Monster Folktales From South Asia

By Musharraf Ali Farooqi

A fire demon devastates a mountain community. A dev of Qaf imprisons a pari. A tribe of devs invade and destroy a kingdom. A cannibal giant from Gilgit terrorises his people. A sea monster threatens a fishing village.

These five folktales retold here by Musharraf Ali Farooqi capture the monster lore from South Asia's different regions and the heroic men, women and children who defeated these monsters.

Beautifully illustrated by Michelle Farooqi, this collection showcases some of the fiercest monsters and most ingenious heroes from South Asian folklore.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Harper Children's
• Release date: Nov 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9789354891861

Musharraf Ali Farooqi

Musharraf Ali Farooqi is an author, novelist and translator. He is the founder of the interactive storytelling program Storykit. His latest work is The Merman and the Book of Power: A Qissa. His work can be seen here: www.micromaf.com.

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Introduction

When I was a little boy, I was fascinated by the illustrations in monster stories. These sketchy drawings, published in Bachchon ki Dunya, an Urdu magazine for children, showed fearsome creatures emerging from the sea, forests or mountain passes.

Up against the monster would be the hero, ready with a lance, bow or sword. I would never know how the fight would end in those stories, as I was still learning to read back then, but it satisfied me to see, standing in opposition to Evil, someone I reckoned to be a force for Good. This meant that I would never be alone with the monster, and, with the help of the drawings, was able to make up my own adventures with the creature, sometimes as the hero, and sometimes as his sidekick. I returned to savour those stories again, later when I had acquired literacy, and could read them as told by their authors.

Children are acutely aware of monsters from a small age. These monsters can take the form of fears, dreams, or actual human beings. Those who appear in human form are called villains and can be as bloodthirsty as the beasts. While not all of them kill, some of them cause great pain and suffering by doing things to harm other human beings, or by not changing their hurtful ways. In fact, human villains cause greater destruction and suffering than monsters with horns and fangs.

Monster stories serve to acquaint children with the faces of cruelty, injustice and evil. These stories are the basic template of the good versus evil equation which celebrates the good and shows the triumph of justice. They are also reminders that evil can be overcome and defeated.

There is a Persian proverb which says, To destroy every pharaoh a Moses will arise. It refers to the ancient story of the villainous pharaoh who drowned in the Red Sea while chasing Prophet Moses and his companions. The proverb is both a reminder and a warning that all monsters and villains will come to a dastardly end, either at the hands of the people they oppress, or by someone who cares about them. The saying serves equally as a call to action.

This brings us to heroes and their purpose. A hero may not always fight to protect herself or himself. Heroes serve a higher purpose, and as shown in these stories, often fight monsters and villains to protect other people from injustice and violence  – an important human responsibility.

Monsters and villains are ruthless, powerful and cunning; heroes, therefore, must be determined, brave and ingenious. In this life, both children and adults must be the heroes they are called upon to be.

Hero-and-monster stories can be traced to the beginning of human life, and are often found in folklore, humanity’s oldest literature. Like other inhabited places in the world, South Asia’s geographical regions, too, possess a large body of such tales – a record of its people and their imagination. From this vast literature, I have chosen five monster stories to retell for this book. Three of these folktales: Gondrani and the Fire Demon Aasi Gaur from Balochistan, Meo Khai Soni, Fairy Prince Shamsher, and the Cannibal Giant Sri Badat from Gilgit, and Morriro and the Sea Monster from Sindh, are being published for children for the first time. The story of Prince Saif, Fairy Badri Jamala, and Toraban Dev is mainly known in oral form in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, although it is told in many permutations in many cultures. The story of Raja Rasalu and the Ogres is taken from the Adventures of Raja Rasalu, one of the great legends of Punjab, which is sadly, not as well known to our