With so many avid readers and authors in the group - can we compile a catalogue of tamil historical novels - comprising basic information like name, author, brief outline of the period/kings portrayed - am sure we can get the above information from reading the forwards of these works itself - could be helpful guide for new readers looking for a particular fav king/clan etc
Compilation of another database of old names (e.g. pazhaiyaru) and current names of the places and kingdoms, areas (vengi, vijayam etc.) will be a boon to the readers.
We could create a database in the yahoogroups. But why restrict to tamil historical novels? I hear that there are other great historical novel writers in other languages... especially in english.... why not include them also?
good idea too. on a lighter side we can then ask the TN govt to rename all of them with their old names....wouldbe fun and nightmare for conductors on the mofussilbuses...yeempa korkaikku rendu ticket koduppa...@@@@
cool, we just need to include language written as well in the description. who knows some of us might take up the task of translating them to tamil or vice versa...
can we upload a draft excel file - which all of us can edit. containing basic format - title of the book, author, pen name, Clan /kingdom, circa...years covered, Kings mentioned, hero name, heroine name, year published, Publishing house, number of parts.....
we can also put a place for positive comments ( sugget we avoid negative comments as they are subjective)
and then will be sort of voluntary disclosure of all members - what books they have / have read/remember..
I faced this problem; the bus conductors in south were alwyas referring to the shortened names- kovai, gobi, sathy - I was stumped. We all will eventually get used to it. I wonder what will happen to those names which are difficult to pronounce.
My uncle landed in chennai and took an auto...he was trying to give directions to the auto guy in tamiz....neera poi edathu pakkam tirumbu ....the guy gave him a good stare and `corrected him' - enna sir, paatha padichava mathiri irukke...straighta poi left thirumba sonna thirumbaren....not withstanding the fact that my uncle left chennai 22 years ago...
Manipallavam of Na Pa qualifies but not Kurinji Malar which is a contemporary novel. What abt Na Pa's splendid novel on Kalabras 'Nithilavalli" and his "Paandimaadevi"? These can be added as also Kalaimani (Kothamangalam Subbu's) Ponnivanathu Poonguyil, a superbly written novel about the Maratha period in Tanjavur. His grasp of Tamil language and his descriptive prowess are superb.
The list of Akhilan's historical novels doesn't include his famous Kayalvizhi, based on Sundara Pandya's exploits in ending the Chozha supremacy, and Vetri Thirunagar. Both were serialised in Kalki mag in the 1960s. The list also does not show Na Pa's Paandimaadevi and his Kalabras' classic "Nithilavalli", besides kothamangal subbu's marathaage epic "ponnivanathu Poonguyil which too was serialised in kalki in the 1970s. Nithilavalli was serialised in Ananda Vikatan, a rarity, with Gopulu's drawings.
-yES SIR kayalvizhi was made as a movie "Madurai meetta sundara pandian" by thalaivar whose lisp in the voice made kayalvizhi( actress latha sound like kelavi)
lovely songs but flopped at the box office
we should also mention in the list if the story was further developed on in other media. for example lot of akilans books were made into radio plays
can any body tell us about the movie "rajarajan" other than the following Starring : MGR, Padmini, Lalitha, PS Veerappa, MN Nambiyar Music : KV Mahadevan Direction : TV Sundram Production : Neela Productions Year : 1958
Being here in norway all alone, nothing to do much, the most important pass time is watching movies online... (sivaji enna, latest kreedam,veerapu all available online for free :) ) Last saturday, i was browsing the catelogue and came across 'rajarajan'. Sounding interesting, started watching it and was surprised to see the title with mgr. nothing interesting. introducing the period as cholas and internal war for power, the story is normal period time masala film. nothing related to rrc :( i could watch only the first part of 3 parts. i am yet to watch the remaining. but not sure whether i will ae the patience to do so.
could we have a final consensus on what information we need to capture in the database - we dont need to overstretch ourselves but need to provide some basic overview. welcome suggestions - looking at it from the point of end user - the catalogue is being created as a useful guide for a prospective reader of historical fiction. what is it that you ask yourself or try to find reading the foreword /preface /back of a book before borrowing / buying it. we just need to capture this info.
Further, the initial effort of compiling a list is only the start point. members who have these books with them or access to them, would need to come up and provide assistance in keying in the required fields.
on the technical front - would it be possible for us to upload an excel file on this forum - with options to add info/fields, but modifying/deletion with the moderator for obvious reasons. else we need to work on personal mail ids wherein once we finalise the format - one person can be assigned the task of compiling all inputs from members
There are about 10-15 authors on this list - and most of them are married to the publishing houses. Thinking on these lines - would it be a better and easier to write to these publishing houses to provide us this info. they might also put in their addresses, price and availabiltiy via the net - this is afterall an advertisement for them as well
Our own great Gokul's name I could not find in the list. Though it is in the soft copy, he can anytime bring out as hardcopy - and so many readers enjoyed his skill on story telling and he has a large fan club among us including me.
