Dear Sherlockians,
 
Once upon a time I read this story about a man who was walking along a road
when he espied a group of the king's soldiers running towards him, obviously
looking for something. The man asked them if they were looking for a horse. They
answered in the affirmative. The man then went on to describe the horse, its
color, its fetlock, its hooves...everything to show that he had actually seen
the horse. But when the soldiers asked him hopefully where he had seen the royal
horse, he shook his head and said that he had not, but that it should have gone
in that direction and he pointed a finger. The soldiers who initially thought
that he was pulling their legs grew angry until the man explained. So lucid was
his explanation that...well, you know.
 
Now I don't remember where I read this or when it was dated, but I seem to
remember thinking this guy must have been Sherlock Holmes' ancestor or
something.
 
Can anybody recollect having read this or hearing about it?
 
 
Sridhar

--- On Sun, 6/29/08, pinaki roy <monkaroy@...> wrote:

From: pinaki roy <monkaroy@...>
Subject: [sherlock holmes society of india] Which is the First Detective Story?
To: sherlockholmessocietyofindia@...
Date: Sunday, June 29, 2008, 9:17 PM

Dear Sherlockians,
 
Please allow me to ask a question related indirectly to the Sherlock Holmes
canon. Which, according to the esteemed Sherlockians of our Society, is the
first detective fiction – I mean, may be in the most primitive form? There
can be little doubt that Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue
Morgue” (1841) is the first modern detective fiction and Arthur Conan
Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes adventures the best. However, literary historians
have pointed out that elements of tales of detection can be found as early as
in Voltaire’s “Zadig” (1748) and Maurits Hansen’s “The Murder of the
Engine-Maker Rolfsen”(1839). It appears that the instance of the Theban
king’s trying to unravel the mastery of his own birth in Sophocles’s
“Oedipus Rex” and the biblical story of Susanna and the Elders may be
considered early detective stories. Indian detective writings appear to predate
even these. “The Story of Rohit and Sunoshep” occurs in
the Vedic prose-collection “Yitreyo Brahmana” (c. 800 B.C.). The parable
of Sarama the Bitch also dates to the Vedic age. "The Mahabharata" is
replete with tales of detection. Sukumar Sen’s “Crime Kahinir Kaalkranti”
(“The Chronology of Crime Stories”) (Kolkata: Ananda Publishers, 1988)
(ISBN 81-7066-147-1) appears to be a very good publication which traces the
gradual growth of detective stories.
 
I shall request the Sherlockians to post their valuable opinion regarding the
earliest detective stories.  
 
Yours faithfully,
 
(Pinaki Roy)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
From:
 
Pinaki Roy, Ph.D.
Lecturer in English,
Malda College,
Rabindra Sarani, Rathbari More,
Post Office + District: Malda – 732 101        




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