Literature
Amazing facts from the Limca Book of Records

Oldest recorded language:
Indo-Aryan language Sanskrit is perhaps the oldest recorded language of the world and Rig Veda, the first Sanskrit work. Vedic Sanskrit prevalent during 2000-500 BC, was transformed into classical Sanskrit during 500 BC- 1000 AD and later into modern Sanskrit.

Longest epic:
Mahabharata with over
1,00,000 slokas is the world's longest epic.

Oldest living language:
Tamil, considered the only purely Dravidian language, traces its history prior to Tolkappiyam, the earliest extant manuscript of Tamil grammar dated 500 BC.

Oldest surviving book:
The oldest surviving book is the Tamil work, Christiya Vanakkam, a revised edition of the original Doctrine Christa, which was printed in 1578.

Most translated work:
Bhagavad Gita, an integral part of Mahabharata, was first translated into English in 1785 by Charles Wilkinson. It has been translated into 55 languages.

Earliest English work:
Cavelly Venkata Boriah's account of the Jains is the first extant evidence of Indian writing in English.

Earliest anthology:
Therigatha (songs of the nuns), compiled in 522 stanzas, was written in the sixth century by the Buddhist theris or senior nuns in praise of Buddha's teachings.

Longest novel in English:
A Suitable Boy, written in 1993 by Vikram Seth was the century's longest novel in English with 1,349 pages and 5,00,000 words.

Longest novel:
Avakasikal by Vilasini (MK Menon) in Malayalam, which runs into 3,958 pages in four volumes, took 10 years to complete. Menon received the Sahitya Akademi award in 1981.

Malayalam titles on one day:
Malayalam writer Subair (HM Zubire) published 13 books on a single day on Dec 31, 2001 at Kollam, Kerala. The title included his eight novels, two collections of short stories, one on children's literature, one collection of cine lyrics and a study of women characters in his novels by TV Gopalakrishnan.

While most writers have a problem getting even one book published and released, Dinkar Joshi has 11 of his published books released on the same day- Dec 12, 2004 at the Tejpal Hall, Mumbai by Ramesh Ojha, a spiritual leader.