Tanjore, 1942 There are few excitements in Thambi's quiet life. There is the new hotel, disapproved of by elders, which lures him with the aroma of sambar with onions. There are visits to the library to read the newspaper, and once in a while, a new movie at the Rajaram Electric Theatre. More disagreeably, there are fortnightly visits from his uncle to lay down the law. When Gandhiji announces the Quit India movement, Tanjore is torn apart by protests. The train station-the lifeline of the...

Didda, princess of Lohara, is beautiful, intelligent--and lame. Despised by her father and bullied by his heir, Didda's childhood is miserable and her future, bleak. When she is married off to the dissolute ruler of Kashmira, she must learn to hold her own in a court ridden with factions and conspiracies. But Didda is no ordinary queen. Ruthless and ambitious, she wants to rewrite history. Will she succeed? Queen of Ice is a compulsive read that brings alive the turbulent history of tenth-...

The true story of the fearsome Rani of Jhansi, the Indian Queen who took on the East India Trading Company in the Indian Rebellion of 1857 The British first came to India as traders. Now they're here as soldiers, taking over new territories, and they've got their eye on the small kingdom of Jhansi. But they aren't prepared for the kingdom's courageous queen. Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi, rides a magnificent horse and wields her own sword; she trains other women to fight alongside her; sh...

This book tells the stories of ten Indian monarchs who find, at best, passing mention in the history textbooks we read, though their lives were exciting and their achievements considerable: Ajatashatru | Bindusara | Rudradaman | Pulakeshin II | Jayapida | Didda | Ramapala | Abbakka | Chand Bibi | Ahilyabai Holkar Historian and award-winning novelist, Devika Rangachari writes absorbing tales of the men and women who shaped lives and kingdoms in their times.

The Kaveri is eternal; it will never let us down—and we Cholas live by this adage.’Kundavai is the daughter of the mighty Sundara Chola. She glories in the history of her dynasty and their victories in their perpetual battles for supremacy against the Cheras and Pandyas, and tries to understand the nature of power. She also constantly challenges herself—in ways discouraged by her mother, who wants her to embrace traditional feminine pursuits.When an assassi...

From c. 324 BCE to c. 185 BCE, the Mauryas controlled almost the entire Indian subcontinent with efficiency and administrative finesse. Beginning with the origins of Magadha in the sixth century BCE, this definitive book on the Mauryas captures the drama, the colourful betrayals and the intrigues of the Mauryan dynasty in Magadha, starting with its enigmatic founder, Chandragupta Maurya, and his even more enigmatic mentor, Chanakya/ Kautilya, who helped him to get the thr...

Antagonistic Tolerance examines patterns of coexistence and conflict amongst members of different religious communities, using multidisciplinary research to analyze groups who have peacefully intermingled for generations, and who may have developed aspects of syncretism in their religious practices, and yet have turned violently on each other. Such communities define themselves as separate peoples, with different and often competing interests, yet their interaction is usually peac...

This book attempts to reintegrate women into the socio-political milieu of early medieval Orissa. Its sources are inscriptions, mostly Sanskrit, that date from the seventh century to the end of the reign of the Imperial Ganga ruler, Anantavarman Codagangadeva (CE 1078-1147). The evidence indicates that royal and non-royal women had varying but undeniably important roles to play in the socio-political fabric of this prominent regional entity. The Bhauma-Kara dynasty (c. mid-eighth/ninth-lat...

This new book represents a complete rewriting of Romila Thapar's hugely successful HISTORY OF INDIA - VOLUME ONE, thirty-four years after it was first published. Incorporating the vast changes in knowledge developed during her lifetime, Thapar tells the extraordinary story of this great civilisation - a civilisation always based on diverse, often warring sources and that left the astounding buildings and beliefs that still fill India. This book is the authoritative history told with style ...

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is renowned the world over for his unswerving dedication to non-violence in his efforts to achieve justice for Tibet, yet the Chinese call him 'a wolf in monk's robes'.He is fourteenth in a lineage whose history is every bit as bloody and intrigue-laden as that of the Papacy. The sixth Dalai Lama was a notorious womaniser, four successive ones were almost certainly murdered and the present Dalai Lama has himself been the target of attacks that resulted i...

In the third century BCE, Ashoka ruled an empire encompassing much of modern-day India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh. During his reign, Buddhism proliferated across the South Asian subcontinent, and future generations of Asians came to see him as the ideal Buddhist king. Disentangling the threads of Ashoka’s life from the knot of legend that surrounds it, Nayanjot Lahiri presents a vivid biography of this extraordinary Indian emperor and deepens our understanding of a legacy that ...

When Rajaraja Chola ascended the throne, the land of Tamils entered upon centuries of grandeur. He left behind a stupendous legacy, which has not lost its sheen even after a thousand years. During his regime, we see powerful productive forces at work, newly liberated by the advances made in manufacturing and trade.Through interesting facts and riveting analyses, the reader can vividly experience the tumultuous developments of this perioud. It bring to life the social, political and...