‘The Grand Anicut’: The Cholas are in control, and a dam is coming up on the Kaveri in this novel

An excerpt from Veena Muthuraman’s novel set in ancient Tamilakam, where the arrival of a Roman trading ship changes everything.

Veena Muthuraman

· Oct 04, 2021 · 05:30 pm

Thousands of years before becoming a vegan hit, the jackfruit was an intrinsic part of Sangam poetry

The ubiquitous fruit has been described as ‘smelly’ and ‘ugly’, but it was intimately tied to ancient Tamil culture.

Veena Muthuraman

· Apr 06, 2019 · 07:45 am

This timely collection of South Asian science fiction is sorely needed – but does it go far enough?

The ‘Gollancz Book of South Asian Science Fiction’ features a vast variety of contemporary writing and (almost) delivers on its promises.

Veena Muthuraman

· Mar 31, 2019 · 08:30 am

‘The long history of Sanskrit has many faces, including voices of protest and revolt’: David Shulman

An interview with the scholar and translator whose work spans, among other subjects, the languages of South India, history of religion and Carnatic music.

Veena Muthuraman

· Dec 30, 2018 · 07:39 am

‘Washington Black’: A novel that puts the oppressed in the world of oppressors and sees what happens

The novel that turns the narrative of slave fiction upside down is on several best-of-the-year lists, and for good reason too.

Veena Muthuraman

· Dec 16, 2018 · 12:30 pm

Can the history of South India be told in a single book? No, but this one tells stories that matter

Charles Allen’s sprawling ‘Coromandel’ is better read as a collection of essays than as an integrated historical journey.

Veena Muthuraman

· Apr 21, 2018 · 08:30 am

It took a translation to hear the stories of this Greek epic the way a woman would have told them

Emily Wilson is the first woman to translate ‘The Odyssey’ into English.

Veena Muthuraman

· Dec 24, 2017 · 08:30 am

Alien invasions, heady gaming, and the view from China. This is science-fiction with three twists

Physics meets literature in a play of imagination.

Veena Muthuraman

· Jun 03, 2017 · 05:30 pm

This meditative biography of Tamil is a breathtaking sweep over a linguistic landscape

A journey through the Dravidian renaissance and the ‘rediscovery’ of the classics in the language.

Veena Muthuraman

· Apr 20, 2017 · 08:30 am

Here is a new way to read Elena Ferrante: Try walking through Naples

Visiting the book-life haunts of the characters from the Neapolitan Quartet was a unique journey.

Veena Muthuraman

· Nov 26, 2016 · 11:00 am

His name isn’t Byomkesh, and he’s the new detective to hit Calcutta

Abir Mukherjee’s Sam Wyndham is an unlikely sleuth who seems to be here to stay.

Veena Muthuraman

· Sep 24, 2016 · 10:30 am

How to take on an entrenched, regressive social order, one novel at a time

Perumal Murugan’s ‘Pyre’: continuing our series on books that our readers are moved by.

Veena Muthuraman

· Jul 31, 2016 · 02:30 pm