who soon loses all physical desires

not only for his own wife Imtila but also for any other woman but out of a perverse sense of

proving his manhood, he would order women to be brought to the house for his pleasure but in

their presence, he could not find the required energy to make love to them (Ao, 2006:16). When

these women talk about the middle-aged man and his impotency; they are mercilessly beaten

black and blue and are dumped outside the gate of Imlichuba’s house.
 36

Nur Yalman (1962) argues that in the eastern context, the basic central attitude of Hindu

social organization was to build a close and tight structure to preserve land, ladies and

sacramental purity inside its system. Since women’s unrestrained sexuality was believed to be

a danger to the sanctity of caste, class, and the existence of patriarchy, it has been the object of

obsessive surveillance and control. So, comes the intervention of folklore and stories to the

rescue of patriarchy where women are shown in the eternal role of a caretaker, a nurturer, and

a housewife. The image of women in all the folk and fairy tales across culture and geography

is portrayed and painted eternally tied to the domestic servitude implied by homemaking and

housekeeping (Dundes, 1980).

As Lisa Leghorn and Katharine Parker (1981) argue, the leading (male) culture sees

women as breeders, natural rearers of children, closer to the earth, big talkers, gossipers,

passive, devious and indirect. In other words, women are socialised to lack a sense of self-

preservation, to remain preoccupied with petty details, and to be home-oriented, emotional,

irrational, 'not serious', and infantile. As Leghorn and Parker put it, "Good women are

benchmarked as those who keep quiet, don't argue, do their work diligently, and have no needs

or demands independent of their families" (1981: 114-115). While each culture has its specific

gender stereotypes, there is also a more global circulation of desired femininity. All these so-

called artificial values and cultures are imbibed in our children in general and in a girl child in

particular through the myriad of folktales and fairy tales that they grow up listening, reading

and with the latest technology making it possible to see visually being performed through the

electronic media.

Accordingly, Indira Munshi too (2006) observes some of the stereotypes reinforced by

advertisements, particularly those promoting the tourism industry across the world. In a bid to
 37

attract potential customers/tourists, they manufacture sexual myths such as the following: “The

exotic woman is always erotic”; “Caribbean women are sexual mulattoes with free time to

enjoy the beaches and the male visitor”; and “Asian women are without desire for

emancipation, but full of warm sensuality and the softness of velvet” (Munshi, 2006: 4465-66).

The messages of these advertisements are very insidious and misleading. They are selling not

only the tourist destination, or the sheer beauty of Nature, but also the commodified ethnic

female body for consumption by the privileged male gaze. It is not only the female anatomy

but also the nature and places that are exoticized and sexualized, imbued with feminine

attributes, meant to attract, and gratify the male gaze. These advertisements objectifying the

female body include the women from different races, segments of society, places and countries

across the world and cultures, and unfortunately all of them happen to be from the third world

countries! What underlies such images and messages are some fundamental assumptions –

about gendered tourists, gendered hosts, gendered tourism marketing and gendered tourism

objects. Words and images that signify qualities such as "seductive", "beautiful", "magical",

"captivating", "mesmerizing", "enchanting", "charming" and "awaiting" that recur in these

advertisements are part of an orientalising and objectifying manoeuvre. Interestingly, one of

the most ubiquitous images is of the submissive and smiling Indian woman ready to serve every

need of the tourist, assumed to be male, upper-class, and usually western. All these ideas in

fact, are directly hijacked from our traditional lore and folk stories and presented to the new,

modern, and urban consumer with a corporate packaging. From cave painting to corporate

communication everything else has changed and progressed except the issues of women.

