Bhashyam Iyengar (6 November 1910 - 11 September 1987), better known by the

pen name A pen name, also called a ''nom de plume'' or a literary double, is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen na ...

of Sandilyan, was an Indian writer known for his

historical fiction Historical fiction is a literary genre in which the plot takes place in a setting related to the past events, but is fictional. Although the term is commonly used as a synonym for historical fiction literature, it can also be applied to other t ...

novels in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia ** Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, na ...

. He is known for his

historical romance Historical romance is a broad category of mass-market fiction focusing on romantic relationships in historical periods, which Walter Scott helped popularize in the early 19th century. Varieties Viking These books feature Vikings during the Dar ...

and

adventure novel Adventure fiction is a type of fiction that usually presents danger, or gives the reader a sense of excitement. Some adventure fiction also satisfies the literary definition of romance fiction. History In the Introduction to the ''Encycloped ...

s, often set in the times of the

Chola The Chola dynasty was a Tamil thalassocratic empire of southern India and one of the longest-ruling dynasties in the history of the world. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated to the 3rd century BCE d ...

and Pandya empires.

Early life

Sandilyan was born in

Tirukoilur Tirukoilur also spelt as ''Tirukkoyilur'' or ''Tirukovilur'' is a city and the headquarters of Tirukoilur taluk in Kallakurichi District, Tamil Nadu, India. The town is located on the southern bank of Thenpennai River and famous for Ulagala ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

on 10 November 1910Datta, P.631-2 to Ramanujam Iyengar and Poongovilvalli. His family was from Thiruindalur village near

Mayiladuthurai Mayiladuthurai (formerly known as Mayavaram or Mayuram) is a town and district headquarter of Mayiladuthurai district in Tamil Nadu, India. The town is located at a distance of from the state capital, Chennai. Mayiladuthurai was ruled by Medie ...

. He did his schooling in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Pachaiyappa's School and

Saidapet Saidapet, also known as Saidai, is a neighbourhood in Chennai, India, situated in the northern banks of the Adyar River and serves as an entry point to Central Chennai. It is surrounded by West Mambalam in the North, C.I.T Nagar in the North ...

Model School. His college education came from

Tiruchirappalli Tiruchirappalli () ( formerly Trichinopoly in English), also called Tiruchi or Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with be ...

St. Joseph's College. While in college, he was influenced by the visit of

C. Rajagopalachari Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (10 December 1878 – 25 December 1972), popularly known as Rajaji or C.R., also known as Mootharignar Rajaji (Rajaji'', the Scholar Emeritus''), was an Indian statesman, writer, lawyer, and independence activis ...

and joined the

Indian independence movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal ...

. He became a member of the

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

. He married Ranganayaki in 1929.

Early career

After finishing college he moved to

T. Nagar Thyagaraya Nagar, commonly known as T. Nagar, and historically known as East Mambalam, is a very affluent commercial and residential neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. It is surrounded by Nungambakkam in the North, Teynampet in the Ea ...

in the 1930s. He became friends with his neighbours V.Swaminatha Sharma who was working in Thiru. Vi. Ka's weekly magazine ''Navasakthi'' and the noted Tamil writer

Kalki Krishnamurthy , birth_name = Ramasamy Aiyer Krishnamurthy , birth_date = , birth_place = Puthamangalam, near Manalmedu , death_date = , death_place = Chennai, India , occupation = journalist, critic and writer , nationality = Indian , education = H ...

. With their encouragement he wrote his first short story titled ''Shantha Seelan''. Impressed with his work, Kalki published his short stories like ''Kannammavin Kadhal'', ''Adhirshtam'' in

Ananda Vikatan ''Ananda Vikatan'' is a Tamil-language weekly magazine published from Chennai, India. History and profile ''Ananda Vikatan'' was started by Late Pudhoor Vaidyanadhaiyar in February 1926 as a monthly publication. The issue for December 1927 wa ...

. Encouraged by this success Sandilyan started learning the Tamil language formally from a Tamil Pandit named Thirukannapuram Srinivachariar. He started writing Tamil short stories in the Tamil Weekly ''Sudesamithran'' and also worked as a reporter in ''Sudesamithran'' from 1935 to 1942. Later he became a sub-editor at the English daily newspaper

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Ly ...

Work in films

During his time at the

he became friends with B N Reddy of Vijaya Studios and V. Nagayya. This bought him into the world of films. He co-wrote the screenplays of films like Swarga Seema (1945) and

En Veedu ''Naa Illu'' ( en, italic=yes, My Home) is a 1953 Telugu-language film produced and directed by V. Nagayya. The story was written by Devulapalli Krishnasastri. The film had two dance sequences and full-length Hindi songs sung by Meena Kapoor. ...

