It was the 18th day of the Tamil month of Aadi…
- And so begins Kalki's historic magnum opus - Ponniyin Selvan. This isn’t a review, one dare not do that. Consider this a fanboy raving moment, one who’s joined the party late by 70 odd years.
From the opening scene set in the month of Aadi, celebrated as Aadi Perukku, where the handsome young warrior, Vandhiya Thevan appears riding a horse on the banks of the Veeranarayana lake, to an eerie sign cast by the appearance of a comet in the sky, which sets a sequence of events in motion that rattle the mighty Chozha empire, the reader is taken back in time to glimpse the rich and fertile Tamil history and culture of the tenth century.
Imagine a scene of the Kuravai Koothu folk dance; or Manimekalai weaving some heart-rending melodies on the Yazh; or the scene of travelers walking down the Thanjavur Highway during a heavy downpour and scurrying to take shelter in a mandapam on the side of the highway; or the beautiful maiden, Poonkuzhali rowing a catamaran off the coast of Kodikkarai at sunset, while gracefully singing her haunting song -
When the sea is still and so is the wave
Why should the inner sea rant and rave?
When the earth-maid is asleep
Why should the heart be restless and weep?
And then, the rich beautiful names -
Vallavaryan Vandhiya Thevan (my favorite character), the winsome trustworthy but playful warrior from the Vaana clan, who gets into all kinds of unforeseen adventures and troubles
Azhwarkkadian Nambi, the ever crafty Vaishnavite, whose espionage work can put James Bond to shame
Adithya Karikalan, the crown prince, the rash but still one of the greatest of the Chozha warriors
Arumozhi Varman, a.k.a, Ponniyin Selvan, who goes on to become the great Raja Raja Chozhan
Kunthavai, the beautiful and intelligent princess, a keen political strategist and a kingmaker
Chendan Amudhan, a humble soul, who goes on to become Uthama Chozhan
Poonkuzhali, the free-spirited fearless boatwoman
Pazhuvettaraiyar, the aged giant of a warrior
Manimekalai, the tragic love stricken Kadambur princess
Ofcourse, to do justice to this masterpiece, one has to read the original script in Tamil; it would take me atleast two years to plough through all the five volumes in Tamil. I am grateful to the many translators who have done the hard work of translating this into English, and made it accessible to folks world over like myself. As a consolation, I have been listening to the Tamil audio book version of this.
And now off to reading the rest of Kalki's major works…