III SEMESTER, TUTORIAL - 01

NAME – SHIVANGI MALVIYA

COURSE – THE COLA STATE
COURSE INSTRUCTOR – PROF. R MAHALAXMI
ROLL NO. – 22/61/HH/044
TOPIC – PONNIYIN SELVAN; HISTORY V/S HISTORICAL
FICTION
In the vast tapestry of Indian society, entertainment and cinema stand as vibrant threads woven
intricately into the fabric of daily life. India, with its rich history, diverse culture, and myriad
traditions, has long recognized the profound value of entertainment as a means to both escape the
rigors of existence and delve deeper into the collective soul of its people. Cinema, in particular,
not only entertains but also educates, informs, and shapes the collective consciousness of a
nation that reveres the silver screen as a mirror to its own soul. The first Indian feature film was
‘raja harishchandra’ released in 1913, it was a mythical fiction based on the life of raja
Rarishchandra of solar dynasty and of sage Vishwamitra, and there is hardly anyone on the
subcontinent who doesn’t know Raja Harishchandra. People know Akbar-Birbal, Raja Bhoj-
Gangu teli tales more than they know Mughal and Parmar history, that’s how fiction rules over
hearts of indian population. There has been many movies based on history too, like Mughal-i-
Aajam, Jodha Akbar, Padmavat, Rani Lakshmibai, Bajirao Mastani, Panipat revolving around
major historical events. The recent addition to the series has been Mani Ratnam’s Ponniyin
Selvan I and II, based on historical fiction novel of kalki Krishnamurthy.
Ponniyin Selvan I & II are screenplay adaptation of a novel based on history, but adaptations
either of history in fiction, or fiction into feature film is not an innocent act, there is always
selectivity as which evidences fit into narrative, and unfit ones are discarded selectively. The two
major differences between history and historical fiction is, first; history is based on primary
sources, while fiction is not primary excavation but based on the account historian has produced.
second; history is dialectic, there is always conflict of narratives while fiction is absolute,
following one narrative only, leading to universalism. Thus in this essay I will be doing
comparison of history and historical fiction; the novel, then of novel with its screenplay
adaptation; the movie, and will try to draw how history is recreated in popular perception in
order to reproduce it.1
Kalki’s Ponniyin Selvan started episodically published in his magazine in 1950s and finally in
1955 it was published in 5 volumes series a novel. The plot of kalki’s novel is based on the
internal conflict between the royal household of the Cholas of Thanjour for the succession to the
throne. No timeline as such is mentioned but if we tally it to historical data it must be around
957-973 CE.
Kalki effectively used the historical data from K A Nilkanta Shashtri’s ‘The Colas’ and T V
Sivadas’ ‘Pirakala chozar sharithiram( history of later cholas). But the question here arises is
how true to history is Ponniyin Selvan. In his book ‘the colas’ nilkanta shastri talks of
tiruvalangadu copper plates which mention succession after death of rajaditya as –
gandaraditya-arindama-parantaka II- aditha-madhurantaka, it also states that
uttama(madhurantaka) chola was eager to rule so rajaraja chola gave up the throne for uttama
chola and later ascended when uttama’s reign ended.2 Their arise the question of what pattern of

