Old Deccan Days; or, Hindoo Fairy Legends, Current in Southern India

Title: Old Deccan Days; or, Hindoo Fairy Legends, Current in Southern India  
Author and Collector: Mary Frere  
Editor and Introduction: Kirin Narayan  
Publisher: Shubhi Publications  
Place of Publication: Gurgaon, India  
Year: 2006  
Language: English  
Binding: Paperback  
Pages: xxxii + 259  
ISBN: 81-8290-069-7  

Description

First published in 1868, Old Deccan Days is a landmark collection of traditional Indian folktales and the first collection of Indian oral narratives published in English. The stories were narrated by Anna Liberata de Souza and recorded by Mary Frere during travels through the Deccan in the 1860s.

Filled with courageous heroines, princes, talking animals, magical transformations and rakshasas, these twenty-four tales preserve an important record of oral storytelling traditions current in southern India. The collection also provides valuable primary-source material for the study of oral transmission, women’s storytelling, colonial-era folklore collection and the representation of Indian culture in English.

This edition includes the substantial scholarly introduction “Situating Old Deccan Days” by the distinguished anthropologist and folklorist Kirin Narayan. Her introduction examines the collaboration between Mary Frere and Anna Liberata de Souza, the circumstances in which the stories were collected, the historical setting of the original publication, Frere’s methods as a collector and editor, and the book’s continuing importance within folklore studies.

The volume preserves the classic collection while placing its creation and transmission within their historical and cultural contexts. It is an important primary-source work for readers and researchers interested in Indian folklore, oral traditions, anthropology, women’s storytelling, colonial India and South Asian literary history.

Contents

Introduction: Situating Old Deccan Days

Old Deccan Days

Index