MSSV JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES

VOL 1 NO. 2 [ISSN 2455-7706]

FOLKTALES AS MORAL INSTRUCTOR IN DAY TO DAY LIFE

OF ASSAMESE SOCIETY
Dr. Deepsikha Gogoi Hazarika,
Research Scholar,
Dibrugarh University

Abstract—Social life is a result of assimilation of individual and public life. Folktales are
being created with the experience of social life. From that perspective it may sure that social
life is reciprocate to folktales. Folktales put its influence naturally upon the social life. Folk
society never pays their attention towards the logical analysis of the folktales. Genetically,
they have been taking away rigid ideas, achieving from the situation and character of these
tales, in the flow of their life. Assamese folktales are leading the Assamese tradition, ethics
and customs and have been giving path towards the further generation. The fundamental
learning of Assamese folktale makes people eligible to handle the problems of life. Though at
first, it was somebody’s individual; later it becomes as the corn-house of primary learning for
the Assamese society. The morality of folktales has always remembered by Assamese people in
every critical situation. Even Assamese folk-beliefs and ideas are formed specially based on
folk tales. This research paper aims to focus how the prevalent elements of folktales are
spreading out to each part of Assamese society and the day to day life of Assamese folk life.

Keywords: Folktale, Folk society, Folk-mind, Folk belief, Moral

I. INTRODUCTION
The meaning of the word folk is common people, public. The term common people
include people of all caste, creed and religion. According to the folk-culturist the term ‘Folk’
refer to a class of people who follow the same customs and traditions. It may also refer to the
common living, sharing language, religion etc. (Sarmah, 1997). On the contrary in literature
the term folk encompasses especially somewhat narrow ideas as compared to the folk society.
It normally refers to the working class of villages and towns living under the canopy of
traditions and customs (Sarmah, 1999). They are basically not endowed with formal
education. From this angle folktale deals with the working class.
Folktales are a major part of folk literature. Folktales have it existence in spoken
tradition. It may classify into three subs-categories—a) Myth b) Legend c) Tale
Myth: It was emerged in the ancient time and regarded as truthful story. It describes the
divine tradition. Myths are connected to religion. It gets reverence among the folk people.
Legend: Legend describes about national heroes, devotees and martyrs. These are
enriched with chronicle of migration, war and result, deeds of the ancient warriors story of
dethrone, ghost, beautiful damsel, devotes etc.
Tales: It is considered as imaginative and fictional story. It suggests moral task. Human
fantasy and desire get preference here. Tales have totally Disinterestedness of time, space, and
age.

There is nothing fix regarding the form of folktales. Folktales are primarily created by the
folklore of the society and customarily orally circulated narrative literature. A folktale passes
through different shapes as according to the passing of time. It expresses the experience of
common people and is nourished by the common attitude of the ordinary firming class. The
daily life of common people means different activities performed for their survival. They earn
various types of experiences after performing these works. Creative mind always try to share
their thoughts and experiences with other members of the society. They always want to give
their work experience, their story of bravery and the beliefs (fantasy or illustration) towards
the further generation.

Assam is one of the eastern most states of India. The people of Assam inhabit in a multi-
ethnic, multi-linguistic and multi-religious society. The process of social formation in Assam
has been marked simultaneously by Sanskritization and Tribalization at different times. So,
the folk-beliefs and ideas are different that grows up different times. Cultivation is the primary
occupation of Assamese people. Though, Assamese society is basically patriarchal,
matriarchal tribes can also be seen. So generally, female status is not lower than male.
Assamese people are very polite, appreciative, talkative and curious in their talking.
Simplicity and hospitality are the glory of their character. They have a bad rumor to be

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emotional. They keep more belief in religion, social customs and traditions. They exhibit their
faith toward folk medical system. They are expert in artistic task, sweet in language and
honeyed in singing.

Assamese people used the word “SADHU” in a wider sense. This word represents the
meaning of the English words—tales, legend, myth and fable. Assamese folktales are like an
evident document of Assamese culture, society and civilization. Folktales work as reflector of
socio-cultural scenery of Assamese society. Assamese people always learn to handle the
problems of life from folktales. It is like the corn-house of primary learning for Assamese
society. When they are fishing, cultivating, firming, looming, rice mixing etc. in every day
work the morality of tales or the situation describes in folktales are memorized or referenced
by them. This research paper aims to focus how the prevalent elements of folktales are
spreading out to day to day life of Assamese society.

II. METHOD
Analytical method is specially applied here. In analytical research, the researcher has to
use facts or information already available and analyze these to make critical evaluation of the
material. Here the researcher tried to elaborate the folktales introduced in Assamese society
and their impacts on the people of Assam. The paper is mainly written on the basis of orally
transformed folktales but if necessary printed materials like relevant books, journals etc. are
also used. Sahityrathi Lakshminath Bezbaruah complied the folktales introduced in Assamese
society and left a rich property to Assamese folk literature. Besides these tales are in printed
form but they are still transformed orally in the society. In this paper the printed primary
material of Bezbaruah and other unprinted oral tales have been used for analysis.

