Skip to content

References: Stories and Literature

  1. Rabindranath Tagore: Facts - NobelPrize.org - The official record of Tagore's 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature, with his dates and the prize citation. Its linked pages include his Nobel lecture and a short biography.

  2. Ramlila, the traditional performance of the Ramayana - UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage - Explains how Ramlila plays based on Tulsidas's Ramcharitmanas are staged across northern India at Dussehra, and why UNESCO listed them in 2008. A clear example of oral tradition that is still alive.

  3. Baul songs - UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage - Describes the Baul minstrels of Bangladesh and West Bengal, their instruments, and how their songs are passed on orally from teacher to student.

  4. Kalila and Dimna (manuscript, Egypt, about 1310) - Library of Congress - A digitized illustrated Arabic manuscript of Kalila wa Dimna, the Arabic retelling of the Panchatantra, with notes on Ibn al-Muqaffa's translation and its influence on later fables. You can page through its 73 paintings.

  5. Sultana's Dream - A Celebration of Women Writers, University of Pennsylvania Digital Library - The full text of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain's 1905 English story about "Ladyland." It is short enough to read in one sitting and is a good choice for a club story night.

  6. Why Sri Lanka named its first ever satellite after Ravana - Scroll.in - A news explainer on how Ravana is remembered in Sri Lanka, among Sinhala Buddhists and in Tamil traditions, and why historians debate the link between the epic's Lanka and today's island.

  7. Heart Lamp wins the International Booker Prize 2025 - The Booker Prizes - The prize announcement for Banu Mushtaq's Kannada short stories, translated by Deepa Bhasthi, with the "firsts" the win set for Kannada and for Indian translators.

  8. Three Hundred Ramayanas - Wikipedia - A summary of A. K. Ramanujan's essay, the five tellings it compares, and the 2011 controversy at Delhi University. Follow its citations to the essay itself.

  9. Panchatantra - Wikipedia - An overview of the fable collection's frame story and its journey through Middle Persian, Arabic and European languages, with links to scholarly translations.

  10. Sangam literature - Wikipedia - A starting point on the earliest Tamil poetry: its dates, its anthologies, and the akam and puram kinds of poems.