According to me the love Manimekalai showers on VD is the greatest. She even goes to the extent of declaring she killed Aditha Karikalan to save VD. There's no selfishness in it. Nothing else is comparable to this. Manimekalai is a great character in PS, and whenever I come to the last chapter of the magnum opus and read it I become emotional. It's the greatness of Kalki's writing and charcterisation. Similar is the case when Mamalla pallavar sees Sivakami dance at the end of Sivkamiyin Sabadam and sheds tears, remembering their times together and their unfilled love. Another great ending by Kalki, the master story teller.
vd - kunthavai,s love becomes touching when she meets him in jail and gives her hand to him. but the most touching and tearful part is the definitely the last one "malar uthirnthathu". manimekalai's selfless love is admired "the most". premi TN
Hi other than ponniyin selvan there were other touching lovestories in kalki's portfolio.
naganandhi and sivakaami.
if you see the storyline of SS narasimhan sacrifices his lvoe for sivakami to save his nation( and marries another) naganadhi on the other hand sacrifices his nation( knowing about the pallava invasion and not telling his brother and king) for the love of sivakami. we have been led by hand to think naganadhi is bad and mamallan good. but are these two loves comparable? venketesh
> > naganandhi and sivakaami. > > if you see the storyline of SS narasimhan sacrifices his lvoe for > sivakami to save his nation( and marries another) > naganadhi on the other hand sacrifices his nation( knowing about the > pallava invasion and not telling his brother and king) for the
Hello friends, I thank venkatesh sir and Vijayakumar sir for boosting me on my first post.Thanks for sridhar sir to greet the newcomers and renewing the topic as we are unfortunate to participate in the old discussion. Of course it is impossible to estimate love.but it is the situations and the acting of the concerned persons, gives evidence to others to comment on their love.but analyzing is the must before commenting.isn't it? As i viewed this collection given by sridhar sir, i travel in some of the paths of srividhya mam.yes.Kundavai is not like all the other princess who are brought up with silver spoon and spend their time in dance,music,temples and other luxurious activities.she is involving herself in the "arasiyal soodharangam".so in that game she cannot expose her feelings openly and certainly must not do so.not only she exposed her feelings but also she controlled her feelings. "ilaiyapiraati mattum pennai pirakkaamal aanaai piranthirunthal intha ulagam muzhuvathaiyum arasaandiruppaal"lines of aniruthar proves her ability.when vanthiyathevan was in sirai after the clash with pinaagabaani before tha pazhaiyaarai palace she didnt rushed.instead intelligently she argued with aniruthar and got release agreement with a work for vd that he should stop aditha karikaalar from going to kadambur.
In this she succeeded in her love also (remember she reveals her love int his par and released him).at the same time no one can comment over her that for her love alone she went jail and released vd.if any comment rises there is enough answer for that.she acts so wisely.oru poruppaana ilavarasi ikkattaana samayangalil than unarchihalai parakka vitaal athu arivudaimaiyaagumaa?apadi porumaiyaai irupathai selfishness nu solla mudiyumaa?after adithan's padukolai she was sad for that "blood is thicker than water".yet she controlled her feelings for the welfare of the country.(she started to think over the riots that are going to break)
Also kundavai tells in fifth part to amv that she is so kind to him because his horoscopes tell that he will rise tha status of chozha empire.suppose if it is not so,she would not have hated avm.rather she might have changed her directions this shows her patriotism. also she tries to marry amv to vanathi because of her horoscope's sayings that her son will be a chakravarthi.intha horoscope veru oru ilavarasikku irunthirunthaal avalaithaan thambikku thirumanam seivithirupaal even if vanathi had loved amv.
She is a leader.not a dictator. under each situation the reason for her stoneliness is "chozhanaatin menmai" only.one cannot tell this as selfishness.remember gandhi's quote "oru kudumbathin menmaikaaga oru nabarai izhakkalaam,oru gramathin menmaikaaga oru oorai thiyaagam seyyalaam....................."athu pola thaan she controlled the feelings of herself,arulmozhi(remember while proposing her love kundavai remarks about amvl "avan ulahamaala piranthavan athanaal avan nenchukkum thaazhida virumbinen"),adithan by preventing him by meeting nandini,etc. Raja kudumbathinar sugabohamaaga vaazhvathillai.thangal manam pol nadakka avarhalukku vazhiyillai.avarhaludaiya ovoru asaivum naatin thalaivithi.if their son or the king dies in war the queen should not cry.then only she is veerapathini(think of parthiban 's kootru to arulmozhirani) in yavana raani by chaandilyan irumbidarthalaiyar speaks to karikaalchozhan((thirumaavalavan) under a situation ,"naadaala piranthvanukku unarchihal kattil irukka vendum,karikaala"(sorry i searched for the link but not available) Ithai nandraaga purinthu kondu kundavai seyalpattaal.oru raja kudumbam unarchihalai adakki irupathaalthaan naatu makkal nimmathiyaaga irukka mudihirathu.aanaal athu veliyil paarkum pothu athu suyanalamaaga aha theriyum. Suppose if kundavai loves and goes with vanthi without caring anything.what might have happened?unimaginable.not only kundavai,but narasimhar (SS),and somany kings and ilavarasis their hearts might be tied with strong and heavy belt. may be unknown to us.avanga apdi irunthathaal thaan naam ippadi irukka mudihirathu. At this point i want to quote billgates sayings, "Behind the success of every person,there is an untold pain in the heart"(some of the words may be wrong but the concept is this)
And sridhar sir,i want to tell the greatness of kundavai's love towards vanthi from your words.you told that she cried only in very few circumstances.among that circumstances the scene where she proposes her love to vanthi is also one. "vanthiyathevan sollizhanthu seyalizhanthu KUNDAVAIYIN KANNEER THATHUMBIYA KANGALAI paartha vannam madhiyum izhanthu nindraan" are the last lines of muppathaam athiyaayam (IRU SIRAIHAL)in third paagam.words................................
