South Asian Folklore: A Handbook

South Asia is a distant, exotic place to most American students. It is also a land of diverse and fascinating cultures, exemplified by the folklore of the region. This book gives students and general readers a thorough introduction to South Asian folklore. Included are chapters on different types of folklore, the place of folklore in popular culture, and the scholarly response to South Asian folklore. The volume also provides numerous legends, tales, myths, riddles, jokes, and other examples of folklore from South Asia. The book closes with a glossary and a bibliography of print and electronic resources.

To most American students, South Asia is a distant and exotic world. It is the birthplace of Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, and Sikhism, and the home of hundreds of languages. It is also a region of growing economic importance. Students, travellers, and general readers increasingly need to understand the regions’s cultures and customs, at the heart of which is a rich and varied folklore. This book is a brief but thorough introduction to folklore from South Asia, including Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.

The volume begins with an overview of the cultural background of South Asia, and examines different types of folklore and the difficulties of defining and classifying folklore genres. It then provides a substantial selection of legends, tales, myths, riddles, jokes, and other pieces of folklore from South Asia. This is followed by a look at research on the subject, along with an exploration of South Asian folklore in literature and popular culture. The volume closes with a glossary and a bibliography of print and electronic resources.