C M Ridding

The Kadambari C M Ridding

Publisher Marketing: Kadambari is a romantic novel in Sanskrit. It was substantially composed by Banabhatta in the first half of the 7th century A. D., who did not survive to see it through completion. The novel was completed by Banabhatta's son Bhushanabhatta, according to the plan laid out by his late father. It is conventionally divided into Purvabhaga (earlier part) written by Banabhatta, and Uttarabhaga (latter part) by Bhushanabhatta. (An alternate tradition gives the son's name as Pulindabhatta.) The plot of the novel has probably been adapted from the story of King Sumanas from Gunadhya's 'Brihatkatha' (a conjectural collection of stories in the extinct Paishachi language). This story also appears in Somadeva's 'Kathasaritsagara' (which is believed to be a Sanskrit precis of Gunadhya's work). This work can be plausibly claimed to be one of the first novels in the world; making due allowance for the ambiguities of such a classification. In fact, two modern Indian languages (Kannada and Marathi) use 'kadambari' as a generic term for a romance or a novel. The novel has a very intricate plot. The story proceeds through several narrators in a succession of nested frames. Several characters appear in multiple births. Kadambari (the eponymous heroine of the novel) makes her appearance only past the midpoint