Question

Explain me in simple language about the NOVELS CAME TO INDIA

Answer 1

-Writing stories wasn't a new thing for Indians. There had been many stories like Kadambari, The Jatakas, The Panchatantras or The Dastans. But they were not written in the "Novel" format which was introduced by the Western authors.

Why did Indian writers start to write Novels in the 19th century?
-The colonists thought the contemporary culture of India as primitive and inferior.
-Indian novelists wrote to produce a modern form of literature and a sense of a national belonging.

Novels In South India
 First, some novelists like O.Chandu Menon tried to translate English novels into Indian languages. Well it didn't quite work out because of the following reasons:
→The translations were dreadfully boring. If you've ever translated a song lyrics in Google Translate, you know how bad stuff gets when you translate it into another language.
→People were unable to relate to the characters because of the diverse cultures.

So, bummed up by this, Chandu Menon thought "Darn it! I should write a book rather than translating those English novels!"
And then, he wrote "Indulekha" in Malayalam.
Similarly, Kandukuri Viresalingam of Andhra Pradesh gave up translating "Vicar of Wakefield" (originally written by Olver Goldsmith) and wrote a Telugu novel called "Rajasekhara Caritamu".

Novels in Hindi
There was this guy in North India, Bhartendu Harishchandra a.k.a. Pioneer o Modern Hindi Literature. Cool title, right? Well, he earned it. He encouraged many writers and poets to translate and recreate literary works of other languages. 

Then came Srinivas Das a.k.a. The first proper modern novelist. He wrote Pariksha Guru. It was a book which taught the youth how to adapt the modern culture while still preserving their traditional roots. Deep. But the people didn't like the novel much because it was too moralising, like your older sibling.

Then came Devaki Nandan Khatri with his Chandrakanta. I heard they got a show about it. So, Chandrakanta was a fantasy novel with a romantic and adventurous story; sort of like J.K. Rowling decided to write a book with John Green. 
Chandrakanta and her magical world were really popular among the people.

Another Hindi writer was Munshi Premchand. Premchand was well-versed in Urdu and Hindi. He wrote in a storytelling format called Kissa-goi, which kinda sounds like your grandpa narrating you a story.
Unlike the moralising "Pariksha Guru" and the mystical "Chandrakanta", Premchand's stories were about the dilemmas of the society; problems like child marriage, casteism, racism, poverty et cetera. One of his best works is Sevasadan, a novel about the plight of the women.

Novels in Bengal
Most 19th Century Bengali novels could be divided into two categories: 
→Novels set in past and based on historical characters, events and tales.
→Novels about domestic life and family ties and relationships.

Like what most rich people do, the Bengali elites patronised literature and arts. They organised various activities like kabilarai (literally, "poets fight" ), plays, musicals etc. But reading entered the more private world of the Bengalis, their homes.

One of the reformers of Bengali literature was Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay who introduced a lot of stuff to Bengali literature; Bankim to Bengali was what Shakespeare was to English. He used to host Jatras (Bengali and Odia musicals) at his house, discuss literary works with his group of "literary" friends and judge work. More importantly, he wrote one of the best Bengali works, Durgeshnandini.
This guy is responsible for introducing prose and vernacular (also Sankritised) style to writing.

While Bankim's style was all ornate and stuff, there was another Chattopadhyay, Sarat Chandra Chattopadhya who wrote in a language which the simpletons like you and me could understand.