Reprint of the original, first published in 1839.

Traditional Indian lore through the eyes of two artists. “Their collaboration is nothing short of phenomenal. The illustrations take you into another world.” —Medium A shape-shifting tiger and a pretentious rat. A generous goddess and a powerful demon. A clever princess and a prince who returns from the dead. This collection of sixteen traditional tales transports readers to the beguiling world of Indian folklore. Transcribed by Indian and English folklorists in the nineteenth century, these stories brim with wit and magic. Fans of fairy tales will encounter familiar favorites—epic quests and talking animals—alongside delightful surprises—an irreverent sense of humor and an array of bold, inspiring heroines. Each tale in this ebook comes alive alongside exquisite artwork by a pair of contemporary Indian artists.

The Greatest Tamil Stories Ever Told showcases some of the best short fiction to emerge out of Tamil Nadu, dating from the last century to the present day. Two of the earliest stories included here are Subramania Bharati's 'The Story of a Crow Learning Prosody', a satirical tale about the exaltation of language, and 'Kalki' Krishnamurthy's 'The Governor's Visit', about how bigwigs in little places pandered to the British rulers during the time of the Raj. While some stories in this volume wrestle with the idea of public justice, as in Father Mark Stephen's 'Penance' and Sa. Kandasamy's 'The Slaying of Hiranya', others, such as Ambai's 'Journey 4', hide secrets that could destroy lives and relationships if they are ever revealed. Featuring memorable works by, among others, Bama, Perumal Murugan, and Poomani, the thirty stories in this collection, selected and edited by Sujatha Vijayaraghavan and Mini Krishnan, come together to paint a striking picture of the Tamil people.

Little-known magazines from the turn of the previous century and out-of-print editions from yesteryears to contemporary literary magazines and innumerable anthologies of both serious and popular short fiction.

Lexicon of Tamil Literature is a reference-dictionary of Tamil literature of South India from its early beginnings more than 2000 years ago until the present time (ca. 1980). It includes in the order of Roman alphabet names and short biographies of authors, lists of their works, anonymous literary works and most important matters of Tamil prosody, rhetoric and poetics. Whenever available, bibliographic data are given with individual entries in selection. Brief contents and evaluative statements are given with literary works of greater importance, whether ancient or modern. An introduction is included. The work is the first of its kind in a non-Indian language. It is an indispensable source of data and work of reference for Tamil literature in particular, and for the totality of Indic literatures in general.

The book pursues an ethnographic and a theoretical purpose. The ethnographic first part examines how Tamil folktales, mostly gathered and published by Tamil authors, reflect Tamil culture. However, since the narrators want to amuse their listeners and arouse their interest they tend to exaggerate or invert the normal situation. Therefore, their tales reflect more reliably Tamil values, beliefs and interest than social behaviour. The second theoretical part stresses the importance of the actually occuring motifs and casts doubt on typology. Rather than artificially distinguishing tale types, often thought to exist independent of the narrators, it points out a network of thematic connections among Tamil folktales.

A monthly register of the most important works published in North and South America, in India, China, and the British colonies: with occasional notes on German, Dutch, Danish, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Russian books.