(1953). He later wrote about his film world experiences in his book ''Cinema Valarndha Kadhai'' (1985). Later he also produced a documentary titled "Birth of a Newspaper".

Novels

After his stint at the

he returned to work at ''Sudesamithran'' and started writing full-length novels. One of his first works was a self-published

political novel Political fiction employs narrative to comment on political events, systems and theories. Works of political fiction, such as political novels, often "directly criticize an existing society or present an alternative, even fantast ...

called ''Balathkaaram''. He also started publishing in other magazines like ''Amudhasurabi''. ''Paalaivanathu pushpam'' and ''Sandha deepam'' were his earliest historical novels. Sandilyan's most famous novels were serialised in ''

Kumudam ''Kumudam'' is a Tamil weekly magazine published in Chennai, India. It was founded in 1948 by S.A.P. Annamalai, and his close friend and confidante P.V. Parthasarathy. Now the magazine is published under the Kumudam Group, which also publishes ...

'', a weekly Tamil magazine and was instrumental in increasing the circulation to a greater extent. He was one of the very few Tamil writers to get a monthly salary from ''Kumudam'' for his novels. After leaving ''Kumudam'', he unsuccessfully ran a weekly magazine called ''Kamalam''. His historical novels were published in book form by Vanadhi Padhippagam and became best sellers. As of 2009, many of them still remain in print, four decades after being first published.

Kamil Zvelebil Kamil Václav Zvelebil (November 17, 1927 – January 17, 2009) was a Czech scholar in Indian literature and linguistics, notably Tamil, Sanskrit, Dravidian linguistics and literature and philology. Life and career Zvelebil studied at the Cha ...

once called him as the "fourth most popular Tamil Writer".

Nationalization Controversy

In 2009, The

Government announced its intention to nationalise Sandilyan's works (along with those of 28 other authors) and provide compensation to his legal heirs. This caused criticism from the legal heirs of Sundara Ramasami and

Kannadasan Kannadasan (; 24 June 1927 – 17 October 1981) was an Indian philosopher, poet, film song lyricist, producer, actor, script-writer, editor, philanthropist, and is heralded as one of the greatest and most important lyricists in India. Freq ...

. The Government soon retracted its position saying that the offer was optional and that it would force those who did not want to lose royalty. Sandilyan's legal heirs declined the Government's offer to nationalise and provide solatium.Legal heirs of 5 Tamil writers decline offer
/ref>

Partial bibliography

Autobiography

* Porattangal – போராட்டங்கள் (1978)

Biography

* Sri Ramanujar – ஸ்ரீ ராமானுஜர்

Short Story Collection

* Raniyin kanavu – ராணியின் கனவு (1963)

Non Fiction

* Cinema Valarndha Kadhai – சினிமா வளர்ந்த கதை (1987) * Kamban Kanda Pengal – கம்பன் கண்ட பெண்கள் (1979)

Non-Historical Fiction

* Balathkaaram (Puratchi Pen) (1958) * Shenbaga Thottam * Manamoham * Nangooram * Madhumalar

Historical Fiction

(45) * '' Kadal Pura'' ('' கடல் புறா'') – III parts (1967) :Chozha Commander Karunagara Pallavan (later became King Thondaiman) heads the invasion of Vijaya (modern-day

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...

and

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...

) and

Kalinga Kalinga may refer to: Geography, linguistics and/or ethnology * Kalinga (historical region), a historical region of India ** Kalinga (Mahabharata), an apocryphal kingdom mentioned in classical Indian literature ** Kalinga script, an ancient writin ...

(Modern

Orissa Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of S ...

). 11th century Chozha Empire. * '' Yavana Rani'' ('' யவன ராணி'') – II parts :Eastern Chozhan army commander's love story set in the back drop of assassination of Ilanchetchenni and his son Karikala Chozhan's struggle to get back his kingdom. 1st century Early Chozha Empire. * ''Raja Perigai'' (''ராஜ பேரிகை'') * '' Mannan Magal'' (''மன்னன் மகள்'') * '' Kanni Madam'' ('' கன்னி மாடம்'') :Kannimadam is set in the later part of the 12th century during the reign of Second Rajathi Raja Cholan. It revolves around the family feud in the Pandya dynasty, Sinhalese army's entry into Pandya Nadu at the request of one side, the alleged atrocities of the Sinhalese army and the war between Sinhalese and Chola armies ending with the defeat of the former. * '' Rajamuthirai'' (''ராஜமுத்திரை'') II parts * '' Alai Arasi'' (''அலை அரசி'') * '' Avani Sundari'' ('' அவனி சுந்தரி'') * '' Chandarmathi'' (''சந்திரமதி'') * '' Chithranjani''(''சித்ரஞ்சனி''):Chithranjani was set in the later part of the 1st century A.D. during the reign of

Gautamiputra Satakarni Gautamiputra Satakarni (Brahmi: 𑀕𑁄𑀢𑀫𑀺𑀧𑀼𑀢 𑀲𑀸𑀢𑀓𑀡𑀺, ''Gotamiputa Sātakaṇi'', IAST: ) was a ruler of the Satavahana Empire in present-day Deccan region of India. He was mentioned as the important an ...

