The Sound of the Kiss, or The Story That Must Never Be Told

In this sixteenth-century masterpiece of Telugu literature, from the region now known as Andhra Pradesh, Suranna recounts the story of a young courtesan who falls in love with the most handsome man in the universe and overhears him speaking of a mysterious person whose story must never be told. Burning with curiosity and desire, she ventures to the god Krishna's palace, where much intrigue and adventure ensue. The Sound of the Kiss is considered by some to be the first novel written in South Asia, and the translation of this classic fills a gap in the literature of the East.

Composed in the mid-sixteenth century, The Sound of the Kiss, or The Story That Must Never Be Told, could be considered the first novel written in South Asia. Telugu, the language spoken in today's Andhra Pradesh region of southern India, has a classical literary tradition extending over a thousand years. Suranna's masterpiece comes from a period of intense creativity in Telugu, when great poets produced strikingly modern innovations. The novel explodes preconceived ideas about early South Indian literature: for example, that the characters lack interiority, that the language is formulaic, and that Telugu texts are mere translations of earlier Sanskrit works. Employing the poetic style known as campu, which mixes verse and prose, Pingali Suranna's work transcends our notions of traditional narrative. "I wanted to have the structure of a complex narrative no one had ever known," he said of his great novel, "with rich evocations of erotic love, and also descriptions of gods and temples that would be a joy to listen to."

The Sound of the Kiss is both a gripping love story and a profound meditation on mind and language. Shulman and Rao include a thorough introduction that provides a broader understanding of, and appreciation for, the complexities and subtleties of this text.

Pingali Suranna wrote during the Vijayanagara period, the heyday of classical Telugu poetry.

Velcheru Narayana Rao is Krishnadevaraya Professor of Languages and Cultures of Asia at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the author of pathbreaking works on the history of Telugu and Sanskrit literature and poetics.

David Shulman is professor of Indian studies and comparative religion at Hebrew University in Jerusalem and one of the preeminent scholars of South Asian literature.