Tales of India: Folktales from Bengal, Punjab, and Tamil Nadu

Tales

by Svabhu Kohli (Illustrator), Viplov Singh (Illustrator)

A shape-shifting tiger and a pretentious rat.
A generous goddess and a powerful demon.
A clever princess and a prince who returns from the dead.

This collection of 16 traditional tales transports readers to the beguiling world of Indian folklore. Transcribed by Indian and English folklorists in the nineteenth century, these stories brim with wit and magic. Fans of fairy tales will encounter familiar favorites—epic quests and talking animals—alongside delightful surprises—an irreverent sense of humor and an array of bold, inspiring heroines. This special gift edition features an embossed, textured case and a ribbon marker, and each tale comes alive alongside exquisite artwork by a pair of contemporary Indian artists.

Genres: Mythology, Fantasy, Short Stories, Fiction, India, Folklore, Fairy Tales

168 pages, Hardcover

First published February 27, 2018

About the author

Svabhu Kohli is an independent visual storyteller. Deeply inspired by the natural world and its mechanics, their work lives and breathes on the intersection of Magical Realism, Art, Science and Conservation.

Kohli's art-practice finds its roots in curiosities for indigenous, political, and scientific narratives that shape our collective / personal imagination and identity of the natural world. Their work involves researching and studying complex ecosystems, learning from native communities, shamans and healers, naturalists and scientists and observers of our surroundings, layering diverse perspectives of memory, knowledge, myth and fantasy into their visual language of our rapidly changing planet and its relationship to our bodies, minds and landscapes.

Reviews

[Fizah(Books tales by me)]

DNF at 40%
This book is a collection of 16 traditional short stories collected from different parts of India. The concept of the book and gorgeous title made me read it. Traditional stories are a solid part of my childhood, I’ve grown up listening to different tales from my grandmothers. I was really excited to read it.

The Bear’s Bad Bargain
This story is about a Lumberjack his greedy wife and a bear. I loved the writing and the story. The ending was so unusual which also gives the lesson that Karma is not always here.

The Brahman Girl That Married a Tiger
The start of this story was so promising but as the story progressed potential got lost somewhere, and it felt stretched even for a short story.

The Soothsayer’s Son
I don’t know what was that. This story also had the potential, but one thing after others just kept going and going and going. In the end, I didn’t care what happen to MC.

The Rat’s Wedding
This story was the last nail in the coffin. I am not sure why the stories which seemed good enough turned strange in the end.

It probably was the translation which made these stories like this. Well, I DNFed the book after 4 stories (30%). These were short stories, so I thought to review these.
If you are in traditional stories you can try it.


P.S. Illustrations were so beautiful.

[Orsolya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Traditional folktales from India date back thousands of years with a solid foundation moral teachings, religion, and creation myths. Immersed in colorful details; these tales not only educate but also entertain. Supplemented with illustrations by Svabhu Kohli and Viplov Singh; Indian folktales are collected in, “Tales of India: Folktales from Bengal, Punjab, and Tamil Nadu”.

If one judges books by their covers, then “Tales of India” is an instant success being bound in a highly colorful and traditional Indian motif which is cohesive with the lovely internal illustrations at the beginning of each tale. However, the text is not as strong as the graphics. “Tales of India” is divided into three categorical sections making simplistic sense based on animal tales, judgment, and life & death. Each section includes tales from Bengal, Punjab, and Tamil Nadu.

The weakness of “Tales of India” arises with the stories themselves which feel repetitive not offering a variety of novel flair resulting in a loss of reader attention. Each tends to sound the same appear pointless. These are certainly not ‘happily ever after’ fairy tales.

Elaborating on this, “Tales of India” features many folktales that either don’t make sense, are ‘dark’, or both. Many (almost all) have stories within stories following on a complicated and disjointed storyline causing much confusion. For these reasons, “Tales of India” is more so suggested for adult readers rather than a younger folk tale enthusiast.

