'Prathapa Mudaliar Charitram', by Samuel Vedanayakam Pillai
The first Tamil novel
Tamil is spoken by more 88 million people worldwide and, according to the 2011 Census of India, by some 69 million in India alone. It is one of the ancient languages of the world. Amongst the languages of India, it has, with the exception of Sanskrit, the oldest body of literary works available to us today. While tradition maintains that Tamil literature goes as far back as 10000 BCE, it is generally accepted that the earliest works in Tamil date back to a period between 150 BCE and 250 CE. (Parthasarathy, 1994).
The Tamil literary tradition, like Sanskrit, was primarily oral, and almost all ancient and medieval works in Tamil were in verse, the form most conducive to oral transmission. The coming of the Europeans in the 17th century had a direct and formative impact on Tamil literature, for with them came exposure to new literary forms such as the novel and the short story. But these new forms were not immediately adopted — they did not lend themselves to memorisation and transmission by word of mouth, nor were they suitable for public readings like the epics. But in 1710, Christian missionaries set up the first Tamil printing press in Tranquebar (modern Tharangambadi). Though it was not till almost the end of the century that this technology was applied outside the missionary field, large numbers of books could now be quickly produced. Additionally, the spread of education in the 19th century and the consequent growth in literacy created a demand for reading matter. These various factors came together towards the end of the 19th century leading to a period of literary activity and accomplishment often termed the ‘Tamil Renaissance’. This period saw the emergence and establishment of the novel as a literary form in Tamil. (Asher, 1969).
The first Tamil novel, Prathapa Mudaliar Charitram ( transl: the life and adventures of Prathapa Mudaliar), was published in 1879. It was written by Samuel Vedanayakam Pillai (1826-1889), an accomplished poet with several earlier books, of non-narrative verse, to his credit.
Vedanayakam Pillai wrote his novel after his retirement from the post of District Munsiff of Mayuram. In his preface to the novel, he states:
My object in writing this work of fiction is to supply the want of prose works in Tamil,…and also to give a practical illustration of the maxims of morality contained in my former works… (Asher, 1969)
The novel tells the life story, in the first person, of the main character, Prathapa Mudaliar. Though the storyline is fairly simple, the novel is long and rambling and begins much before the birth of its protagonist. As the author explains in his preface, the novel depicts human nature not as it is, but as it ought to be. The novel also reflects his belief in the inherent equality of women.
The novel has been translated into English by Meenakshi Tyagrajan as The Life and Times of Pratapa Mudaliar.
In 1875, four years before the publication of Vedanayakam Pillai’s novel, was published Athiyur Avadhani Charitam (or The Self Made Man, an original Tamil novel, delineating pictures of modern Hindu life) by D.V. Seshaiyangar. Despite its claim to be ‘an original Tamil novel’, it was written in verse. Though it is still sometimes accorded the status of ‘first’, it is Vedanayakam Pillai’s novel that is truly the first Tamil novel. (Asher, 1969).
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SOURCES AND FURTHER READING:
Asher, R. E. “The Tamil Renaissance and the Beginnings of the Tamil Novel.” Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, no. 1 (1969): 13–28. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25203090.
Parthasarathy, R. “Tamil Literature.” World Literature Today 68, no. 2 (1994): 253–59. https://doi.org/10.2307/40150137.
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