My argument is that Veera pandiyan MAY NOT be Nandhini's father. Some members of the group opine that Serial novels (thodarkathai) suffer from some form of inconsistency and that Kalki did'nt plan to make Veera pandiyan - nandini's father and this was a later decision. Unfortunately, this is not true!
Nandhini mentions very clearly that Veera pandiyan is her lover -not only in the first part (Pudhu vellam- Nandhiniyin Kaadhalan) but even also in the fourth part!
Just before the murder of Aditya, The head of Pandiyan appears before nandhini- and she exclaims and talks in hallucination like this " Oh Dear! Have you come? Welcome!", and so on. In fact if you carefully read the novel, you'll find that whenever Nandhini talks about Veera Pandiyan she always says that he is her lover -Even at that critical moment when Pandiya is in great danger!
There is only one place where there is a contradiction - when she has her final talk with Aditya. Even here, Kalki does not provide this directly. He writes like this: Nandhini said ..."My father is ... father is..."
Later Vandhiyathevan says to Kundavi that he overheard this conversation and heard that she was mentioning the name of Veera pandiya here. Now, why the author does not provide this fact directly during Nandhini's final dialogue and provides the info at a much later stage ? I think there is a very very definite purpose to this.
Thus Kalki very deleberately presents a very consistent picture throughout the Novel that Veera pandiyan is indeed Nandhini's Lover.
The arguements that support the fact that VPandiyan is Nandhini's father come from Karuthiruman. But please remember that Karuthiruman is totally inconsistent in his story. At one point of time he says he fathered nandhini! This fellow has no interest in cholas and is very faithful to pandiyas.
There is no reason for him to reveal such a big secret to Vandhiyathevan, that too during a time pass chat! Remember that he deserts vandhiyathevan instantly! Thus all of his statments are to be rejected. In fact this fellow is more dangerous that all others and there is more to him that what meets the eye.
In the conclusion (mudivurai) he wrote for PS ( I don't know whether all of you have read the conclusion. It is very important for the novel as a whole), Kalki says: "Just before her death, Nandhini reveals her birth secret to Arulmozhi..."
If Kalki felt that the secret has already been revealed through Vandhiyathevan he need not have written these lines at all. The fact is that Kalki deliberately confused the readers - he had many more ideas about the characters themselves and possibly had an idea of continuing the story even further !
Now the questions are : WHO COULD HAVE FATHERED NANDHINI, IF NOT VEERA PANDIYAN????? And what was in Kalki's mind reg. this?