In Hundred Tamil Folk and Tribal Tales we have a rich variety of tale-types of a major South Indian oral tradition. Sujatha Vijayaraghavan’s lucid English translation here beacons a serious engagement in Indic studies. It locates this body of work at the interface between folklore, anthropology, sociology and public culture of a by-gone era.
This handy collection provides an easy access to the cultural registers and linguistic mores of a tribal/folk population at a crucial juncture of colonial modernity. Furthermore, she translates not merely the tales as she finds them in the Tamil original (naatupura kathai kalanjiyam), but distinguishes and recognises the tribal tale, otherwise unnoticed in a proverbial ocean of Indian folklore. As a vibrant vein of wit and wisdom in Dravidian lives and traditions, the tribal-tale receives the first-ever straight look in these pages.
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