Saurashtrāṇī Rasdhār

 

Book review - Saurashtrāṇī Rasdhār by Jhaverchand (Zaverchand) Meghani

1. Context and what the book is

What it is: Saurashtrāṇī Rasdhār (often published as Saurashtra Ni Rasdhar) is a multi-part compilation of folk-stories, local legends, anecdotes and short narrative sketches drawn from the Saurashtra region of Gujarat. Meghani  poet, collector, and chronicler of Gujarati folk literature  gathered these tales from oral sources and village informants, edited and sometimes polished them, and presented them as a continuous stream of Saurashtrian “ras” (flavour)  hence the title Rasdhār (a flow of tastes/essences). Editions and reprints of the work are available in multiple volumes and by several publishers.

Why it matters: The collection functions both as a literary work and as an ethnographic archive: it conserves linguistic rhythms, idioms, local customs, and moral sensibilities from early 20th-century rural Gujarat while shaping those raw materials into crafted prose and occasional verse. Meghani’s role as a mediator between oral culture and print is central to both the book’s strengths and the critical questions it raises. 

2. Meghani’s approach - collector, storyteller, editor

Jhaverchand Meghani (1896–1947) is widely recognized as one of Gujarat’s principal folklorists and writers: poet, storyteller, editor of folk materials, and a public intellectual engaged in the freedom movement and social reform. In Saurashtrāṇī Rasdhār Meghani is not a neutral ethnographer. He frequently shapes oral material  trimming, arranging, occasionally translating dialectal idioms into a more standard Gujarati  to make narratives readable, emotionally resonant, and thematically coherent for a modern reading public. This editorial shaping is a feature, not merely a flaw: Meghani’s craft makes the living voice of villages available in print without wholly domesticating it. 

Strength: Meghani’s narratives preserve the cadences of Saurashtrian speech and village life, while his literary sense amplifies their moral and dramatic cores.

Critical caveat: Because he shapes material, scholars should read the collection as mediated folklore - a hybrid of field-collected tale and authorial literary re-presentation. 

3. Themes and recurring motifs

Across the volumes readers encounter a constellation of motifs that recur in folk cultures everywhere but are localized here in charming, sharp detail:

• Village ethics and generosity: tales that celebrate simplicity, communal hospitality and the moral economy of rural life. Readers see a moral universe where social reputation, honour, and reciprocity govern action. 

• Cleverness of common folk: trickster-like episodes where villagers outwit powerful figures or absurd officialdom  humorous, satirical, humane. 

• Love, loss and local ritual: small intimate stories about family, marriage rites, funerary customs, and the textures of everyday emotion. 

• Myth and superstition: stories that preserve older cosmologies, local deities, omens and wonder-tales that functioned to explain risks and events for pre-modern communities. 

Meghani arranges such motifs so readers move between comedy and melancholy, instruction and delight which is precisely the “rasdhār” effect his title promises. 

4. Style, language, and accessibility

Meghani writes in Gujarati with deep ear for regional dialects. His prose varies: at times close to the spoken idiom, at times polished into lyrical sentences. This bilingual texture (folkspeech rendered in literary Gujarati) makes the book particularly rewarding for:

• native Gujarati speakers who can savor dialectal resonance;

• scholars of folklore and comparative literature; and

• new readers who want a readable window into Saurashtrian life.

Because editions vary (single-volume reprints, multi-volume sets, modern publishers bringing out annotated editions), pagination and arrangement differ; many volumes run 600+ pages depending on print format. Modern reprints make the work available but the bibliographic details should be checked for the particular edition you consult. 

5. Strengths -what the book does excellently

1. Cultural preservation: It captures vocabulary, customs, and narratives that might otherwise vanish. The collection is a living link to Saurashtrian oral world.

2. Narrative variety: From short wry anecdotes to longer moral tales, the range keeps the reader engaged. 

3. Literary shaping: Meghani’s editorial voice creates readable, emotionally pointed stories; the book reads like literature, not an academic file of transcripts.

6. Limits and critical cautions

• Editorial mediation: As noted, tales are mediated; for strictly ethnographic or philological work researchers should cross-check with primary field notes when possible. Meghani’s interventions are artistic choices not straightforward verbatim transcripts. 

• Historical dating & context: Some tales reflect worldviews of an earlier era; modern readers should be attentive to social norms presented uncritically (gender roles, caste references, superstition), and interpret them historically rather than prescriptively. 

7. Who should read it?

• Students of Gujarati literature and folklore studies.

• Readers who love short-stories rooted in place and oral tradition.

• Anyone preparing cultural-historical projects about Saurashtra.

• Creative writers seeking models of how to translate oral voice into literary prose.

9. Conclusion — lasting value

Saurashtrāṇī Rasdhār is more than a folk anthology; it is Jhaverchand Meghani’s offering of a whole cultural temperament to readers beyond the villages. It delights, instructs and preserves. If you approach it both as literature and as a cultural document  valuing its storytelling and aware of its editorial shaping  you will find it richly rewarding: a repository of laughter, sorrow, shrewdness, and the everyday heroism of ordinary lives.