Saandilyan, historical writer.

I love books and have been reading fiction right from my school days. But my introduction to fiction was through English viz., Enid Blyton and then Hardy Boys and later Jeffrey Archer and other best sellers. Sometime during my X Std vacation my father introduced me to Tamil books and would make sure that I read atleast one Tamil novel to every two English books. Since I had to get money from him to rent English story books from lending library, I had to tow his line. Thanks to my father and his wide collection of Tamil novels, I had a fairly good exposure to authors like Na.Paarthasarathy, Mu.Va, Akilan, Sujatha, Manian, etc. even at such an early age. But the one I loved most was Saandilyan and though his books are voluminous, it is a great pleasure to read and re-read them. Ofcourse, there were many novelists who wrote historic novels, Kalki being the most famous. But somehow, I am prejudiced towards Sandilyan may be because of the way he depicts war strategies in such minute detail in his stories.  

I had the chance to read “Yavana Rani” again. I am sure I must have read this book atleast four times starting from my X standard vacation. But every time I read, I find it as an interesting novel, a great story based on a real war and enjoy it immensely. Infact, I would go as far to say that this was his masterpiece. Saandilyan’s historic novels are famous for his fantastic description of nature, his extraordinary talent of blending historic (and real) characters with his imaginary characters, his painstaking efforts to make sure that everything he writes is historically correct and above all, an engrossing story woven in between. The research he does for each novel of his is amazing and he quotes all the books he had referred to write each novel in the preface but it is his ability to sprinkle the historic facts throughout the story that makes it interesting. Yavana Rani for instance is about how Karikala Chozhan fought and won the battle of Venni (the place where the battle was fought) crushing both Pandya & Chera kings (the two big Kings who ruled South India during that time) to regain his rightful throne. But the story revolves around a fictional character of Illanchezhiyan, leader of a small army and how he helps the King in this great war.

Almost all his novels were written for weekly magazines, so characteristically each chapter ends with a surprise or a twist so that the reader’s interest in the novel is retained till the next week. Also all the chapters start with a summary of the previous week’s events to make sure that the readers haven’t forgotten the old events with a long winding and pretty lengthy sentence. Though his novels are pretty lengthy, Yavana Rani for instance is published in two parts and is nearly 1280 pages long but to his credit it has to be said that he writes it in a very interesting way that we crave for more. Ofcourse, sometimes he gets into lengthy descriptions and narrations about nature and physical features of women, especially when we eagerly look forward with bated breath to see how events unfold. Also, in certain cases, he ends a chapter with a very important knot but the knot is revealed only after a couple of chapters testing our patience. Everything said and done, Saandilyan’s novels are a trove of historical information and I, for one, can say was interested in history because of his novels and feel proud to live in a country which is so rich in culture and one of the earliest civilizations of the world.