1263-The Telugu navala
My recent item on the early Tamil novel (Miscellany, August 12) had reader Saraswathi Rao wondering whether or not
Sri Ranga Raja Charitra
by Narahari Gopala Krishnamma Chetty was the first Telugu novel. No
authority on the subject, I did some checking around and discovered that
it had been written in 1872, was dedicated to Lord Mayo, and had been
described by the
Fort St. George Gazette
as being “ apparently the first attempt ever made… at novel writing in
Telugu prose.” The author was at the time the Deputy Collector of
Kurnool District and undertook the work in response to a notice by Lord
Mayo, the then Governor-General, that had appeared in the
Bengal Gazette
.
The notice had stated that a work of fiction
featuring the customs and rituals of the Bengalis would be rewarded.
Lord Mayo saw this as a means of getting the British administrators, who
till then had only to learn the language, better acquainted with the
customs of the people. Krishnamma Chetty decided to do this on behalf of
the Telugu people of Madras Province. He called it a “navina
prabandham”, emphasising that it was an original story — not a
translation — and re-emphasising that it was ‘new’. Set in the 15th
Century, it tells the story of Sri Ranga Raju of the Vijayanagar dynasty
and describes the customs and rituals prevalent at the time. These
customs have not changed at all, Chetty points out in criticism. Was
this then an attempt to urge society to change as well as break caste
taboos, wonders a later commentator.
What intrigued me in this commentary, however, was the use of the term
navala
, the word used in Telugu today, I’m told, for ‘novel’. Kasibhatta
Brahmayya Sastry, a scholar, is quoted as saying, “In English, the word
‘novel’ has come out of ‘nav’ which means ‘new’. It is not clear that
this ‘nav’ is related to ‘nava’ of Sanskrit. Therefore, ‘navala’ means
that (literary form) which has new features — navan visesan lati
grihnati iti navala. In English too the word bears the same meaning.
Therefore, I am using here the word ‘navala’ for this (literary form)
instead of attempting to coin another Sanskrit word.”
Sastry’s use of ‘navala’ came in a commentary he wrote c.1900 on the second Telugu novel,
Raja Sekhara Charitra
by Kandukuri Veeresha Lingam, which was serialised in 1878 in the author’s own journal,
Viveka Vardhani
. The word has apparently stuck since then.
No doubt, there’ll be more on this, one of these days, from readers.
(S.Muthiah, Madras Miscellany, Metroplus, Chennai, The Hindu, 26:08:2013)
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Labels: Indians/ Telugu, Liesure/Telugu, Personality, Telugu literature/ books, Telugu literature/personality, Telugu/ culture/ books, సాహిత్యం-వాఙ్మయం
posted by C. Narayana Rao at 12:31 am
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