LokSahitya Ki Bhoomika

This book is intended as a theoretical treatise on folk literature. Therefore, it attempts to incorporate the fundamental elements of folk songs, folk tales, folk stories, and folk theatre. The present book is divided into three sections: literature, theory, and culture. The literature section outlines the difficulties and methods of collecting folk literature, and describes the merits of folk literature collections. The theory section details the fundamental elements of folk songs, folk tales, folk stories, and folk theatre and their key characteristics. The culture section attempts to present a vivid depiction of folk culture as depicted in folk literature. This is the first original text to present a comprehensive analysis of the general principles of folk literature. This book addresses all the topics and issues involved in folk literature, including the classification system of folk poetry, its scope, the distinction between folk poetry and ornate poetry, the characteristics of folk tales and their fundamental elements, the importance of proverbs and idioms, childrens games, cradle songs, and death songs. Research conducted in Western countries in this regard has been studied and the opinions of Western scholars have been presented where appropriate. The author employed a comparative approach in composing this book. If a song of the same genre as the one popular in India is available in English literature, it has also been cited. This method has been particularly employed in the chapters on cradle songs, death songs, and repetitive refrains. The footnotes contain abundant quotations from original English texts. This was considered necessary for the authenticity of this book.