Describe the growth of the novel in South India.

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The growth of the novel in South India:

(i)Novels began appearing in south Indian languages during the period of colonial rule. Quite a few early novels came out of attempts to translate English novels into Indian languages.

(ii)For example, O. Chandu Menon, a subjudge from Malabar, tried to translate an English novel called Henrietta Temple written by Benjamin Disraeli into Malayalam. Later he gave up this idea and wrote instead a story in Malayalam in the ‘manner of English novel books’.

(iii)This delightful novel called Indulekha, published in 1889, was the first modern novel in Malayalam. 

(iv)The case of Andhra Pradesh was strikingly similar. Kandukuri Viresalingam began translating Oliver Goldsmith’s Vicar of Wakefield into Telugu.

(v)He abandoned this plan for similar reasons and instead wrote an original Telugu novel called Rajasekhara Caritamu in 1878.