A flowering tree and other oral tales from India: A.K. Ramanujan ; edited with a preface by Stuart Blackburn and Alan Dundes

This book of oral tales from the south Indian region of Kannada represents the culmination of a lifetime of research by A. K. Ramanujan, one of the most revered scholars and writers of his time. The result of over three decades' labor, this long-awaited collection makes available for the first time a wealth of folktales from a region that has not yet been adequately represented in world literature. Ramanujan's skill as a translator, his graceful writing style, and his profound love and understanding of the subject enrich the tales that he collected, translated, and interpreted. With a written literature recorded from about 800 A.D., Kannada is rich in mythology, devotional and secular poetry, and more recently novels and plays. Ramanujan, born in Mysore in 1929, had an intimate knowledge of the language. In the 1950s, when working as a college lecturer, he began collecting these tales from everyone he could-servants, aunts, schoolteachers, children, carpenters, tailors. In 1970 he began translating and interpreting the tales, a project that absorbed him for the next three decades. When Ramanujan died in 1993, the translations were complete and he had written notes for about half of the tales. With its unsentimental sympathies, its laughter, and its delightfully vivid sense of detail, the collection stands as a significant and moving monument to Ramanujan's memory as a scholar and writer. Author Biography: A. K. Ramanujan taught at the University of Chicago until his death in 1993. Among his seventeen books are Folktales from India (1992) and Poems of Love and War (1985). Stuart Blackburn is Lecturer in South Asian Studies at the School of Oriental and AfricanStudies,University of London. Alan Dundes is Professor of Anthropology and Folklore at the University of California, Berkeley. Editors' Preface......Page 1 1. A Story and a Song......Page 5 Commentary......Page 6 2. Acacia Trees......Page 7 Comments......Page 9 3. The Adventures of a Disobedient Prince......Page 10 Types and Motifs......Page 16 Comments......Page 17 4. Bride for a Dead Man......Page 18 5. A Brother, a Sister, and a Snake......Page 21 6. A Buffalo Without Bones......Page 22 7. Cannibal Sister......Page 25 Comments......Page 26 9. Another Chain Tale: What an Ant Can Do......Page 27 Comments......Page 29 10. The Clever Daughter-in-law......Page 30 Comments......Page 33 11. A Couple of Misers......Page 34 12. The Dead Prince and the Talking Doll......Page 36 Comments......Page 39 13. A Dog's Daughters......Page 40 14. A Dog's Story......Page 42 15. Dolls......Page 44 Comments......Page 45 Note......Page 46 18. Dwarfs......Page 47 Comments......Page 48 19. A Flowering Tree......Page 49 Types and Motifs......Page 54 20. Flute of Joy, Flute of Sorrow......Page 55 Comments......Page 57 Types and Motifs......Page 58 22. A Jackal King......Page 59 23. For Love of Kadabu......Page 60 25. The Glass Pillar......Page 62 26. A Golden Sparrow......Page 63 Comments......Page 64 28. Hanchi......Page 65 29. The Horse Gram Man......Page 68 Note......Page 69 30. Hucca......Page 70 Types and Motifs......Page 72 31. The Husband's Shadow......Page 73 Note......Page 74 32. In the Kingdom of Foolishness......Page 75 Comments......Page 77 33. In Search of a Dream......Page 76 34. King and Peasant......Page 78 35. Kutlavva......Page 79 36. The Lampstand Woman......Page 81 Types and Motifs......Page 83 37. The Magician and His Disciple......Page 84 38. A Minister's Word......Page 88 39. Monkey Business......Page 89 40. The Mother Who Married Her Own Son......Page 90 41. Muddanna......Page 92 42. Nagarani (“Serpent Queen”)......Page 95 Note......Page 96 43. A Ne'er-do-well......Page 97 44. Ninga on My Palm......Page 100 45. Ogress Queen......Page 102 Note......Page 105 48. A Peg and a Keg......Page 106 49. The Pomegranate Queen......Page 107 50. A Poor Man......Page 109 51. The Princess of Seven Jasmines......Page 110 52. The Prince Who Married His Own Left Half......Page 112 53. The Rain King's Wife......Page 115 54. Rich Man, Poor Man......Page 117 55. A Sage's Word......Page 120 56. The Serpent Lover......Page 121 57. A Shepherd's Pilgrimage......Page 124 Note......Page 126 58. Sister Crow and Sister Sparrow......Page 127 59. Siva Plays Double......Page 128 60. The Sparrow Who Wouldn't Die......Page 129 Note......Page 130 62. Tales for a Princess......Page 131 63. The Talking Bed......Page 134 64. A Thief, a Ram, a Bear, and a Horse......Page 136 65. Three Blouses......Page 139 66. Three Magic Objects......Page 140 Note......Page 141 67. Three Sisters Named Death, Birth, and Dream......Page 142 68. The Three-Thousand-Rupee Sari......Page 143 69. Thug and Master-Thug......Page 145 70. Tree Trunk for a Boat......Page 146 71. The Turtle Prince......Page 148 72. A Wager......Page 151 73. What the Milk Bird Said......Page 157 74. Who Is the Greatest?......Page 159 75. Why the Sky Went Up......Page 160 76. The Worship of a Household God......Page 161 77. A Story to End All Stories......Page 162 A Woman's Tale......Page 163 to him (on her behalf) when he came by daylight......Page 165 Notes......Page 169 Notes on the Tales......Page 170 Glossary......Page 171 Bibliography......Page 173 List of Tellers and Collectors......Page 174 List of Tale Types......Page 177 The personal depth of 'A Flowering Tree' both characterizes this book and separates it from Ramanujan's 1991 collection, which presented 'a selection of oral tales from twenty-two languages' in India. Most of those tales were chosen from printed sources, some from the nineteenth century, and from translations of other collectors past and present.