1.10 Chapterisation

The present study selected for the thesis Reading influence of Folklore and Folk

elements in the writings of Indira Goswami, Temsula Ao and Lummer Dai with special
 38

reference to A Saga of South Kamrup (Datal Hatir Une Khowa Howdah), These Hills Called

Home –stories from the War Zone and Bride Price (Koinar Mulya), is completely woven

around the theme based on the folk beliefs, folk custom, traditions, and material culture which

cannot be separated from them. To study these novels in isolation removing its folkloric

materials and traditions will be taking away its very basic essence. Knowing Goswami’s

Assam, its people and traditions will be just impossible without understanding the traditional

folk customs and elements which are intricately woven along with its plot and narrative.

Similarly, Temsula Ao and Lummer Dai too, enlighten us on the Naga and Adi way of life,

their custom, tradition, people, their values, and relationships through the folkloric materials

used in the Bride Price and These Hills called Home - stories from the war zone.

It will be apt to quote Wolfe (1943) who is perhaps the first modern critic of folklore to

understand the essence of folklore in the literature that creates the literature as:

If the writer has used the clay of life to make his book, he has only used what

all men must, what none can keep from using. Fiction is not fact, but fiction is

a fact selected and understood, fiction is fact arranged and charged with

purpose. Dr Johnson remarked that a man would turn over half a library to

make a single book; in the same way, a novelist may turn over half the people

in a town to make a single figure in his novel (quoted in Dutta,2014:91).

Similarly, Paul. A. Bennett too, believes in the unique relationship between literature and

folklore that he mentions as:

……. the learning of the folk, the knowledge of an untutored people made one

by geography, occupation or culture – or by a combination of the three ---

 39

supplies a great body of raw materials for the creative artist. The particular

value of folklore as raw material is that it offers a tested pattern of appeal, the

appeal of a striking character or a sure-fire treatment of love, lust or rage; of

birth, life or death (Bennet, 1952:23 quoted in Dutta,2014:91).

It will not be wrong to say that classics and the highly cherished works of literature

across the world and languages have been those that use folklore, folk beliefs, myths and

legends as its essence and base. The three texts selected for the present dissertation too are rich

in the use of the folkloric elements and ideas. Through Ao’s These Hills Called Home—stories

from the war zone, we enter Nagaland and see, feel, and understand the plight of Naga, their

emotions their disrupted houses and life in the wake of Naga Movement. The understanding of

the land, its value and meaning can be exactly conceived and understood through imbibing

Naga ethos. So, does one enter the land of Adis through Dai’s Bride Price and that of Assam

through Goswami’s the Saga of South Kamrup.

These folk beliefs represent the ancient faith and thought of mankind that is essentially

based on their feelings and response of the worldview. Through their rituals, practice, traditions

and the way of life, they recreate the history of the bygone days. It's because people believe in

these that these folk beliefs and traditions have survived time. Generations after generations,

certain unique place, communities, and clans are still found intact be it in the form of cuisines,

culinary taste and preserved folk knowledge or through the attires, artefacts or music and

literature. Folklore has dynamic and large aspects within itself which at times emerges as larger

than life. Folklore, if taken seriously and scientifically may prove to be 'shared experience and

wisdom' of a particular social group or community that might further lead to the discovery of

people's history. It will eventually be not wrong to say, that folklore is nothing but the

movement of human civilization from an unconscious state to that of a conscious one.

 40

Understanding folklore closely becomes all the more important in the region like

Northeast of India where the confluence of people from tribal, Aryan and Non-Aryan stocks is

not only complicated but also has issues of inclusion contributing to strife, riots and ethnic

violence from time to time that disrupts the life and property of the people residing in these

parts of the country. Often marginalized and not given the due importance that it deserves is a

serious concern which can be suitably tackled and handled through the in-depth research and

study of folklore independently as well as through the available works of literature in the

region. After all, as Sahitya Academy believes, “Indian literature is one but written in many

languages”. The most interesting fact about folklore is that it exists everywhere.

