Text: The excerpt captured below is a folk performance of a student’s legend about their family being of royal lineage.

Interviewer: Do you have any family legends?

Interviewee: Yeah, I think, it’s more, like, of a thing if we believe it or not, but essentially my dad tells us we are actually descendants from, like, a royal family, and I think it is true because I think my dad’s mom’s dad’s mom was a princess of, like, this area and they were really well off, and, yeah, it’s just a legend that we are like kinda descendants from, like, a pre-royal family. We, as kids, can’t really confirm.

Context:

This interview arose from conversation with a fellow Forms of Folklore student, when discussing family legends and folk beliefs. I asked him if there were any family stories he recalled and he responded with the excerpt above. When asked about the details of this royal family lineage, the conversation went as written below:

Interviewer: Do you have any idea where this family is from and what they did?

Interviewee: Yeah, it’s in India. These are like my, kind of ancestors, and they’re located South of India. It’s like a city, that they ruled, used to rule— not like a city, like a town. They used to have like a huge house, kind of palace, type of stuff. Yeah, there were kind of just royalty. It’s like a legend though, because I don’t know if it’s true. I wasn’t there.

Analysis:

This story showcases the shifting power structure prevalent throughout India over the last century, under British rule. Under these chaotic conditions, it is plausible that the interviewee’s family was in power over a town or small district, but changing political currents displaced them from their position, and resulted in an emigration to America. This narrative also follows the format of old family legends, describing the family either coming from rags to riches or riches to rags. The story also showcases the exaggeration that can take place as legends spread over time. The legend of being from a royal Indian family is very different from the possibility of being a ruler of a small Indian town.