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A History of South India: From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagara by K. A. Nilakanta Sastri is the go-to 1955 book on Vijayanagara empire..there never was a glorious kingdom like Vijayanagara nor was there anything spectacular like it’s fall…

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_History_of_South_India:_Fr...

My first introduction to the region outside of what was then known as Tamil country was via Raja Raja Chozhan ( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rajaraja_I )from the tamil historical fiction, Ponniyin Selvan by Kalki. I knew he also wrote a first person narrative titled “Naan, Krishna Deva Rayan” of the later Vijayanagara Empire but I never got around to reading it. This post inspired me to look it up and it’s on Amazon Kindle if anyone else is interested. It’s in Tamil.

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Someone translated the Krishnadevaraya book into English. It's on Amazon as I Krishnadevaraya. I found it rather lacklustre tbh. I have about every book on Hampi you can find, and as recollections go, Nilakantashastry is good. The ASI publications are impressively well done. I have the entire collection, but I have not gone through it fully.

I have the tamil edition. The author isn’t Kalki but Ra.Ki.Rangarajan. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ra._Ki._Rangarajan I have never read this author before..so I am hoping he is as good as Kalki and it’s better in Tamil..

Ponniyin Selvan is a beautiful piece of work. I thoroughly enjoyed every bit of it. Kalki spent years researching the topic. His other work, sivakamiyin sabatham is also fantastic.

Anyone interested in historical novels, check out these - Yavana Rani, Kadal Pura and Raja Muthirai. All by an author called Sandilyan.

Kalki’s books are a bit slow paced with phenomenal dialogues, beautiful prose and amazing descriptions. Sandilyan writes short, punchy dialogues and his novels are fast paced. They are both good, but Kalki is better and more authentic. Well with your time.

If you know Tamil, please read them in Tamil, not translations. Kalki especially is not easy to translate.

PSA: Ponniyin Selvan originally serialized in the Kalki magazine had some nice artwork by "Maniam" to go with it. The only current edition that contains the text and the artwork as it was in the original magazine is the 5-volume set from "Vikatan Prasuram". This is the "collector's edition" to have and well worth the money - https://books.vikatan.com/book-details?bid=2175

Sivagamiyin Sabatham is the second of the trilogy. It is preceded by Parthibhan Kanavu(the future chola dynasty king’s desire to break away from the ruling pallavas)

It is to be read in the same as order as it was written.. PaKa, SiSa and PoSe. Poniyin Selvan, of course is the magnum opus…there are ponniyin selvan tours in tamilnadu that goes to each and every location in the novels.

My neighbor used to say that there are only two kinds of female archetypes in the world: Nandini or Kundavai. Now that I am older, it terrifies me that he thought that! Altho..having said that..I know someone who didn’t speak to their cousin for months and months because one of them was Team Nandini and the other was Team Kundavai..so there’s that.

I have a copy of sivagamiyin sapatham. I’m going to use it to learn to read Tamil. :)

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