Week 13: Santal Readings Review (Essay)

I read the Santal Folktales reading unit of the Un-textbook this week, and I thought it had a lot of great stories. My favorite units are ones that have people and animal stories mixed together and this one was perfect in that regards. Almost all of the stories had animals and humans interacting, or at least both playing a large role in the story.

I love how in so many of the Indian epics, fairy tales, and folktales, the animals are nearly human, with the ability to talk, reason, and decide their own fate. They also often have similar flaws as humans as well, such as distraction or fear. One story that this was seen in from this unit was the story of the Brave Jackal. In this story a goat goes and hides in a leopards cave to keep from getting killed by humans. The goat makes such a horrible noise, that the leopard thinks a fearsome beast is in it's home and runs away terrified.

Some stories where humans and animals are nearly equal are a bit more disturbing, like the story of the Tiger's Bride. In this story, a mother gives a tiger her daughter in marriage after the tiger helps her finish some work. I did like this story though, because the girl is very clever and tricks the tiger to escape, but also won't return to her mother after the betrayal. The girl just runs away to the treetops where she has a decent life singing about her ordeal.

There was nothing in this unit that wasn't clear in the reading. That can sometimes be an issue with Indian stories because the language is so different, but this one was very clear and the stories were extremely easy and enjoyable to read. I would definitely recommend this reading unit.

Bengal Tiger. Wikimedia

Week 11: Bidpai Reading Unit (Essay)

For this week, I read the Tales of Bidpai unit from the Un-textbook. I really enjoyed this unit and thought all of the stories were fun to read. The stories were all diverse and all of them were interesting. I personally like when the un-textbook stories are only a page or two long, so I thought this one was great since none of the stories went over a page.

This was the first unit I had read in this class or the Mythology Folklore class that had some pages with multiple, extremely short stories  one one page. I thought this was great because i was such a different set up from many of the long stories we read, especially with the epics in this class. I also thought they were grouped very well, for example, having multiple stories on a page that all focus on apes. 

I also don't think I'd read a unit for either class that had an introduction quite like this one, but I really liked it. I liked how it set up the original scribe of the book of stories, almost as a myth himself. I thought that this was a great way to begin a storybook like this. The talking about the libraries of the king and the amount of knowledge there, was amazing. When reading it it made me think of the Library of Alexandria. 

There were many stories I liked, including the Two Travelers, however I talked a lot about that one in my first reading diary and my storytelling assignment, so I won't talk much about that one here. I also liked the King, Hermit, and Two Princes story. I thought this was a great story to show the moral of no living above your means, saving your money, and not relying on other people to bail you out of debt or bad situations in general that you get yourself into. The story was very similar to modern day versions that are in movies and TV shows where the trust fund kids are cut off and party away all of their money before they realize it. 

I liked this reading unit a lot and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for something a little different. I have loved reading the epics this semester but it is nice to read stories that are a little simpler sometimes and this unit was great to do that.

(Bidpai and the king, from the
Arabic Kalila-wa-Dimna)

Story source: The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai by Maude Barrows Dutton, with illustrations by E. Boyd Smith, 1908.