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From Our Own Correspondent: India's epic storytelling

India's epic storytelling

BBC World Service - From Our Own Correspondent, India's epic storytelling

Tony Grant presents global insight and analysis. Today, Anu Anand on India's epic stories

Tony Grant with insight and wit from BBC correspondents around the world. Anu Anand meditates on India's strong traditions of storytelling, and enjoys a revival of the Dastangoi genre one Delhi night.

Insight, wit and analysis from BBC correspondents around the world. Today, Tony Grant presents a special essay by Anu Anand on the new life coursing through one of India's oldest artforms: storytelling. 

Rebirth of the Dastangoi tradition

Many of humanity's best-loved legends and folktales originated on the subcontinent.  There are the Buddhist Jataka stories and the Pancha-tantra, the ancient Sanskrit collection of animal fables in verse and prose. There are the intricate, twining, religious epics like the Mahabharata. And the tradition continues to this day, with prize-winning novels and imaginative Bollywood screenplays enjoyed by millions.

Meanwhile, one of India's unique indigenous storytelling traditions, lost for nearly a century, is being rediscovered, as Anu Anand found out during a night in Delhi. The Dastangoi genre - "the telling of epic tales" - draws on a host of historical sources, and uses the full richness of the Urdu language, to capture its listeners' attention and draw them into the narrative.

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