About the Book

PART FOUR OF A SCINTILLATING NEW TRANSLATION OF THE CLASSIC TAMIL NOVEL.
Who wants to kill Arulmozhi Varman, the beloved Ponniyin Selvan, whose kindness has won over the hearts of the Lankan people, earning him their unwavering loyalty? How does he manage to repeatedly escape death, each time aided by a mysterious woman whose face bears an eerie similarity to that of the Pazhuvoor Ilaiya Rani? Who is the enigmatic Kaveri Amman and what is her connection to the Chozha royal family? Pulled in three directions, who will Arulmozhi Varman listen to-his father who has ordered that he be brought to Thanjavur, his brother Aditya Karikalan who calls him to Kanchi, or his sister who summons him to Pazhaiyarai?
Surrounded by danger in all directions, Ponniyin Selvan must find his way through this chakravyuha just as Abhimanyu had to in the great battle of Kurukshetra in Mahabharata ... and emerge alive.
When Ponniyin Selvan was first serialised in Kalki, no one could have imagined the impact it would have on the circulation of the magazine. The novel invented a distinct style, in which slang alternates with erudition, wordplay with euphoric prose and vivid imagery-a style that critics came to call 'Kalki Tamil'. Today, this pioneering work is considered one of the great classics of Tamil literature.
This unabridged translation of Kalki Krishnamurthy's masterwork by Nandini Krishnan is at once faithful to the original and accessible to the readers of this day. Carefully crafted in lyrical prose, the Ponniyin Selvan series is the quintessential page-turner: full of adventure, intrigue, conspiracy and romance.

About the Author

'Kalki' is the pen name of Ramaswamy Krishnamurthy (1899-1954), whose career in writing and journalism began as activism during the struggle for Indian independence. He served as editor of the popular Tamil magazine Ananda Vikatan before launching Kalki. The magazine-and eventually its founder-was named for the mythological tenth avatar of Vishnu to symbolise a vision to 'destroy regressive regimes, express radical thoughts, take readers into new directions, and create a new era'. Kalki wrote several novels, including Parthiban Kanavu and Sivakamiyin Sabadam, as well as political essays, film reviews, dance and music critiques and scholarly work.

About the Translator

Nandini Krishnan is the author of Hitched: The Modern Woman and Arranged Marriage and Invisible Men: Inside India's Transmasculine Networks. She has translated two of Perumal Murugan's works into English: Estuary and Four Strokes of Luck. She was shortlis