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Early Prose Fiction in Marathi, 1828–18851

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Ian Raeside
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Extract

Literary prose is a late developer in the history of any language and in Marathi, as for most other Indian languages, it does not appear in any significant quantity until the middle of the nineteenth century when the influence of English was beginning to transform a hitherto almost exclusively verse tradition. Before this the use of prose is limited to commentaries, to a few hagiographical works of the Mahānubhāv sect written in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, to historical narratives from the time of Maratha independence and to private and diplomatic correspondence of the same period. Of course, there must always have been a flourishing popular oral literature of fables and ghost stories, adaptations of episodes from the Puranas and the Epics, but these were never written down. Even among the well known Sanskrit story collections, only the Pancatantra is found in an early prose version in Marathi.

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Articles
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The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 27 , Issue 4 , August 1968 , pp. 791 - 808
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1968

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References

2 An excerpt is given in Tulpule, S. G., An Old Marathi Reader, Poona, 1960, p. 117.Google Scholar

3 Deśpaṇḍe, V. N., ed., Smṛtisthala, 2nd ed., Poona, 1960, p. 4Google Scholar. Further examples of Mahānubhāv prose are given in Tulpule, , op. cit., pp. 94–116.Google Scholar

4 Jośī, S. N., ed., Bhāūsāhebāncī bakhar, 7th ed., Poona, 1959, p. 63.Google Scholar

5 For example, Bakhatyāranāmā, 1855Google Scholar, from Ouseley's translation from Persian; Bāgobahāra, 1869–1872Google Scholar, from Duncan Forbes' Urdu translation.

6 The end of the “ingrajī avatār” of Marathi literature is usually taken to be in 1874, when the first number of Kṛṣṇaśāstri Cipaḷūṇkar's Nibandhamālā appeared. Stylistically this may be valid, but in the field of prose fiction I can detect no natural break until the advent of H. N. Āpṭe.

7 On Carey's Serampore press see Clark, T. W., “The languages of Calcutta, 1760–1840,” BSOAS, XVIII, 3, 1956, 459–60.Google Scholar

8 Chatre, S. K., Bāḷmitra, Bombay, 1828Google Scholar, intr. The first grammars of Marathi in Marathi, notably that of Dādobā Pānḍurang, were not published until 1836. Carey published a Marathi-English dictionary in 1810 and Vans Kennedy another in 1824, but the first monolingual dictionary, sponsored by the Bombay Education Society, came out in 1829, the year after Chatre's complaint.

9 Sardār, G. B., Arvātīn Marāṭhi gadyācī pūrvapiṭhikā, 1800–1874, 2nd ed., Poona, 1956.Google Scholar

10 Ibid., 67–68.

11 This work was taken from an obscure English translation of a once famous Italian original. Cf. Raeside, I., “Bertoldo,” Rivista degli Studi Orientali, XXXVII, 1962, pp. 105–113.Google Scholar

12 Bhingāre, however, has described this work in detail and sees it as a direct descendant of the mildly pornographic tradition of Sanskrit tales. Jog, R. S., Marāṭhi Vāñmayācā Itihās, Pt. IV, p. 186.Google Scholar

13 Morobā Kānhobā Vijaykar, Ghāśīrām Kotvāl, ed. Phatak, N. R., Bombay, (Mumbaī Marāṭhi granthasangrahālaya), 1961, pp. 10–11.Google Scholar

14 The phrase “ingrajī avatār” seems to have been coined by D. V. Potdār in his book Marāṭhi gadyācā ingrajī avatār, Poona, 1922.Google Scholar

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16 Ibid., pp. 60–61.

17 Haḷbe, Lakṣmaṇ Moreśvar, Muktāmālā, Bombay, 1861Google Scholar, intr.

18 Muktāmālā, 1–3.Google Scholar

19 Risbuḍ, Nāro Sadāśiv, Manjughoṣā, Poona, 1868, intr. pp. 3–4.Google Scholar

20 Gokhale, Bābājī Kṛṣṇa, Rājā Madan, duhkhaparyavasāyī kathā, Bombay, 1865.Google Scholar

21 The novelist G. W. M. Reynolds, who is not worthy apparently of an individual entry in the encyclopaedias, had more influence in India than almost any other nineteenth century Western writer.

22 Desmukh, Vāman Kṛṣṇa, Suhāsyavadanā, Bombay, 1870.Google Scholar

23 Haḷbe, L. M., Ratnaprabhā, Bombay, 1866.Google Scholar

24 Jorvekar, Keśav Lakṣmaṇ, Vicitrapurī, Bombay, 1870.Google Scholar

25 Quoted from Potdār, , op. cit., 2nd ed., Poona, 1957, p. 83Google Scholar. K. B. Marāṭhe's “Nāval va nāṭak hyāviṣayī nibandh,” a paper first read before the Marāṭhi Jñānaprasārak Sabhā in 1872 and subsequently published as a pamphlet, was one of the first and harshest criticisms of the Romances. Although quoted in every history of Marathi literature, the original is hard to come by and I have not seen it.

26 Keśav Baḷavant Keḷkar, Bodhasudhā, Bombay, 1871.

27 Rahāḷkar, Mahādev Vyankateś, Nārāyaṇrāv āṇi Godāvarī, duhkha-parināmī kalpit kādambarī, Poona, 1879, intr. p. 2Google Scholar. The echo of Marāṭhe's words is probably not coincidental.

28 Rāmcandra Bhikāji Gunjīkar, Mocangaḍ, Bombay, 1871, p. 2.

29 In Vividha-jñāna-vistāra, a monthly started in Bombay in 1867, only four years earlier.

30 Mocangaḍ, p. 46.Google Scholar

31 Bāpaṭ, Nageś Vināyak, Sambhājī, Bombay, 1884.Google Scholar

32 Paṭvardhan, Viṣṇu Janārdan, Hambīrrāv āṇi Putaḷābāī, Bombay, 1875.Google Scholar

33 Raṇdive, Dvārkānāth Nārāyaṇ, Śikṣak, Bombay, 1883Google Scholar. (Part 1 only published.)