The present research is an attempt to interlink the mentioned texts and the folk elements

interwoven to analyse and understand the social and cultural intricacies of a particular caste,

clan and community that always exercises control over its women and their lives by dictating

certain terms and conditions to mould them – their lives and existence into prototyped gendered

roles. This study also attempts to explore and understand as to how the correlations between

folk elements and their influence on the human psyche, human relations, social behaviour and

cultural notions raise issues of sex, gender, race, culture, ethnicity and identity as well. It

focuses on the use of folklore and folk elements in the writings of Indira Goswami, Temsula

Ao and Lummer Dai, who are highly acclaimed writers representing their region, community,

and culture thus, giving voice to a generation and bringing their voice to the forefront of the

mainstream from the periphery whose stories have remained untold and unheard so far. The

use of folklore and folk elements appears as the vital and the strong thread that binds the plots

from beginning to the end. They serve as a very powerful agent that peeps into the inner

intricacies of the social and cultural life of a community. Every character of these writers in

their works are moulded as an embodiment of their community and its social practices,
 41

traditions, and beliefs. None of these authors interferes with their characters, plots or narration

to make a point but yet they are successful in their aim through their brilliant use of the folk

elements that act as an agent in hinting and foretelling things that the authors themselves will

not disclose otherwise.

The present thesis is organised into five chapters, each with a specific focus on an author

and his/her work. Goswami’s The Saga of South Kamrup, Temsula Ao’s These Hills Called

Home – Stories from the war zone and Lummer Dai’s Bride Price (Koinar Mulya) with an

analysis on the treatment of the issue. The following chapters attempt to analyse patriarchal

control of women’s spaces and movements through folk traditions and beliefs as represented

by their respective novels both in English and in the regional languages as well.

The First Chapter is intended as the Introductory Chapter with a brief account of the

origin and development of folklore, its meaning, functions and different theories. It also

mentions the impact and influence of folklore on literature, culture and social behaviour. It

interlinks the issues of discrimination, oppression and violence that women are subjected to in

plural and intensified forms, that ensues from possessing the female body and gender whereby

patriarchy works towards legitimising different means of folklore and folk ideas to control and

oppress them. This chapter highlights the research problem and hypothesis followed by a short

discussion. The defining features of folklore and folklife studies, their correlation with

literature and society would be outlined by various theorists and critics selected for the study.

This chapter will also introduce three major authors selected for the study in very short.

Chapter Two highlights on author Indira Goswami and her works with special emphasis

on A Saga of South Kamrup an English translation of the Assamese novel Datal Hatir Une
 42

Khowa Howda, translated by the author herself that was published by the Sahitya Academy in

1993. Among other things, this chapter seeks to show how these women, especially widows,

are emotionally and physically deprived of and made prisoners of the system and pathetic

victims of the evils of the society exercised through rituals. The central focus of this chapter is

to show how the folk customs, practices and rituals emerge as malignant agents that bring about

misery and suffering to the women in general and the three widows of this novel in particular.

The constraints imposed by the system and the burden of rituals weigh so heavily on these

widows that some are reduced to a sickly, neurotic, skeletal human body while others embrace

death to skip the pangs of these very suffering and misery. Among other things, this novel is

very rich in oral and expressive literature which has been discussed in detail.

Chapter Three deals specifically with Temsula Ao and her work These Hills Called

Home – stories from the war zone. This chapter strives to showcase that even though the Naga

society appears to be egalitarian in nature, it is not so in reality. Critics and scholars have

succeeded in proving the Naga Society as a typically patrilineal one where the relationships

between the genders normally get the legal sanction through the institutions of customary law

which are entirely reserved for male members and ruled and managed by men (Aiyer,2008).

The patriarchal Naga society’s belief in male dominance is based on the various Naga myths,

oral traditions of Naga connected to the origin of the myth, migration stories and settling of

villages. Unlike these very beliefs, Temsula Ao in her novel These Hills Called Home

challenges this very traditional Ao custom by narrating a very different tale. She uses folk

elements as gender-bender where neither the male nor the female dominance is glorified but

the virtues like supreme intellect, courage, common sense, chivalry, honesty, integrity and wit

which surpasses the traditional notion of gender and especially of being male. Ao argues, that

these virtues could come from anyone be it a man or a woman. She like Dundes, succeeds in
 43

projecting the other side of the story using the word 'folk idea' which is the conventional ideas

of a group of persons about the nature of man and his place in the world that is ever-changing.

