| Acknowledgements | | xv | |
| A Note on the Translations | | xvii | |
| Uncovering the Tenth Rasa: An Introduction An Indian Nonsense Naissance | | xix | |
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| Tradition and Modernity in Indian Nonsense |
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| | 3 | (3) |
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| Tenali Ramalinga (Telugu) |
| | 6 | (2) |
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| | 8 | (29) |
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| Rabindranath Tagore (Bengali) |
| | 37 | (2) |
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| The Old Woman's Grandma-in-Law's Five Sisters |
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| Desperate to Hear an Elephant Sneeze |
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| Annada Sankar Ray (Bengali) |
| | 39 | (3) |
| What the Little Girl Learnt |
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| Bauddhayan Mukherji (Bengali) |
| | 42 | (3) |
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| Navakanta Barua (Assamese) |
| | 45 | (2) |
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| Anushka Ravishankar (English) |
| | 47 | (16) |
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| From Excuse Me Is This India? |
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| Uncle Tettra Hedran in a Pyramid, Egypt |
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| Cousin Collum at the Tower Bridge, London |
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| Brother Marbel at the Taj Mahal, India |
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| Sampurna Chattarji (English) |
| | 63 | (4) |
| From The Food Finagle: A Culinary Caper |
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| From The Boy Who Had Never Seen a Town |
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| Shreekumar Varma (English) |
| | 67 | (2) |
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| Vinda Karandikar (Marathi) |
| | 69 | (5) |
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| Mangesh Padgavkar (Marathi) |
| | 74 | (6) |
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| A Little More Introduction |
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| | 80 | (1) |
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| | 81 | (1) |
| The Mango Jumped Right off the Tree |
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| | 82 | (2) |
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| | 84 | (1) |
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| Leelavati Bhagwat (Marathi) |
| | 85 | (1) |
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| | 85 | (1) |
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| | 86 | (1) |
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| Sarveshwar Dayal Saxena (Hindi) |
| | 87 | (2) |
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| | 89 | (1) |
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| K. Ayyappa Paniker (Malayalam) |
| | 89 | (1) |
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| Muthalappuram Mohandas (Malayalam) |
| | 90 | (1) |
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| Vaikom Muhammad Basheer (Malayalam) |
| | 91 | (1) |
| From Me Grandad 'ad an Elephant |
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| | 92 | (2) |
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| Nanda Kishore Bala (Oriya) |
| | 94 | (1) |
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| | 95 | (1) |
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| | 96 | (3) |
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| | 99 | (4) |
| Sing a Song, Brother, Sing! |
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| The Shadow-Catching Baiya |
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| | 103 | (1) |
| Madhia Hunday of Kandia Kunday |
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| | 104 | (1) |
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| M.D. Muthukumaraswamy (`Sylvia') (Tamil) |
| | 105 | (9) |
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| | 114 | (15) |
| The History of the Ramasamy Lineage: The Hidden Truths |
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| | 129 | (2) |
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| | 131 | (62) |
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| My Name is Anthony Gonsalves |
| | 133 | (4) |
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| | 137 | (3) |
| Custard-apple mustard-parrots |
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| Skitter-chitter fruit bats |
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| The bears are eating tamarind |
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| Scrawly-molly skin-crawly |
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| The blackest bat that purled |
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| Shilly-shally asked for rice |
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| | 140 | (2) |
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| While playing I found a cowry shell |
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| | 142 | (1) |
| The buffalo climbed a peepal tree |
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| | 143 | (1) |
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| | 143 | (3) |
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| | 146 | (3) |
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| Don't stick out your tongue |
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| | 149 | (1) |
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| | 150 | (1) |
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| | 150 | (1) |
| The camel perched upon a brick |
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| | 151 | (1) |
| Interludes from Oriya Operas |
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| | 152 | (2) |
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| | 154 | (1) |
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| Never-Ending Tales and Chain Verses |
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| | 154 | (1) |
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| | 155 | (2) |
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| | 157 | (1) |
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| | 158 | (1) |
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| | 158 | (1) |
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| | 159 | (1) |
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| | 160 | (1) |
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| | 160 | (1) |
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| | 161 | (1) |
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| | 162 | (1) |
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| | 163 | (1) |
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| | 164 | (1) |
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| Festival and Ceremony Verse |
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| | 165 | (1) |
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| | 166 | (1) |
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| | 166 | (1) |
| The duck chased off the civet |
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| | 167 | (1) |
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| | 167 | (3) |
| Wedding Songs from Punjab |
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| | 170 | (2) |
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| | 172 | (1) |
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| | 173 | (1) |
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| | 174 | (2) |
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| | 176 | (2) |
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| | 178 | (1) |
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| | 179 | (1) |
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| | 180 | (1) |
| Three Villages Sant Namdev |
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| | 181 | (1) |
| Shikar Nama Khwaja Banda Nawaz Gesu Daraz |
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| | 182 | (3) |
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| | 185 | (1) |
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| | 186 | (1) |
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| | 187 | (6) |
| Story of a Story, Hero of a Brother |
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| | 193 | (1) |
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| | 193 | (1) |
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| | 194 | (1) |
| The Glow-Worm and the Giraffe |
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| | 195 | (1) |
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| | 195 | (1) |
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| | 196 | (13) |
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| Appendix Edward Lear's Indian Nonsense |
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| The Cummerbund: An Indian Poem |
| | 199 | (2) |
| | 201 | (4) |
| | 205 | (1) |
| | 206 | (1) |
| The Owl and the Pussy-cat |
| | 206 | (3) |
| Notes on Contributors | | 209 | (12) |
| Copyright Acknowledgements | | 221 | |