1
BBC Reith lectures by Hillary Mantel, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b08x9947
2
Sastri, K.A., Nilakanta. The Colas, vol. I. 1935 Uni. Of madras, Anand press, pp167
succession was followed, after the death of crown prince why madhurantaka was made the
crown prince and not rajaraja, and if madhuranatka was legitimate heir as being the son of
gandaraditya why he wasn’t crowned before. Was there a situation of civil war? Did rajaraja
gave up throne for his uncle in fear of civil war? These are the gaps found in the historical
evidence and were effectively filled up by the narrative of kalki, kalki justifies it by saying that
madhurantaka’s parents didn’t wanted him to be a ruler but to be a shaivite, and him too. Only
later under the influence of pazhuvar brothers he wanted to be the king. Kalki’s motivation
behind writing this novel can be attributed to give a sense of glorified past to tamil population
which was the trend those days influenced by nationalist approach of historical writing showing
that pre british indian rulers were able rulers. Thus the narrative of real madhurantaka(sendhan
amudhan) and the unreal one(the one who revolted), as royal blood wouldn’t cause conflict and
denies any possbility of civil war.
The historical evidence about aditha karikalan; the crown prince is of The copperplate
inscriptions of Leiden, Karandhai, and Thiruvalangadu indicate that in the Sevur battle, the
Chola army led by Sundara Chola's son Aditya Karikalan defeated and killed the Pandia King
Veerapandiyan. Aditya Karikalan received the name Veerapandian Thalaikonda' the one who
beheaded Veerapandian.3 And the udaiyarkudi stone inscription of anantheshwar temple4 is the
only inscription which talks of mysterious assassination of the crown prince, which is about
confiscation of lands of assassins and their relatives, the names mentioned of conspirators as
panchavan and rumudichola brammadhirajan ; pandya and chola Brahmin officials. However
there is disagreement between both of kalki’s inspirations Shahstri and Sivadasa over who
conspired the assassination, while former blamed it on madhurantaka, latter doesn’t agree to it.
Kalki goes on to create his own narrative, in the novel there are a lot of characters claimimg to
have killed aditha but in the last leaving a doubt in the minds of reader as if who actually did it.
Kalki also tended to give the human mystery a supernatural aura, a comet appears early in the
novel giving the impression that something evil will happen – it stays in the sky and crashes out
only after last part of novel after the assassination of aditha.5 Also everywhere in the novel chola
empire is praised, even though at that time the empire had not expanded to its full extent,
innumerable acts of valour and heroism- the respect they showed to other religions- the mention
of sri Lankan monks giving throne to arulmozhi in the second volume- the respect he showed to
other religions- their strict sexual-ethical code; could marry any number of maidens but won’t
lay eyes on another man’s wife, all are repeated and somewhat exaggerated. Affluency of the
kingdom is also shown by Kalki by his written picturesque representation of veeranam lake in
the beginning, sowing season, sights and sounds of joy and wellbeing all around. Excellence of
craftsmenship is also shown by mentioning ‘chariot cum boat’ ships of royal navy,
vandiyathevan awe-strucked by architectural beauty of huge thanjaur fort.6

3
Sastri, K.A., Nilakanta. The Colas, vol. I. 1935 Uni. Of madras, Anand press, pp166
4
Sadasiva Pandarathar, Ti. Vai. Pirkala chozhar varalaru (“History of the later chozhas”). 1949; rpt. Annamalaingar:
Annamalai University, 1974, pp79
5
Krishnamurthy, Kalki R. Ponniyin Selvan: Centenary Volume. India: Macmillan India Limited, 1999.
6
Krishnamurthy, Kalki R. Ponniyin Selvan: Centenary Volume. India: Macmillan India Limited, 1999.
Historical evidences – inscriptions doesn’t mention as much women as much mentioned in the
novel, the only names mentioned in the inscriptions are of kunduvai; elder sister of rajaraja who
seems to have exercising greater influence in the politics of the empire, sembiyan mahadevi;
mother of madhurantaka, a shaivite, mentioned in many of temple grants/ donation inscriptions. 7
Other than these there are only few other females mentioned; mainly wives of the king. While in
novel there are fictional female characters such as nandini, manimekalai, mandakini,
poonkuzhalli , vanathi playing important role in the story. Kalki gave more agency to women not
only of royal household but common ones too; mandakini and poonkuzhalli – freely living their
life, independently roaming around the kingdom, even across oceans. Every female character in
his novel has an ardent character like intelligent kunduvai, courageous poonkuzhalli, innocent
manimekalai. The female protagonist kunduvai and antagonist nandini both are known for their
beauty, but both show different qualities, the former is epitome of beauty with brains, and latter
is like sorcerer, cunning. Having such a variety of female characters and showing feminity in
elegant manner is somewhat Kalki must have drawn from his own life experience; being in joint
family, he had so many sisters. There are many fictional male characters too such as Kamdan
maran, illegitimate madhurantakara, sendhan amudhan, azhwar nambi; arulmozhi’s spy- a
vaishnavite, china pazhuvar; in history only one pazhuvar is known but in novel there are two
pazhuvar brothers.
The title of the novel itself is Kalki’s creation, there is no evidence calling rajaraja - ponniyin
selvan. Kalki was drawn in kaveri in his childhood and later saved so Kalki identified himself as
ponniyin selvan (son of kaveri) thus in the novel, there are atleast three instances where
arulmozhivarman encounters water- drawn in kaveri in childhood- faces shipwreck while
returning to thanjaur, saves vanathi and poonkuzhalli from floods. Also every part of the novel
starts and ends on shore of river or sea, here what Hillary mantel said in her Reith lectures can be
justified that “ novelist is product of his own biography”.8
Vandiyathevan Vallavaraiyan is almost on every page of the novel and ironically there is only
five lines of historical evidence about him which claims him to be belonging to eastern chalukya
dynasty and marrying kunduvai, later staying in chola country. 9 Also he is shown to have origins
to vanar clan serving mighty cholas. Kalki is known to have humour bedrock for his writings,
thus vandiyathevan- our hero who was certainly there in history but very less of him is known,
can be easily put anywhere- almost in every scene, make readers giggle by this actions and
dialogues. He certainly is funny but smart too, is shown a womanizer but doesn’t get affected by
nandini’s beauty while parthibendran and pazhuvar get hypnotized, and do as nandini instructs
them. Overall vandiyathevan is a character readers can connect to, looks more real and more
lifelike human.

