Folklore as Resistance: Reading Kuchuk Kherengbar in Kokborok Oral Heritage

The Kokborok folktale Kuchuk Kherengbar is not merely a tragic story of love and transformation; it is a repository of cultural memory and ecological wisdom among the Tripuri people. This paper situates the tale within the discourse of folklore as resistance. By narrating the dangers of human transgression against divine boundaries, embedding ecological imagination, and preserving cultural ethics through oral storytelling, the tale functions as a cultural archive that resists erasure. In examining themes of forbidden desire, transformation, memory and divine justice, this study highlights how Kuchuk Kherengbar affirms Kokborok identity and oral heritage in the face of marginalization.