ISSN: 2583-7354

A STUDY OF INDIAN ORAL TRADITIONS

Dr.Kalyan Shidram Kokane1*
1Assistant Professor of English, (Maharaja Sayajirao Gaikwad Arts, Science & Commerce College,

Malegaon Camp, Dist. Nashik, MS), India.

*Corresponding Author: kalyankokane@gmail.com

Article Info: - Received : 13 February 2024 Accepted : 22 February 2024 Published : 29 February 2024

It is a fact that India has great oral traditions and usually been identified with its classical
traditions and culture. But there is another harmony, sometimes in counterpoint and sometimes
autonomous, found in India‘s folk traditions. These folk traditions are to be found in the form of, rhymes,
proverbs, myths, songs and rituals. These constitute of what is known as ‘folklore’. Spoken language is
notable for its “concreteness”, for its personal quality and emphasis on people and actions, as well as for
its use of parallelism, paralinguistic features, and the lack of complex grammatical constructions, such as
relative clauses.

Keywords: Folklore, Oral Traditions, Religio Mythological, Fary Tales.

2583-7354/© 2024 Dr.Kalyan Shidram Kokane. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided
you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were
made.

1. INTRODUCTION ballads, proverbs, riddles, parables, superstitions and

1.1 INDIAN FOLKLORE TRADITIONS beliefs.
Folklore is applied to sayings, verbal There are different types of oral traditions and
compositions and social rituals that have been handed folklore. In India, there is more attention on the
down solely by word of mouth. Folklore includes conventional genres of folklore by Folklorists. Most of
legends, songs riddles, spells and nursery rhythm. The these are genres that occupy an important place in
elements of folklore have at all times entered into Indian folklore system because it interconnects high
sophisticated written literature. One of the stalwarts in and popular religion and describes popular views
the study of Indian folklore was A. K. Ramanujan whose about nature, places, local history, social heroes and
contribution to the study was to reconceptualise the saints. Depending on the purpose and origin of each
debate about “Great and Little Traditions”. According genre, the folklores and traditions are typed into
to him, folklore is one of several systems, several folktales, myths and legends.
languages or registers that people use. These systems Mythological stories that explain objects or
Sanskrit, classical literature, bhakti, folklore— events in the natural world as resulting from the action
comment on each other, and cannot be understood of a supernatural force or entity (a god). Legends are
independently of each other. Apart from this religio- stories coming down from the past, often based on real
mythical body of knowledge, oral communication also events. These are also often regarded as historical.
reflected itself in folklore and associated media such as Sometimes they may have certain parts that are
fantastic or unverifiable. Folk Tales are brief stories

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passed by word of mouth from generation to that the culture could have not evolved without the
generation. Tell Tales are also folk tales. They are often intervention of myth.
light hearted as well as humorous in tone. They contain There are different types of stories ranging
highly exaggerated unrealistic elements. Fairly Tales from family narratives to supernatural experiences of
are stories that deal with mischievous spirits and other incidents, miracles, saints’ life stories and short
supernatural occurrences, often in a medieval setting. narratives about local history. Legends are micro-
Parables are very brief stories which are told with the stories unlike the mega-narratives of myths and epics.
purpose of teaching a moral lesson to the younger These legends travel through generations to form a
generation. Fables are brief stories which are often local perspective depending on the very nature of the
narrated with the main aim of imparting a moral lesson socio-cultural and religious nature of a community.
to others. The difference between parables and fables
is that in parables, human characters are used to make 1.2 INDIAN FOLKTALES TRADITIONS
story while in fables, animal characters are more often Folktale is strictly defined a short narrative in
used to present the story. Spirituals: They are the prose of unknown authorship which has been
religious songs which are a part of African- American transmitted orally. Many of tales eventually achieve
traditions. Epics: An epic is a long story which is often written form. Folktales are found among peoples
told in verse. An epic includes heroes and gods. Epics everywhere in the world. The very first true collection
have often been passed on orally from one generation of Indian folktales, ‘Old Deccan Days by Mary Frere’,
to another. There are no known authors of these epics. was published in London in 1868 but then translated
These stories are penned down by anonymous authors. into Gujarati and published in Bombay in the same
They are grand in length as well as in scope. An epic year. Folktales are generally passed down from one
provides a portrait of legends, beliefs, laws, arts and generation to another and often take on the
ways of life of people. Proverbs: Proverbs are characteristics of the time and place in which they are
traditional sayings that do not simply have a surface told. By advancing toward the integration of written
level meaning but also a hidden meaning. and oral traditions, Ramanujan, the humanist scholar-
One thing that everybody can admit that story poet par excellence, also breaches the boundary
tellers have catered to the need for a “good story” since between the humanities and the social sciences. He
the beginning of the civilisation. These stories include speaks and writes of distinctions of class and gender
respective legends, myths and folktales, which are old that emerge in the folktales of peasants and women,
stories written for adults and children. They represent and he links these to the broader themes that make up
the distillation of the best of this remarkable tradition, an enduring cultural tradition Until recently many
toned over many centuries by the skill of the oriental studies of Indian civilization have been done on that
storyteller. While myths, legends and folktales are hard principle: look for it under the light. The folktale
to classify and they often overlap one another, the suggests that one may say we are now moving inward,
classifications render to their purpose of delivery and trying to bring lamps into the dark rooms of the house
varied characteristics. to look for our keys. As often happens, we may not find
A folktale is a story or legend forming part of an oral the keys and may have to make new ones, but we will
tradition. Folktales are generally passed down from find all sorts of things we never knew we had lost, or
one generation to another and often take on the ever even had.
characteristics of the time and place in which they are In South India, singers and tellers travel from
told. These tales speak of universal and timeless place to place, their performances being engaged by
themes, and help folks make sense of their existence or families or organisations. Tellers of epochal stories
cope with the world in which they live. from the Ramayana, The Mahabharata or the stories of
Myth means anything uttered by word of gods from the Puranas and from Hindu mythologies
mouth. In the present time, a myth symbolizes fiction highlight the spiritual dimension. In villages, there are
but not that which carries psychological truth. Bardic troupes that perform epics about caste heroes
Mythological implications and myths that travel around or local gods and saints. This suggests how classical
communities and generations are basically an attempt folklores and tales can attract people of all ages. The
to explain mysteries, supernatural events and cultural interesting stories range from the
traditions. This mythical principle states that the remarkable Panchatantra to the Hitopadesha and
culture lies on the basic structure of myth or stories. from Jataka to the tales of Akbar-Birbal. Not only this,
Myth is also considered a fundamental structure of a the great Indian epics like The Ramayana and The
society which was modelled by values. Even the Mahabharata, and works like The Bhagavad Gita are
ordinary conventions of a culture could have been full of didactic stories inspired by the lives of great
derived from the myth. Hence, it is clearly understood souls. While these stand to be an epoch of legends, it is
safe to describe them as a mere compilation of folktales

