Abstract
Abstract This article presents three recitation versions of two tales from the famous Vetālapañcaviṃśati (VP; the “Twenty-Five Tales of an Animated Corpse”, a medieval Sanskrit anthology of riddle-tales) that made their way orally from South Asia to Europe. The original work is one of the rare Sanskrit texts to have been disseminated widely and over a long period of time. It is a work that has thrived in oral, manuscript and printed versions. The stories in question, recorded in Germany as retold by three Nepali prisoners of war during World War I, show how this pre-modern Indian textual tradition was received into modern vernaculars and recounted in modern settings. It documents the fluidity of texts as dependent on the reciter’s, scribe’s or publisher’s own outlook, as well as on differing times and circumstances. In addition to the text’s long history of transmission, colonialism and print capitalism were further factors that influenced the retelling of the VP.
Highlights
Just as every material product is subject to the effects of time, so too works of literature often undergo reshaping
A path of this sort can be found in three oral versions, in Nepali, of two different VP stories recorded in Germany during World War I by three Gurkha prisoners of war ( POWs), Ait Singh Gurung, Dal Bahadur Gharti, and Gajabal Thapa
As has been suggested by Sathaye,57 fluid textual traditions like that of the VP belonged to the distinct Sanskrit culture that thrived in medieval and early modern India
Summary
Just as every material product is subject to the effects of time, so too works of literature often undergo reshaping. A path of this sort can be found in three oral versions, in Nepali, of two different VP stories recorded in Germany during World War I by three Gurkha prisoners of war ( POWs), Ait Singh Gurung, Dal Bahadur Gharti, and Gajabal Thapa. Nineteen Gurkha POWs imprisoned in Halbmond Camp recorded remembered stories in Nepali for the commission In addition to these recordings, the archives contain manuscripts of six folktales for which no recording was made.. In addition to these recordings, the archives contain manuscripts of six folktales for which no recording was made.15 Three stories in this precious collection, those recorded by Ait Singh, Dal Bahadur and Gajabal, have been found to have the VP as their source. See Chudal, “What Can a Song,” and Chudal, “Storytelling in Prison.” 22 NL Lüders, Nr. 3 Bd. 2 p. 13
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