“Tales of India” does attempt to help educate readers in regards to the occasional footnote translation but the tales are still peppered with non-English text and descriptions consequentially causing a language barrier.

There is a special ‘oomph’ missing from “Tales of India” with a slow pace that lacks the glitter and shine of other Indian folktale anthologies.

On a positive note, the translation of the stories into English contained in “Tales of India” are not awkward or clumsy as these scenarios sometimes are at risk. The literary language is lovely in essence.

The final section (Life & Death) is noticeably the strongest in “Tales of India” with the more detailed and illustrative tales within the volume. This can be described as the climax or ‘bang’ of the collection. These concluding stories leave a strong finality to “Tales of India” and a decent taste in one’s mouth (so to speak).

“Tales of India” provides a source list for its folktales and also notes that indicate the background of these stories being passed down generations through word-of-mouth from village storytellers.

Although charming in its own way, “Tales of India” is a rather weak collection of traditional Indian folktales with much better collections on the book shelves. “Tales of India” is only recommended for adult readers seeking an introduction into the subject or those who must read all texts available on traditional folktales.

[Adia · Rating 2 out of 5]

the illustrations are very pretty, but the stories themselves were often convoluted and weird.

[Jenny Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

This, like the others in the series, is split into 3 themes with traditional stories fitting each theme. They are simply written and a quick read. I like that they each have where they are from as well- Bengal, Punjab or Tamil Nadu.
This is also a beautifully bound and illustrated edition. Recomended to fans of folk tales.

Check out my YouTube channel for bookish videos and monthly wrap ups!

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this! I love how it was mostly collected from people in India themselves rather than from alterations made to fit a Western perspective (at least according to the sources). I think my favorite ones were "Bopolûchî," "The Son of Seven Mothers," "The Indigent Brahman," and "The Beggar and the Five Muffins."

[Rebo · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was pretty bad. It uses public domain versions of the stories with no commentary or editing, which makes some very confusing and difficult to follow. For example, one story is about a robber and a thief. To me these words are synonymous. So I kept confusing who was who. Apparently, a “thief” is a con man and a “robber” is someone who mugs or steals, so this could have easily been fixed by changing “thief” to “con artist” or something like it.

Fortunately, I didn’t buy this but I definitely would not recommend purchasing this. I’m sure there’s better books of Indian folktales out there.

[Goutam Varma · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the weirdest book about tales from India. It seems a like Chat GPT translation of local folklore without capturing the essence and flavor of these local folk tales. Very disappointing.

[Gagan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Someone mentions ChatGPT, I would have to agree that the text has a strange uncanny valley feeling about it but I doubt even ChatGPT is this terrible

The only good thing in the book are the illustrations. The writing and grammar in some places is so awkward, that it seems to have been translated by someone who has no native understanding of English or the source languages.

[Elizabeth]

Gorgeous cover + illustrations, but stories not quite up to par.

Not so much fairy tales as folk tales, as described in the title. But it beats me how some of the stories made it through the ages!

[Varunika Sood · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definately not for me. finger crossing though for its other countries part that I am gonna try .Can't be much praising it. Only praises for efforts to construct such and for illustrations that I like.
Found stories less compelling and just for the sake of being there with incomplete endings.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this series! The books are so beautiful and I love seeing how different folk tales from different cultures are. The story Gholam Badshah and His Son Ghool was my favorite :)

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting collection of folk stories from India. They were entertaining, unusual and a bit sad at times.

[Ellen Klock · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tales of India: Folktales from Bengal, Punjab, and Tamil Nadu consists of sixteen stories from the late 1800s through the early 1900s retold and illustrated by Svabhu Kohl and Viplov Singh. These public domain titles repeated over the years by the English and Native inhabitants of India, follow the traditional style we expect when reading old fairy tales. Full of magic, talking animals, evil doers, love, betrayal, kings and queens, kidnappings, rescues, and heroes who are able to overcome adversity through their cleverness, they are sure to delight the lovers of folk lore. With some colorful end pages consisting of a floral pattern alternating yellow, green, pink, orange, red, blue designs, which attractively gives off a sense of ease, the tone is set for the narratives the reader is about to experience.

