Sivakamiyin Sabadam (Sivakami's Vow)

Sivakamiyin Sabadam (Sivakami’s Vow) is a masterpiece that sweeps one away almost 1400 years back into the past when the Pallavas reigned supreme in South India. The story of the love that blooms between the beautiful dancer Sivakami and the brave Pallava prince Mamallar is played out against the backdrop of the intriguing political chess game between the noble Pallava emperor Mahendra Varman and the evil Buddhist monk turned Chalukya spy, Naga Nandi. Naga Nandi deals a death blow to his arch-rival, Mahendra, and spirits away Sivakami from Kanchi, the capital of the Pallava kingdom to distant Vathapi, the capital of the Chalukya kingdom in the north, and imprisons her there for nine long years. Overwhelmed by the savage spectacles of war and bloodshed, rape and pillage, which she beholds on her way to Vathapi, Sivakami makes a vow before Naga Nandi that she won't leave Vathapi till she sees the city burning and its streets running rivers of blood under the dreadful onslaught of a victorious Pallava army led by her beloved Mamallar.

As the story progresses we see before us a fascinating saga of love and hate, heroism and villainy that unfolds under the grim shadow of war between two mighty empires- the Pallavas and the Chalukyas.

Kalki (1899-1954) whose real name was R. Krishnamurthy, was born in an orthodox Brahmin family. In 1921, Kalki gave up his studies to join the freedom struggle. During this period lie came in touch with C. Rajagopalachari and T. S. Sadasivam, who figured greatly in his life. In 1923. Kalki joined the Tamil periodical. Navasakthi but quit in 1928 to stay with Rajagopalachari at the Gandhi Ashram in - Tiruchengode and helped him edit Vimochanam, a Tamil journal. In 1932 he joined . Aanda Vikatan.

His witty, incisive comments on politics, literature, music and other forms of art were enthusiastically received by the reading public and the magazine soon became a household name among the Tamils.

In 1941 he joined the freedom struggle again and was arrested. On his release from jail after three months, he and Sadasivam started the weekly, Kalki, which he edited until his death. Many of his short stories and novels were published in it.

Kalki occupies a unique place in the world of the Tamil social novel. The early decades of the 20th century and the struggle for freedom come alive in his masterpieces Thyaga Bhoomi (The Land of Sacrifice) and Alai Osai (The Sound of Waves). No other writer of historical novels in Tamil has perhaps handled characters and themes in so brilliant and moving a manner as Kalki. His epic delineations of the great Mahendra Varma Pallava and his illustrious son Narasimha Varma Pallava in Sivakamiyin Sabadam or Sivakami's Vow (1944=46) and Parthiban Kanavu or Parthiban's Dream (1941-43) as well as his monumental odyssey about the young Raja Raja, heir to the Chola throne in Ponnyin Chelvan or The Beloved Off spring of the River Ponni (1950-54) are enduring literary achievements that bring to life the splendour of the Pallava and Chola kingdoms of by gone ages.

P. S. Sri, the translator is currently a Professor in the Department of English at the Royal Military College of Canada. His field of research is wide ranging and includes East-West literary and philosophical ideosynthesis, post-colonial, multicultural and Commonwealth literature, Arabic and Persian literature, and Sanskrit and Tamil literature. He is a recipient of several awards, both in the domains of literature and scholarship.

Forty-five years ago, when I had just turned sixteen, I was forced by family circumstances to spend the peak summer month of May in our remote yet picturesque ancestral village of Pallipuram, adjoining the monsoon-drenched Western Ghats in the Palghat district of lush green Kerala on the west coast of India, adjoining the Arabian Sea. One blisteringly hot afternoon, I was bored stiff and yearning for something interesting to do. I was rummaging through a rickety old bookshelf in a dark corner of my grandfather's cavernous red-shingled home. I came across a lengthy Tamil novel, Si-va-ka-mi-yin Sa-ba-dam (Si-va-ka-mi's Vow), containing 209 chapters and running to more than a thousand pages.

Someone had carefully culled the various chapters as and when they had been serialized in the popular Tamil weekly magazine, Kal-ki, over a period of a year and a half and bound them lovingly together into two bulky volumes. After dusting them off, I plunged into the story and was immediately enthralled. Within minutes, I was swept away by the limpid smooth-flowing Tamil prose almost 1400 years into the distant past when the Pal-la-vas reigned supreme and there was a remarkable efflorescence of poetry, sculpture and dance in South India. I was swiftly immersed in a fascinating saga of love and hate, heroism and villainy, statesmanship and intrigue that unfolded under the grim shadow of war between two mighty empires - the Pal-la-va and the Cha-luk-ya - of the ancient world.

When the two original dusty hand-bound volumes disintegrated and eventually got lost during a move, I was inconsolable for days till I got hold of a hardbound copy of the classic novel reprinted conveniently in a single volume. Since then, I have read and re-read Si-va-ka-mi-yin Sa-ba-dam countless times - by torch light under bed covers late at night when the elders were all asleep at home, by bright tropical moonlight to the accompaniment of tinkling bells around the necks of bulls that dragged the can I was in from village to village, by broad day light impervious to the heat of ramshackle buses and the smoke of chugging steam trains, by soft reading light of airplanes winging their way across continents over fleecy white clouds, by dim ceiling light of fancy restaurants and theatres in cosmopolitan cities in India and abroad. Never has Si-va-ka-mi-yin Sa-ba-dam failed to captivate me - with its heady mixture of romance, chivalry, honour, courage, nobility and wickedness.

Every time I pick up the novel, I am filled with an enormous anticipation of a journey of the imagination, filled with adventure and excitement. Once again, I am on the way to Kan-chi, the capital of the great Pal-la-va kingdom, along with Pa-ram-jo-thi, an innocent young lad eager for education, and his mysterious companion, Na-ga Nan-di, a middle-aged Buddhist monk. There is ominous news of the invading ocean of the Cha-luk-ya army and the city gates of Kan-chi are rammed shut.

**Contents and Sample Pages**