A few months ago, I sat upon 111 chapters of Velpari: Veerayuga Nayagan by Su. Venkatesan and painstakingly completed both volumes and all four parts of the epic saga. What began as an exposure to Tamil literature ended with a nostalgia for its political flavour. It's not a mere work of historical fiction; it is overdosed with a progressive philosophy that you can only discover if you read between the lines.
It cannot be compared to any other work of historical fiction. I have not personally read Ponniyin Selvan but whether you read the books or watch the movies, there is clarity about one thing: it is a story about the conflict between the Cholas and the Pandyas and any aspect of people's lives during their times remains largely absent or ignored, regardless of the literary merit we associate with them. And we also have the opportunity to watch several works in Indian cinema that portray the fantasy epics of kings and princes, but in this commercialized age, we fail to appreciate the material conditions people live under; the same logic extends to history, we do not view it as the trajectory of the modes of production under which real people lived.
Velpari, on so many levels, shattered me with its writing. Without any spoilers, I shall lay down the groundwork for my analysis: it is a novel about Parambunadu that existed during ancient times in Tamil Nadu, during the Sangam age, well before the Muvendar established themselves as formidable forces and etched their names in Indian history which only shows up in the latter part of ancient Indian history textbooks. The Muvendar dynasties do exist at this time and are major characters nevertheless. The poet Kabilar visits the land to meet its chieftain Velpari. What differentiates them is that while the Muvendar are imperial monarchies, the Parambu follows a system of communal living where nature takes precedence over individual interests (i.e., the imperialist interests of the Muvendar monarchies). This is a direct parallel to the geopolitics of today--when the Global South seeks to construct a system that prioritizes people over profit, they are destroyed through hybrid warfare waged by Western imperialism. Velpari is the manifestation of the resistance of the people against these imperial interests. These vested interests seek to annex lands and subjugate local clans, which is expressly evident throughout the course of the story. Parambu Nadu becomes a land where groups of people whose livelihoods have been destroyed by the Muvendar take refuge.
Not only that but this directly leads to the mixing of lineages. Written based on Sangam literature, it shows that such a system that values community living emphasizes the mixing of people. It is a direct attack against the depredations of Vedic philosophy that institutionalized the caste system and enforced it through endogamous marriages. The emphasis on love and romance is not merely aesthetic but a rejection of a politics that preserves hierarchy and oppression in the form of caste in India or anti-immigrant xenophobia in European and other Western nations. Such a politics is rooted in Tamil culture. I can draw parallels to how China banned arranged marriages to liberate women and provide them with agency, which has not been done in India hitherto.
This politics of rejection is also evident in the emphasis the people of Parambu place on the protection of their resources. In the first volume, when the Pandyas seek to infiltrate and rob them of certain animals called the slender lorises which can aid them in navigation thereby facilitating increased trade with the Greeks, Velpari and his comrades give them a strong fight for 10 whole chapters which I sat through an entire night. Imperial interests such as the USA invade West Asia for oil--for instance Iraq in 2003--and Vietnam to preserve French colonialism, Trump desires to annex Greenland for its rare-earth minerals, but they will be met with a fight from the oppressed. As Iran hit back and won the war with the USA in 2026, people will fight back. As adivasis in India resist the Adani group's depredations on their livelihoods, as Palestinians resist Israel, the people themselves fight back. The conflict between the Pandyas and Parambu Nadu exacerbates into one where Parambu stands against the entire forces of all three Muvendar armies, and the resistance comes from the people of Parambu. United people's resistance can break any army that marches against them just as Vietnam defeated the United States, and how the Soviets fought back against the Nazis and ended World War II in Berlin.
Each of the characters is used effectively, every storyline is completed in a single narrative at the end of the novel. Velpari is also testimony to the capabilities of ancient Tamils, how they waged war, what their strategies and tactics were, and so on. It is a testimony against the contemporary and so-called Indian Knowledge Systems hijacked by a monolithic school of thought that seeks to enforce homogeneity across India when local and regional cultures such as that of the Tamils have birthed international humanitarian law (IHL) which are ignored by them. The drawing of rules of war (jus in bello) and the rudimentary concepts of asylum for refugees under the symbol of the palm tree (the flag of Parambu) are concepts testifying to international law beginning to take shape in ancient Tamil lands.
Velpari is also an epic on the pedagogy of a revolution. Our education system, which is often a means of producing skilled/unskilled labour for the market without critical thinking skills that question the oppressive structures of capitalism, may be heavily critiqued with one scene. When Kabilar is teaching one of Velpari's daughters the Tamil alphabet, she asks En uyir ezhuthukkal pannirandu? (why vowels are twelve) Kabilar remarks to Velpari that he is surprised she hadn't asked him Pannirandu uyir ezhuthukkal ennana? (What are the twelve vowels) but En uyir ezhuthukkal pannirandu. I was struck by that line because we don't often question what we study. Right now, my labour law classes also involve this very same element: education to lift ourselves up against exploitation. I received this exposure only from a handful of teachers including in my labour law classes. We should constantly critique what is imposed on us; a good education is supposed to make us unemployable, not employable.
I think I have said enough for now, otherwise, my review of Velpari might delve into spoilers. Not only is this a strong recommendation but I would firmly urge readers to study between the lines to discover the nexus between building a post-capitalist future and the historical foundations Tamil culture has gifted us with.