Raja Nal and the Goddess

The North Indian Epic Dhola in Performance

• Author(s): Susan Snow Wadley,
• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Pages: 242
• ISBN_13: 9780253217240
  ISBN_10: 0253217245
  
• Language: en
• Categories: History / Asia / South / General , Literary Criticism / Asian / Indic , Literary Criticism / Poetry , Literary Criticism / Fairy Tales, Folk Tales, Legends & Mythology , Religion / Eastern , Social Science / Anthropology / Cultural & Social , Social Science / Folklore & Mythology ,

Description:...

"... [T]ells a wonderful story, one much loved in northern India.... fills an important lacuna in the work on oral epic." --Lindsey Harlan

Dhola is an oral epic performed primarily by lower-caste, usually illiterate, men in the Braj region of northern India. The story of Raja Nal, "a king who does not know he is a king," this vast epic portrays a world of complex social relationships involving changing and mistaken identities, goddesses, powerful women, magicians, and humans of many different castes. In this comprehensive study and first extended English translation based on multiple oral versions, Susan Snow Wadley argues that the story explores the nature of humanity while also challenging commonplace assumptions about Hinduism, gender, and caste. She examines the relationship between oral and written texts and the influence of individual performance styles alongside a lyrical translation of the work.