- Ratan Nath Dhar Sarshar
Ratan Nath Dhar Sarshar (1846 -1903) considered the first novelists of
India inUrdu and editor of theLucknow newspaper "Avadh Akhbar".His serialized novel "Fasana-e Azad" (The Tale of Azad), which appeared between 1878 and 1885 as a serialized supplement in his paper, was influenced by novels like
The Pickwick Papers andDon Quixote , as well as the great epic romances (dastan) of Persian and Urdu. It followed the adventures of the hero through the streets ofLucknow to the battlefields of the Turko-Russian War.He died in Hyderabad under mysterious circumstances.
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00fwp/published/txt_sarshar.html
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