The last of the storytellers

I don't mean writers, but rather people who orally told stories to audiences.  The stories themselves were often not original, but the storyteller's art/craft/trade/profession was the performance aspect of it, and telling the same story better than your professional rival(s) would actually be evidence of mastery.

"daastaan go'ii" ("daastaan" = "story", "go" = imperative of "guftan" = "to speak") used to be an actual profession in India, with master storytellers achieving fame and fortune, attaining celebrity status and/or receiving royal patronage.  But that was a long time ago:  The last storyteller, Mir Baqir 'Ali of Delhi, who hailed from a family that had been royal storytellers for generations, died in 1928 at an age of 75 or 80 (his exact year of birth is not known), and he died destitute, because storytelling had already ceased to be viable means of livelihood some time before.  I remember my friend talking about "brotlose Kuenste" the night the summer went out this year ...

So all that survives of the entire art of storytelling is two recordings of Mir Baqir 'Ali, both made on April 25, 1920, in Delhi, when the artist was about 70 years old.  The first recording is the story of the prodigal son, and is 3 minutes and 13 seconds long; the second recording is 3 minutes and 6 seconds long.

So there.  The complete surviving record of an art form, in all of 6 minutes and 19 seconds.

Have a great weekend!