The Unwritten Literary World of Tribal Communities is nothing but the Oral Literature or Folklore. It covers stories, legends, myths, song, dances, riddles, proverbs, metaphors and such other aspects of their culture which are in their memory and handed down from generation to generation. These sources of their literary world speak of their spiritual world and the eco-system. The older persons are the store house of of their oral literature and from these sources the literary world of theirs is disseminated among the youngsters. This book gives the folklore of four tribal communities namely, the Kharias, the Oraons, the Santals and the Mundas of Orissa. The Kharias are a hunting and food gathering community, the Oraons are noted for the dance and music and the Santals are well known as hard working cultivators and skilled in wall painting, and noted for their sense of beauty. The cultural patterns of these tribal communities and their life-ways and thought-ways are different from one another as revealed in the analysis of their oral literature. Even though they lead a life full of wants and difficulties, they are very labourious and joyful by virtue of which they forget their sorrows and miseries.

Folklore Studies in India: Critical Regional Responses is an interesting compilation of twenty-eight critical articles on the beginning of folklore studies in the different parts of India. In the absence of a book that could map the history of Indian folklore studies single-handedly, this book can be deemed as the first-of-its-kind to feature the historical development of folklore studies in the different states of India. This book succinctly introduces the readers to the folk culture, folk arts, and folk genres of a particular region and to the different aspects of folkloristic researches carried out in that region.

Contributed articles with special reference to Chota Nāgpur and Santhal Parganas in Bihar, India.

History of Birhors, tribal people in Chota Nagpur, India.

Contributed articles.

The las three decades have witnessed a phenomenal increase of interest in regional development. A good number of monographs, books and research articles have been written by different scholars on Oraon tribe but none of them exclusively highlights Oraon chidlren. Similarly, no scholar has ever evalueated the tribal participation in the Panchayati Raj and its organs at district level in Chotanagpur. In the present book, Dr. Sachindra Narayan presents his two painstaking empirical studies: 'The Tribla Children of Bihar-a Case Study of Orains' and 'Tribal participation in Panchayati Raj: A Case Study of Ranchi'. The study provides an informed glimpse in some aspects of Oraon's children life, the process of socializationand the traditional pattern of education through the youth dormitory 9Dhumkuria). The author has also highlighted the reasons for the poor turnout of students in schools as well as problems of health and nutrition and the economic role of Oraon children.