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The Legend of Himal and Nagrai
Filled with serpent kings, long lost lovers, magical birds and seductive witches, The Legend of Himal and Nagrai is an enchanting collection of folk tales from a land as beautiful as it is misunderstood—Kashmir.
In the title story, the serpent king Nagrai takes on human form to be with his one true love—the princess Himal. But despite Nagrai’s warnings, when Himal doubts her lover’s origins, all hell breaks loose. Will the star-crossed lovers ever be together?
In ‘Akanandun’, having pined for a son for years, a couple is finally blessed with a beautiful boy—but on one diabolical condition. Will the couple be able to keep their word?
In ‘Shikaslad’, a pauper goes on a quest to awaken his luck, which has been ‘asleep’ for years. Will he recognize good luck staring him in the face?
These and twenty-six other delightful folk tales—painstakingly collected and retold by the author—bring to light the immensely rich, multicultural and largely undocumented tradition of storytelling in Kashmir. At a time when Kashmiri voices are being brutally silenced by an authoritarian state, this book is a vibrant tapestry celebrating Kashmiri life—in the words of its people.
In the title story, the serpent king Nagrai takes on human form to be with his one true love—the princess Himal. But despite Nagrai’s warnings, when Himal doubts her lover’s origins, all hell breaks loose. Will the star-crossed lovers ever be together?
In ‘Akanandun’, having pined for a son for years, a couple is finally blessed with a beautiful boy—but on one diabolical condition. Will the couple be able to keep their word?
In ‘Shikaslad’, a pauper goes on a quest to awaken his luck, which has been ‘asleep’ for years. Will he recognize good luck staring him in the face?
These and twenty-six other delightful folk tales—painstakingly collected and retold by the author—bring to light the immensely rich, multicultural and largely undocumented tradition of storytelling in Kashmir. At a time when Kashmiri voices are being brutally silenced by an authoritarian state, this book is a vibrant tapestry celebrating Kashmiri life—in the words of its people.
222 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2019
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 10, 2020
A collection of twenty-nine folk tales from Kashmir, this book begins with a brief introduction to the Kashmiri tradition of storytelling, along with references to popular motifs, recurrent themes (some of which are found in other folk tales from other parts of the world), and folk tales as examples of the syncretism that is Kashmiriyat.
The stories themselves are grouped under several heads. For example, stories primarily featuring supernatural beings like nagas, paris, devs and rantas fall under the category of Pataal or 'Underworld', which also includes the well-known story about Kashyap Rishi and the origin of Kashmir. Animal stories form a separate category of their own, as do stories behind popular phrases and sayings that form the Kashmiri language.
I liked this book a lot. The stories are wonderful, some combining everything from magic to pathos to wisdom, some short, with pithy comments on human failings (and animal failings!). There are talking mice here, and wise young princesses (not to mention foolish ones). There are stupid paupers and clever goats, mountains that move and monsters that cross the paths of human beings. Some stories are so short and simple that they take up only a couple of pages, while others consist of convoluted adventures and a grand cast of characters.
Besides the sheer entertainment value of the stories themselves, I liked Onaiza Drabu's writing of them. She brings in some Kashmiri words (having, at the beginning of a section—as well as at the end of the book—explained these), and uses, too, the classic phrases employed by a storyteller to introduce a story. I could almost imagine myself sitting hunched under a quilt, fingers wrapped around a cup of kehwa, listening wide-eyed as a story was told to me.
Delightful. My only grouse was with the fact that the Kindle version of this book is horribly formatted: each of the special characters, including apostrophes and hyphens, has been replaced automatically by the ASCII character corresponding to it. Makes for tedious reading, especially in the beginning. After a while, I got used to it, but that's just not acceptable in an ebook.
The stories themselves are grouped under several heads. For example, stories primarily featuring supernatural beings like nagas, paris, devs and rantas fall under the category of Pataal or 'Underworld', which also includes the well-known story about Kashyap Rishi and the origin of Kashmir. Animal stories form a separate category of their own, as do stories behind popular phrases and sayings that form the Kashmiri language.
I liked this book a lot. The stories are wonderful, some combining everything from magic to pathos to wisdom, some short, with pithy comments on human failings (and animal failings!). There are talking mice here, and wise young princesses (not to mention foolish ones). There are stupid paupers and clever goats, mountains that move and monsters that cross the paths of human beings. Some stories are so short and simple that they take up only a couple of pages, while others consist of convoluted adventures and a grand cast of characters.
