There are multiple versions of translations of this book available. It is also a story of love, friendship, sacrifice, and revenge. The author Kalki Krishnamurthy tells the story of the Chola dynasty and the quest for power among the people living during that period. I request you to please read the flowchart illustrated by Mani Gunasekaran given above before starting the book, as there are hundreds of characters in this book, and their names will be initially difficult for international readers who are unfamiliar with the Tamil names and culture. This novel is written in a format that will attract many scholars and readers from around the world. As legendary director Mani Ratnam is making the silver-screen version of it, I finally decided to read this work of literature, considered the greatest novel ever written in Tamil literature. I must confess that I have thought about reading this book multiple times in various phases of my life but was intimidated by its sheer size. This book contains five volumes with 2,210 pages.
The author took around five years to finish this work. Ponniyin Selvan is one such important work of fiction. Very rarely do we come across a magnum opus spread across five volumes with hundreds of characters that gather our attention. Kalki had also the genius to classify the historical and non-historical events, historical and non-historical characters and how much the novel owes to history. Sixty years ago, at a time when the literacy level was low and when the English-educated Tamils looked down on writings in Tamil, Kalki’s circulation touched 71,000 copies – the largest for any weekly in the county then – when it serialised his historical novels.
The success that Krishnamurthy attained in the realm of historical fiction is phenomenal. Ki’, ‘Tamil Theni’, ‘Karnatakam’ and so on. He wrote under the pen names of ‘Kalki’, ‘Ra. Krishnamurthy’s witty, incisive comments on politics, literature, music and other forms of art were looked forward to with unceasing interest by readers. His writings includes over 120 short stories, 10 novelettes, 5 novels, 3 historical romances, editorial and political writings and hundreds of film and music reviews.
His name also represents “Kalki avatar”, the tenth and last avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu. He derived his pen name from the suffixes of his wife name Kalyani and his name Krishnamurthy in Tamil form கல்யாணி and கிருஷ்ணமூர்த்தி as Kalki (கல்கி). Tamil language Novel Writer, Journalist, Poet & Critic late Ramaswamy Aiyer Krishnamurthy also known as ‘Kalki’.
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