Monday on the Dark Night of the Moon: Himalayan Foothill Folktales Told by Urmila Devi Sood

by Kirin Narayan, Urmila Devi Sood

Overview

Here are the twenty-one stories that Urmilaji told. On her instruction, I have divided the stories into two broad sets: tales associated with various women's rituals and tales for entertainment on long, cold winter nights.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195103489
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	06/28/1997
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.25(w) x 9.50(h) x 0.96(d)

About the Author

Kirin Narayan, Associate Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is an anthropologist, folklorist, and novelist. She is author of Storytellers, Saints and Scoundrels: Folk Narrative in Hindu Religious Teaching, which won the 1991 Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing and shared the Elsie Clews Parsons Prize for Folklore. She is also author of Love, Stars and All That, a novel about South Asian Americans.

Table of Contents

Preface		ix	(6)
A Note on Transliteration		xv	(2)
List of Illustrations		xvii
Introduction		3	(22)
Part I Women's Ritual Tales		25	(108)
Mondays on the Dark Night of the Moon		25	(14)
1. Across the Seven Seas		27	(12)
The Five Days of Fasting		39	(68)
2. Daughter, My Little Bread!		41	(9)
3. First Sour, then Sweet		50	(9)
4. The Daughter-in-Law With No Groom		59	(5)
5. The Frog Groom		64	(6)
6. The Fragrant Melon		70	(9)
7. Under the Berry Bush		79	(9)
8. The Female Weevil Who Fasted		88	(7)
9. The Dog-Girl		95	(6)
10. The Skein Woman		101	(6)
The Thunder Thread		107	(26)
11. The Twelve Years of Affliction		109	(16)
12. Earth into Gold		125	(8)
Part II Winter Tales		133	(74)
Divining Destiny and Rebirth		133	(36)
13. In the Court of Destiny		135	(12)
14. The Floating Flower		147	(7)
15. Heaven and Hell		154	(5)
16. The Two Gems		159	(10)
Treachery, Separation, and Reunion		169	(38)
17. The Astrologers' Treachery		171	(7)
18. The Devouring Demoness		178	(11)
19. Love Like Salt		189	(4)
20. Fair with Freckles		193	(7)
21. The Girl Who Went on Quests		200	(7)
Afterword		207	(16)
Appendix: A Note on Translation		223	(4)
Acknowledgments		227	(4)
Notes		231	(24)
Bibliography		255

Editorial Reviews

Narayan (anthropology and South Asian studies, Univ. of Wisconsin; Love, Stars and All That, LJ 9/15/93) has produced a unique volume of folktales from a village in the foothills of the Himalayas. The collection functions on several levels. First, the 21 stories told by Sood ("Urmilaji") are divided into women's ritual tales and winter tales, including narratives of a dog-girl and a princess who marries a lion. Second, within and around each tale are comments from Urmilaji and her family as well as explanations of local customs and mores. Third, the author's scholarly and personal journey during her work with Urmilaji informs the whole. It tells of the growing affection between the two women and establishes Narayan's theme that "stories arise out of relationships, they are about relationships, and they forge relationships." An excellent work; recommended for all folktale collections.Katherine K. Koenig, Ellis Sch., Greensburg, Pa.

Library Journal