The six short audio extracts from this 32 hour full performance are made available here. They have all been taken from one "episode" in the larger story and describe events located somewhere near the middle of this great oral epic. The excerpts pick up the story at the point where a set of three divinely "implanted" children (two boys and a girl) are about to emerge from the womb of the queen-heroine. The first two excerpts occur prior to the birth scene and four more follow that dramatic moment. Her twin boys arrive via a divinely executed Caesarean and the girl follows quickly behind them. By contrast, however, she is delivered in "the natural" human way. Each of the six audio bits has been selected to illustrate a distinctive sub-style of performance used by the two bards during a traditional story telling session.

These recordings were gifted to ARCE by Dr. Brenda Beck. An animated version of this folk epic is now in production under her direction. This new work has been given the name The Legend of Ponnivala. See www.legendofponnivala.com for details.

Track Listing