ABSTRACT
Also referred to in Sanskrit as Vidusak across many ancient and medieval Indian text references, the stories of court jesters have survived across the Indian subcontinent through oral traditions through centuries. This chapter looks into popular oral traditions across the SAARC region about court jesters, which are still famous among the locals and in regions that include Andare from Sri Lanka; Birbal, Gonu Jha, Gopal Bhand and Tenali Ramakrishna from India; Ash’ab and Bahlul the jester in the court of Harun al-Rashid from erstwhile Afghanistan and Pakistan. The chapter also looks into the similarities of stories between court jesters of the region on one hand and the reflections of regional and cultural uniqueness on the other.
