I saw that there was a signigicant discussion of who actually was the hero Vandhiyadevan or arulmozhi....It was very interesting to see all your veiws about kalki trying to sideline VD and his personality and popularity making him immortal...lets face it If he has made a charecter being analysed after so many decades of his creation is the author's victory....
But the fact of the matter is most historic novels use charectors in the sideline as major players because you can use them with a bit of Creator's imagination and liberty as opposed to certified figures of history..
Eg Paranchothi in Sivagamiyin sabatham though the main charector is Narasimha pallava.
Parthiban Kanavu...Parthiban though the main Hero is Mahindra varma Palava
Vanthiyadevan in PS
Ilango in Vengaiin mainthan(Akilan)..though the main charector is Rajendra Chola and his victories
Ilayapallavan in KadalPura (Sandilyan)...which was set in the later period of cholas During the Kalingathu parani era featuring Abaya Kulothunga
Ilanchelian in Yavanarani.(Sandilyan)set during the ascension of Karikalan of sangam period
It just enables the authors to mix facts with fiction and give us a blend.For Historic novel buff Kadakpura and Yavanarani are a must read...
though kalki does use a bit of imagination in SS on the role of paranjyothi - i think they all pertain to the early part of his character ( till he and Mahendra Pallavar gang up and ambush pulikesi's men in the hill/canyon)....6 months pass and kalki immdly portrays Paranjyothiyar as a mature battle hardeded veteran and right hand of mahendra pallavar. below is an account of his heroics and later life as a saint .....
Burnt the lust, which could burn all the discipline, with the beautiful eye between the brows - that Lord's graceful abode is thiruchcheN^kAttaN^kudi . In that town came the man of unimaginable great deeds paranychOdhiyAr . He learnt AyurvEdam, saMskR^itam and the usage of arms in a flawless way. With a matured knowledge he came to the conclusion that crown all the arts is crawling snake ornated God's feet and nurtured steadily the growing love for that comforting feet. Serving the devotees of the Deedless, he undertook the position of the head of the king's army. He won the battle of vAdhApi exhibiting his splendid valiance, brilliance and knowledge. When the king was wondering about his magnificent performance the ministers told him as paranychOdhiyAr was the servant of the Three- eyed Lord there was nobody to defeat him. Hearing that he was a devotee the judicious king was afraid that he had sent a devotee to the killing battlefield. He gave him a lots of gifts and properties and requested him to serve the Lord dedicating his time for that. paranychOdhiyAr returned to his town and spent the all time in serving the sha.nkara at the gaNapathIchcharam temple of the town. He got married to the girl veNkAttu n^aN^gai who stood for the principles of the devotee.
For the devotees of the God ornated by feather, flowers and flowing river, the devotee of thriuchcheN^kAttaN^kudi everyday used to host feast and then only eat. This he followed as a ritual without failure and his hospitality was known in all the directions. He being so humble in the presence of the limitlessly famed devotees he was known as chiRuth thoNdar (small servant). While his service was continuing blissfully praying the unmeasurable feet of the Lord the couple got a child. They named him chIrALa dhEvar . To celebrate the birth of the child who arrived like the fruit of the austerities the devotee made it a grand festival for the entire town. He donated liberally to the devotees and made all the rituals with the sound of vEdas reverberating the sky. The kid was brought up with utmost care of the parents. When he was three years old they sent him to the school to learn the worth learning arts. That time the Sun that rose to drive away the illusions and enlighten the world in shaivam - the prodigy thirunyAnachampan^dhar (1) came there. Holding his soft feet on his head and heart the devotee saluted him. The saint stayed in his place for some days and he praised the honest and whole-hearted service of chiRuththoNdar in the hymn he sang there.
The Lord who is independent of external enjoyment wanted to demonstrate that the great are capable of doing deeds which are terrific even to think of for others. In place of lightning like matted hair He took dark cloud like matted hair, in place of the young growing crescent - a crescent shaped stripes of Holy ash, in place of snake ear-ring - a floral ring, in place of the ornament of skulls - a shining string of white stones, in place of the fierce elephant skin cladding - cladded in clothe, obscuring the black throat, with unlimited grace in the eyes, smile in the lips, beauty throughout the body, holding up the spear, the kazal worn in the legs inviting everybody to salute that form of Mercy, the Supreme came in the form of a bhairAgi. The God who feeds the entire world, acting as if He was terribly hungry came to the devotees house enquiring where it is. Only his wife was there in the house. The Lord in the form of bhairAgi asked was there the servant of Lord in the house who everyday gives food for the devotees. Realizing a sage had come the chaste thiruveNkAttun^aN^gaiyAr came out and said saluting him that her husband had gone out and invited Him to come inside the house. The bhairAgi replied He would not come inside the house where a woman is alone. Immediately the humble lady went to the other extreme of the house and told Him that as her husband did not find any devotee that day to host he had gone searching for one and would be really happy if he knew that a devotee had come on his own. She asked Him to sit inside the house. The Lord appreciated her that they followed in the right way the discipline of family life, but still He would not enter the house without the devotee present and would be waiting for him under a tree near the temple.
