Historical Traces in the Novel Marthandavarma

C.V. Ramanpillai’s Marthandavarmanaval is the first historical novel in the history of Malayalam literature. This novel deals with the political situation in the 18th century Trivandrum, the issues of succession to the throne, the conspiracy of the eight children,the desire of the brothers to rule, and the history of Padmanabhaswamy. Historical places like these are being brought back to life in literary form. This article explores those historical traces and explains how they are reflected in the novel.