India is home to dozens of distinct storytelling traditions, encompassing oral narration, music, dance, theatre, puppetry, and visual art. These include Katha and Harikatha, which bring spiritual narratives to life through spoken storytelling and music; Dastangoi, the art of Urdu oral storytelling; Pandavani, which draws on tales from the Mahabharata; Kathakalakshepam, combining narration, music, and commentary; and performance traditions such as Kathak, Kathakali, and Yakshagana. Painted-scroll storytelling and regional puppetry forms further enrich this varied heritage.
Alongside these performance traditions lives the intimate practice of stories told within families. Together, they form a living inheritance, continually renewed by each teller and listener. Storytelling Traditions of India celebrates this continuity through the invitation to “Pass the Divine Story Forward.”
Before stories found their place on the printed page, they lived in voices, gestures, rhythms, and memory. Across India, storytelling has brought generations together: grandparents sharing tales with children, performers bringing sacred narratives to life, and communities gathering to listen, reflect, and imagine.
Storytelling Traditions of India proposes an evening celebrating this living inheritance through performance and conversation. Centred on the theme “Pass the Story Forward,” the programme will explore how stories travel from one generation to the next, and how narration, dance, music, and literature continue to give them new life. The evening will open with a performative storytelling session drawn from Little Divine Ones, bringing live narration into dialogue with dancers and musicians. A panel discussion will follow, exploring India’s storytelling traditions and their relevance to families, communities, and audiences today.