Besides the sheer entertainment value of the stories themselves, I liked Onaiza Drabu's writing of them. She brings in some Kashmiri words (having, at the beginning of a section—as well as at the end of the book—explained these), and uses, too, the classic phrases employed by a storyteller to introduce a story. I could almost imagine myself sitting hunched under a quilt, fingers wrapped around a cup of kehwa, listening wide-eyed as a story was told to me.
Delightful. My only grouse was with the fact that the Kindle version of this book is horribly formatted: each of the special characters, including apostrophes and hyphens, has been replaced automatically by the ASCII character corresponding to it. Makes for tedious reading, especially in the beginning. After a while, I got used to it, but that's just not acceptable in an ebook.
February 9, 2020
An alluring anthology of folktales from the Heaven on Earth Kashmir, the tales of Naag, Nagrai,Khor,Thag, Gosain,the vivacious Zohra, daredevil Bishata and many others would arrest the mind of readers in the throes of love, friendship, kindness, jealousy, fraud and revenge. This book would remind one of Panchatantra and Aesop fables.Dripping with freshness of Spring, sweet grass of autumn, fragnant saffron, each story oozes with the cultural richness of the land.The musings of hearts seperated by conspiracies, acts of the crafty Rantas,Yaksh, the loyalty rewarded in rubies, the sharp goat tackling her predators with her wit, the value of salt and the Saviour Bishata brings back the lost childhood and the storytelling sessions by Grandparents.
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Written in a lucid language with a healthy mix of colloquial words, the tales take the reader on a enthralling voyage.Their ingenuousness will surely embolden the heart and the intricate teachings registered in the memory last for a lifetime.
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I want to thank the author for the well researched and well written piece of work.This book is nothing less than a gem, meant to be passed on to the future generations, just like these stories passed on and survived through storytelling.
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I would recommend the book to all the readers especially beginners and lovers of translated literature.
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Written in a lucid language with a healthy mix of colloquial words, the tales take the reader on a enthralling voyage.Their ingenuousness will surely embolden the heart and the intricate teachings registered in the memory last for a lifetime.
:
I want to thank the author for the well researched and well written piece of work.This book is nothing less than a gem, meant to be passed on to the future generations, just like these stories passed on and survived through storytelling.
:
I would recommend the book to all the readers especially beginners and lovers of translated literature.
:
January 17, 2020
Absolutely loved this gem.
You can't help asking with a wide eyed curiousity ," and then what happens ? "
The profoundness of folk tales told with simplicity makes them timeless and the author has managed to retain this charm.
I do wish more people read it.
You can't help asking with a wide eyed curiousity ," and then what happens ? "
The profoundness of folk tales told with simplicity makes them timeless and the author has managed to retain this charm.
I do wish more people read it.
November 10, 2021
Folk tale: A story originating from popular culture, typically passed on by word of mouth.
The Legend of Himal and Nagrai is a beautiful collection of folk tales from kashmir retold by Onaiza Drabu. I have mentioned the definition above just to indicate that there is no political agenda in this book. The author has described in detail the origin of these stories, tellers and the research that has gone into it. She goes on to explain how one of the teller truly believed laila majnu originated from kashmir. Unbeknownst to him, he had combined characters and stories from many traditions. That's the beauty of folk tales.
Go for it, if you want to relive beautiful memories of your grandmother's stories.
The Legend of Himal and Nagrai is a beautiful collection of folk tales from kashmir retold by Onaiza Drabu. I have mentioned the definition above just to indicate that there is no political agenda in this book. The author has described in detail the origin of these stories, tellers and the research that has gone into it. She goes on to explain how one of the teller truly believed laila majnu originated from kashmir. Unbeknownst to him, he had combined characters and stories from many traditions. That's the beauty of folk tales.
Go for it, if you want to relive beautiful memories of your grandmother's stories.
February 20, 2020
The author has tried to make a political statement by presenting these folk tales, attempting to show Kashmiri culture to be really alien to that of India. What she doesn’t seem to realize that in India culture, cuisine, apparel, language and dialects vary from state to state, even from district to district. What unites the country is a sense of nationalism and geography, which, by extension means, that Kashmir is very much a part of India. What was a revelation to me that Kashmir gets its name from the Hindu ascetic Kashyap. These parables and fables are quite like those found the Panchtantra.
