Mithila Story Archive

This archive of Maithil women’s tales is intended to preserve this art for generations to come – for members of the Maithil and broader South Asian community, for scholars and educators of oral traditions in South Asia and around the world, and for the general public.

In Mithila today, gender norms are very much in flux due to influences of new globalized technologies of communication, along with other economic, political, educational and cultural transformations, including outmigration. My research reveals that these very same forces have already resulted in the displacement, and will likely eventuate in the loss, of women’s cross-generational oral storytelling as a way to pass down cultural knowledge and values. Maithil women’s stories for centuries have functioned as a locus for the expression and dissemination of cultural value and history. The disappearance of this women’s oral storytelling is no small loss, given the unique artistry, as well as perspective, humor, pathos, and insight embedded in the practice. They promulgate understandings and dispositions toward action enabling Maithil women to navigate (including critique) their significantly constrained and dominated lives in life-affirming and sometimes life-expanding ways.

The creator of this archive is Coralynn V. Davis, Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Anthropology, at Bucknell University. Professor Davis holds a PhD (1999) in Anthropology at the University of Michigan, where she also earned a Graduate Certificate in Women’s Studies (1994). She has held Research Associateships at the Five College Women’s Studies Research Center (2005-2006) and at the Harvard Divinity School Women’s Studies in Religion Program (2008-2009). In addition to having published peer-reviewed articles in journals centered in several disciplines, her book Maithil Women’s Tales: Storytelling on the Nepal-India Border was published by University of Illinois Press in 2014.

This archive of Maithil women’s tales is intended to preserve this art for generations to come – for members of the Maithil and broader South Asian community, for scholars and educators of oral traditions in South Asia and around the world, and for the general public.