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This volume presents two examples of ovi, a genre typical of the oral literature of the Dhangar shepherds of the
Marathi-language region of India. The extensive introduction discusses the literary art of the ovis and the
cosmology, geography, society, administrative structures, economy, and values of their performers' world.
About the author
Anne Feldhaus is a Distinguished Foundation Professor of Religious Studies at Arizona State University. She is the
author of Water and Womanhood: Religious Meanings of Rivers in Maharashtra and Connected Places: Region,
Pilgrimage, and Geographical Imagination in India, as well as several other books on religious traditions of Maharashtra. She is fluent in Marathi and has lived in India for several long periods.
Summary
Pastoralist traditions have long been extraordinarily important to the social, economic, political, and cultural life of western India. The Marathi-language oral literature of the Dhangar shepherds is not only one of the most important elements of the traditional cultural life of its region, but also a treasure of world literature. This volume presents translations of two lively and well-crafted examples of the ov?, a genre typical of the oral literature of Dhangars. The two ov?s in the volume narrate the stories of Biroba and Dhu?oba, two of these shepherds most important gods. Each of the ov?s tells an elaborate story of the birth of the goda miraculous and complicated process in both casesand of the struggles each one goes through in order to find and win his bride. The extensive introduction provides a literary analysis of the ov?s and discusses what they reveal about the cosmology, geography, society, and political arrangements of their performers world, as well as about the performers views of pastoralists and women.
Additional text
This translation of two traditional oral narratives of a shepherd community in western India stands as a rich and copious archive of traditional narrative materials and ethnographic observations that will be of great benefit to a wide range of scholars interested in oral performance, folk religion, or rural/pastoral culture in South Asia.
