Folklore of the Santal Parganas

English · 1909 · 3h 30m · Myths, Legends & Fairy Tales, Anthologies

This is the 2nd volume of the Librivox collection. The original book is a collection of folklore from the Santal Parganas, a prominent administrative division in the state of Jharkhand, India. To quote Cecil Henry Bompas, "The stories and legends which are here translated have been collected by the Rev. O. Bodding, D.D. of the Scandinavian Mission to the Santals. To be perfectly sure that neither language nor ideas should in any way be influenced by contact with a European mind he arranged for most of them to be written out in Santali....My translation though somewhat condensed is very literal, and the stories have perhaps thereby an added interest as shewing the way in which a very primitive people look at things. The Santals are great story tellers; the old folk of the village gather the young people round them in the evening and tell them stories, and the men when watching the crops on the threshing floor will often sit up all night telling stories."

This Librivox collection stories brings stories from Part 1 of the original book, which talks about general human character.

The Santal Parganas was officially established by the British in 1855 after the "Great Santal Rebellion" by the Santals, an indigenous tribe in East India, against the oppressions of the local moneylenders, landlords and the tax collection system of the British. By creating the Santal Parganas, the British acknowledged the distinct identity and grievances of the Santals, introducing reforms and laws to protect the tribal rights and identity. Since then, even after Independence, the Santal Parganas remains an important region and a powerful symbol of the tribals' resistance against colonialism, and their ongoing assertion of their identity and rights. Today, the Santals form one of the largest tribes in India. - Summary by sonaliie