[Grandmother’s Bag: The Fairy Tales of Bengal]
Author: Compiled by Dakshinaranjan Mitra
Majumdar
Publisher: Gajendra Mitra,Mitra and Ghosh, 10,
Shyamacharan Dey Street, Calcutta. [First edition
published by Bhattacharya and Sons, 65, College
Street, Calcutta.]
Printer: Printed by Shashadhar Chakraborty, Kalika
Press Ltd., 25, D.L.Ray Street, Calcutta. [First
edition printed by Bipin Vihari Nath, 27-29,
Pataldanga Street, Calcutta.]
Date & edition: First published 1907 . Featured
pages are from the sixteenth edition marking the
golden jubilee of the publication in 1952.
Price: Re 4 [Second edition, 1909, price: Re 1 by
the Bengal Library Catalogue]
About the book:
Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumdar – the compiler of
Matrigranthabali - a series of four volumes
published as authentic folklore collections
(Thakurmar Jhuli , Thakurdadar Jhuli , Thandidir
Thale , Dadadmashaier Thale ) did his folkloric
fieldwork in and around Mymensingh for twelve
long years during which he amassed a colossal
collection of oral narratives from peasants,
boatmen, itinerant travellers and elderly village
folk. The sustained nature of his work, his patient
categorization of the various forms of oral folk
culture into rupkatha , geetkatha , raskatha and
bratakatha, as well as his use of a certain model of
the phonograph to record the rustic dialects
verbatim, speak of his serious and studied interest
in the matter. Dineshchandra Sen, the zealous
folklorist was significantly operative in publishing
Thakurmar Jhuli , not only for his ardent
enthusiasm regarding the collection, but also as he
introduced the young Dakshinaranjan to
Bhattacharya and Sons – publishers of
considerable repute in the contemporary book
market.
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