Frank J. Korom is Professor of Religion and Anthropology at Boston University, USA. He specializes in the cultures of South Asia and the diasporas derived from the region. He is the author and/or editor of ten books, most recently The Anthropology of Performance (2013).

Leah K. Lowthorp is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Folklore at the University of Oregon, USA. Her work spans the impact of global cultural policy on artist communities in South Asia, community advocacy and the arts, and the digital folklore of human reproductive and genetic technologies. She has authored several articles and book chapters on these topics.

1. Introduction: locating the study of folklore in modern South Asian studies Part I. Historicizing Folklore 2. How stories lodge in lives 3. The scribal life of folktales in medieval India 4. Nameless in history: when the imperial English become the subjects of Hindu narrative Part II. Materializing Folklore 5. Standing in cement: possibilities created by Ravan on the Chhattisgarhi Plains 6. Tools and world-making in the worship of Vishwakarma 7. Pavitra Hindu homes: producing sacred purity in domestic diasporic settings 8. Shrines, stones, and memories: the entangled storyworld of a goddess temple in Assam Part III. Politicizing Folklore 9. Criminal 'folk' and 'legal' lore: the kidnap and castrate narrative in colonial India and contemporary Chennai 10. Folklore, politics, and the state: Kutiyattam theatre and National/Global Heritage in India 11. The amplified sacrifice: sound, technology, and participation in modern Vedic ritual