Prachanaihal ,ulnaatu sadhi,vetru mannarin aabathuthavihal pondra tharkaala prachanihal,chozha naatin pirkaala menmai ,lover is in jail without doing any wrong and her inability to meet him,,brother who is going to be the future king is in overseas,in this kind of situation haste makes waste.atlast firmly stepping beyond all the obstacles she married vallavaraiyan vanthiyathevan.
also to analyse mangayarkarasi- nedumaran kathal ranjani- nilakesi kathal
mangayarkarasi the chola princess falls in love with a stranger who takes shelter in her palace for a heavy rain fall. years later she sees him in the pallava court and thinks he is a commoner. when she realises he is the pandya king she makes a U turn and refuse to marry him because he is a jain. the master story teller kalki would not ignore sucha lovestory which must have happened in reality too. this one love marriage changed the history of tamilnadu converting one of the larger empires into hinduism.
ranjani is a very beautiful girl who loves nilakesi aka naganadhi. but then she makes some comment about sivakami and naganandhi destroys her beauty making her a kaapaalikai.inspite of that she loves him almost to the end. sees the dead body of pulikesi in the field and thinking its naga nandhi takes the corpse to her cave to mourn. very touching scene.
Thanks respected members...Sivapathasekaran, Sridhar Rathinam, Singanallur ramaswamy, Premi Baby, R Venkatesh, Vijaykumar, menatchisundari... for your replies.
I am sure this question must have been discussed a lot. However, as far as my experience with reading PS goes, every time I read it, more and more newer points emerge and everytime I think about the characters, newer minor nuances come out and enthrall. So, we will be rekindling & refreshing our thoughts over these kinds of questions.
So, as many pointed out I also give my opinion about the loves. one by one... mudhalil nam kadhaiyin nayagan & nayagi...
KUNDAVAI's love on VV
She is a matured woman with wisdom, patience, foresight, courage... God... whatelse, she is a King-maker. She knows about the aftermath of unacceptable (thagudhi / porutham illa) loves (meaning Sundara Chola with Mandhagini devi etc) and so, she was quite conscious about her as well as her brothers' lives.
> > So, as many pointed out I also give my opinion about the loves. one by > one... mudhalil nam kadhaiyin nayagan & nayagi... > > KUNDAVAI's love on VV > > that was quite a long one in english tamil, but enjoyed it. keep them coming.
btw how sure are you that VD& Kundavai are the nayagan & nayagi.....the book is titled ponniyin selvan...so its arulmozhi who is rightful claimant to the tile of nayagan....but thats the beauty of kalki.....the depth of characterisation of each member - be it real or reel.they are given their own space - at different times, thats the beauty of PS....the mantle shifts right though...its true for the women as well..
the enjoyment is multipled when we read the old books ( hard copy nor soft copy) ..aptly caught by the masters pen and brought to life through the immortal sketches of manian as well..its easy to show diff in the man's face while sketching - a beard here, a mustache there, a mole here, a different hair style.....not easy for women though -quite often you find lady characters hard to differenitate esp while looking for historical fiction and sketches in them...but not in PS. i can close my eyes and imagine tyaga vidankar walking towards the light house, rakkamal peeping from behind a tree, nandhini acting like the ghost, ravidasan.....not that kalki's delightful work needs it but the sketches add azagukku azagu.
Thanks Vijay for your msg. Happy to hear that u enjoyed the verse...
yes u r right... "the book is titled ponniyin selvan...so its arulmozhi who is rightful claimant to the tile of nayagan...".
But shall we look at some reasons to substantiate that VV can well be the nayagan?
1. The magnum opus opens with VV at Veeranarayana lake; the story gradually unfolds and flows through his moves taking us to places where he meets different people and finally comes to an end with VV. So, VV is there at the begining & the end...
2. Kalki scripted this novel, in my opinion, to make the readers looking at the entire happenings "through his eyes". All the characters are conceived by the readers "in relation to" VV only...
