Rabindranath Tagore notes in his introduction to Thakurmar Jhuli, that there was a dire need for folk literature of Bengal to be revived because the only such works available to the reading public of the time were European fairytales and their translations.

However, he found no publisher initially, and had set up a press to self-publish the first book that would be a compilation of the stories he developed from the recorded tales.

[2] The book contains fourteen stories, divided into three sections: Dudher Sagor ('Sea of Milk'), Rooptarashi ('Scary Form'), and Chyang Byang ('Fish-Frog').

These stories, like others in the collection, depict characters who initially suffer a series of misfortunes, display admirable personal qualities, like courage, kindness and wit, and eventually rise to great fortune.

[1] In his introduction, Tagore noted that Dakhshinaranjan has successfully put into writing, the linguistic flavour of traditional oral tales.

[1] The four initial folktale anthologies of Mitra Majumdar are titled after a grandparent, who represents the bygone era and thereby embodies cultural heritage.

In the contemporary context, written and digital recordings of these fables seem to have replaced the earlier oral tradition, but Thakurmar Jhuli remains a compilation that is not limited to children alone, and over the years has found tremendous response among the adults.