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Nine hundred years ago a remarkable collection of stories called Kathasaritsagara,
the ''Ocean of Stories", was produced in Kashmir. Somadeva, its author,
is said to have included in this tome many stories which he had heard from
others and which, in fact, had their origin in folk-literature. The Kathasaritsagara,
which may justly be called a treasure of folk tales, has had considerable
influence on countries which were in close touch with India during the Middle
Ages.The first collection of Kashmiri folk tales in English was brought out by the
late Rev. John Hinton Knowles towards the end of the last century. Sometime
later, a renowned scholar, the late Sir Auriel Stein, published another
collection of this kind. Hatim's
Tales, as this latter is called, is a collection of tales in
verse and prose recited in Kashmiri for the savant by one Hatim who was an
oilman by profession. These two works can by no means be said to exhaust the
harvest of tales garnered in the fertile minds of the people.
Text Reproduced from:
FOLK TALES FROM
KASHMIR
by S. L. SADHU
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| HISTORICAL
TALES |
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Painstakingly spun over the years, these stories, including folk-tales
and historical tales, are bound to exercise a charm over people of all ages,
even as the beautiful locale of Kashmir does. Bringing an assorted collection
together in this Prestigious volume-Prof. Somnath Dhar calls it his magnum
opus-the learned author shares very interesting vignettes of the Valley,
including the chequered annals, with the reader.
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| KASHMIRI
FOLKTALES |
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Kashmir has an inexhaustible fund of folk-tales - the popular component of the
"literature of the people", as folklore has been aptly characterized.
Folk-tales of Kashmir, like "Himal and Nagraya" and "Zohra Khotan
and Haya Bund" are distinctly Kashmiri in origin. Naga or snake also means
a spring in Kashmir, both feature picturesquely in the Nagraya tale.
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| SHORT
STORIES |
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These simple and unadorned tales deal with the people of Kashmir - their
loves, their hates, their deep-set superstitions, their struggles with
wild animals and untamed nature in some of her
fiercest moods. Great mountains can be not only majestic but they can be most
terrifying to those who fall a prey to wild storms while far away from any abode
of man.
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