Folklore - A Source of History

Folklore refers to the oral traditions associated with the early stages of the socio-cultural and religious formation of a social group. It is the early forms of knowledge of the past, which are preserved and orally transmitted from one generation to another. The folklores reveal the body of customs, beliefs, stories, and sayings associated with people. The various kinds of folklore serve as an important source of history. Apart from providing amusement, these forms are used to educate the youth, to authenticate and validate rituals and beliefs.

Popular Categories of Folklore

Scholars have identified a number of broad categories of oral tradition according to both form and function. The important among them are:

Folk Literature: Folk literature can be classified into two:

1. Prose Literature: The prose literature consists of myths, legends, and folk tales. Myths are interlinked with their beliefs in supernatural powers and ritualistic practices. The folktales are deeply rooted in their social environment and are highly sensitive to individual and group sentiments. They are lucid, entertaining, easily intelligible, and memorable. These tales have no fixed form in their oral stage.
2. Poetic literature: It mainly consists of ballads and various forms of songs, like religious songs, festival songs, working songs, moral songs, etc. Another popular form of a song is the historical song. It mainly focuses on the persons and events of the past.  

Proverbs, sayings, maxims, and riddles: Proverbs are short, usually fixed, phrases that summarize some bit of wisdom to be passed on at appropriate moments. Proverbs are used in ordinary conversation to guide, encourage, praise, teach, advise and criticize. These share the moral values and concepts of a folk group. 

Material Culture: It mainly consists of the art and architectural structures of a folk group. It constitutes the archaeological remains of the folk cultures.

Performing Arts: Every folk group has its own performing arts, which were religious and ritualistic in nature. These performances are mixed with dance, drama, and music. These are unique in costume, dress, colour, and presentation. 

Social Folk Aspects: It mainly consists of festivals, medicinal practices, games, and other ritualistic practices. These refer to the daily life practices of the folk.

Historical Value of Folk Sources

• Folklore is the most potent means of transmitting customs, beliefs, values, and attitudes of a particular culture, community, or society.
• Folk sources tell us about the aspirations, superstitions, and customs of the people, which are essential to understanding the culture and history.
• Folklore takes on the characteristics of the time and place in which they are told. They are usually set in a fictional past and speak of universal and timeless things.
• It reflects the day-to-day life, the joys, and sorrows, love and hatred of the common people. Parental love, unnatural cruelty, family happiness, wise and unwise conduct, cleverness, deceptive bargain, unlucky accidents, love and fear of the unknown, greed, and true friendship are some of the common motifs of Folktale tradition.
• Folklores are intimately tied up with the dominant ideologies and thus the dominant ideology is unconsciously transmitted or oriented from one generation to generation. Thus folktales validate certain aspects and ideologies of society.
• Folklore offers an interdisciplinary lens to gaze at various inherent socio-cultural traditions.

Dealing with the Folk Sources

There are some prerequisites to dealing with folk sources:

• A historian must possess intimate knowledge and a clear understanding of the local languages.
• A historian must have a thorough knowledge of the local customs and traditions.
• The historian should possess a thorough knowledge of the time and history of that period.
• A historian should be able to distinguish between legendary and authentic elements of folklore.
• A historian should be aware of the mythical and legendary linkages of folklore.
• A historian should be aware of the lack of exact chronology of folklore and also its local variations.