Balakumaran has once again proved his prowess in his writings by rendering this state of the art book. How he built the Thanjavur's Brahadeeshwara temple is the epicenter through which the surrounding political tremors, agitations and conquests and how people shed their lives for one country were all vividly captured in the novel. Novel revolves around Udaiyar Shri Raja Raja Cholan, his queen consorts, and his son Rajendra Chola. As it is said in the prologue by Balakumaran, it is not written by a mere human for such a divine work cannot be written with human hands and soul. I would consider this as a conceptual sequel to the Kalki's epic novel Ponniyin Selvan. How he built the Thanjavur's Brahadeeshwara temple is the epicenter through which the surrounding political tremors, agitations and conque Such a Divine experience. Simply put, you can't read this book - you have to EXPERIENCE it.more

Such a wonderful journey was the reading of this book. It's not about the King itself rather its about the society and people as a whole that will moist your eyes. That would make you sob many a times for having missed a 'greater-than-life' opportunity. And many a times, you would surely earn why couldn't you have lived (probably yes) during the King's era. Even if it were for a person who would have stayed besides Raja Raja - he would never have written such volumes about the great King's daily experience during the temple's construction. I simply still cant digest the fact that the story-line is very simple but ran for thousands of pages. It's not a simple task to extract water from air - such is the author's ability to build a 6 volume book just out of a single line - 'The construction of Brihadeeswara Temple'. Such is the narration that you hardly feel you are in this world. I really went through this horryfying experience of continued reading for straight 18 hours, took a short nap and then started back again. Its not often you find a book that makes you deep involved with itself so much that it makes you forget your food and curse your body when it wants to take even a short break. It's not a simple task to extract water f The book, that really made my cheeks wet - many times for which I'm happy too.

The book, that really made my cheeks wet - many times for which I'm happy too. It also throws some light on the significance of the various innovations that were done during the building of the temple.

This novel deals with the building of the Tanjore Temple, depicting in detail the mindset of the people, Rajaraja chola's courtiers and relatives. Subsequently 5 volumes were published as books by Thirumagal Nilayam. The story's first part was published in a weekly Tamil magazine and then published in monthly novels (Palsuvai novel, Ladies novel). Udayar is Tamil novel written by Balakumaran.

Udayar novel audiobook