Ayirathil Oruvan to Vengayin Mainthan
I always loved SelvaRaghavan movies and in particular the movie Ayirathil Oruvan (Referred hereafter as AO) was my favorite of SelvaR. AO had a fantastic story in place where a group of people scouting for missing people in a remote island eventually landing up the island to meet the Chola tribe. I would request the reader to watch the movie from here to understand it better in case you had watched it.
To cut the story short, after watching AO - the impact of lost Chola tribe reminded me of Lankan Tamils (with Reema resembling the Madam...Parthiban - the Savior/leader of the tribe...resembles whom...u would got it by now...and with army resembling IPKF). On top of this whenever a Lankan ethnic crisis discussion appears....there was a question lingering on the mind... as such who are the real sons of soil - was it people from Mahinda dynasty / Cholas from TN ?...as If I can recollect only after the Kalinga Battle and influence of Ashoka...Buddhism had its roots in Lanka.
From Movies...going little far away to understand history with Wiki...and other books...though I am not an Indologist to relate descendants of Vibeeshana to Mahinda...but to read and understand the history of Mahinda-Ellala chola...- Raja Raja Chola and finally with Rajendra Chola....to understand the battles of supremacy fought between the erstwhile Chola Kingdom and Lanka.
This made me to read more on the Rajendra Chola (S/o Raja Raja Chola)
to understand the rise and conquests of Chola Empire. "Kadaram Kondan" was the title which was most fascinating of all....where "Kadaram" refers to modern day Cambodia/Kampuchea..(which incidentally referred as Khamboja..in Ancient History...and place which gave the raga Khamboji)...
Its a Herculean task for somebody to capture Kadaram(Cambodia)...SriVijaya(Indonesia)and the erstwhile Malaya Kingdoms...(I presume if there is an ethnic crisis - related Hindu protesters deprived of rights...in Islam state...people should understand the history of Hindus living from Chola Temple...where Thai Poosam is still celebrated at Batu Murugan Temple where as Islam came much later into their country.
Coming back to my admiration on Rajendra Chola's conquests -
He has marched his troops all the way upto Bengal (which is referred as Vanga those days) enroute he defeated Kalinga and Odda (which is modern day Maoist Odisha and also forged an alliance with Vengi Kings..(which is modern day Coastal Andhra by getting his sister married to a king...more like free trade agreements (FTAs) and bilateral agreements as a part of Confidence Building Measures (CBM) of modern day Governance.
Vengayin Mainthan is all about a triangular love story between "Ilangovel" (commander of Rajendra chola who rose from the ranks) and "Rohini" (the princess of Rohana kingdom which is erstwhile Lanka) and of course the third vertices of love angle "ArunmozhiDhevi". There are few other characters and to name a few - VeeraMalla (who once was a friend of Ilangovel) and jealousy being his friend makes him to fight with Ilango and join hands with Pandyas and Ruhanas.
I liked this story and wants this to be made as a film as to see these characters on larger canvas and modern day CG with stories filled with betrayal, chauvinistic ego, valour, calmness with tactical brilliance of Rajendra C and narration filled with every piece of emotion we know. Probably my fascination for Cholas started to grow more than after reading this masterpiece which was also a "Sahitya Akademi winner" bagged by P V Akilandam (affectionately called as Akilan of Chitrapaavai fame).
To cut the story short, after watching AO - the impact of lost Chola tribe reminded me of Lankan Tamils (with Reema resembling the Madam...Parthiban - the Savior/leader of the tribe...resembles whom...u would got it by now...and with army resembling IPKF). On top of this whenever a Lankan ethnic crisis discussion appears....there was a question lingering on the mind... as such who are the real sons of soil - was it people from Mahinda dynasty / Cholas from TN ?...as If I can recollect only after the Kalinga Battle and influence of Ashoka...Buddhism had its roots in Lanka.
From Movies...going little far away to understand history with Wiki...and other books...though I am not an Indologist to relate descendants of Vibeeshana to Mahinda...but to read and understand the history of Mahinda-Ellala chola...- Raja Raja Chola and finally with Rajendra Chola....to understand the battles of supremacy fought between the erstwhile Chola Kingdom and Lanka.
This made me to read more on the Rajendra Chola (S/o Raja Raja Chola)
to understand the rise and conquests of Chola Empire. "Kadaram Kondan" was the title which was most fascinating of all....where "Kadaram" refers to modern day Cambodia/Kampuchea..(which incidentally referred as Khamboja..in Ancient History...and place which gave the raga Khamboji)...
Its a Herculean task for somebody to capture Kadaram(Cambodia)...SriVijaya(Indonesia)and the erstwhile Malaya Kingdoms...(I presume if there is an ethnic crisis - related Hindu protesters deprived of rights...in Islam state...people should understand the history of Hindus living from Chola Temple...where Thai Poosam is still celebrated at Batu Murugan Temple where as Islam came much later into their country.
Coming back to my admiration on Rajendra Chola's conquests -
He has marched his troops all the way upto Bengal (which is referred as Vanga those days) enroute he defeated Kalinga and Odda (which is modern day Maoist Odisha and also forged an alliance with Vengi Kings..(which is modern day Coastal Andhra by getting his sister married to a king...more like free trade agreements (FTAs) and bilateral agreements as a part of Confidence Building Measures (CBM) of modern day Governance.
Vengayin Mainthan is all about a triangular love story between "Ilangovel" (commander of Rajendra chola who rose from the ranks) and "Rohini" (the princess of Rohana kingdom which is erstwhile Lanka) and of course the third vertices of love angle "ArunmozhiDhevi". There are few other characters and to name a few - VeeraMalla (who once was a friend of Ilangovel) and jealousy being his friend makes him to fight with Ilango and join hands with Pandyas and Ruhanas.
I liked this story and wants this to be made as a film as to see these characters on larger canvas and modern day CG with stories filled with betrayal, chauvinistic ego, valour, calmness with tactical brilliance of Rajendra C and narration filled with every piece of emotion we know. Probably my fascination for Cholas started to grow more than after reading this masterpiece which was also a "Sahitya Akademi winner" bagged by P V Akilandam (affectionately called as Akilan of Chitrapaavai fame).
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