I ndian Fiction

Abstract

The novel in India was born in the latter half of the nineteenth century, supposedly in direct imitation of the Western models of the genre with which Indians became acquainted following the introduction of colonial English education. But this common formulation elides the vital fact that numerous indigenous works of prose narrative had existed in India ever since the interwoven Panchatantra stories (c. third century BC; translated into English 1570), and the highly sophisticated novel‐length narrative Kadambari (c. AD 650), both in Sanskrit. These have continued to be foundational influences, as have the qissa and the dastan , Perso‐Arabic forms of narrative that came to India in the medieval period with the Muslim rulers. Thus, when English‐educated Indians began to write a new kind of narrative under Western influence, they often produced works in fascinating hybrid forms that were initially regarded as failed or imperfect novels. Even now, Indian novels continue to be generically different from Western novels in some vital respects; for example, not many are centered on the theme of a love relationship between a man and a woman, and several display a different sense of closure.