The Back Story: Finding The Legend

Dr. Brenda Beck has invested nearly fifty years in the study of Tamil culture and society, making the focus of much of her research a folk tale she happened upon quite by accident while doing fieldwork in India in 1964-1966. Dr. Beck’s mission has been to capture this localized epic story; known locally as the Annanmar Kathai; and bring it to the world with new insight, new life, and new technology.

Dr. Beck’s love affair with India began as a teenager when, in 1954, she set out with her family on a trek that would take them from Beirut, across Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and finally into the South of India. A decade later, as a doctoral student at Oxford’s Institute of Social Anthropology (Somerville College), Dr. Beck elected to return to South India to immerse herself in Tamil culture. Settling in the village of Olappalayam in early 1965, she began what she thought would be a routine cultural documentation project centred on social customs. When she found out that story telling was the preferred form of entertainment in the life of the village, however, her adventure brought unexpected discoveries.

When she asked villagers to name their favourite tales, the unanimous response was “The Elder Brothers’ Story” (Annanmar Kathai in Tamil). This seemed obvious to the locals, and the village singers expressed no hesitation when a performance was requested. But that choice was no small affair. Nobody told her it would take eighteen evenings to get through this long, long legend! The best storyteller in the area was called in to give the finest performance possible. And the young anthropologist, armed with her trusty tape recorder, was ready to capture the magic.

The resulting collection of audio tapes (44 hours’ worth!), coupled with her transcription of the bard’s later prose dictation of the same tale, was part of the research that led to her successfully completing her Oxon. doctorate in 1968.