III. DISCUSSION
Human lives are absorbed into deeds, duties and responsibilities. At first, these all are for
self-fulfillment and then for the family and society. Human society moves, taking away the
duties and responsibilities, toward individual, family and society. Ethics are very much
present beyond the folktales which can be beneficial to find the right way for the individual &
total life in critical situation. Thus the whole social order is being remain unbroken. Such
kinds of folktales are available in Assamese folk life. Folk mind always try to follow the

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moral values of folktales. Even if someone behaves in wrong way they give example from the
tales and try to motivate him. The moral of tales become an ever true narration for them.
There are some folktales where contradiction can be noticed among the animals. This
contradiction basically takes place between foolishness and intelligence. A clever animal tries
to cheat another one, but at last, he himself falls in trap. Assamese society receives this idea to
escape from the cheaters or swindler. An intimate friend may become foe and betray the other,
only for his self realization of selfish aim. But it is not right. The folk society believes that
‘Don’t cheat friends’. They use the example of the tale of Monkey and Fox where the monkey
cheats the fox out of his fair share of food taking advantage while he knows that the fox can’t
climb trees. So the fox wants to take revenge and makes the monkey attack a bee hive by
telling him it is a royal drum. The greedy foolish monkey however ends up paying with his
life (Deka Hazarika, 2001). Assamese folk society believe that ‘intelligence can win over
physical power’. Where the physical strength is unable to do something then intelligence does
its work. Somebody may try to harm someone with his physique, wealth or power. But the
other can easily handle his foe through his intelligence. Folk society gives example from the
Tale of Crow and a little bird where the intelligent little bird (Tiposi) escapes from the
clutches of the crow using his cunning, by making the crow fly around to fetch something that
ultimately lead to the crow’s death (Bezborua, 2005).

Before the entry of science and technology, the human society depended upon nature and
so, in the folktales, a mutual understanding can be seen between men and animal. Folk society
says very positively about the members of nature. Animal or birds have no feelings, but they
are not ungrateful. They shared love with man and try to help them as far as possible in
exchange of love. In the Tale of frog, an aged childless couple is adopting a frog according to
frog’s application. One day while the frog is ploughing the field with a pair of bullocks, the
king’s men pass through the field on elephants. The frog gives them a thundering from under a
cloud. The bewildered men report the matter to the king who comes to verify and arrested the
old man. The frog takes quantities of fried grains and distributes them among the insects.
Thus, with a big army of insects, he challenges the king who is compelled not only to sue for
peace but also to give away the princess with half of his kingdom (Datta, 1995). On the other
hand, there are some folktales where the contradiction between men and animal can be

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noticed. Folk society has received an idea from those tales supporting the contradiction. The
contradiction between men and animal takes place only because of food urgency. So, they
ought not to keep faith with some animals. They are very clever and tricky. They regard the
weakness of men as their opportunity. The story of Aged couple and fox may be cited as an
example where the childless aged couple is cheated by fox (Bezborua, 2005).

The central idea of the Assamese folk society, on the relation between men and animal, is
that ‘Nature is much better than cruelty or ugliness of men’. They have received this idea from
the folktales. Human society injured itself. Men are the cause of their own devastation. But
nature never ignores men. It is always there for the human society. In the tale of Tejimola,
Tejimola takes different forms and stays alive in spirit despite her stepmother’s efforts to
make her disappear forever. The story has a happy ending where Tejimola ends up a lotus
flower in the hands of her father on his way home (Deka Hazarika, 2001). In her journey from
Tejimola to lotus, nature helps her in every step; her different forms are always related with
nature.

There are some folktales which are introduced with the sorrow and unfortunate
conditions of heroes and heroines. The heroes and heroines, living with the power, have to
face the evil power. But however, joy ultimately comes to the hero by the grace of god power.
The god power makes their lives prosperous and powerful (Bezborua, 2005). The examples of
Tejimola, Tula and Teja and The Kite’s Daughter may be given, where Tejimola, Teja and the
kite’s daughter faces many problems from their enemies. Tejimola was killed by her
stepmother, Teja was cheated by her step sister and turned into a little bird, Maina by her step
mother (Bezborua, 2005), the kite’s daughter was sold to a tradesman by her husband’s seven
co-wives (Bezborua, 2005). All situations were created out of jealousy. Taking inspiration
from those tales, folk people sometimes face their challenging moment of life. Injustice is
transient before justice. ‘Truth must come clearly before us; nobody can hide’, folk society
regard it as key idea while spending their life. They take inspiration from the heroes or
heroines of folktales to spend their life gracefully. The believers face the successors taking
support from the tales. When the successors logically show their doubt to the customs and

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tradition then the believers try to establish their own view, giving quotation from the tales.
Assamese society has also lots of tales with these beliefs.

