THE FIRST TAMIL NOVEL
Here is a treat for you.
This is the first paper-back cheap edition to have been published in Tamil.
The book contains two novels:
1.Pirathaaba Mudhaliyaar Chariththiram
2.KamalaambaaL Chariththiram
The 1st novel is at the front.
You have to turn the book back and upside down. Then you will be opening the 2nd novel.
It was priced at Rupee 1-00 only.
The fronticepiece says 'the first novel to be written in Tamil'.
Thats what it says.
The cover has been torn and lost for more than 40 years.
I bought it as a school boy in Penang with my pocket-money.
The Malayan price was $2-00.
At that time, 1 Rupee was equivalent to $0-64(64 cents).
I stamped my initials on the book with a home-made rubber-stamp.
Actually the 'rubber-stamp' was not made of rubber. It was made of card-board. The stamping ink was also home-made. Indian Ink mixed with paraffin or something like that. I forgot what I made it with.
The book was kept stashed away in our house in Penang when I left for Medicine.
Around 1990, when I went to our house, I looked for it and took it with me.
Three years later, the house burned down and every other hundreds of books belonging to my father, my two brothers and me, went up in smoke.
One of them was 'KarNaamirdha Saagaram' by Abirahaam Pandithar of Tanjaavuur. This book is almost 100 years old. It is not available any more.
This book is but a remnant of that vast old valuable collection. But my collection of Na.Cii.Kandhiah Pillai's works has disappeared. Can't get them nowadays.
I will be writing out what the story is about in another blog.
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