There are three sections - Animal Tales, Outwitting and Outwitted, and Life and Death, with each story beginning with a "framed" illustration full of color and whimsy which provides an inkling of the subject matter of that particular tale. There are a variety of adventures lasting between three and ten pages including The Bengal story, The Brahman Girl Who Married A Tiger, featuring a young girl who is tricked into marrying a tiger and has to be rescued by her brothers; the Punjab folk lore, The King and the Robbers, which tells about a disguised king on a lark who joins a group of thieves and ends up raiding his own palace treasures, each individual contributing their unique special talent; and the Tamil Nadu tale, The Beggar and the Five Muffins, about a couple who are almost burned alive for the sake of an extra serving of dinner. This book would be the perfect addition to any collection of folk and fairy tales.

Four stars and a thank you to Netgalley for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This review also appears on my blog, Gotta Read:
https://ellenk59.wordpress.com/2018/0...

[Raj · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've felt my lack of knowledge of the Indian side of my heritage over the years, so it was interesting to read this book, and compare it to the folk- and fairy-tales that I'm familiar with. In some ways, the stories were different, as reflecting their background, with kings with multiple (sometimes mutually jealous) wives, and very different animals. But in other ways, tropes that I was familiar with did pop up, such as the hero with his friends who all had their own power and who helped him at the opportune time (Prince Lionheart and His Three Friends), or the battle of wits between two friends/rivals (Eesara and Caneesara).

The illustrations in this edition were absolutely delightful. Stylised and distinct, the illustrators (the only ones credited with working on this book, by the way, no mention of the editor) have a style that really fits with the stories. The stories themselves are divided into three sections: animal tales; outwitting and outwitted; live and death; although, of course, there's quite a lot of overlap between the sections.

These aren't stories that I grew up with, but the tone is similar enough to something like Grimm that they have the feel that they could have been. It's an interesting book and if these stories were old friends, then I would treasure it, but as it is, I'm content to have just read it and move on.

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another beautiful folktale collection in the Chronicles Books series, with boldly colorful illustrations that match these unexpected, vibrant stories of animals, beggars, thieves, kings, princesses and more. Each story is utterly unique, but helps create a sense of Indian folklore as a whole, characterized with nuance and cleverness, as many of the stories center around twists of fate faced with pluck and intelligence by the various heroes and heroines. An excellent introduction to a vast body of literature rooted deeply and reverently in its heritage, many of these stories will make the reader gasp aloud at the imaginations behind them, while chuckling at the astute social observations and wondering at the unexpected depth of the morals to be found beneath the playful surfaces.

[Anaide · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did not like these stories, but I give it three start instead of two because these people did not wrote the stories, they just collected it. Also I liked the illustrations.

So like every one of these fairy tales had something really problematic. You got kidnapped by a tiger? When you are saved why don´t you kill the child you had with him? Or were you kidnapped by a robber, why don't you kill his old mother?

Also in a lot of these fairy tales why we always have to wait for years until some issue is resolved? Yeah let´s suffer for twenty years, before we resolve a conflict that could have been resolved years ago.

I do not know if this was a cultural difference, but I did not enjoy myself and I found the morals questionable.

[Ezra · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always enjoyed folk tales and these were well entertaining. I especially appreciate the great illustrations since it seems wrong to experience these stories of gods, tricksters, and demons as only black and white text. It was fairly easy to read and the stories didn't have any "literary" pretensions but I wondered at why two of the stories used "Mahomedan" instead of Muslim but the list of sources in the back explained that - the stories were mostly collected by a bunch of British colonialists in the 19th Century. I wonder why so many of the protagonists are described as Brahman but perhaps that's the only people that they interviewed.

The stories seem to have been obtained on the Internet Archive so the publishers of this book likely didn't have to pay for the content so kudos for their savvy move.

