ABSTRACT
Indulekha, heroine of Oyyarattu Chandumenon’s 1890 work of that title – the first novel ever to be published in Malayalam – must rank among the most formidable characters in nineteenth-century world literature. Part New Woman, part bibliophile, part amateur musician and hostess, she spends her hours in her matrilineal family’s home in Travancore on the southwest coast of India playing the piano, receiving guests and lolling on the sofa whilst perusing the works of Kalidasa in large-type Sanskrit, either by sunlight or else by the fitful beams of a spluttering kerosene lamp. Naturally the guests include suitors, one of whom, a libidinous buffoon called Nambuthiripad, is presented by the writer as a ludicrous study in comic satyriasis. Indulekha rejects him, to the dismay of her family, since he is egregiously rich. It is less her independence in this matter of marriage that concerns her relatives, however, than the apparent cause of it, for Indulekha is addicted to print. Two of her uncles are debating this interesting anomaly in the downstairs living-room, where one of them has just indicated the bookcase:
GOVINDAPANIKHA: What is the necessity of them reading all this? Can’t they read the Ramayanam or the Bhagavadan? [Manuscript ‘vulgate’ versions of the Ramayana and Bhagavad Gita in Malayalam.]
PANCHMENON: That is what I too say. There are so many books in our literature at Poovally. No one touches them. All the volumes which are aalekham [written on palm leaf] have disintegrated beyond repair. I had told Modhavan long ago to dust them and keep them clean – he has not done so yet.