The fact that Naga Society though considered itself a patrilineal one, yet women were held

with high esteem and revered during wartime and headhunting when they acted as the active

messengers and saviour Peacekeepers between the warring villages. In the present context, it

cannot be denied that the process of development and education brought tremendous changes

in the Naga society where gender roles and relations have subverted and changed for the better.

Despite the claim of Nagas being from patrilineal society, the Naga women never had a serious

crisis over the issues of individuality, liberty and identity. In These Hills Called Home, Ao's

women embody different human virtues and qualities. They are not destitute, helpless or

oppressed victim but are free-spirited, witty, courageous and crusaders who always save their

male folks both from the internal and external impending threats and crises. These women draw

their power and courage from the source which is deeply rooted in their folk idea and traditions

that allows them both individual freedom and space.

Chapter Four focuses on the Adi writer from Arunachal Pradesh, Lummer Dai and his

novel, Bride Price translated from the original work in Assamese Koinar Mulya. This chapter

shows Dai’s Bride Price as an agent of social change. Dai in this work deals with the problem

of defining the private space in a premodern community where individuals do not exist as

separate units but as a part of the community and that of a closely-knit family. Through the

voice of young protagonist Gumba in Bride Price, Dai questions the primitive lifestyle and

rigid orthodoxy which has no stand in the progressive world. Dai narrates every little

happenings and affair of the community with detailed and minute observation. As a keen

observer, he narrates vividly every aspect of Adi life starting from, the folk art, artefacts, folk

architect, folk costumes and culinary practice to the folk management system of the village to
 44

run it. The community gathering which showcases the primitive lifestyle and customs of the

community that are still prevalent and followed without question. On one side, this primitive

custom is the identity of the community while on the other, it comes in the way of the promising

educated young generation and their dreams and ambitions. Dai brings a suitable solution to

this issue through the kebang, that acts as a “vox populi vox” philosophy and shows a way in

Arnold’s fashion “the old order ceases giving place to a new”, where Dai brings two different

generations on a common platform who merge and appear as the one and the new improved

version for whom custom is sacrosanct but not above a human life which is equally precious.

Chapter Five serves as a concluding chapter that draws implications and findings

grounded on the information and analyses attempted in the preceding four chapters. This

chapter also attempts to show how the elements of folklore and folklife be it the folk customs,

rituals, songs, tales, artefacts, food, costumes, dance or folk architecture – all of them have

been transmitted orally through many generations and are still prevalent and practised by

people across cultures and communities with great reverence. Even though, they are often

devoid of religious meaning, yet they control our life and dictate social behaviour with certain

terms and conditions. Though they are not overtly seen yet they are very much present and play

a very crucial role in the socialising process.

1.11 Conclusion

The conclusion is based on the argument that the Northeast of India has a rich and a

vibrant oral tradition which is testified by the literature of the region written across time. It is

a fact that literature, like any other form of art, shares an introspective relationship with society

and also with its antiquity and physiography. Moreover, the Historical-Reconstructional theory

of folklore itself perceives folklore and folk materials as the source to recapture the lost and
 45

the vanished historical events and past which even the Grimm brothers too used for

reconstructing German gods and goddesses of Teutonic mythology (through folklore

materials). Therefore, the practical application of the modern folklore methodology in literature

has immense possibilities and if undertaken seriously such studies are likely to enrich human

knowledge on human's carving for an orderly social life that satisfies both his love for freedom

and urges for beauty and knowledge. This, in turn, can bring about the integration of mankind

as a whole under the umbrella “Vasudhaiva kutumbakam” (the world is one family).

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