The Rebellion of an Indian Temple Dancer *

Anarkalli, die indische Bajadere (Anarkalli, the Indian Temple Dancer) — brought out in 1880 by the publishing house Enblin und Leiblin — is one of the rare literary examples, almost completely forgotten today, of a German view on the rebellion of the sepoys in India in 1857. The short novel published in the series of Reutlinger Volksbücher, is probably an unknown counterpart to Sir John Retcliffe’s bestseller Nena Sahib oder die Empörung in Indien (1858–59), the first novel ever on the Indian rebellion. ¹ Nothing further could be found out about the author of Anarkalli, a certain H(ans) Brunner. ²