Oct 03, 2007 12:31 PM
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I feel sorry for myself at times. Though I am able to speak (read murder) Tamil in the form of Thindi or Thinglish, my reading and writing skills are still at kindergarten level. And no, it is not something I am proud of. It has more to do with my interest or the lack of it – I was never good with languages. Add to it the fact that I grew up outside the state. To cut the long story short, I have heard of some literary gems in Tamil. One of them was “Parthiban Kanavu” or “Parthiban’s dream”. Not yet in a position to read through a whole book in tamil, I chanced upon the translated version on a visit to a book shop. I grabbed it.
What attracted me to the book
For one, as I mentioned above, the original book is a classic in its own right. Written by R Krishnamurthy, it was originally a serial story in the magazine called Kalki. This magazine was started in 1941 by him and is still going strong. From 1943 Kalki R. Krishnamurthy began his serial historical fictions. Parthiban Kanavu is the first of the trilogy, the other two being Sivakamiyin Sabatham and Ponniyin Selvan, the last one being a magnum opus which is a five-volume work. Kalki was the first writer to have used ancient history of Dravidians namely the Chola-Chera-Pandiya-Pallava reign, as a backdrop and so beautifully at that.
My second reason for picking the book was that it has been translated and abridged by a 15 year old girl called Nirupama Raghavan. She writes that she fell in love with the characters in the novel and that was what prompted her to undertake this monumental task. It is not without reason that they say that child is the father of man. In times like today, when our youngsters are shying away from our language, culture and heritage, the fact that such a young girl has not only read and appreciated but translated the book, makes me want to salute her. Kudos!
Coming to the story
Any story that starts “Once upon a time, there ruled a king” is enchanting for me. The story revolves around the dream of the Chola King Parthiban who wishes to see Cholas as the most powerful rulers whose kingdom spans from Himalayas down to SriLanka, only to die fighting Narasimha Varman, the Pallava king. Before setting off for the war, he shares this wish of his with his wife. While lying injured on the field, a mysterious Sivanadiyar (or bhakta of Shiva) appears from nowhere and promises to him that his heir will be brought up as a man of great valour. The identity of the Sivanadiyar is kept a suspense till the end.
The story then weaves itself around
~a son trying to fulfill the dreams of his father,
~a mother trying to live upto the promise she made to her man
~a just king and his quandaries
~a heroine and her dilemmas
~a villain coming in the way of justice (every story has to have one!)
Clichéd you would say! But lets not forget the time when the book was written.
My opinion
The translated versions and the remakes have almost always failed to live upto the grandeur of the original, be it movies, books or songs. Since I haven’t read the original, I am not in a position to compare. A 400 plus page of original must have lost some essence when being converted to 200 plus abridged translation. But still, this book manages to hold my attention and I finished it in 2 sittings. The narration is fluid and the story is engrossing.
At many a places, the mind starts conjuring up images from past, of the times when life was different, times when there still existed extinct qualities like loyalty and justice, times when the ruler dreamt for his subjects rather than himself. I imagined a green Chola empire, a beautiful Mamallapuram (present day Mahabalipuram), a flooded Kauveri river (which alas is dried up in the tanjore area now).
What could have been better
was the way it was illustrated. Also in the first glance, the book gave the impression of a text book from school days.
And yet, I am only wondering that if the translation is so enchanting, how good the original must be! If any of the readers have had the priviledge to read it, please enlighten me on the original classic!
