German Folktales and fairytales Versus Indian Lok Kathas and Rup Kathas a Feminist study with Special Reference to Brothers Grimm and Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumdar

Abstract

Folktale is usually a tale or narrative originating within a community or folk, then newlinepreserved and passed on by word of mouth; usually such tales are made up by an unlettered newlinestory-teller and communicated orally to the future generations. Like legends, myths, fables, newlinecomical anecdotes, religious tales, fairytales too are a subcategory of folktales. But it is hard to newlinedefine the word fairytale because in most of the cases fairy does not exist. In most of the cases newlinefairytales are characterised by such words like wonder, magic and fantasy. What one thinks of newlinefairytales, according to Zack Zipes, are actually one kind of zaubermärchen or the wonder newlinetales/magic tales. The Bengali derivative Rupa-katha too does not go with fairytale but more newlinewith zaubermärchen. However, today both the words fairy tales and folk tales are well newlineaccepted. And such tales are culturally specific and evolve according to the shifting values of newlinetime. newlineIn the eighteenth century there was a movement to try to locate the origin of such tales newlineand some investigators even argued that the tales were basically derived from India and then newlinebrought to Europe. In 1856 edition to Kinder-und Hausmärchen Wilhelm Grimm approves that newlinethe folktales with common incidents are primarily Indo-European. Following Silverstre Sacy and newlinehis disciple Delongchamp s Oriental theory, Theodor Benfey, the German Sanskrit scholar, newlinethrough his study of comparative grammar and translation and analysis of The Panchatantra, newlineconcluded in his Indianist Theory that India was the principal source of Europe s folktales with newlinethe exception of Aesopic fables. Following Benfey, Reinhold Köhler and Benfey s disciple newlineEmmanuel Cosquin though thought that India may not have originated all the tales, but it served newlineas a major reservoir of folktales and fairytales. newline newline