Textualising the Siri Epic

Book excerpt: How does an illiterate singer produce a long oral epic? What is the origin of his "text", available only for a fleeting moment at its performance? How can a multifaceted oral performance be transformed into a book? The primary oral textualization and the secondary written codification of the Siri epic, 15,683 lines, are described in detail in the present volume on the basis of recent fieldwork among the speakers of Tulu, a Dravidian language, in southern Karnataka, India. The "oral author", Mr Gopala Naika, is one of the many talented singers of oral epics in Tulunaadu and a possession priest in rituals which use oral epics as their mythical charter and a source of mental therapy.