Folk society never pays their attention towards the logical analysis of the folktales.
Genetically, they have been taking away rigid ideas, achieving from the situation and
character of these tales, in the flow of their life. In course of time these kinds of ideas are
being established as the absolute truth. For example, clear existence of materialistic things like
body, wealth, money, property etc. Folk people believe that sounds like ‘oh’, ‘aah’, ‘aio’
should not be uttered whenever they are in front of paddy field, river or fire etc. A folk tale
says that God Shiva was very much lazy and so his wife Parvati was always upset to him.
One day he went for cultivation to satisfy his wife. But he also warned his wife that she should
not go there until the cultivation would have not been finished. But Parvati was unable to
control herself and visited the farm. She then uttered the words ‘ah’ ‘oh’. The whole field was
covered by fire as soon as she uttered the words. Another belief relating with folktales is that
in mid night, the door should not be opened if it is knocked once or name of God Rama should
be uttered at the time of passing through a field or a boundary of a village or an orchard or
forest or large trees. Same thing should be done passing through an ‘ou-tenga’ tree (a kind of
acid fruit), bamboo or ‘Jori’ (a kind of fig tree). They believe that God Rama will save them
from the evil power existing in the trees. Nothing should be done badly under a large tree
because the God power existing in the tree may become angry and he may be harmful for
men. In many tales of the spirit like Burha-Dangarya and Dot, folk minds believe that they
always stay in trees. The tales of Dot describe that they live in a bamboo clump and try to
frighten the passer-by, they shake the tree as a strong blast would (Rajkhowa, 1973). The
Burha-Dangariya concept and tales are related with religious faith.

Moral values are those values through which a society can be mobilized morally, in a
right way. These values make society eligible for going forward. So the present generation
always tries to make educate their successor through the learning of moral values. In this
process folktales stand as a teacher of them. Some examples of moral values accepted from
the tales are given below:
a) Greed brings sin and sin death.

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 b) Patience is a plaster of all sources.
c) Sad hours seem long but among thorns grew roses.
d) The patience is the real friend in need.
e) Weak men wait for opportunities; while strong men create them.
f) Better an open enemy then a false friend.
g) Beauty is the truth and truth is beauty.
h) Truth would have overcome untruth.

Some characters of the tales have been remaining as real source of attraction. Their
flaws or virtues always influence over the folk society. They try to compare these characters
with themselves in different situations of practical life, such as:
Lotkon: An intelligent but poor man tired of being nagged by his wife sets off on a
journey to prove his worth, and with his cunning manages to fool a lot of people on his way.
Starting from eating sweets in a sweet shop by fooling the shop owner’s son into believing his
name to be ‘Makhi’ (meaning housefly) to making a man run around a tree holding on to the
tail of a pig, the intelligent man goes back home with riches much to satisfaction of his wife
(Bezborua, 2005). Folk people compare Lotkon with the clever person. Folk mind also
remembers the verse ‘Makhiye mithoi khale’ in a joyful moment.
Tejimola: It is a popular ironical character, who suffers much difficulties from her
stepmother but in the end truth comes and she got justice. The character used in Assamese
folk society is compared to her who is a victim of oppression by stepmother.
Champavati: Champavati was the daughter of younger wife of a peasant, had to work
harder than her step sister and had to drive away the birds to save the ripening grains.
Strangely her shouts to shoo away the birds was replied by a mysterious voice from within the
nearby forests that declared “the paddy I will eat, the rice too, I will leave only after marrying
Champavati”. But the owner of this voice was a serpent. Champavati’s father agreed to give
away her in marriage to the serpent. After many incidents Champavati lived happily with her
husband who is actually a deity (Deka Hazarika, 2001). Assamese folk minds always
remember the verse of the serpent to Champavati.

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 There are lots of popular characters in Assamese society from folktales. Saravjan, Tikhar,
Chutibai, Dighalthengia, Panechoi, Ow-Kunwari, etc. are also popular characters among the
Assamese folk society.

The folktales, created on martyrs, patriot or warriors, have been uniting the Assamese
folk society with a regional sentiment. Folk society adds many things to these characters. This
kind of adding sometimes makes the character like god or like a character of nothingness.
There always remains a doubt regarding the truthfulness of those characters, because the
regional sentiment keeps away these characters from the reality. Some examples of some tales
may be cited about Sankaradeva’s super natural power. Those were even included in ‘Charit
Puthi’. Another example is the ‘tale of Joymoti Kunwari’ regarding her punishment given by
Sulikfa’. Joymoti was a historical character. She was a victim of tyranny. But the Assamese
folk society describes her sufferings not from the historical perspective but from the
description of folktales.

IV. CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the results of this study provide that folktales and its characters, situations,
background and ethics spread all over the day to day life of Assamese folk society. Assamese
folk-beliefs and ideas are formed specially based on folktales. Folktales have been bearing the
Assamese folk culture. Taking elements from folktales, Assamese folk mind tries to shape
their life. Assamese folktales are also universal. It shares universal human feelings. All human
beings are connected to each other. On the other hand, the whole human society is connected
to whole nature. Man itself is a part of nature. Assamese folktales have been bearing this
notion. There are some tales which are regarded as fundamental lessons of life, through which
the different situations of life can be handled. Folktales can be applied as a medium of
expanding human value removing from the chaotic situations of society. The impact of
folktales upon the Assamese folk life can be noticed clearly. There is nothing else in the folk
life where there is no element of folktales.

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