Girls for Sale: Kanyasulkam, a Play from Colonial India

First staged in 1892, the South Indian play Girls for Sale (Kanyasulkam)
is considered the greatest modern work of Telugu literature and the first major
drama written in an Indian language that critiqued British colonialism's effects on
Indian society. Filled with humor, biting social commentary, parody, and masquerade,
the plot revolves around a clever courtesan, a young widow, and a very old man who
wants to buy as his wife a very young girl. Velcheru Narayana Rao has prepared the
first idiomatic English translation, with notes and a critical essay. Itself a
masterpiece of Indian literature in translation, this edition makes Apparao's work
available to new audiences.