LSLL 23: On Tamil Folktale, Myth and Legend

The present volume is a collection of papers presented in various national and international seminars from 1980's to 2019. The papers cover all genres of narrative namely tale, legend and myth; in addition to that, papers on episodes from the great Indian Itihasas, Ramayana and Mahabharata, have been included. Researches on folktales and mythology from other cultures and languages have been published in general, in abundance, and some on Tamil folktales and mythology by great authors have appeared on the international arena.

All three genres are related, in the sense they are narratives, and not related, in the sense they have their own characteristics. As the humour in Tamil folktales is unique, and the story telling techniques are intelligent, the characters in the tales are down to earth, the concepts found in Tamil myths are very ancient, some of the interesting tales, myths and legends were chosen by the author to introduce them to the non- Tamil world and scholars.

The two great Itihasas of India are well known to the world in general; but the episodes with   indigenous and ingenious ideas of Tamil people are to be known to the world. Hence they have been included in the collection. It is hoped that the present volume would be appreciated by the non- Tamil readers and scholars of Folklore and mythology, especially folk narrative research would find it useful.