hi a small analysis of the heroines of PS and the chola throne
kunthavi born in its shadow, can never hope tio attain it because she was born a girl. but is determined to influence the person on it.
pungkuzhali never in love with a person but the occupant of the throne.
vanathi loves amv but wants to clearly differentiate it from her love of the throne and is stubborn that the world sees it.
the two most important now. manimekalai is offered the throne on the platter twice. to marry mathuranthakan or later aadityan but refuses it on the grounds of her love with vanthiyathevan.
nandini. if she asks me to kill my father and ascend the the trone with her as the queen i am afraid i will do it says the strong man of the novel aditya karikalan. we all know that to be tru. so persuasive is nandini's aura. but she does not do it. perhaps pandya freedom was more important to her than this.
Hi SPS kunthavai we give importance because rrc includes her name ahead of his wives in that big temple kalvettu. yes we havent had too many important princesses, during that period. naik period yes we have mangammal,meenakshi and later we have velu nachiyar/
however in the period you are talking about if you look religion wise
1 sembian madevi of the malavarayar clan
2 mangayrkarasi born chola married into the pandyas
both have a great influence on the way we live today. their impact reaches out over a millienium
> > Vandhiyathevan married another Princess also - apart from Kundavai - > later !) Yes, in vengaiyin mainthan elango will jokingly ask the elderly vd, eppadi thatta rendu pondatti vechu samalikireenge... But one more to sps sir, from where do we get this info that vd had two wives...appadiye irunthalum he is better off than his brother in lw
> > Mangayarkarasi - are you talking of Thirunarukkarasu (@ Appar)'s > sister - who was related to Mangoe fruits episode ? >
Hi SPS
mango fruit episodes was karaikal ammaiyar appar's sister was thilakavathi
mangayarkarasi the chola princess comes as a charecter in sivakamiyin sabatham- one who refuses to marry the jain nedumaran( narasimha's brother in law) in fact she only tells nedumaran that danger is awaiting him from his sister.
kalki the master story teller puts in a sequence where she dreams of sambandar even before he is born.
mangayarkarasi- one of the 63 nayanmars mangayar karasi one of the few ladies mentioned in devaram mangayarkarasi who was instrumental in getting sambandar to madurai and caused a hindu revival in tamil nadu.
for people who quoted vananthi- amv romance( with vanathi not knowing the real identity of the man she fell for) i would like to mention, the seeds of that brilliant romance was sowed by kalki in sivakamiyin sabatham itself.
two youngsters to take shelter from the rain, come to a dilapitated palace of the minor cholas. thats where the chola princess mangayarkarasi meets nedumaran first. though they say they are not royal, her father suspects.
much later she meets him in the kanchi palace garden. nedumaran still conceals the fact of his royalty from mangayarkarasi and a nice romance blossms aptly in the flower garden.
its only later that she learns of his identity but refuses to marry him because he is a jain. finally she does when he promises her freedom to practise whatever religion she wants to.
nedumaran at that point doesnt know he will one day become a shaivaite saint whose statue will adorn every shiva temple. funny are the quirks of fate.
Coming from a very consevative family and into an arranged marriage ( i hv read through your bio of kalki)....how did kalki manage such wonderful romantic escapades - i especially like the vel marks left behind by pallavar - sort of like now a days missed call..
and why so much into broken love .... unfullfilled love on both sides - in ss ofcourse but even in PK the aged mamallar pins for his lost love....
hi vijay; nice of you to notice that Kalki's romantic escapades were wonderful. I was also fascinated by Poonguzhali-Arulmozhi chapters in PS. Probably because he couldn't indulge in any of these himself he simply poured his heart out into the characters. One of those loves is probably his own love-story!!!
BTW if you have read any of Mr.Venketesh's books you would notice the above in his books too.Infact sometimes even more than Kalki himself! Ithukku yenna kaaranama irukkum? Naan yethayum yugikka virumbala.Yetho ketkanam'nu thonichi....avalavuthaan...:) :):):):):) Narayana...Narayana!!
Probably because he > couldn't indulge in any of these himself he simply poured his heart out into > the characters. One of those loves is probably his own love-story!!!
Hi Rahul
we can analyse my books and the possible impacts of the romantic scenes later. lets do it for kalki first.
I simply detest the notion that the written word is a manifestation of the author's experiences. if it was only so, than how could kalki have written so much about the royals when he had no chance of even leading a middle class life.i think due credit is not given to the author's creativity if we assume he was just writing about his experiences juxtaposed on a different scenario.
and kalki's personal romances i could find no evidence.
his first aranged marriage was stopped after an engagement because his would have been father inlaw( a police man) came to hear of kalki's jail term. venkatraman, kalki's brother pleaded in vain that the 'parikaram' had been done religiously for it. kalki kept postponing his marriage after that. he was quite old when he married and found to his shock that rukmani his wife was illiterate. thats another story. venketesh
> > I simply detest the notion that the written word is a manifestation > of the author's experiences.
venkat - i would agree to everything you say with regard to royalty etc etc ,but lvoe - no - the last scenes of ss and also PS - the lament of the lovelorn is so heart wrenching - the pain that is penned so true - that i still think its not possible for someone to write it without having had to undergo that ..... ethai venalum artistic talent - karpanai enru sollungal - but those two scenes cannot come from someone who has not undergone the hell of losing his beloved.
