• Yanbeni Yanthan
• Imlienla Imchen

Abstract: The oral tradition of the Nagas exists as a mosaic of narratives and practices that map the origin and migration of the various tribes in the form of mythical legends, simple and complex tales, ancient poetic verses (in song), riddles etc, forming a complex tapestry where ritual and material manifestations find their contextual representation and intersect with each other. Having birthed in what Walter J Ong deems a “primary orality” culture (Ong, 1982, p. 21), the oral traditions show that similar traits are shared in three levels: clan, village and tribe. The availability of such versions and variations reflect the trajectory of their transmission over space and time, and attributes to the nature of Naga orality, encompassing both ritual and verbal art - a kinship through which a sense of shared Naga human experience is endorsed. This is particularly manifest in the ways oral narratives encompassing legends, myths of origin, folk beliefs and even proverbial sayings use similar tropes, motifs and archetypes, across the many tribes and particularly among tribes that have geographical proximity to each other. Carl von Sydow uses the term “oikotypification” to refer to the localised hybridisation of an item of folklore which engenders, explains and accounts for the presence of multiplicities and the recurrence of specific traits of folklore, acquired during the process of transmission. Taking this as a backdrop, the paper aims to analyse one common denominator found among the Lotha and Ao-Naga oral traditions specifically – that of the underworld or the underground, a recurrent motif in the oral tradition of the two tribes. The presence of the underworld in both these narrative traditions(s) is both simultaneously obvious and obscured but plays a pivotal role in the creation and perpetuation of folk belief, and an important facet of the psychology of the culture. Hence, the paper illustrates how these two tribes construe and use the underworld as alternative realities that enables them to view themselves from the prism of the Other.

Folklore, Naga, orality, culture, tradition

"The Underworld as Mediation: A Study of Lotha and Ao-Naga Oral Traditions", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 4, page no.j54-j61, April-2025, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2504918.pdf

"The Underworld as Mediation: A Study of Lotha and Ao-Naga Oral Traditions", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 4, page no. ppj54-j61, April-2025, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2504918.pdf