Passed on from one generation to the next, often in the form of cautionary tales or as vessels of social codes, folktales and fairy tales come to us through enactment.
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Review by Vyshnevi Divya Satheesh
Passed on from one generation to the next, often in the form of cautionary tales or as vessels of social codes, folktales and fairy tales come to us through enactment. While our forests shrink and oral tongues go extinct, folktales endure through ritual and repertoire. The cloistered world of urbania vanishes in the swish of grandma’s bangled wrist, where shapeshifters sneer, tricksters sneak and animals speak.
A new anthology Voices in the Wind: Folk tales, folklore and spirit stories from the Himalaya edited by Sahitya Akademi Awardee Namita Gokhale and scholar Malashri Lal gathers stories from across the tallest mountain range, revealing a land where the divine mingles with the mundane, and rivers gurgle the names of lovers, widows, curious creatures and deities. The Naga tales include those originally told in Khiamniungan, Pochury and Angami, like the legend of Lake Shilloi and the mystery of Suke Khan, a place “where the veil between the living and the dead grows thin”. Three of the stories are retold by Sentila T. Yanger, a Dimapur-based social entrepreneur dedicated towards promoting and preserving Naga heritage and culture.
One of the Khiamniungan stories, “Why Sparrows Are Fed the First Grains,” recounts the compassionate spirit and sacrifice of the Lüme sparrows, who try to rescue the boys of Noklak from a malevolent demon. Another Khiamniungan folktale, “Suke Khan,” reveals a “gaping maw on earth” between the villages of Noklak and Yimpang. Suke Khan is believed to be a portal to the realm of the ancestors, where spirits embark on their journey to the land of the dead.
The Pochury tale “The Legend of Lake Shilloi” narrates the wrath of the now-tranquil waters of Lütsam, known to the living as Lake Shilloi. Enraged by villagers who attempt to drain it, the spirit of the lake plagues their dreams with a warning: “Fifty souls for my pillow, fifty for my footstool, and fifty each for my right and left arms…” Terrified, the villagers decide to leave the lake alone.
The anthology also features modern fantasy through an excerpt from Naga writer Avinuo Kire’s novel, Where The Cobbled Paths Lead. Told through the eyes of a young girl, Kire revives popular Naga motifs and folklore including the hornbill, the mighty ‘tekhumiavi’ or were-tiger and the famous prophecy of ‘The Chüsenu’, all set in contemporary Kohima. Emphasising the need to revive and remember folk stories today, editors write, “Kire lays out the folklore passed to her through generations of storytelling in yet another incredibly reminiscent form. Interweaving folk legends with modern fantasy, she breathes new life to the beats that drum the heart of Naga folklore.”
Voices in the Wind binds tales from the oral traditions of Himalayan tribes and communities whose cosmologies are embedded in nature and ritual. Storytelling is not removed from the recording of these stories, and the editors acknowledge that it is an “ecological and ethical grammar” passed through embodied practice. Folktales both popular and obscure, and from languages dominant and extant, enter this anthology for grown-ups. Most of these tales are previously unrecorded, and originate from a myriad of tongues including Dogri, Mizo, Bhadarwahi, Dzongkha, Lepcha, Bhutia and Limbu, to list a few.
Namita Gokhale notes in her introduction to the book, “The ethno-geography of the Himalaya remains embedded with myth and epic, gods and demons, shamans and earth spirits. Nature and man’s everyday coalesce, or rather, seem to never have been apart in this collection. These stories are savage, non-judgmental, pragmatic.”
Rather than being prescriptive, the tales realise generations of collective wisdom. One encounters evil parents, greedy rulers, tortured wildlife and injustice unbound. At the same time generosity is rewarded, violence is punished and bravery is venerated. These folktales prepare children for the world around them, and remind adults that we’re not alone on this planet, and that kindness, tolerance and love must pave our everyday.