Siddharth N. Vijayaraghavan is an Indian-born, Singapore- and India-educated writer. He is currently pursuing his Masters (integrated) in English from the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras.
The book Empire of the Cholas is a historical novel. The author describes his personal feelings while writing this book: The temple or the characters depicted in the book may be fictional to some, but to him they are the people he has lived and spoken with. The book begins with the first chapter as follows: “The sun rose on the eastern horizon, casting a golden pink glow on the sea, the paddy fields and the coconut groves beside the old port town of Nagapattinam.” The author further adds that 16-year-old Angayarkanni, a beautiful and reclusive fisherwoman, left home; she comes from a family of pearl divers and fishermen who had earlier lived in Pandya Nadu. Her father Subbiah was an experienced pearl diver and a famous pearl merchant.
During the reign of Utthama Chola (970 AD to 986 AD), Subbiah moved from Pandya Nadu to Nagapattinam in Chola Nadu, a place that was enormously prosperous at that time. Subbiah lost his wife at a very early age. Besides his daughter Angayarkanni, he had a son, Ponniah. One day, while fishing in the middle of the sea, Angayarkanni saw a strange sight: a pink mass more than six feet long, wrapped in blue silk and attached to what looked like a wooden board, was floating up and down in the sea. It caught her attention, and she was already rowing the boat with a large catch of fish. To get help, she blew into her conch, an instrument that all fishermen possessed to signal others that they should need help. A few fishermen nearby rushed to her aid. She pulled the unconscious man towards her, who was clinging precariously to the wooden board. To catch the man, some fishermen jumped into the sea and pulled him into Angayarkanni’s boat.
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When the boat reached the shore, the man was taken to her house. Her father immediately called the Vaidhyar to treat him. Chidambara Vaidhyar examined him, administered some herbal remedies and gave Angayarkanni instructions on how to care for the sick person. She looked after the man all the time until he recovered. When she spoke to him, she knew his name, Roeland Crape, but had difficulty pronouncing it. She addressed him as Vellaiappan and gradually others began to call him that too.
In the meantime, she became friends with Vellaiappan and wanted to marry him. Though both of them agreed to the marriage, her father could not agree for a long time until the wise Prime Minister Aniruddha Brahmarayar intervened and persuaded Subbiah to agree. So both of them got married in the magical Shiva temple in Nagapattinam. Two years after the wedding, they had their first child, whom they named Aniruddhan. And the story goes on… like this.
The novel is set in the reign of Raja Raja Chola I, one of the greatest empires of India, who helped his son, Prince Rajendra, to the throne. He bore the famous title of Kadaramkondan when he defeated King Sailendra of the Srivijaya dynasty. The author has drawn attention to the naval power of the Cholas. This book highlights the famous Brihadeeswara Temple in Thanjavur, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It discusses how this temple was originally planned, how the work was carried out, who designed it and many other related aspects.
