R Krishnamurthy, popularly known as Kalki, is considered a pioneer of the historical novel in Tamil literature. He has thirty five volumes of short stories, novels, essays, travelogues, and biographies to his credit. He is loved for his writings in the semi-historic genre, where he blended ancient tales, legends and historic facts to produce works of epic stature. With Kalki's appearance on the literary scene in the 20th century, the Tamil novel came of age.