FOREWORD OF ‘KANCHI’

“sequel to sivakamiyin sabatham”

KANCHI

question on B

Name this old man
his name starts with a B

QUESTIONON ‘A’

THE ANSWER STARTS WITH LETTER A

uthama chola and sendan amudhan

a novel that was read and re read over half a century develops a aura around itself and along with it arise many pet theories

kalki was not a history writer. he was a writer of fiction. he asserted his right by  making a flower boy the real heir to the throne. it was often considered his masterpiece so reminescent of his favourite french authors. the true heir hidden amongst the masses by a quirk of fate.

it was widely beleived that Initially Senthan Amudhan was not intended to be converted to Mathuranthaka by Kalki. The reasons for this sudden change of mind on Kalki’s side is explained by  somebody who was close enough to have observed it.
Kalki’s son Mr.Rajendran narrated the exact incident as wrote:
One day Kalki was doing Yogasana, every morning he had the habit of doing that. (Remember that Yogacharya Sundaram’s widely acclaimed series on Yoga featured as a series in Kalki in those days.) And it was boy Rajendran’s duty, every day to count numbers for his father when he was doing Sirasasanam, a posture of standing upside down!

On the given day after recovering from asana posture Kalki suddenly asked the boy : Senthan Amudhan|Senthan AmudhanayeRaja Aakki vittal enna ? (Why not make Sendhan Amudhan a king ?)

could this be true.???????

kalki in ponniyin selvan never wrote about a needless charecter. each had its role to play.

here are some likely evidences that point otherwise.

A M U TH- A is an anagram of  U- TH- A -M A

pungkuzhali always insists she will marry an emperor only. none but kalki knew that senthan amudhan would succeed in marrying her at the end.

the favourite song that amudhan sings is about the mazhapaadi temple- ponnaar meniyanE…..  a temple of mathuranthaka’s maternal kingdom malpaadi. a temple that is always associated with uthama sola.

Solomon sketches for “Thillaiyil oru ……

Solomon Vedamuthu is a well known architect of Chennai.

one who beleives an architect should be a person who does other things than just buildings.

his foremost achievement is training hundreds of school finalists to get into architectural colleges.

his lectures on perspectives and vanishing points are flavoured liberally with dollops of motivational  materiel and self improvement tactics.

solomon is also a wonderful artist .

i was lucky to get him draw three sketches for the novel  THILLAIYIL ORU KOLLAIKKAARAN

one of them- the palanquin bearers is a masterpiece.

A kingdom around Kailash

Kailash- the abode of lord Shiva. when we think of the locale the pictures of windswept valleys, and ice laden mountains devoid of any life comes to our minds.

But was it always so?

our legends speak of thousands of butha kanangal serving the gods at Kailash.

recent photographic evidence  from the pilgrims who are performing the inner parikram- the short route just touching the holy hill indicates ajantha ellora shaped caves on the hill itself.

does climate change have something to do about it.

evidences are cropping up of a large scale kingdom flourishing for a thousand years around mount kailash till they were destroyed by a ladakhi army.

a kingdom seemingly straight out of an Indiana Jones movie.

european travellers of the 17th century talk of paddy fields and a cultured civilisation.

it was the Kingdom of Guge.

what have the archeologists found at Guge?.

A  massive mountaintop fortress with lavishly painted interiors, surrounded by soft clay cliffs peppered with hundreds of frescoed caves pockmarking the areas that surround the 900-foot-high citadel.

A succession independent semi-feudal states , the most notable being the Kingdom of Gu-ge on the banks of the Sutlej river immediately north of the main Himalaya ruled the area.
Founded in the 9th century Gu-ge was the political and cultural focus for all western Tibet. Sited on a minor trade route linking Tibet with Kashmir and India the twin towns of Tholing and Tsaparang it thrived until the 17th century when invading forces overcame the defenses and massacred the population.

From the 1680s until the early 20th Century the region was largely deserted, with its great history and cultural treasures forgotten and undisturbed.

Guge remains historically important as the repository of an otherwise vanished artistic style and the source from which an invigorated Buddhist faith spread its light over Tibet.

Chola Temple @ Chingelpet

When one travels south from Chennai, on the GST road just before chingelpet are a range of hills on the right, and of course the ‘never say dry’ kulavai lake on the left.

while people in fast moving vehicles fail to notice,  the more patient amongst them see up on one hill a board that says ‘Siva Siva’ .

folow the board that beckons you  on a track that leads you to the top where we find a peculiar mix of the old and new. a 1000 year old temple stands up to the roof level and above that the construction of a modern roof goes on.

i have visited the site way back in 1996. then  the abandoned and dilapitated temple had a linga  and all around it were snake skins. the amman temple had caved in.

now a swamiji with two labardor dogs has taken over the place and commenced puja.

the temple is called pulipakkam a reminder of an association with a saint called vyagrapadar who had tiger feet.

the base of the temple has an edict mentioning raja raja.

other than history the view from the hilltop is breath taking.

ELEPHANT- PROOF GATES

kalki writes about the precautions the pallavas take to keep pulikesi at bay.

the gates of their forts are protected by spikes. when elephants in the  role of battering rams try to bludgeon the entrances the spikes would injure them and they in the ensuing pain turn on their friends. the elephants had a nice drink of water spiked with alchohol to combat the spikes on the gate( pun intended)

all these must have become obsolete with the invention of fire power. aim your cannon at the forts door and pull the fuse- it can accomplish what an intoxicated elephant goaded on by its mahout could do.

I saw this gate in a maratta fort in pune, maharastra. took my memories to sivakamiyin sabatham.

Veda’s sketches for Kaviri mainthan

veda is a renowned artist who sketches for Kalki magazine.

he is a nephew of Maniam who drew  the original sketches for kalki’s ponniyin selvan.

i was very particular that veda give me a sample sketch to know for sure his visualisation matched my imagination.

here are three of the sample sketches

its tough to convince him though, on certain matters. for example he refused to draw   a cover with the night back ground. he did give me a sample sketch but refused to do it  for the final cover.

some how i managed to convince him on  the night scenes for all the three back covers- they were black and white sketches.

veda gave me 6 wonderful sketches, one for the front and one for the back of the 3 volumes.

BOOK 1

BOOK 2

BOOK 3

i was very keen that the third book should not have a symbolism of romance  though there were several instances of it in that volume. i went along with karuvur thevar and arul mozhi at thirupoovanam.