. The story revolves around

's efforts to check the invasion of

Western Kshatrapa The Western Satraps, or Western Kshatrapas (Brahmi:, ''Mahakṣatrapa'', "Great Satraps") were Indo-Scythian (Saka) rulers of the western and central part of India ( Saurashtra and Malwa: modern Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Prade ...

's Mahakshatrapa

Chashtana Chashtana (Greek: (epigraphic), ; Brahmi: ; Kharosthi: , ) was a ruler of the Saka Western Satraps in northwestern India during 78-130 CE, when he was the satrap of Ujjain. Name Chashtana's name is attested in the Greek forms () and (), ...

. * '' Ilaya Rani'' (''இளைய ராணி'') * '' Indira Kumari'' (''இந்திர குமாரி'') * '' Jala Deepam'' ('' ஜல தீபம்'') – III parts (1973) * '' Jala Mohini'' (''ஜல மோகினி'') * '' Jeeva Boomi'' (''ஜீவ பூமி'') * '' Kadal Rani'' (''கடல் ராணி'') * '' Kadal Vendhan'' (''கடல் வேந்தன்'') * '' Madhahaviyin Manam'' (''மதஹவியின் மனம்'') * '' Malai Arasi'' (''மலை அரசி'') * '' Malai Vasal'' (''மலை வாசல்'') * '' Mangaladevi'' (''மங்கலதேவி'') * '' Manjal aaru'' (''மஞ்சள் ஆறு'') * '' Manmalar'' (''மண்மலர்''): It is the story of

Mewar Mewar or Mewad is a region in the south-central part of Rajasthan state of India. It includes the present-day districts of Bhilwara, Chittorgarh, Pratapgarh, Rajsamand, Udaipur, Pirawa Tehsil of Jhalawar District of Rajasthan, Neemuch and ...

king Rana Pratap who consistently defied the authority of

Akbar Abu'l-Fath Jalal-ud-din Muhammad Akbar (25 October 1542 – 27 October 1605), popularly known as Akbar the Great ( fa, ), and also as Akbar I (), was the third Mughal emperor, who reigned from 1556 to 1605. Akbar succeeded his father, Hum ...

. * '' Masthaani'' (''மஸ்தானி'') * '' Mohana Chilai'' (''மோகனச் சிலை'') * '' Mohini Vanam'' (''மோகினி வனம்'') * '' Moongil Kottai'' ('' மூங்கில் கோட்டை'') * '' Naaga Deepam'' (''நாக தீபம்'') * '' Naaga Devi'' (''நாக தேவி'') * '' Neel Vizhi'' (''நீள்விழி'') * '' Nila Mangai'' (''நிலமங்கை'') * '' Neela Rathi'' (''நீலரதி'') * '' Neelavalli'' (''நீலவல்லி'') * '' Pallava Peedam'' (''பல்லவ பீடம்'') * '' Pallava Thilagam'' (''பல்லவ திலகம்'') * '' Pandiyan Bavani'' (''பாண்டியன் பவனி'') * '' Raaniyin Kanavu'' (''ராணியின் கனவு'') * '' Raja Thilagam'' (''ராஜதிலகம்'') * ''

Raja Yogam ''Raja'' (; from , IAST ') is a royal title used for South Asian monarchs. The title is equivalent to king or princely ruler in South Asia and Southeast Asia. The title has a long history in South Asia and Southeast Asia, being atte ...

'' (''ராஜயோகம்'') * '' Rajyasree'' (''ராஜ்யஸ்ரீ'') * '' Rana Hammer'' (''ராணா ஹமீர்'') * '' Seran Chelvi'' (''சேரன் செல்வி'') * '' Udhayabanu'' (''உதயபானு'') * '' Vasantha Kaalam'' (''வசந்தகாலம்'') * '' Vijaya Mahadevi'' (''விஜய மகாதேவி'') – III Parts * '' Vilai Raani'' (''விலை ராணி'') * '' Raja Perigai''(''ராஜ பேரிகை'')

Notes

References

* *

External links

Sandilyan Biography in Kootanchoru Blog
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sandilyan 1910 births 1987 deaths Tamil-language writers Indian male novelists People from Viluppuram district St Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli alumni 20th-century Indian novelists Indian historical novelists Novelists from Tamil Nadu 20th-century Indian male writers