7
Sastri, K.A., Nilakanta. The Colas, vol. I. 1935 Uni. Of madras, Anand press, pp182
8
BBC Reith lectures by Hillary Mantel, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b08x9947
9
Sadasiva Pandarathar, Ti. Vai. Pirkala chozhar varalaru (“History of the later chozhas”). 1949; rpt. Annamalaingar:
Annamalai University, 1974
Arulmozhivarman is idealized as god’s incarnation in the novel, there are a lot of praises of him,
he’s the hero of the novel, there are inscription of his times which claims him having marks of
chakra and sanku in his palms as lord Vishnu. Kalki also used mythical texts such as
Mahabharata and Ramayana for making it more legitimate account of history in the minds of
readers for example uses a quote from Kamba ramayanam at arulmozhi’s coronation10 FN,
describes arulmozhivarman’s appearance like arjuna and bhimasena. Also there is not clear
historical evidence on his Sri lanka invasion before 969 AD; karikalan’s death year or Buddhist
monks offering him the throne which is mentioned in the novel.
Director Maniratnam adapted Kalki’s novel in two part feature film by the same title PS I and PS
II. There are few visible differences between novel and film too, which may be adopted by the
screenplay writer for convenience in following a single simple narrative, which could be
concised in 2.5 hours movie. In the last part of the novel, it is shown that real madhurantaka;
sendhan amudhan, is legitimate heir to the throne and was crowned and gets married to
poonkuzhalli . But in the movie sendhan amudhan remained a flower seller and there is no
mention of real and adopted heir to the throne, doesn’t get married to poonkuzhalli. About
karikalan’s death, in novel it’s not clear; who killed karikalan, there is a hint of possible killers
might be nandini, pandyas, vandiyathevan, manimegalai, pazhuvar, kanadan maran or karikalan
killed himself, but in the movie there is only two possibility; either nandini killed karikalan or
karikalan killed himself. Nandini’s end in the novel is as mysterious as her origin, she is shown
getting disappeared after knowing that her mother died because of her, but in movie nandini’s
humane angle is shown side by side the cunning one, the way she looks at the throne shows her
hunger for power, her love and yearning towards karikalan also seems true and never ending
one, as soon as she gets to know that veer pandya was her father and he forced himself on her
mother, she fills with guilt for taking revenge and drawns herself in the river. One may not like
nandini’s character but can’t hate her, obviously who will hate aishwarya? the complexity of
feminity, human nature is very beautifully crafted in the acting and direction of the film.
Kunduvai in the novel only works behind the scenes, rarely revealing her hand, while in the
movie she is shown taking more active part, by her dismissal of vassals’ plan by offering
marriage proposals for their daughters, her visit to kanchi to persuade karikalan.
There are barely any violence described in the novel and even small firghts were described with
a lot of humour, but in movie there are many war sequences full of actions; rashtrakuta, eelam
wars, as nowadays there is a demand for warfare scenes in historical films.
REVIEW;
What I found fascinating in the movie is the costumes and looks of the characters which were
designed by taking inspiration mostly from Maniam Selvan’s illustrations in original publication.
The colour combination of the looks ; clothes, armour, jewellary were based on characteristics of
the particular character, for example; karikalan – passionate, aggressive - dark outfits, a lot of
reference to tiger, Arulmozhi – soft, people’s king, Buddhist influence – light shade, ivory,
whites, tiger tusk motifs, Nandini – uses beauty to gain power, magic, sorcery – dark - layered
outfits. The maintenance of one look of vandiyathevan throughout the two parts movie is
10
Krishnamurthy, Kalki R. Ponniyin Selvan: Centenary Volume. India: Macmillan India Limited, 1999.
commendable, also a social stratification could be seen by the type of clothes, jewellary
characters wore in the film, while royal characters wore gold jewellary, commoners weren’t seen
wearing golds. These are the minute details which Maniratnam took care of, while making the
deads alive through screen representation. Thus when a novel or written script has to be adapted
to screen the director is entrusted to create time and space 11; the forts, the viharam, the temples,
lakes as they once were used to be.
The visuals are pleasure to eyes, the changing plots keep audience engaged, music is soothing, I
liked kunduvai’s theme and my favourite part is the part where kundavai and nandini come face
to face. But again there is shown exaggerated female agency and their indirect control over state
affairs as if it were woman who controlled the men, controlling state affairs. Mandakini being
old was miraculously able to climb walls of the fort, swim oceans which seems physically
impossible for her. And most importantly the love-story part of Aditha karikalan and Nandini
overshadows the parts of Arulmozhivaraman on whose name movie is titled, one can say content
did’nt do justice to the title. The novel too is one of a kind, flashbacks doesn’t interrupt the
present plots, language is simple, the adjectives of characters in words create pictures of
characters in readers’ minds. But the praisings of Arulmozhivaraman and the chola empire is
somewhat exaggerated. Where kalki missed is that he completely ignores the class differences
altogether, ruling class is so much familiar with the commoners; poonkuzalli, boatmen,
mandakini etc. also there are very less common people and even if they are, it’s always in
relation to the role they play in the destinies of the rulers.
CONCLUSION;
In post-Independence India there was spurring nationalist historiography looking for pre british
heroes, Kalki gave us one. Kalki’s novel helped in gaining back the reputation of tamil language,
and the glorified common past created a collective memory in the minds of people, providing
them identity; linguistic and regional, in the times when there were movements to create states
based on language, while according to Nilkanta Shashtri under the chola rule, patronage to both
Sanskrit and tamil was given.12 Vandiyathevan who was mentioned in just five lines in historical
evidence was made regional hero by erecting his life size statue in Chennai in 1970s, such is the
influence of fiction in creating a popular perception that state too aided in making a collective
memory of 900 years old chola heroism and valour. Kalki’s conception of historical fiction is
visionary and romanticist he turned to past impelled by nationalism and so tends to idealise the
past. Also the times in which he wrote the fiction, weaving a love-story around historical events
was popular trend as we can see his fellow INC nationalist K M Munshi’s jaya somanatha
coming in 1950s, this too was historical romance fiction based on Somanatha destruction by
Mahmud of Ghazani, creating a fictional hindu trauma which hardly there was. Thus while
Ponniyin Selvan created a conscious of solidarity among tamil speaking population, jaya
somanatha created a hindu solidarity demanding resurrection of past; Somanath temple. And that

