Few days back, we had a review of Kalki’s epic novel Ponniyin Selvan and had the question – where does a historical novelist get his characters from?
Books on Indian history talk mostly about the North Indian dynasties and only a few lines are spent for the South Indian ones. Even in those few lines, only the famous kings are mentioned and details are just glossed over. Thus when it comes to the Cholas, you may hear about Raja Raja Choza I and Rajendra Choza, but not about Parantaka I or Parantaka II.
One of the authoritative histories of South India, Nilakanta Sastri’s A History of South India provides more detail. According to Sastri, Parantaka I ascended the throne on 907 A.D and ruled for forty-eight years. Even though there was prosperity during his time, thirty years (955 – 85) after his reign there was a period of weakness and confusion. Parantaka I was succeeded by his son Gandaraditya who with his queen Sembiyan-mahadevi played a major role in religion than in politics. By the time of the death of Gandaraditya in 957, the Choza dynasty had shrunk to the size of a small principality. Gandaraditya’s brother Arinjaya ruled only for a year and was succeeded by his son Sundara Choza Parantaka II.
His son Aditya II was made the yuvaraja and and Sundara Chozha turned his attention to the south to defeat Vira Pandya. Sundara Choza defeated him and Vira Pandya was killed by Aditya II. The last years of Sundara Chozha were clouded with tragedy and this is the story told by Kalki’s novel, Ponniyin Selvan.
According to Nilakanta Sastri, Uttama Choza conspired to murder Aditya II and compelled Sundara Chozha to recognize him as the heir apparent. He ruled till 985 A.D and after that Arulmozhi Varman, Sundara Chozha’s second son took over and started the period of Choza imperialism.
That’s all the information. So where does a novelist turn to find other characters and details of life at that time? What about Vandiyathevan or the conspirators Ravidasan and Soman, or Nandini? Did they really exist or were they created by Kalki?
Kalki’s other sources were stone inscriptions, copper plates and other books. There is a stone tablet in the great temple of Thanjavur which has the following inscription: “The revered elder sister of Raja Raja Chozhar, the consort of Vallavarayar Vandiyathevar, Azwar Paranthakar Kundavaiyar”. The book sources were K.A.Nilakanta Sastri’s The Chozas and T.V.Sadasiva Pandarathar’s Pirkala Chozhar Charitttiram. The second book has a five line reference to Vandiyathevan and from that, he became the hero of this novel. The names of the conspirators also came from a stone inscription.
Lot of information about the activities of various kings came from inscriptions like these as well as copper plates like the Anbil one. The Thiruvalangadu copper plates state, “The Choza people were very keen that after Sundara Chozan, Arulmozhi Varman should ascend the throne and rule their country. But Arulmozhi Varman respected the right of his Uncle Uttama Chozhan, the son of his father’s younger brother, Kandaradithan, to the throne and crowned him King”.
In the conclusion of the novel, Kalki frames a set of questions which the reader may have about the characters after the end of the novel and he talks about each one of them, but does not give any sources for the information.
first time here. very good effort. I will have to read all your posts first.
I have ASI publication of Chola inscriptions. If you want any information in particular, I can send you.
What’s more interesting, in my opinion, is to get an account of a layman or a middle-class in different periods of Indian history, including that of South India. As I had earlier mentioned, I have never come across any account that discusses this. Most of the history is about those in power, namely the kings and their exploits. This only gives a skewed picture of Indian history. For instance, when we say that India was a rich country, does that mean the wealth was concentrated among few individuals or uniformly distributed? What was the standard of living of an average family?? When we say India had an advanced scientific community, how much of this was evenly distributed among the societal classes? I think the answer to all this is that most of what we consider as a pan-Indian phenomena of the past were perhaps not so pan-.
premalatha, What is the name of the publication? Can I order it from ASI directly?
P@L, Most history books talk only about Kings and their conquests. A. L. Basham’s The Wonder that was India, talks a lot more about common people and their daily life.
Hi Palmleaf,
I got it from an used-books site. I thik you can order it directly, but am not sure about that though.
Good work.
Keep it up.
Cheers!!
Sathiyan S
In one scene in Ponniyin Selvan, kalki describe the performance of a play. At the end of a play, the audience exclaims “naavalo naaval” which he says was the customary cheer of the time. I wonder where he found that information?
PS: Can we please keep the sanskritization to a minimum (Gandaradhitya – Kandaraathiththa)? I know it probably wasn’t intentional, but hey
beautiful online information center. greatest work… thanks
in point of fact, the readings of the chola inscriptions and also the copper plates show the following:
1. Crown Prince Aditta Karikala was murdered.
2. Instead of Arulmozhi (Rajaraja I), who was technically the next in the line, his uncle-once-removed (Maduranthaka) Uttama Chola ascended the throne.
3. the conspirators responsible were not punished immediately.
4. Arulmozhi became the ruler after the death of Uttama Chola; and
5. He punished some of the conspirators belatedly. At least one was mentioned to be a brahmin, so he was only tonsured and his property seized.
a fairly reasonable deduction would be that Uttama Chola was involved in the murder of Aditta Karikala, hence he took no steps to punish the guilty, and Arulmozhi had to belatedly take vengeance for his brother’s murder.
Kalki, being an excellent story teller of the romantic school, polished these crude facts into literary gems, like walter scot did with the scottish history.
incidentally, i enjoyed the visit to your blog. thank you
Just finished reading the English translation of Ponniyin Selvam, First Flood. Enjoyed it very much and looking forward to reading the next volumes. Also inspired to brush up mt Tamil and read them in the original!!
All your comments were very useful especially the one posted on Feb 5th 2006.
Thank-you all.
R.