Punjabi folklore

Research

Origin

Richard Carnac Temple argued in his 1884 work, The Legends of the Punjab, that the plot structure of Punjabi folktales and bardic poetry was indistinguishable from one another, albeit with the bardic poems being more textually conservative (as they had been governed by metre and rhyme due to being in verse form). This led him to believe that the folktales originated from the bardic literature, existing as degraded derivatives.

Themes

Punjabi folktales commonly incorporate stories involving animals which teach a moral lesson. This is a theme which originated in ancient India, with a surviving example being the Panchatantra of the third century BCE. Other prevalent themes found within Punjabi folklore is a suspcision of those in positions of power, and folly & pretense used for derision.

The heroine in Punjabi folktales (a pari/fairy or a princess) can be found inside a fruit or vegetable, which they are named after, or in the form of an animal, such as a mammal (monkey or goat) or a bird (swan or peacock/peahen).

History of study

Academic folkloristic research into and the collecting of the large corpus of Punjabi folktales began during the colonial-era by Britishers, such as Flora Annie Steel's three papers on her studies of local Punjabi folktales (1880), with a translation of three fables into English, Richard Carnac Temple's The Legends of the Punjab (1884), Flora Annie Steel's Tales of the Punjab (1894), and Charles Frederick Usborne's Panjabi Lyrics and Proverbs (1905). Native Punjabis have also contributed to this field, with some names being Devendra Satyarthi, Mohinder Singh Randhawa, Amrita Pritam, Karnail Singh Thind, Sohinder Singh Wanjara Bedi, Giani Gurdit Singh, and Sukhdev Madpuri, whom have contributed published collections, encyclopedias, anthologies, and renditions in this field of study.

List of Punjabi folklore

• The Adventures of Raja Rasalu
• The Legend of Raja Sálbán
• The Legend of Guru Gugga
• Puran Bhagat
• The Ballad of Sheikh Khokhar
• Heer Ranjha
• Mirza Sahiba
• Sassi Punnun
• Sohni Mahiwal
• Yusuf and Zulaikha
• The Ballad of Dulla Bhatti
• Dhola Maru

References

References

1. Temple, Richard C. (1884) ''The Legends of the Panjab''. Bombay: Education Society's Press, [1884–1900] (Reissued with an introduction by Kartar Singh Duggal: Rupa and Company)
2. (1978). "Varia folklorica". Mouton.
3. Luhar, Sahdev. (2023). "Folklore Studies in India: Critical Regional Responses". N. S. Patel (Autonomous) Arts College.
4. (2008). "The Greenwood encyclopedia of folktales and fairy tales (in three volumes)". Greenwood Press.
5. (2016). "Folktales and fairy tales : traditions and texts from around the world".
6. Kaura, Wīrapāla. (2005). "Pañjābī loka kahānīāṃ: rishatā nātā prabandha". Wārīsa Shāha Phāuṇḍeshana.
7. Pūnī, Balabīra Siṅgha. (1994). "Pañjābī loka sāhita ate rītī riwāja". Sarawaprīta Siṅgha.
8. Datta, Amaresh. (1988). "Encyclopaedia of Indian Literature: Devraj to Jyoti". Sahitya Akademi.
9. Shuaib, Haroon. (6 January 2022). "Raja Rasalu: An Epic Folklore from Sialkot".
10. legends of the Panjab, Part 1 By R. C. Temple, Page121
11. (2003). "South Asian folklore : an encyclopedia".
12. Aftab, Tahera. (2008). "Inscribing South Asian Muslim women : an annotated bibliography & research guide". Brill.
13. Kothiyal, Tanuja. (2016). "Nomadic Narratives: A History of Mobility and Identity in the Great Indian Desert". Cambridge University Press.
14. (2015). "Gender, Genre, and Power in South Asian Expressive Traditions". University of Pennsylvania Press.