To the sincere servant who came back sad unable to find any devotee, his matched wife told that a devotee from the north in the form of bhairAgi came there and was waiting near the temple tree for him. With growing eagerness he went to the bhairAgi and saluted to be asked by Him "Are you the great small servant ?". The great even though they consider themselves small would be acknowledged as great only by the Truth ! The humble servant replied that he was not praisable in the group of devotees but out of mercy the devotees call him so. He told it was the effect of all the good deeds he would have done, for Him to come to his house. The sage who claimed to come from the north said the food He wanted was very difficult to prepare. He wanted a life to be cooked that too a human in the age not exceeding five, having no physical impairments, should be the only child for the family and the child s parents should cook it happily ! The devotee with uncomparable dedication said there is nothing in the world that is impossible to achieve for the devotees. Saluting Him he came back home.
The devotee told his wife the type of food the sage asked for. They decided to cook their loving young son for the devotee to have food. Father went and brought the child from the school. He bathed him, cleaned his body completely. With the mother holding the child s hands and legs, the child enjoying their great deed, father cut his head and did the unimaginable deed. The couple of synchronized thoughts were not sad but were happy about
Hi Kalki had the habit of pulling in real charecters who lived in the time of his storyline.
in ss paranjothi, thirunavukarasar, the chola princess who later becomes the pandya queen, the pandyan nedumaran( pallavan's brother in law), his friend the pandya minister are all naynmars
to Mr. Vijayakumar I read yr mail about paranjyothi. He cannot be a hero in anyway. He s a good warrior . no doubt in that. but he is not continuing his carreer as such. If u read "parthiban kanavu" which goes as a continuationn of SS we could realise this well. Great mamalla chakravarthi does his charecter as a hero even after becoming the father a young girl and guy namely kumdavai and magendran. kalki poses all the heroic images on him the great narasimma pallava only. Due to their "perunthanmai " mamalla and mahendra pallava are admiring paranjyothi Ofcourse v cannot his courageous works to the kingdom as a thalapathi. But always he s a thalapathi only and he cant be a king .
please bear in mind that most of Kalki's works were weekly issues - meaning kalki developed the plot along the way. ( this is seen from the way the reader's attn is kept through each episode), its kalki's style to introduce his main characters along the way - while the initial focus is on another character - for eg, Vandiyathevan in PS (there could be healthy disc on who is the actual hero but as per tile ps is Arulmozhi), similarly in SS, the initial lime light is stolen by Paranjyothi. Further kalki wrote parthiban kanavu before ss ( even though technically pk is a sequel to ss) - further of the three ss, ps and pk - pk has the least historical backing/support - of the few real characters in pk - siruthondar is real, not much kalki could do with that character once it took on thuravam. whereas is ss, kalki had the liberty to build around his early militiary exploits in more depth. so in that sense for atleast a considerable portion of ss, parajyothi is the hero.
sorry Mr. vj i cant agree with yr statements. Ok thats yr opinion. But according to me and for most of the readers Narasimma pallavar in SS and Vandhiyathevan for PS are the heroes. Even kalki tells in two or three places of PS ,VT as "namadhu kadhanayagan vandhiyathecan" and that is the fact and he depicts Arul moli as just the name giver of the novel PS.--- In [email protected], "Vijay
That the beauty with kalki's works, we can argue for ever ( there is never a need to agree in an argument of this kind...)
for argument sake - first we need to define who a hero is - hero in fiction, hero's in flims ( ok we need to sub group - english film hero ,cartoon film hero, tamil film hero, telugu film hero, malayalam film hero, bengali film hero.....) and then there are double act ( dual role), thankfully dasavartharam is not released yet.
If you ask me in SS, there are many heros - Naganandhi adigal - he moves right through the book, even though you would call him the villan - but infact the villan is pulikesi. whereas adigal is represented as a person of great capacity - who gives up his throne for his brother, then gives up his invincible cloak - his venomous indistructible body ( a la karanan)to be with his lady love, finally ditches his own brother for his lady - he sacrifices everything he has in his life for sivagami.
mahendra pallavar - a connossieur of art, a thoughful king - careful planner and who looks at the welfare of his people even before the likes of his dearest son...
infact in the first half of ss, narasimha pallavar doesnt do much except for some romantice interludes with sivagami. Its paranjyothi and mahendrar who move the plot.
i just compared this ( style) to introducing Arulmozhi later into the story ( atleast in person)...
ok ok..............let me come to an end. I didnt analysed all these. I thought of only about our tamil film heroes with the qualifications of our tamil culture like "Kadal , Veeram and so on.........." in that aspect i imagine Narasimma varmar and VT.
hi if you have seen the movie kalangarai vilakkam ( mgr and saroja devi in "pon ezhil poothathu puthu vaanil" song) or parthiban kanavu( gemini and vyjyanthimala) and then read kalki's books you tend to imagine the charecters the same way if its the other way about you hate the movies.
hi i really enjoy those movies. I think those people suit those charecters well. MGR and sarojadevi as well as jemini and vijayanthi. Especially vijayanthi suits well for the charecter of kundavai with that "gambeeram and beauti" . I like MGR for the role of narasimma with since he was romantic and strengthy hero. And even i imagine our VT only through him. But i cant imagine the heroines of our PS. Do u have any choice with regards dzam