VOL 1 No 2, 2024 Research Article
Veena R. Nair
Assistant Professor, Department of English, SVR NSS College, Vazhoor, Kerala
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21659/jsae/v1n2/v1n215
[Article History: Received: 25 Jun 2024. Revised: 28 Aug 2024. Accepted: 14 Sep 2024. Published: 15 Dec 2024]
Abstract
Mannan is an Adivasi community residing in forty-six settlements in Idukki, Ernakulam, and Thrissur districts of Kerala. Tales constitute a major part of their copious orature. A tale is woven between the storyteller and the listener, a well-knitted mantle, which on a close reading can unfold the anatomy of their life-land nexus. In various tales, animals of their forest become characters, with leopards playing a significant role in tales that depict the theme of survival. Leopard is the most terrifying image to an adivasi community that could endanger their life. In a sense, the fear of leopards represents the people’s fear of the dangers of the wild which they had to fight for survival. When people use the image of the leopard in their daily lives in the form of art forms and tales, they try to confront their fear. The tales are the simplistic narratives cultivated by unsophisticated people and, they are structured with the patterns from their own life. The paper traces how leopards are depicted in Mannan trickster tales and tall tales and how the depiction of leopards is related to Mannan life and survival in the forest.
Keywords: Adivasi Orature, Mannan tales, Leopards, Survival, Life in the forest