3. PS is a super-human with unmatchable qualities... hence an ordinary man - the reader - CANNOT connect himself with the character which may hinder the process of getting involved with the story. So, Kalki chose VV - the boy-next-door - kinda character to help readers connect themselves better with the role and develop great interest and involvement...
Actually, there is no competition for Kundavai for the nayagi position... however, here are some...
1. She is the lover of our nayagan (idhu onre podhaadaa... nam tamil cinema vazhakkapadi.. !!!)
2. She is the one who is literally making everyone to act... the King-maker. She directs, makes everyone think and orders others to act according to what she says... incl. the most powerful characters like PS & VV...
> > 2. She is the one who is literally making everyone to act... the > King-maker. She directs, makes everyone think and orders others to act > according to what she says... incl. the most powerful characters like PS > & VV... > > Do these sound justifying ? >
hi ragav,
sorry for keeping on repeating....go through our archives and you will find how and why kalki got this idea on kundavai..clue, its the same link which gave him VD..
Nice to get ur comments... it made me think a lot about the situation of our country at that point of time, in chaos, split, differentiated... and Kalki, a patriot inside, must have realised these things, transformed his thoughts onto learnings and weaved them nicely into the story of PS.
uh... ur mail has evoked a lot of of deep thinking as to what would have inspired Kalki to write such a grand epic...
Hi kundavai was senior to arulmozhi by atleast 3- 4 years( a gap for him to respectfully obey her?) so vanathi was 6-7 years her junior. so if vanathi was 16 years kundavai was 22 and vandiyathevan 24-25. pretty old in those days to remain unmarried? venketesh
aditya was 14 at the time of the chevur battle -AD 959, he was assasinated AD 969 - so approx 24 years......same age group as Vandiyathevan!!! giving 2 years gap for kundavai she should be 22 as per your below and arulmozhi 20....
interesting to note that Sundara chola himself was crowned in AD 958. ( means he was already happily married with all three children born at the time of his cornonation....) - doesnt quite gel with PS storyline ( OOmai rani episode )...incidentally can you give us some more information on the singala nachiar kovil, it was built was RRC but is it really for the OOmai rani - was she a real character!!
i remember seeing an asterix in one of kalki's editions of ps in which he talks about singala nachiyar temple.sps should be able to tell us more. venketesh
..incidentally can you give us some > more information on the singala nachiar kovil, it was built was RRC > but is it really for the OOmai rani - was she a real character!! > >
This is what Kalki has written in PS ( highlighted by ***)
"RRC, after he became king, built a temple for the 'Eezhathu Rani' Mandakini. It was called 'Singala Nachiyar koil' and was popular for some time. Later its name got modified to 'Singachiar koil'. Even today, its remnants can be found in one part of Tanjore by visitors."
This is given in the end of the chapter30, in which Mandakini is killed.
On Kalki's points of Devan L Kunthavai ... I have been wondering for a long time... is that Kodi asainthathum kaatru vanthatha or katru vanthathum kodi asainthatha ? Was their wedlock responsible for the love or was some documented evidence of love responsible for their wedlock. If the later is true, that brings to front that the caste system was not prominent in 900 AD (something we can pride about)... VD and Puli kodi nangai were definitely two different clans.
I agree SPS, but those were different mairrages compared to our V.thevan, he was a homeless warrior. Others were alliances to combine kingdoms.
What intrigued me in this case was, V.Thevan history in real is quite curious, other than being the friend of Aditya (again to be proved) or of Raja Rajan, what did he posses that he got the hand of chinna piratiyar :)
As per Kalki's words, he himself does not harbor the thoughts due to the difference. We need to find more on the real history of the hero in standing.
Another intriguing charecter is Kulothunga III, his native parentile is not clear, yet he is the last standing powerful chola king.
So many mysteries to the game, aaditya murder sometimes looks like , just another plot.
if you want to see how political alliances functioned, kalki explains with manimekalai's life. first vanthiyathevan, then uthama, then aditya. see how sengannar sambuvaraayar and kanda maaran vacillate.
a daughter was a real pawn in political chess those days.
but then a daughter married to a king gAVE them a link witht the throne room for 3-4 decades. first son in law and then a grandson on the thron will esablish the strength of a kurunila mannar.'
The portrayal of VD is as per Kalki's imagination. No one knows whether VD was a homeless warrior or not. As far as discussed in this group, there is only one reference of VD in the inscription in Tanjai Periya koil, which clearly says VD is Kundhavai's husband. So just based on this single line Kalki has eloborated a masterpiece which no one can argue for or against.
Vallam is near Vellore North Arcot and there is every possibility that VD was a kurunila mannan in that area, wedded to the princess. We should take into consideration that Kanchi, Vellore area should have been the northern border of Chola kingdom during that time and hence to protect the border the support of the kurunila mannad in that area is necessary. Hence a political alliance is very much possible.
But, thats the greatness of Kalki, he made us feel that whatever he wrote is history and we are forced to think only in those lines even after nearly 55 years.