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that portray the very nature of Indian history and transmitted from one generation to another through
socio-cultural renderings. word of mouth. Oral traditions serves to communicate
ideas, emotions, beliefs and appreciation of life.
1.3 INDIAN LEGENDS TRADITIONS Through various stories, the younger generation is
The geographical spread of India‘s numerous familiarized with the customs, traditions and rituals of
oral epics on the basis of area can be divided into three: the past generation. Many mythological stories have a
the local, sub-regional and supra-regional. Another way for teaching morals, ethics and manners to the
context in which legends become important is the fact younger ones. Tales of adventure, bravery not simply
that there are both direct and indirect relationships entertain the younger generation but also familiarize
between these legends and the classical epic stories. them with various new challenges and difficulties of
The legend of Pabu himself is closely associated to that life and also teach them the ways through which these
of Rama and hence has links with the Ramayana. Susan difficulties can be solved. Oral literature fosters a
Wadley talks of a legends throughout northern India feeling of solidarity with others who have had similar
from the deserts of western Rajasthan eastward to the experiences. Rise of literacy have given rise to new
hills of Chattisgarh known as Dhola-maru. It is support systems to facilitate the memory of oral
variously called as a love lyric, ballad, legend, romantic traditions in folklore which is why Komal Kothari says
lay, a folk opera or an epic. In its simplest form, Dhola that folklore is always contemporary, even when it
is a song of an absent lover sung to several distinct deals with cultures and communities who continue to
melodies and metrical forms. Also the way the Dhola- live outside of modernity.
Maru narrative is combined with the Nal-Damayanti
story, it suggests that Folk legend is a compilation of REFERENCES
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Narayana Rao further situates these psychosexual The Folklore and Folk Music Archivist, Volume 10, Issues 1-
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sociological and historical framework. He identifies a Indiana University Press, 1960
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women and ethos of the epics patronized by those
castes in the folk legends in Telugu. Also, because
India’s active cultural world includes large numbers of
women, children, tribal people, the underprivileged
classes and those at the margins, no understanding of
the country’s inner lives can be discerned without
careful attention to oral traditions expressed in the
dialects of everyday life Quissas of Punjab which
referred to any of a series of epic length verse
romances are another genre through which legends are
constantly revisited. Of all Punjabi quisse, the tale of
Heer-Ranjha, known to almost everyone, has perhaps
enjoyed ultimate popularity. J. D. Smith talks of how
Rajasthani legends diverge from literate norms by
citing an example of the bhopos, performers of the
Pabuji, both competent and pious.

2. CONCLUSION
Oral traditions continue to dominate the very Cite this article as: Dr.Kalyan Shidram
structure of Indian history and society, it is necessary Kokane., (2024). A Study of Indian Oral
to interpret how communities within the nation Traditions. International Journal of Emerging
indulge in a progression of varied oral traditions based Knowledge Studies. 3(2), pp. 55-57.
on their individual cultures and beliefs. Oral traditions
are used to describe the tradition in written
civilizations in which certain genres of literature are

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