>>I simply detest the notion that the written word is a manifestation > of the author's experiences.>>
Well, this is news to me!! Not being an author probably contributed to this. I was of the opinion that most characters and small happenings like love,arguments, heated dialogue exchanges,etc were often experiences from the author's daily life or from things he/she experienced in his/her life. Probably my own ignorance about author's contributed to this. Nice to hear an author's firsthand opinion on this. Thanks Mr.Venketesh.
Hi Rahul of course small experiences do get reflected. and I have a habit of basing charecters on real life people, but then if every story seemed like an auto biography the author would run out of steam in a few books and wont they seem monotonous.
Hi I have heard a lot of people compare naganandhi with periya pazuvettaraiyar, though experts feel nandini is a female manifestation of nagandhi( the similarities in the name , the comparison to a snake etc) an old man in love with a pretty maiden - a typical shakesperean tragedy. also the second most powerful man in the empire. always thinking that he can overcome the hurdles in romance because of other attributes (even think of their rivals like half grown men, more like kids)
Yes, At the end of SS i felt that Naganandhi love is greater than mamallan. But in the last page,when i read the line that Mamallar went out from temple while sivagami dancing for god..I got tears from my eyes.But somewhat i felt great about Naganandhi...to the last,he is very strong in love with sivagami.
But when i read PK, Kalki showed naganandhi as pazhi vangum ssamiyar..And about mamallar...he stayed in sivagami's house and think about their love. SS is very nice love novel.I read first SS then only PS. PS is great novel when compare to SS. but i give first rank to SS, second to PS and third to PK.
> > Sivakami inspite of having failed in love was magnanimous enough to be a mother to Mamalla's children.
kalki mentions this once in parthiban kanavu. what a genius. he was yet to write sivakamiyin sabatham but had the entire story in his mind. such small details too.
Venkatesh is quite right in his arguement that an author cannot survive only with his own experience. Creativity is the one that distinguishes a good author to a great author.
Recent threads on Udayar - thanks to Swetha, I never even started to read it. She warned me even before the second part was released. I read Balakumaran only recently. Just two novels and fell flat. Amazing work indeed (appam, vadai, thayirsadam & irumbu kudiraigal).. But when it comes to Udayar ???
Balakumaran is a good author but Kalki is great. Thats the difference.
Ofcourse, authors use their own experience to write. Maybe, just maybe Kalki wrote his own experience for the romantic scenes. Or may be he was in love with someone and never materialized, thats why so many love failiures in his novels. We never know.
Rahul, Coming to Venkatesh, I am yet to read both his books (sorry venkatesh, KM is half way through and TOK just got the ebooks from Suganya day before :)) Venkatesh never knew that there are three Thevara sthalams inside Annamali Univ. even though he studied there for 4 long years. He repented once that if he had spent the time he wasted elsewhere (enganu naan solla maten pa...avaru mens hostella irundharu, vera hostel enna irukkunu enakku theriyadhu) he could have learnt more on religion and history even during his college days. :)
So who knows what his personal exp. were ?? :)
Coming back to Kalki, his other novels like Poimaan karadu, he writes as if it was narrated by someone. Maybe so. What I feel is, great authors read between lines and are capable of making a story out of a single line they come across.
Even english authors give a lot of description about wars and weapons, I dont think they would have used it or participated in wars.
Just creativity, learning to read in between lines, pickig up a story from a single word or instance happening around - these makes an author great.
Sharp observation, Venkatesh. How many would have spotted this? Those who read PK first would have known the climax from the beginning when they started SS. But most of us read PK last; even then I missed this. You deserve the title "Kalkiavadani" Sampath
yes, Parthibhan Kanavu was novelised first, but it's wrong to say he did not have SK outlines. In fact it was a radio drama in Tiruchi station before PK was novelised. In that radio drama there was no Naganandi.
kalki had the highest degree of disregard for writing and publishing.
i can give several instances. one he writes early in his career " show me one man who made money from writing"
the other was related to me by vanathi thirunavukarasu. kalki's son rajendran had written a story which was published by vanathi thirunavukarasu in his "jil jil' pathirikkai( co editior tamilvanan)
kalki sought out vanathi and blasted him" i wanted my son to study b. pharm and start a pharmacy. you are mis guiding him" i am quoting this because the first preference kalki always gave to a creative literary idea was to make it a film. i am sure kalki had ss on paper as a film screen play .we just dont have the notes. he seemed to have maintained a high secrecy during those days. for ss he asked some leading dances like rukmani devi arundale if they could co operate. but then he changed the screen play into a novel. amaraara was also possible because he had notes drawn up for a movie. his daughter could finish the novel because of thse notes only.
I observed in that Vikraman - himself being a writer - was (is) very much appreciative of Kalki and did not chose to discuss his works .. rare quality for a Writer. This is written in 2005 ..
Just recalled that our Dear VENKATESH is another Gem !
And you very rightly Coveted him with the Title - KALKI-AVADHANI!
I think I shared this information with the group long back.
The SS book I have has a 'munnurai' by Kalki. In that he himself says that his 12 year old dream has come true. The seed for the SS story outline came in his thought 12 years back and only now he could put it in writing. And he feels relieved that he has shed his 12 year weight from his heart and is happy. Even though he had the idea for 12 years in his mind, he was forced to write PK when in Jail, because of the situation around.
I think thats how he was able to link SS and PK very well. So in Kalki's thought process, SS was first, PK second and probably PS third.
Any idea when he started thinking about PS? Because we all know he made two trips to Lanka to study the area to write and also visited a lot of places for his research. It could not have happened in 49's so that he can start writing in 50. His detail itenary as when he travelled is available in my SS book,but thats at my home in Chennai :(