PREFACE
No country in the Eastern civilization offers the student of folklore so excellent an opportunity to trace the links of unity amidst clustered diversities as dose India. India is a vast country ; a subcontinent having the characteristics of big continent. Most of us are aware that this subcontinent is, and has remained, the meeting place of world' s great races. Indian culture has attracted all kinds of people from all over the world who made this country their home. These assimilative capabilities of Indian culture have given this land a special unity. No other civilization can be so proud of such special characteristics as India is and should be.The vast treasures of folklore and folklife of this great land reflect these special characteristics very clearly. In the Asian context, when we look over this rich folkloric heritage of India, it becomes very clear that it occupies a special place among various cultures of the area. The reasons are obvious: Indian folklore is as ancient as the people of this land, Indian folklore reveals is as ancient as the people of this land Indian folklore reveals the true history of India which all of us should be proud of, Indian folklore is the best example -of unity in diversity. It dose not, unlike many other cultural expressions, yield to the pressures of languages, community, geographical boundaries or any other dividing factor. So if one really wants to realize the true meaning of the great Indian saying "Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam" (indeed a part of folklore) one must search, and find it, in Indian oral traditions.
When the folklore of a vast ancient country represents such important aspects of its cultural strength, it becomes imperative that it be studied seriously and scientifically. With this objective in view the Central Institute of Indian Languages in collaboration with the Social Sciences Research Council of the U.S.A. organized a five-day seminar named "Indo-American Seminar on Indian Folklore " from August 22 through 26, 1980. The Seminar brought together about 26 folklorists of India and the U.S.A. to exchange ideas, fresh outlook, and their experiences regarding the problems of collection, genre-definitions, distribution of forms and modes of analysis. One of the interesting things about this Seminar was that almost all the folklore from the U.S.A. who participated are specialists, who do not have the experiences of the West (Indian folklorists who have the advantage of working on the date pf both the continents. I am glad to note that this main purpose was very well achieved, The result is this volume in which all papers represent modern approaches to folklore. These approaches surely incorporate the complex Theoretical perspectives: folkloristics as a sciences has been witnessing during the past two decades. The Seminar thus provided an excellent opportunity to examine important Indian folkloric aspects such as the motifs and types, performance, the folk hero, value system, world view, ritual and social structure, cultural dimensions. The five-day deliberations of the Seminar in the form of these scholarly papers point to the great potential the folklore of this country has and also to a bright future that awaits its serious study.
I am grateful to Dr. Peter J. Claus for his help at every stage of organizing the Seminar and bringing out these papers in present form. I am also grateful to all scholars for their excellent contributions. Dr. D.P. Pattanayak deserves special mention for his guidance and encouragement. Shri M. G. Kanakram and Shri. H.L.N. Bharati who have been instrumental in seeing the volume through press deserve my sincere thanks.
Folklore Unit
Central Institute of India Languages Jawaharlal Handoo