Tamil has a literary heritage and a rich poetic literature dating back to the Sangam era (1st century BCE). Tamil prose, however, is of recent origin and the novel was unheard of till the late 19th century. The first short story in Tamil, “Kulathangarai Arasamaram”, by the freedom fighter Va. Ve. Su. Iyer came out in the early 20th century; the first novel Prathapa Mudaliar Charithram was written in the late 19th century. Since then there has been a giant leap in Tamil prose writing