Kahaniyan

Stories have been travelling from one place to another since they have been created. The epic of Gilgamash which is considered to be the oldest story ever discovered was written on clay tablets in Akkadian language in the form of cuneiform writing. It is is believed by some people that the legacy of Gilgamesh still continuous even today in a variety of stories ever written, it is inescapable-its influence is endless throughout time.

Stories, let them be imaginary, factual, mythological or fictional, they carry value. Stories tell us about beliefs people had, circumstances people were in. stories carry information about news, history, inventions, discoveries and realisations. Did stories also help people to create religion? Someone somewhere realised something and the word has traveled from places to places and gave birth to different things? Stories which traveled came from memory, lived experience, propagated events, situations, folklore, daily activities, daily conversations, dreams etc. stories though they are non-factual they can influence a person’s belief systems, understanding about things, daily circumstances and even history.

Stories might have travelled in the form of texts, drawings and paintings, theater, propogandas or simply word of mouth, by talking to each other. It is difficult to trace back where the story came from sometimes, like stories about gods. You might have heard the story of vali and sugreev from your grandmother, which she might have heard from her grandmother and so on. But very likely that people of a community might share the same stories, and stories about gods, creates belief systems, rituals, practices and ideologies. These are not the stories which need evidence of existence. Stories of a saint who sat under a tree for 200 years and told the village a particular number of things and the people still follow them even today. Maybe it doesnt make sense to search for an evidence because people, thousands of people believe in it which makes it real in some way. A country with more than 1900 languages once upon a time would have had a million stories atleast. Stories would have emerged from ancient texts, prehistoric teachings from temples, the carvings on temple walls, marginalised communities, tribes, mystics or even gods themselves. These stories would have travelled borders, changed their forms, changed languages, changed thee story itself, they might have been adapted in required ways in different regions, they would have influenced communities and reached a place where we see their presence even today.

Conservation of these stories is an immense requirement. “Wo kahani tho mere dadi batati thi, unke guzarne ke baad unke saath ye kahaniya bhi chale gaye”. Stories carry value and history infused with emotions and memories.