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A Bengali Kissa (Bengali: বাংলা কিসসা/কিচ্ছা, romanized: Bangla Kissa/Kiccha), also known as Keccha (Bengali: কেচ্ছা),[1] is a genre of Bengali poetry and prose as well as a tradition in the Bengali language of oral story-telling. It started flourishing in Bengal with the fusion of local Bengali folklore and stories from the Arab and Turco-Persian immigrants.[2] The art form remains popular amongst the rural Muslim communities of Bangladesh.
Where Kissa reflect an Islamic and/or Persian heritage of transmitting popular tales of love, valour, honour and moral integrity amongst Muslims, they matured out of the bounds of religion into a more secular form when it reached Bengal and added the existing pre-Islamic Bengali culture and folklore to its entity.
- ^ কেচ্ছা - শব্দের বাংলা অর্থ. english-bangla.com (in Bengali).
- ^ Islam, Sirajul. "Kissa". Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh. Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.