"It was a wonderful experience interacting with you and appreciate the way you have planned and executed the whole publication process within the agreed timelines.”
Subrat SaurabhAuthor of Kuch Woh Pal
Mithila, the birthplace of Sita, is well known from Vedic times for her learning, scholarship and spirituality. But it is not much known that she is also rich in the traditions of rural culture. Folktales, folk art, folk dance, folk songs, paintings etc. are very much part of a vibrant social life in Mithila.
Folktales have been passed from one generation to the next by mostly oral tradition. In the modern society with nuclear families and with the absence of elders, the tradition of telling the tales has been on the decline. People are forgetting the tales altogether. This has necessitated that they be compiled and preserved for the future generation. While there are several good compilations of folktales in Maithili language and a few in Hindi as well about the tales having their origin in Mithila’s culture, the English version is almost non-existent. In the modern age of e-books, it is totally absent on that platform.
This book attempts to bridge this gap by providing a modest collection of folktales for the benefit of society at large where neither Maithili books are available nor it is possible for people to read them. While I have benefitted from earlier compilations in Maithili and Hindi, I have added several tales which I had heard in my childhood but did not find them in the available compilations. A very brief introduction to Mithila and its culture has been included for the benefit of the readers who cannot find easily accessible material on the subject.
Yogendra Pathak Viyogi
Dr. Yogendra Pathak Viyogi, born in 1948 at Laufa village in Madhubani district of Bihar in India, is a retired scientist of the Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India, a reciepient of the Helmholtz-Hulmboldt Research Award of Germany and a Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and the National Academy of Sciences (India). He specializes in writing popular science articles in Maithili which appear in various Maithili journals regularly. These articles have been compiled in two books. In addition he has written short stories, novels, drama, science fiction, satires and travelogue in Maithili. He has translated the Maithili novel ‘Bhartik Biladi’ in English under the title ‘Bharti’s Cat’. He has so far published ten books. He is a recipient of ‘Tirhut Sahitya Samman’ of Mithila Sanskritik Parisad, Hyderabad, Sahityiki Samman and ‘Sulabh samaj seva puraskar’of Chetna Samiti, Patna.
He is also engaged in mentoring school students and giving them lessons in laboratory techniques in his home district of Madhubani in Bihar (India).
