‘’Give to others, and the gods will give to you’’

Ruskin Bond’s Tales and Legends of India, this time different in genre from his other books of nature and children’s stories, comes a compilation of 25 tales of epic (illustrated with black and white paintings), folktales and mythical fables all wrapped up in sweet and simple Bond style.

- The first section deals with Tales from the epics, such as the tales of Savitri and Shakuntala. Readers will get to know about the stories from Purana and Mahabharata. Stories from Vishnu Purana and some sacred hymns of Rig Veda are also considered in this first chapter.
- Tales from the jataka – Stories from jataka, the great collection of Buddhist birth stories, in which Bodhisattva come to earth in various forms are included. Stories of the God Sakka (appearing a lot of times in jatakas), beast fables, famous story of the Crab and the Crane are well written in this second section.

Through his selected stories he tells us that All the folktales are interrelated in one way or another, be it in any mythology.

- In the third section, Tales from South India such as A demon for work and The tiger Kings gift narrating a tale of lord Pillaiyar (Lord Ganesa), some stories of buhiya Tribe from The Indian Antiquary, Some Mughal tales – The Lost Ruby, and some spooky ghost tales such as The Ghost and the idiot, some Persian folklores, folktales from Daskhina Desa (1905) and folktales on the Hindu concept of karma and rebirth are included which makes for a great read.

Well, these tales are very simple in nature and deal with mostly princes and princess of India giving a short moral lesson in the end. The book does not contain any stories that gives details of our Indian Gods and goddesses or anything of their origins. There are just small tales picked randomly from the Indian scriptures and jotted down by the author in his own simple way. If you want to enjoy some mystical tales upon a lovely evening then this is the book for you.

Bond in his book has tried to include tales’ representative of different parts of the country, of of different faiths, of tribal peoples, kings and commoners. He in his efforts have also provided the notes and sources in detail from which the book is taken. India is more than a land – it is an atmosphere – and this book is designed to give the reader the feel of India and recapture some of its old magic.
May the Eternal dispenser of all good thus deal with his servants.
ruskin-bond3 s Keerthi77 5

so silly lmaoasia classics3 s Pearl Khurana171 58

This book brought back so many memories and ofcourse another reminder as to why Ruskin Bond is everyone's favourite ??
Also I completed my reading challenge 4 months in advance!!read-2020 rusty set-in-india ...more2 s Dhwani656 21 Read

The Independence day
Autor del comentario:
=================================