November 17, 2022
Kashmir has always been hot potato. There is an entire shelf in the library on that region. People have written extensively about its politics and history. This book was about its culture. I admit this book would remind one of their childhood. The short stories may not be meaningful and sometimes senseless. But it reminds you of kind of stories you read or heard as a child, of fairies and animals.
September 24, 2024
#ReadingIndia took me to Kashmir this time. Again, instead of researching for something to read, I picked something off my TBR shelf: this collection of Kashmiri folk tales.
I didn’t plan it that way but I ended up listening to George Orwell’s 1984 while I was reading this collection. So, while I listened to descriptions of the ‘memory hole’, I also read what ‘reteller’ Onaiza Drabu says about battling the erasure of Kashmir, Kashmiris, their imagination, their culture, their stories. This is a commendable effort to preserve Kashmiri stories and a fragment of its language before it all disappears in the current deliberate and blinkered rewriting of history in India.
Drabu’s introduction offers a mini history lesson. I had no idea that the Katha Sarita Sagar and the Panchatantra originated in Kashmir or that Buddhism had made a home in Kashmir long before Hinduism or Islam.
The tales are lovely, right from the short first one ‘Aftab, Zoon, Hawa’. Some were familiar, like ‘Kokras Kuni Zang’ (translated as the fowl has one leg). I remember my mother telling me this story but with a Kerala plantation setting and with a British hunter involved. Others though seem uniquely Kashmiri like the story of ‘Zohra Khatoon’. Yet others seem more universal; like Drabu notes, some of the stories have parallels in Armenian Jewish, Russian and Slavic myths.
Drabu sets out her aim for the collection in her introduction: ‘to help the reader imagine a rendition of the story as I retell it’. With her use of Kashmiri colloquialisms and phrases, I felt that Drabu achieved this goal beautifully, in the shorter stories more successfully than the longer ones. Drabu does indeed create the atmosphere of listening to someone older (often a woman) telling you these tales in a cosy corner of a home. And that is also the appeal of a collection of folk tales, the chance to relive a childhood, the chance to slow down, the chance to indulge some nostalgia.
Drabu’s dictionary of imponderabilia is also a treasure, giving one an understanding of untranslatable Kashmiri words and proverbs.
All in all, a delightful little book that will have to remain on the shelf long term so that one can dip into it periodically to refresh memories and to learn a little Kashmiri, maybe.
I didn’t plan it that way but I ended up listening to George Orwell’s 1984 while I was reading this collection. So, while I listened to descriptions of the ‘memory hole’, I also read what ‘reteller’ Onaiza Drabu says about battling the erasure of Kashmir, Kashmiris, their imagination, their culture, their stories. This is a commendable effort to preserve Kashmiri stories and a fragment of its language before it all disappears in the current deliberate and blinkered rewriting of history in India.
Drabu’s introduction offers a mini history lesson. I had no idea that the Katha Sarita Sagar and the Panchatantra originated in Kashmir or that Buddhism had made a home in Kashmir long before Hinduism or Islam.
The tales are lovely, right from the short first one ‘Aftab, Zoon, Hawa’. Some were familiar, like ‘Kokras Kuni Zang’ (translated as the fowl has one leg). I remember my mother telling me this story but with a Kerala plantation setting and with a British hunter involved. Others though seem uniquely Kashmiri like the story of ‘Zohra Khatoon’. Yet others seem more universal; like Drabu notes, some of the stories have parallels in Armenian Jewish, Russian and Slavic myths.
Drabu sets out her aim for the collection in her introduction: ‘to help the reader imagine a rendition of the story as I retell it’. With her use of Kashmiri colloquialisms and phrases, I felt that Drabu achieved this goal beautifully, in the shorter stories more successfully than the longer ones. Drabu does indeed create the atmosphere of listening to someone older (often a woman) telling you these tales in a cosy corner of a home. And that is also the appeal of a collection of folk tales, the chance to relive a childhood, the chance to slow down, the chance to indulge some nostalgia.
Drabu’s dictionary of imponderabilia is also a treasure, giving one an understanding of untranslatable Kashmiri words and proverbs.
All in all, a delightful little book that will have to remain on the shelf long term so that one can dip into it periodically to refresh memories and to learn a little Kashmiri, maybe.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews