A Caravan from Hindustan: The Complete Birbal Tales from the Oral Traditions of India

For five centuries, Birbal has been one of the best-loved figures in the folklore of India. Polished like gemstones in the river of time, The Birbal Tales wit and insight have delighted children and grownups from Kerala to Kashmir. Now the complete collection comes to the West, after years of loving research and creative, and historically accurate, restoration. Moseleys Birbal Tales have won The National Writers Club First Prize for Fiction and the University of Southern Louisianas First Prize for Juvenile Fiction. This timeless classic is a wonderful gift for children and a treasury of humor and wisdom for adults. Testimonials Absolutely beautiful. I can see why you have a devoted following. - Duval Y. Hecht, President, BOOKS ON TAPE, INC. I have read Moseleys Birbal Tales and must say I was utterly enchanted. The stories are beautifully retold in a style that is not only charming in English but could have come straight from a collection of Persian tales at the Mughal court. Moseley has certainly captured the fantasy court world in which stories of this type are usually cast. He continues in the finest tradition of the Mughal qissagu (storyteller). I trust he will offer more volumes in this collection to the undoubted delight of his readers. - Wheeler M. Thackston, Professor of the Practice in Persian and Other Near Eastern Languages, HARVARD UNIVERSITY Delightful! - Swapna Vora, Editor, INDIAN EXPRESS, North American Edition At a time when thousands of intellectuals and professionals are migrating from India to the USA in search of wealth, Moseley has traveled to India to collect priceless gems from her immortal tradition and folk wisdom. Devoid of any high-sounding Brahmanic dogma, these tales have entertained and taught people of all levels for hundreds of years. Rendered again in the most lucid style, reading these tales is like reliving ones childhood. The book will fill the void for Indians now living in Diaspora and will give a new dimension of India to its Western readers. - Ved Prakash Vatuk, D. Litt, Director FOLKLORE INSTITUTE, Berkeley & Former Professor of Folklore, UC Berkeley It is so rare to have a book that will charm children, please adult readers, satisfy curiosity about foreign folk tales, and inform any reader regarding a different culture. But here is a book that does it all. - Ted Maas, ALLIANCE HOUSE, INC. James Moseleys collection of Birbal Tales capture the wit and wisdom of the famous Indian courtier while maintaining the simple poetry of those told orally for generations across India. - Maryann Mahajan, INDIA POST. COM Moseleys. prose evokes the magical world of Akbars witty, charming stories, which are still popular with children in India. Historical notes are appended. - BOOKLIST There are so many wonderful books for very young children, but there is too little good literature for middlings from age seven to eleven. This book, which adults can enjoy as well as children, brings praises from a Harvard Professor to a Hollywood Producer. Interestingly, although the tales are indeed charming and amusing, they are not fictional, but true stories of a wise man who really lived in long ago India in the palace of the Emperor Akbar. Birbal served his Emperor with wit and wisdom, and he became so renowned that even today parents and grandparents use these clever adventures as morality tales. - IndoL This book is very promising. - V