Folklore as the Precursor of Literature

Introducing the way the 'content, form, organisation, metre and music' of oral traditions are 'incorporated' or 'absorbed' into written literature, the paper traces this process in the Tamil epic Silappadikaram​, and points out the epic's own influence on genres adopted by later Bhakti poets. An extract from the edited volume, Four Papers on Literature and Linguistics​ (Madurai: Meenakshi Puthaka Nilayam, 1968).