Old tales through new images and new tales through old images: ethnography of a Jambavantaru katha (narrative) performance in Telangana

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article is based on ethnography of a performance-narration of the Jambavantaru Puranam, the etiological tale of the Madiga community in Telangana, south India. The piece focuses on changes in the technologies of production and conditions of reception of the Jambavantaru Puranam. By documenting contemporary ways of telling and internalizing folk narratives, this article contextualizes these changes within the way performers are able to interpret their location within the contemporary, and the way the audience-community are able to move between a local and historical identity of being Madiga and a larger and political identity of being Dalit.