11
BBC Reith lectures by Hillary Mantel, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b08x9947
12
Sastri, K.A., Nilakanta. The Colas, vol. I. 1935 Uni. Of madras, Anand press, pp214
is the impact of fictionalizing history, it’s entertaining to readers/ audiences, has a wider
audience, hence lasting impact, that is why these two started as novel but later became more
history than just a novel.
Its screen adaptation was released on a large scale in India and international level, creating a
national consciousness of a past, the fictional one, visual memory stays longer than what’s
written in history books, thus a collective memory of glorified, affluent past has been created in
the popular perception. No doubt cholas were great rulers, were tolerant to other religions,
urbanized the regions under them by constructing temples, their administration was better than
the contemporaries, they too were like any other ruler of India, looting and plundering the region
invaded, their navy helped them in getting hold over Sri lanka, Srivijaya and other south east
Asian regions drawing out their resources to the capital. But in order to glorify the past many
historical facts are distorted, misdeeds of the historical figure are white washed. Thus writers of
historical fiction should question the legitimacy of their work. Historical novelists should be
aware of the limitations of their sources and the challenges of filling in the gaps in historical
narratives, they should also be aware of their own biases and the ways in which their own
biography shapes their work.13
While the novel and film is a work of art, it has taken creative liberties to make history more
thrilling and servable for a modern audience. One must always appreciate both the imaginative
allure of historical fiction and the importance of seeking out reliable sources to separate fact
from fiction in the annals of history. Historical fiction and cinematic representations of history,
while they may distort the past at times, also has the power to inspire curiosity, ignite
conversations, and remind people of the fascinating complexity of the world's rich history. In the
pages of books and on the silver screen, history is a kaleidoscope of perspectives, each one
offering a unique glimpse into the tapestry of human experience.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 BBC Reith lectures by Hillary Mantel, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b08x9947
 Sadasiva Pandarathar, Ti. Vai. Pirkala chozhar varalaru (“History of the later chozhas”).
1949; rpt. Annamalaingar: Annamalai University, 1974
 Sastri, K.A., Nilakanta. A History of South India: From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of
Vijayanagar. 1955. 4th ed. Delhi: Oxford Univ. Press, 1975.
 Krishnamurthy, Kalki R. Ponniyin Selvan: Centenary Volume. India: Macmillan
India Limited, 1999.
 Sastri, K.A., Nilakanta. The Colas, vol. I. 1935 Uni. Of madras, Anand press

13
BBC Reith lectures by Hillary Mantel, https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/b08x9947