Aru Ramanathan, a great writer of historical sorts. His Raja Raja Cholan as Drama script was taken for movie by APN. Aru Ramanathan also written one beautiful historical novel - I really forget the exact name - but the hero was mentioned as so clever and the herione name is something like Oorvasi or Urmila - this was based on Madurai Pandya which I scantly remember.
I think, Vanathi Thirunavukkarasu can be contacted thro9ugh our Venkatesh for full details.
-Hi many writers and poets have tried their hand at atleast one historical novel. we should tabulate all of them.
mu metha- sozha nila about vijayalayan is one that come to my mind.
any computerised catalougue in a library can give us the full list. I will try cosmopolitan club library and eashwari lending library computerised catalougues. venketesh
the more you think of topics the more you get convinced that we MAY NOT HAVE more than 100 titles totally. many of them must be out of print also. we must list libraries they are available in. or create a common library from our collections to circulate amongst members. we could get one page in wikipedia to list the 100. venketesh
there must be atleast a 100-150 novels which were serialised in magazines.they propably were not published at all. we should try to list them too. a well planned visit to some of these magazines should help
i feel vanathi is the biggest publisher of historical novels. we could interview him and get details about half the list
one thing whic struck me is, online bookstores should have a cataloge and i thought it will easier for us to browse through historic novels in those sites. first tried www.newbooklands.com, who i think has one of the best collections of tamil books in chennai (in T.nager north usman road, opp ARR building). shockingly/surprisingly they have only 12 titles and most of them are unheard. and one good thing is 'Kaviri mainthan' is listed :)
author, title, publisher, last edition book size ,4 lines description from those who have read it would suffice initially. links to other sites if any would suffice. we could host the entire text onto wikipedia.
for example
author kalki title ponniyin selvan publisher/s vanathi, kumaran, sarada, vardaman, last edition 2007 book size - 5 volumes description - magnum opus of Kalki krishnamurthy on a period prior to the peak of the cholas. Raja raja heads the list of real charecters and quite a few from the author's imagination adorn the book. emotions in the book include humour, romance, mystery, emothion and pathos
That sounds great Sozha Nila by mu metha is not set during Vijayalaya times its actually Rajathi Raja times and is the timeframe which Sandilyan usedfor his Kannimadam ....The times when srilankan dhandanayagars were creating havoc in tamilnadu in the name of supporting Pandyas....
This looks at it from the Chola angle and Kannimadam from Pandya angle
Kanchikadiravan I think by Kovi Manisegaran serialised in AnandaVikatan is another good one Explores the early days of Mahendraverma.....including a switch by the Chalukyas of the crown prince.....
Yavana rani is about Chola not pandyas as mentioned before....its set during Karilkalan 's ascension following the murder of his parents and conspiracy by the Velirs
Nilaamutrram by again Gowthama neelambaran Serilaised in Idayam Perugirathu is abou Manavarman of Lankas sruggle to get his throne with the help of Narasimha Pallava
IndiraVizha was another serilaised in Idayam....Chola backdrop
The Tamils of South India have a hoary history. Tamil literary heritage spans twenty centuries, however it was a language which was expressed in the form of poetry. The Pross as a mode of Tamil literature is relatively a new phenomenon with the novel appearing on the scene less than two centuries back. Prathapa Mudaliar Charithram ("The Life of Prathapa Mudaliar"), written in 1857 and published in 1879, was the first novel in the Tamil language. Penned by Mayuram Vedanayakam Pillai, it was a landmark in Tamil literature, which had hitherto seen writings only in poetry. The book gave birth to a new literary genre and Tamil prose began to be recognized as an increasingly important part of the language. In the twentieth century rose a new phenomenon of writing prose about tamil kings who had lived more than 700 or more years back( tamilnadu was predominantly ruled by non tamils after 1320 turkish invasion) Authors like Kalki wrote historical novels during the Indian independence movement to raise the patriotism and pride of the people. Most historical novels were serialised in tamil magazines before being published as a book. Historical novels are still extremely popular but of recent are few to come by. The advent of netzines has seen a new web based historical writers entering the arena.
Popular authors in historical fiction include Kalki Krishnamurthy Sandilyan Akilan Vikiraman M. Karunanidhi Gothama Neelambaran Aru Ramanathan Dhiwakar
Balakumaran Popular historical novels include Ponniyin Selvan Sivagamiyin Sabadham Parthiban Kanavu Yavana Rani Kadal Pura Rajamuthirai