[Erin Cataldi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not only was this a fun read; it was lavishly illustrated and bound, making it a truly gorgeous book. It's colorful, contains a beautiful purple ribbon as a bookmark, and has sixteen traditional folktales from India. Not just from one culture, tales included are Bengal, Punjab, and Tamil Nadu. They are all interspersed into three sections: animal tales, outwitting and outwitted, and life and death. They vary in length, but all are fascinating and completely new to me. A wonderful collection to diversify your library and educate readers on Indian folktales. All the stories contained were completely new to me and entrancing, a wonderful collection!

[Alexa · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful illustrations but very hard to read. I think this needed to be annotated to explain different phrases that weren't translated and some history about what's going on in India during the times of these tales. I thought coming in without knowing much folklore from India that this would be an easy read but I was wrong. Each story I would just get lost in, I wouldn't know who was talking because it was explained after the character spoke. And the stories themselves were just hard to follow. I think the translation should've been paraphrased for better understanding for an English reader.

[Amerynth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free copy of "Tales of India" from LT's Early Reviewers program. It is a really beautiful book -- the illustrations do a nice job setting the mood for the stories.

I've read another collection of Indian folk tales so I thought these would be interesting. They are more like children's stories I think -- the types a storyteller would tell sitting around a fire. I didn't particularly like the animal tales, but the others were fun reads.

[Skye · Rating 3 out of 5]

My favourite stories come from the “Life and Death” chapter. The Beggar and The Five Muffins was quite a laugh! Imagine being almost burned to death just to win the last muffin!

The book was a delight to read, but more so during the end. The first few chapters often left me scratching my head...sometimes the characters just have immense bad luck.

I definitely preferred the stories of bravery, outwitting others to those of greed and revenge.

[Christy MacCallum · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is gorgeous and the stories are interesting. I liked getting to read new for me stories - they read similarly to how I would expect to read a fairy tale, so they are sometimes a little duller - they definitely are on the darker/more adult side. So similar to the traditional folk/fairy tales from Europe (which I am more familiar with) and not really for kids, despite the gorgeous illustrations.

[Handan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a fun collection of tales. There's something marvelous and mind-broadening about finding fairy tales never before read. Each story has a single illustration at the beginning, so this isn't a new reader's book, but definitely night-time story friendly. The patterns and designs of the artwork are gorgeous. This is a book I'd be interested in adding to my personal library.

[Arvind · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very beautiful illustrations let down by awful stories and terrible translation. The book's name is a bit misleading too. "Folk tales of India no one has heard about" would have been better. The only thing that kept me going till the end was the illustration before each story along with the hope that there might be one good story in the book. There wasn't.

[Yasmin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the stories Gholam Badshah and His Son Ghool and Bopoluchi far above the others. In many ways these stories were rendered in such a way that is very similar to old Irish folktales. The illustrations were also reminiscent to paintings done during the Mughal era.

[Shilpa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking for stories like I read when I was a kid.. either I don't remember them being so brutal or I'm just in a sensitive mood right now... I kept reading this because I wanted to, not quite because I loved it.

[Cecilia Rodriguez · Rating 3 out of 5]

An anthology of sixteen folktales from: Bengal, Punjab and Tamil Nadu.
The stories are divided into: Animal tales, Outwitting and Outwitted, Life and Death.
Each story begins with a full page color illustration by Svabbu Kohli and Vipliv Singh

[Jodie Steer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tales from India followed the same structure as the other collections in this series - with beautiful illustrations and a number of short stories segmented into 3 themes. There were elements to this which I really enjoyed - particularly in the first few tales and the shorter ones, as they felt fresh and imaginative. However as I continued to read all of the stories began to feel drawn out and repetitive, making the longer tales feel like a chore to finish.

I don’t have much to say on this one either positively or negatively - 2.5 stars.

[Raven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Absolutely beautiful book! Extremely detailed! I look forward to reading about Indian mythology, and learning more about such a fascinating culture!

[DJL · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is just a reminder that I should really read more cultural tales. It's fascinating to see similar plot devices within stories originating from other countries.