Indian Fairy Tales in Slovenia- Sodobnost International, 2017, 2019

In Slovene literary culture, a popular belief has become established – 'IndijaKoromandija', which means a land where everything is in abundance, where life is very good, i.e. an imaginary land of abundance. This is one of the reasons why the motif was often illustrated and themed in Slovene (youth) literature.

Influences of Indian literary culture on Slovene have a respectable tradition, ranging from mentions by JanezSvetokriški (TobiaLionelli), folk songs, especially variants written by MatevžRavnikar, Tomaževodhod v Indijo (Tomaž's departure to India, 1838), but literary fragments have been preserved about cultural memory, from Alexander the Great (6th c. BC), through Roman culture, paganism, Christianity to the present day. The essence of the poem about St. Thomas is the following: Na svetnilepšdežele, ko deželaIndija (There is no more beautiful country in the world than the country of India).

The Indologist Theodor Benfey (1809-81) defended in 1859 the so-called Indian fairy tale theory, also called migration theory which believes that fairy tales traveled along the Indo-European route (Syria, Orient, Sicily, Spain, caravans, crusaders, etc.)

Slovene readers encountered Indian themes already in the magazine Vrtec (1871), then with the Zbirkaindijskihgledališkihiger (Collection of Indian Theater Plays, 1885) , and read fairy tales as early as the 19th century, through the first Indologist, Dr. Karl Glaser, with fairy tales of 1891, Kalidasa: Indijskidramatik (Kalidasa: Indian playwright, 1902). First translation of the Nobel Prize winner for literature (1913), Rabindranath Tagore, followed in 1915, Indijskapravljica (Indian fairy tale, 1927). The Slovenian poet Anton Aškerc (1892) wrote many poems influenced by Indian motifs, Staroindijskebasni, bajke in pravljice – Jataka (Old Indian Fables, Myths and Fairy Tales – Jataka, 1932). The most resounding translation of the folk collection of Indian fables and fairy tales was Panchatantra (1959).

Keywords: Indian, Fairy Tales, ATU types, Slovenia, Sodobnost International, Collection.