By Karthik Venkatesh
The Marathi and Kannada word for novel is “kadambari”. It’s an interesting choice of word and, presumably, the word probably gained currency only in the 19th century. Prior to that, it is unlikely that a word for “novel” existed in many Indian languages since the novel itself made its appearance in India only in the 19th century.
Some experts are of the opinion that Banabhatta’s Sanskrit work Kadambari, penned in the seventh century, was probably the first novel written in an Indian language. Others put Kadambari in an oxymoronic category that is much-contested: the prose poem.
World literature experts have put it out that the world’s first novel is an 11th century Japanese work, The Tale of Genji. The Marathi and Kannada words are perhaps a little gesture of defiance that sought long before our current times to claim that Indians were the first at something. In this case, it’s the novel! Read more
Source: Live Mint
