I would say that this is the best book I have read in a very long time. My mom mentioned this book to me about 10 years ago and I got started with a 1990s copy of the book in Tamil, but never got beyond the first page, probably because I was more into English fiction and the idea of reading a romantic novel did not appeal to me. Now, almost 10 years after I put down that book, my interest got kindled again after I watched 'Dasavatharam' movie. The first 10 minutes of the movie portraying the religious intolerance of the Chola king Kulothungan the second made me think a lot about my history - I was always interested in world history and geography, but my own history? Well...this was a perfect excuse to educate myself.
Kindled in my quest, I started reading about the Cholas who ruled the Tamil country at various times during the last 2000 years in Wikipedia. It was amazing to see the extent of development of the Tamil country, the culture, civilization, art, administration and military during the medieval times. Since the invasion and establishment of the Mughal, Rajput and the British empire, the society has undergone radical changes and the once invincible, unconquered Chola empire that ruled from Lanka in the south to Bengal and beyond all the way to cambodia (Kamboja), Indonesia (SriVijaya) and Malaysia had crumbled to a small dot of land in south India. I have read about Tamil literature (I studied Tamil as my second language all the way upto high school) of the past 2000 years and I could say that it paints a stark contrast between the society of those days to today.
The book is set in the 10th century AD Chola empire which with Thanjavur as capital extends from Lanka in the south to the shores of the Tunghabadra river in the northwest (Present day Karnataka) and all the way to Penna river in the northeast (present day Andhra). The story starts with the protagonist Vallavarayan Vandiyadevan , a brave warrior sent by the crown prince Aditya karikalan to deliver his message to the Emperor and his sister Kundavai. The author Kalki takes us on a voyage through the medieval society, narrating the various festivals that take place, the sentiments and beliefs of the people, the architecture of the cities, temples, kings and much more as seen through the eyes of our hero. The story is a potpourri of political conspiracy, heroism, chivalry, romance, seduction, espionage and counter-espionage, sacrifice, trust and betrayal with humor interspersed throughout the book. The book came out in 5 volumes and once I took it up, I could not put it back. I still continue to read up about my ancestors and my land - Tamilnadu. I took a map of South India and tried to trace the places mentioned in the book. I have started to look at my country with a new fondness and pride. I will soon come up with a google earth listing of the places mentioned in the book (.kmg file).
I have a secret interest - the next time I go to India with a solid one month in my hands, I want to take a trip to the places mentioned in the book and try to enjoy the places (some I have already seen) in a new light.
P.S: I read the book online as a pdf file. I can send out the ".pdf" files to anyone interested. Instead you can locate the book here or here.
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