Kalki R Krishnamurthy

Ponniyin Selvan Kalki R Krishnamurthy

Ponniyin Selvan (The Son of Ponni) is a 2400-page 20th-century Tamil historical novel written by Kalki Krishnamurthy. Written in five volumes, this narrates the story of Arulmozhivarman (later crowned as Rajaraja Chola I), one of the kings of the Chola Dynasty during the 10th and 11th centuries. Kalki finished the novel after nearly three and a half years of writing and he visited Sri Lanka three times to gather information for the novel. Ponniyin Selvan was the sobriquet given to Arulmozhi varman. Ponni was another name for the Kaveri and Arulmozhi was the darling of the Kaveri as in Ponniyin Selvan to all his people. The original title of Arulmozhithevan was Raja Raja Cholan. He was the second son of the Parantaka Chola II alias Sundara Chola and Queen Vaanamaadevi. Raja Raja Cholan had an elder sister, Kundavai and an elder brother, Aditya Karikalan. He had a high regard for his sister, who spent her later life in Thanjavur with her younger brother, and named his first daughter after her. Who later, inspired by his sister, built the world-renowned Brihadeeswarar Temple known as Periya Kovil. Kalki's other sources were stone inscriptions, copper-plates, and other books. There is a stone tablet in the great temple of Thanjavur which has the following inscription: "The revered elder sister of Raja Raja Chozhan, the consort of Vallavaraiyan Vandhiyathevan, Azwar Paranthakar Kundavaiyar." The book History of Later Cholas has a five-line reference to Vandiyathevan, a Bana prince, a real historical character, who is the hero of this novel. The names of the conspirators also came from a stone inscription.