Yet another book review.

Yesterday, I completed another tamil novel. This time it was Paartiban kanavu by kalki. Man, what a writer. The story was too far-fetched to be a real happening, but was nevertheless well written. It is based on a few real characters, like parthiba chola, his son vikrama chola, narasimha pallava and also the chalukya king pulikesin (Though to a very little extent). Poet saint Appar also does a guest role. I am not going to do much of reflection as kalki seems to abstain from politics. And when writers are romantic, I really don’t have anything to talk. Hats of to romanticism. That is what life is all about. That is what makes life worth living.

The story in a gist. Chola kingdom is not as powerful as the word chola conveys but is only a small kingdom, paying kappam to the pallava rulers ruling from kanchi. Cholas rule from Urayur. Due to a feud, for which pulikesin is the kaaranam, parthiba chola decides not to pay kappam and decides to declare himself independent. The pallava ruler narasimha pallava (of mamallapuram fame) and partiban wage a war on the banks of vennaru. The result is as expected. The chola army is decimated. Not even partiban returns alive from the battle. However, narasimhan is greatly touched by partiban’s bravery and decides to have one last look at the brave king’s body. So, in the thick of the night, he visits the battlefield in the guise of a shaiva saint. There he finds partiban still alive, though it is pretty clear that he is going to die any moment. Partiban, not knowing that this is narasimhan himself, asks for a varam from the saint, which narasimhan readily gives. The varam is to make sure that an independent chola kingdom is established. This is the part of the story which I considered as far fetched. The reason being, narasimhan, who wanted to establish a pan-south indian kingdom (which he clearly states in the story later) decides to give away his dream because of the cholan’s bravery. The story is all about how narasimhan makes vikraman, the son of parthiban, as the king of an independent chola kingdom (by independent one means not paying kappam), thereby fulfilling the partiban’s kanavu partially (The kanavu, according to the author gets fullfilled completely some 300 years later when raja raja dna rajendra ascend the chola throne, when the glory f the former cholas again reaches its pinnacle).

What captivated me most in the story as well as the novel of kalki that I read before this (that being ponniyin selvan) is the author’s excellent narration. You simply cannot put the book away without finishing it off. I had a hard time deciding whether to sleep before finishing the book. The wealth of detail and the simplicity of language seems to be the hallmark of kalki. Also to be noted is the usage of sanskrit words. The percentage of sanskrit words is larger than what is usual today, though it does not really make the text obscure. (This statement is not intended to turn away people that have plans to read kalki :-) )

Another interesting aspect about the writing is the way he describes dreams of the various characters. It sounds so realistic. The way dreams generally are, so much tied to reality, but still away from it, the constant interaction of dream with simulteneous real times events, etc, are so aptly (I mean thathroopamaaga) described. Kalki seems to be a genius in story telling, inheriting the art from greats such as valmiki and vyasan.

Those that know the tamil alphabet should surely read kalki’s works.

That’s all for now on this topic. Happy new year to everybody. Will post pretty soon. :-)