Kumauni Ki Lokkatahen Tatha Dantkathaen : San 1875 Men Almora Men Sankalit

The book entitled Kumauni Lokkathaen tatha Dantkataen (Kumauni Folk Tales and Legends) has been translated into Hindi from Russian which is the work of the Russian Indologist Ivan Pavlovich Minaev who visited India 140 years back in the year 1875. During that visit he also went to Almora (Uttarakhand) where he spent three months. During his stay there Minaev collected folk tales and legends of Kumaun and after returning back to Russia he translated them into Russian. The present book is a translation of that book from Russian into Hindi. The book consists of 48 folk tales and 22 legends of Kumaun. Besides this the book also includes the Introduction written by Minaev. This Introduction gives a vivid picture of the Kumaun region and the Kumaunis. A short travelogue “The Singers of Kumaun” published in Vestnik Evropy (June 1876) has also been translated for this book. This short travelogue acquaints us with the views of Minaev about Kumaun and India. A biography of Minaev also forms a part of this book which tells about the range of work done by Minaev as an Indologist.