 |
| Volume 3 - The Sword |
In the 10th century AD, South
India was ruled by the mighty Cholas who expanded their Kingdom from Elangai
(Sri Lanka) to Krishna River. Our story begins during the reign of King Sundara
Chola (Paranthkan II) who was sick and abed with paralysis. His son and the
Crown Prince Aditya Karikalan was gathering forces in Kanchipuram to expand
their Kingdom and his second son Prince Arul Mozhi Varman had conquered Elangai
and was setting up Chola suzerainty.
Aditya Karikalan is worried about his
father’s health and security in the hands of Pazhuvur brothers (prominent
noblemen in the Chola court). He sends his friend and trusted messenger Vandiya
Devan with a message to the King, asking him to come to Kanchipuram. Vandiya
Devan who stays in his friend Kandan Maran’s house at Kadambur finds out about
the Pazhuvur brothers were planning to install Prince Madhuranthakan as the
next king and thereby deny the throne to Karikalan.
Vandiya Devan also meets Azhwarkadiyan
during his travel, a spy who works for Chola Prime Minister Anirudhar.
Azhwarkadiyan tells him about Nandini, the young wife of Periya Pazhuvetarayar.
He also finds out that Nandini’s beauty had enslaved Pazhuvetarayar so much so
that he gives her free reign to do as she pleases. Nandini is also the leader
of the late Pandya King’s loyalists who have taken a vow to avenge their king’s
death. They conspire to kill Aditya Karikalan who had killed their king and
wipe out his entire family. Vandiya Devan meets Nandini and gets her signet
ring, which he uses to gain entry into the fort.
In the fort, he meets the King and tries to
warn him about the plot that the Pazhuvur brothers were hatching but is
interrupted by the Chinna Pazhuvetarayar. He also meets Nandini in her palace
garden who tries to seduce him. When he escapes from her palace he encounters
his friend Kandan Maran in the dungeon passage and saves his life from the
murderous guard. He then escapes from the fort and leaves for Pazhaiarai with
the help of his friend Senthan Amuthan.
In Pazhaiarai, he meets Princess Kundavai
and finds out that she is same woman with whom he had fallen in love in
Kudanthai. He tells Kundavai about the conspiracy that the noblemen are
hatching. She sends an Olai to her brother Arul Mozhi in Elangai and asks
Vandiya Devan to bring him back home. Vandiya Devan leaves for Kodi Karai.
Prince Aditya Karikalan is furious because
his friend has been branded a spy and he wants to take his army to Thanjavur.
His grandfather Malaimaan advises him against it and asks him bring back Prince
Arul Mozhi home. They decide to send Parthibendra Pallavan to Elangai for this
task. Before he left, Karikalan tells Parthibendran about his love for Nandini
and how she had betrayed him by sheltering and pleading for Veera Pandyan’s
life. He regrets his action and wishes that he had not beheaded the king.
Kundavai leaves for Thanjavur along with
her companion Vanathi, the Kodumbalur Princess. Vanathi is in love with Prince
Arul Mozhi Varmar but she is also very faint hearted. In Thanjavur she sees the
King moaning in pain one night and finds him shouting at someone who resembled
Nandini. The King calls Kundavai for a private audience and he reveals his past
to her. When he was a young Prince Sundara Chola was once stranded in an island
near Elangai and there he meets and falls in love with a fisher girl called
Mandakini, who is deaf and mute. One day, the King’s men find Sundara chola and
he goes back to the Kingdom after promising her his hand. Back in the Kingdom,
he becomes the crown prince and Mandakini who is heart broken, commits suicide
by jumping from Kodi Karai lighthouse. Sundara chola believes that Mandakini’s
ghost is haunting him and trying to tell him to give up the kingdom to
Maduranthakan.
Vandiya Devan in the meanwhile meets
Poonguzhali, a boat girl in Kodi Karai and goes to Elangai with her help. In
Elangai, he meets Azhwarkadiyan who escorts him to the Prince. Prince Arul
Mozhi Varmar is very taken in by Vandiya Devan’s personality they become fast
friends. Arul Mozhi also reveals to them that a deaf and mute woman was saving
his life and helping him in Elangai. He also tells them that she had saved his
life when he was young and calls her as Kaveri Amman. Kaveri Amman saves them
once again from the murderous gang led by Ravidasa who is the leader of Veera
Pandya’s erstwhile bodyguards. Vandiya Devan is taken aback by her resemblance
to Nandini and guesses that she might be her mother.
Poonguzhali meets them again and gives a
message that two warships have come to arrest the Prince under the King’s
orders. Kodumbalur Periya Vellar and Parthibendrn try to counsel the Prince
against surrendering but in vain. The Prince decides to meet the ships and give
himself up. He leaves their army in an elephant along with Poonguzhali but the
warships are no longer there. One of the war ships is broken after running
aground while the other is taken over by Arab pirates. Vandiya Devan who sees
the Arab Pirates going with Ravidasan assumes that the Prince is held a
prisoner in the ship. He swims towards them and gets into their ship but is
instead kidnapped by them.
The Prince in the meanwhile takes
Parthibendran’s ship and goes in search of Vandiya Devan. In the midst of a
fierce storm, Vandiya Devan kills the Arab Pirates and then Mandiravadi and his
companion abandon the ship leaving him alone in it. When the storm intensifies
a lightening strikes the ship and its sails catch fire. The prince rescues him
from the ship but they end up floating in the sea and are later rescued by
Poonguzhali.
No comments:
Post a Comment