Ponniyin Selvan (English: The Son of Ponni) is a 2400-page 20th-century Tamil historical novel written by Kalki Krishnamurthy. Written in five volumes, this narrates the story of Arulmozhivarman (later crowned as Rajaraja Chola I), one of the kings of the Chola Dynasty during the 10th and 11th centuries. Kalki finished the novel after nearly three and a half years of writing and he visited Sri Lanka three times to gather information for the novel. Ponniyin Selvan is a historical novel that centers on a number of real historical characters and incidents. Ramaswamy Aiyer Krishnamurthy (9 September 1899 - 5 December 1954), better known by his pen name Kalki, was a Tamil writer, journalist, poet, critic and Indian independence activist.He was named after "Kalki avatar," the tenth and last avatar of the Hindu God Vishnu. His writings include over 120 short stories, 10 novellas, 5 novels, 3 historical romances, editorial and political writings and hundreds of film and music reviews.