Kashmir, like any other Indian cultural region of India, has its rich tradition of folklore. Hatim’s Tales are a class by themselves in this rich heritage. A spell-binding story-teller. Hatim was a legend in his lifetime. He recited, intoned, sang and talked to his fond listeners in the towns and villages to the picturesque Kashmir valley. His villages of the picturesque Kashmir valley. His tales were drawn from history, mythology, traditional narratives, and original stories devised by Hatim himself. They were part of the oral tradition which survived in memory and word of the mouth. Sir Airel Stein took pains to listen to the legendary Hatim and take down notes. When elaborated and translated for a book, it became a unique collection of folk tales, ballads, folk songs taken straight from the mouth of a hereditary storyteller and reciter. The book contains the original in Kashmiri, translation in English, linguistic analysis, vocabulary, and index. The modern reader will find in the collection the most authentic account of the Kashmiri folklofe ever recorded. It is sheer pleasure to read them and enjoy down-to-earth wit and wisdom.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Aurel Stein
Stein (Sir Mark Aurel Stein) was born on November 26, in 1862 in Budapest, (Hungary). After his graduation, Mark Aurel Stein felt interested in the archaeological studies of Iran and India when his teacher G. Buhlar, himself a great orientalist, kindled in him an irresistible passion for the rich classical passion for the rich classical learning of India. After getting his doctoral degree in 1884, he went to the Oxford University were he continued his studies in the field. In 1885 he was appointed as the Registrar of the Punjab University and the Principal of the Oriental College Lahor. In 1888 he visited Kashmir to get an entire and the oldest manuscript of the Rajatarangani. During his Central Asian tours he made an indepth study of the archaeology of Khotan and published his studies under the title Ancient Khotan. Stein's interest in language and the folklore of Kashmir arose during his first tour to Kashmir during the years 1888-98 when he was preparing a critical edition of Kalhan's Rajatarangani, with its commented translation. After several accomplishments, the great expeditions in the Central Asia and China, Sir Aurel Stein died on 26th of October 1943 at Kabul at the age of eighty-one. Stein's Hatim's Tales, edited by George Abraham Grierson, is a monumental work in the field of folklore. Besides being a record of the original text of some of the most fascinating folk tales of Kashmir, it is an indispensable work for the students of history, anthropology and poetics.
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