This book, published first in 1965, traces the history of the world from trillions of years ago when the world was born as just a ball of fire to the period after the end of World War II and the Indian Independence. The style of Nallaperumal is very simple and flows easily and one does not need to be an expert in Tamil to understand it. But the subject he has chosen is indeed very wide and it would take several tomes to cover it in depth. Nevertheless even very important events are mentioned just in one sentence or two, so that nothing makes much of an impact. But it is remarkable how he seemed to have studied world history so well that he was able to mention even as many wars, treaties, etc. as he had done, though only in passing.
The author’s admiration for Napoleon and Alexander is quite obvious by the way he has handled the chapters on them as also his pride in Indian culture and traditions. It is mind boggling to read about the number of battles in Europe, leave alone elsewhere, countries constantly changing allegiance to suit their convenience, hardly any of the rulers bothering about the misery caused to the people; one should remember that they were much smaller states and were very different in composition than what we know today. Thus the skirmishes in various parts of the world at present do not appear unusual except that these days they are fought with rather sophisticated weapons.
The author even touches upon the evolution of art, architecture and music in the final chapters. In these his grasp of the information appears to be a bit lacking.
At the end of every chapter Nallaperumal has given the names of the books he has referred, which could help anyone who wants to study the history in detail. It would have been helpful if the names of countries and persons – both ancient and more recent – had been given in English within brackets since in Tamil it is difficult to know, for instance, whether it should be a ‘b’ or a ‘p’; even some familiar names as written in the book sound quite different from the original.
Sindhanai Vaguttha Vazhi
Ra. Su. Nallaperumal
Asian Printers - Tamil
Price Rs. 180
