I am new this forum and having read some messages posted earlier on this forum my interest in this topic was revived.
Let me put in my side of the argument:
Nandini is definitely not the daughter of someone like Karuthiruman - this is evident from many places in the novel and most chiefly when Adithan tells Parthipendran that he could not believe that Nandini was the daughter of Eesana Sivabhattar. To him she appeared to be one born in a royal family or at least in a family that was upper class.
Kalki is quite a traditionalist and he will not make his character call its father as her fiance. That is ruled out and Nandini repeatedly mentions at various points that Veerapandian was her lover and one who has promised to marry her. So Veerapandian is also ruled out.
Sundara Chozhan could not have been the father - the time lines do not match.
But there is one small clue - when Nandini tells Adithan who her real father is, Adithan is surprised and cannot believe it.
Now who could this character be that makes Adithan so surprised?
Let us now look at history. It is well known that the Pandiya kings and the Lankan Kings have had relationships in terms of giving and taking women in marriage.
Oomai Rani is from Eezham. And her daughter was the Pandya King Veerapandiyan's fiance and he had promised to marry her.
Put two and two together - it is quite likely that after Sundara Chozhan deserted her, Oomai Rani was involved with the Srilankan king and gave birth to the twins.
Aggregating all this, it becomes clear that Nandini was the Sri Lankan King's daughter and hence had all the support of the Pandiyanattu apathuthavigaL in her quest to avenge the death of Veerapandian.
And it is this truth that surprised Adithan making him tell her that he is very sorry for what he did.
Does anyone agree with me or is this a far fetched argument?
Amara Bhujangan becomes their leader but that is only till that Pandiyan boy (whom Nandini dotes on) comes of age to be the next Pandiyan king (from whatever I understand).
If Nandini thought that she was Veerapandiyan's daughter, and if Mathuranthakam was also around, what makes her not crown him as the next king instead? The reason why she does not bring Mathuranthakam into her fold is because he cannot be the next in line for the Pandiya throne.
At least this is how I will deduce it given the evidence.
But probably the confusion arose when he decided to make Amuthan as the next heir instead of the palaya Mathuranthakan. Till that point it was not clear why the palaya Mathuranthakan resembled Nandini..
I agree - Kalki seems to have done less homework on that web of palaya Mathuranthakan, Nandini and Amuthan. there seems to be glaring loop holes in that part of the plot.
Hi nandini, palaya mathuranthakan and sendan amudhan share a birthday.
kalki slipped in my opinion only when he tried to project nandini as veerapandiyans lover.
and oomai rani is not sinhalese. only that she frequents that island quite often. actually she is the cousin of thiyaga vidangar the light house keeper and sister of vani the mother of amudhan.
kalki goes on to mention in his after word that amarabhujangan is killed by rrc later and that small boy is killed by rjc in later history.
>>>there seems to be glaring loop holes in that part of the plot.
they can be attributed to the fact that kali was writing a bit every week without a chance to go back and edit the earlier chapters like most authors do. he was comiting himself. one reason why he left the novel unfinished and abruptly. check our archieves for other rerasons why he was ina hurry to finish PS
I don't think Kalki had slipped up as has been repeatedly alleged by Mr Venkat. In fact in a chapter close to the end of the magnum opus he has explained why Nandini had called veerapandiyan as his lover, to incite karikalan and do a dreadful job or karikalan, in his anger at seeing nandini attending to the injured veerapandiyan, not understanding what Nandini tells him before he beheads veerapandiyan. Let's drop this nonsense of belittling Kalki.
Mr.Ramaswamy; Mr.Venketesh is not belittling Kalki. Infact if anybody knows more about Kalki it is Mr.Venketesh. There are many places in the novel where this group has pin pointed erros by Kalki. That does not take away the fact that PS is an incredible novel and Kalki an incredible writer. This group has been formed to discuss the pluses and minuses of Kalki and PS. This group is not for simply singin praises about Kalki. As a true fan one is supposed to accept the flaws along with the positives. To get a list of flaws in PS please go through the archives, there are some incredible threads.
Hi I do appreciate your feelings. i too almost assumed that kalki was literally god till i researched for his biography. then he took human proportions for me.
somehow bringing kalki back to his human level from a pedestal made me enjoy the book more.
By bringing out an anomoly - amounting to criticism - I do not think we will be BELITTING the AUTHOR - whose work we are all discussing after almost 60 yrs of its origin ....
And the gentleman who is bringing out such anomoly is NONE OTHER THAN HIS BIOGRAPHER ....
He has also ensured the style - flow of the Original version while continued the Sequel (Kaviri Mainthan) .. which the earlier Sequel Writers (Vikraman - Nandhipurathu Naayagi) did not maintain and could not be considered as a Sequel..
Sacrificing the ORIGNALITY of a Writer (Venkat) to follow the foot prints of an ACKNOWLEDGED LEGEND (Kalki) is not known to Writer's World..
Our dear VENKAT has not even acknowledged any where that he made such a sacrifice (of maintaining his own original style ) ...
Let us also remember that KALKI himself has criticised several contemporary authors -- including MAHAKAVI BHARATHIAR - and yet was the Organiser of constructing the MANIMANDAPAM for him in Ettayapuram !!
Very well said. What makes me stick with this group is exactly that we are not a 'kalki fan club' engaging in blind hero worship. Even after 60+ years of freedom our country suffers this problem with hero worship of politicians, movie stars - anyone who you think you respect it is assumed you have to hero worship him/her and think they are super human. They are not. There is a lot of difference between pointing out flaws in someone's work and belittling them as a human. In fact every class in literature involves literary criticism where we critically analyse the author's work. I remember having such classes as far back as 7th grade. We analysed some of Kambar's work and critiqued it with both appreciation and what we thought was not ok. Whether a 7th grader can criticise kambar is not the point - it is about developing criticism/analytical skills and also getting to know at an early age that every piece of work has both flaws and good qualities.
SPS thank you for throwing more light on Venkat's work. I would love to read Kaviriyin Mainthan in fact more if he had not sacrificied his own style in favor of Kalki:))