Gather Around Grandma

Literally meaning Grandmothers Tales,the collection of 30 folk stories has been the focus of Assamese literature this year,with literary organisations drawing up programmes to mark its centenary,and at least 30 publishers bringing out special editions and translations. The North-East Book Fair in Guwahati,which concludes tomorrow,has contests based on Burhi Aair Sadhu,where children compete in story-telling,and enact the tales as skits.

Like most folk tales for children,the stories in Burhi Aair Sadhu revolve around various people rich and poor,farmers,little boys and girls and numerous animals like foxes,cats,lions and crabs that speak the same language as human beings,and share close relationships with them. The stories preach moral values,and are replete with characters like the evil stepmother,the foolish tiger,the frog who defeats an unjust king,and so on.

Sadhu in the title signifies the moral lessons of the stories. The word sadhu is unique to Assam. It is derived from sadhu,which means sage. Sadhu-katha is a story with a moral. In days of yore,learned people would tell their children stories with moral values,and thus came about the words sadhu and sadhu-katha, wrote Bezbaroa in his preface to Burhi Aair Sadhu.

Some of the characters from the stories have inspired proper names in Assam. For instance,Tejimola,a common Assamese name,first appeared as the name of a poor girl who is wronged by her stepmother and married off to a king in a story in Burhi Aair Sadhu. Similarly,another common Assamese name,Lotkon,is taken from the character of a cunning villager who plays tricks on others to own a horse.

The stories,most of which end with a two-line or three-line rhyme,have a universal appeal,and have thus been translated into different languages. They contain many references to Assamese customs,festivals and folk songs. Burhi Aair Sadhu is inseparable from Assamese life,culture and literature, says littérateur Dr Nagen Saikia,who is a former president of the Asam Sahitya Sabha and an authority on Bezbaroa.

But attempts are being made to revisit some of those cultural references. Banalata,a publishing house,for instance,is doing a first: its edition has done away with caste references the original Burhi Aair Sadhu has shrewd characters as Brahmins,for example,abuses,derogatory terms,and misogynist lines such as the one in which a man threatens to sell off his wife if she delivers a girl child.