Inside the sorting hat of stories

The author includes many folk myths in her collection and considers these a symbol of the reciprocal traditions of storytelling in the region

THE BLUE LOTUS: Myths and Folktales of India

Meena Arora Nayak 

Aleph 

550 pages; Rs 999

Ancient Indian literature does not rest easy with labels. Myth or fiction, legend or history, religious literature or epic poem; the boundaries that separate the categories are more like lines drawn in the sand. As a result, Western scholars (even some Indian scholars who were mostly schooled in the study of the Occident and its literature) struggled to structure the vast, rambling and diverse literary traditions in the region and keep the stories confined to their assigned boxes. 

Some sought to separate the literature as