Sandilyan (Sri Bashyam Iyengar): 110th Birth Anniversary Tribute

'Sandilyan' is a name synonymous with historical romances for at least two generations of Tamils. It was the nom-de-plume of Sri Bhasyam Iyengar. Born 110 years ago, to this day, he defined the genre for the Tamil popular fiction landscape and was its emperor – following the style of ‘Kalki’ ‘s Pallava-Chola Trilogy.

Influenced by Rajaji as a teenager, he joined the freedom movement and soon he became aware of his own literary skills.

Encouraged by giants like Thiru.Vi.Ka and Kalki, he started writing quite a lot of fiction concerning social issues and also became good at writing screenplays.

In his historical fiction, one can find two important core themes – Hindutva and Tamil pride.

Here is a random look at his historical romances.

Jeeva Bhumi was published in 1953. It was initially serialized in the Tamil magazine Amuthasurabi.

It was even enacted as drama by the Fine Arts club of Triplicane. Among those who came and saw the drama and appreciated it included then the Chief Justice of Madras Province P.V.Rajamannar and the then Madras Governor Sri Prakasa.

When the work was published as a novel the foreword was written by Prof. K.V.Rangaswamy Aiyangar – then the most eminent of the southern Indian historians.

Sandilyan chose the life and times of Dayal Shah as the historic setting for his work.

Dayal Shah who?

Dayal Shah was a civil minister of Mewar. But having seen and being moved by the condition of Hindus under the Mughals, he became a master strategist.

Sandilyan writes in his novel that for every cruelty that Aurangazeb inflected on Hindus, Shah the strategist retaliated in kind.

A brave warrior, he however believes that women are just objects or worse, characterless, money-oriented creatures.

In the Mughal camp, there arises a plan to abduct Ahila, the niece of Dayal Shah with the objective of slowing Shah down.

As one collaborating Rajput states, Ahila was like fire and she could not won over. Our hero Rathan laughs derisively and states that he can make any girl fall for her and there is no such thing as a virtuous woman.

After many events, while Ahila does fall for Rathan and even risks her life to save him, Rathan himself undergoes a change of heart. He realises that this nation is still a living nation, a 'jeevabhumi', despite all the invasions, because of women who are indeed the river of fire and life who sustain the national life.

So, he renounces his position in the Mughal army and joins Dayal Shah to fight for freedom of the motherland.

On the authority of Col. Tod, Sandilyan describes the deeds of Dayal Shah thus:

In fact, Sandilyan was writing almost verbatim what Col. Tod had recorded about Dayal Shah. That this historical reference was presented for the popular Tamil audience should show the kind of patriotism he had for the Hindu nation.

The foreword written by Prof. K.V.Rangaswami Iyengar, running almost 16 pages, is itself a valuable document in which he wrote that the actions of Dayal Shah did not happen in an vacuum:

He had written quite a few works on Rajputs fighting against the Islamist invaders. This includes among others Rana Sanga and Veer Hamir.

Jala Deepam became an intense hit with the readers. It introduced to Tamil readers what the establishment history books had intentionally hidden – the great Hindu naval resistance and the Hindu empire of the Marathas.

In the novel, a Tamil youth from Tanjore comes to the Maharashtrian coast with a mission – his mission was given by the queen of Tanjore Marathas. And it was to kill her own abducted child. When the youth, Ithayachandran asks the queen mother why she wants her abducted child killed, she states that the Hindus after centuries of suffering are getting united through the Hindu confederacy the Marathas were creating and already there are destabilising forces using the competition between the heirs.

Her own son was also a possible heir to throne and those who abducted him had done so in order to bring him out at the appropriate time to destroy Hindu unity. So, she wants her son dead rather than him becoming a pawn to destroy Hindu unity.

One can understand the way the three-volume historic romance develops. The book contains dialogues which speak pure Hindutva – reminding the reader the kind of sacrifices that were done by individuals and the pains they endured so that their people, we the Hindus, could be Hindus and this nation, a free nation, where people of all faiths and all communities could live in peace and harmony.

Starting 1973 till 2018, this three-volume work too had gone 33 reprints.

Yuavana Rani was another interesting fiction that Sandilyan wrote as a serial in 1960s which later became a very popular best-selling novel. This described how a Yavana queen from the West is brought to Sangham Tamil land with the hope that she would be instrumental in establishing a Western Yavana empire here. The story was set in the time of Sangham Chozhas particularly Karikal Chiozha.

His love for Sri Vaishnavism and Azhwars also surface in his works. In his work ‘Kavarntha Kankal’ (Eyes that stole (the heart)) he described in the novel form how Sri Ramanuja brought Pillai Urangavilli Dasan a person so attached to the beautiful eyes of his wife into the spiritual fold by showing the eyes of Sri Rangam Vishnu. The novel spoke about the dignity of the courtesan dancers as well as the paramount greatness of devotion over the birth based caste system.

In his work ‘Pallava Thilakam’ he brought to life a later Pallava emperor who was a great Vaishnava Vedantin who was attacked by Rashtrakoodas. There was an in-house conspiracy against this Vedantic king in which his own relatives conspired with the enemies because they hated his Vedantic attitude to life. The work a thriller of a historic romance at last shows how the Vedantic king was also practical and defeats both the conspiracy as well as the enemies but being a true Vaishnava does not want to celebrate the victory and declares it as his defeat. Sandilyan’s explanation in his introduction reveals the kind of preparation he had done and how he harmonized historical facts with his own imagination:

Many critics perhaps rightfully say that he was a template writer. If names and historic settings were changed along with the book cover one novel could not be much differentiated from the other. He also made use of the erotic element in his fictions. His description of the female charms for pages when he introduces his female characters and also the vivid descriptions of the intimate scenes provided the teenagers and adolescent readers definitely a great entertainment. In his defense he would mention Kalidasa and even Adi Sankara. Then would say that those who criticize him for the erotic elements in his writing were mostly the ones who would secretly enjoy reading those passages.

A very lesser known aspect of his life was his typically Sri Vaishnavaite love for the downtrodden and the marginalized in the society. His son too inherited the same this writer was told by a beneficiary from an activist for Scheduled Community rights – who benefitted from the service activities of his son who was an academic.