Ponniyin Selvan

“Had this book been written and published in US, it would have been on the New York’s best seller list for a quarter century.”


This was one of the comments that I saw in one of the many forums when I was searching for an online version of one of the greatest Tamil fictional books, Ponniyin Selvan. The book was published in a series of small stories in the Tamil weekly article ‘Kalki’ about 60 years back by Shri. Kalki Krishnamurthy. The book became so popular that the government of TamilNadu nationalized the book and it’s now available as an open source for anyone to publish.

Ponniyin Selvan is a historic fiction which is based on historically real characters. The book revolves around the life of the greatest king of South India, Raja Raja Choza (who was also called Ponniyin Selvan meaning the son of the river Cauvery) and his early days. The story is set around 968-970 AD, when Raja Raja Choza's (also known as Arulmozhi Varman) father Sundara Choza is on his deathbed and questions about the empire’s successor ruled foremost in the minds of all the people.

Sundara Choza had taken over the throne after the death of his elder brother. So many chieftains believed that the elder brother’s son, Maduranthaka should be crowned as the next king. Another contender to the throne was Arulmozhi’s elder brother, Aditya Karikalan who had already been declared the crown prince. Conspirators from Choza’s dynasty’s biggest enemy, the Pandya Dynasty, who had been completed routed by the Choza army, also play a venomous part in trying to kill all the heirs of the Choza Dynasty and thereby destroy the kingdom.

The story is taken forward by a very brave youth, Vandiyathevan Vallavarayan, who acts as a messenger between his general Aditya Karikalan, his sister, Kundavi Pirati and the younger brother, Arulmozhi. Will the Pandya conspirators kill Sundara Choza and his sons or would the chieftains be able to install a king of their choice or will Arulmozhi and his brother overcome all the treacherous situations and conspiracies and save the kingdom forms the rest of this beautiful racy story.

The descriptive words detailing the beauty of the Choza Empire and its towns and also the beautiful description of all the gorgeous princesses would make us feel a little bad for not being born in the times of the Choza Empire. What makes this story more interesting is the fact that the events that take place at this crucial juncture determined the rule of Choza Empire, which survived for nearly 300 years after this event. It’s a must read for all fiction lovers and for people who would love to know how our great country was ruled once upon a time by great kings.

I have just completed two of the five books and have been completely blown away by it. I have specified the link for the english online version of the books below.

http://www.wattpad.com/121249-ponniyin-selvan-english-part-1