Gods, kings and slaves : The Seige of Madurai -By R. Venketesh

 Finally, after 3 years of marriage, my family and I travelled to Trichy and Madurai to offer our prayers to Gods and Goddesses.

 

Madurai Meenakshi holds a very special place in my heart. Even after visiting numerous temples all over south India, I feel that no temple is as beautiful and no deity is as captivating as Meenakshi. My father's family is native to Madurai and before my wedding, we would definitely visit Meenakshi temple at least once in two years.

 

Meenakshi temple is a treasure trove of stories -historical and mythological. The story that captivated my interest this time was that of Malik Kafur and the stone elephants. My father told us how the invading Muslim army of Allauddin Khilji were on a temple destrying spree. After wrecking havoc in the Srirangam Temple, they turned their attention further south and came marauding to the seat of Pandiya's power and treasury -Meenakshi temple.

 

But when attempting to destroy the temple, a mendicant -old and wizened, challenged Kafur. "The Gods live here. You cannot destroy this place." He said. The sneering Kafur asked the mendicant to prove his statement. The mendicant made Kafur feed the stone elephants that adorn the prahar of Meenakshi. To Kafur's utter astonishment, the elephants reached out and ate the sugarcane. This was enough for Kafur to leave the temple well alone.

After coming home, I wanted to know more about the incident. Thanks to google, I came across this book and downloaded the book on my kindle without batting an eyelid. And man! The book was breath taking.

 

I have not read any good historical fiction based on South India, in English. And I am glad that this was the first book that I read in this genre. Written with such clarity and description, the book traces the life of two protagonists -Malik Kafur and Veera Pandyan. Their characters are brought out so powerfully that you end up feeling as if you know them personally. And you end up liking them both!! It is not very easy to write a book with two heroes. But Venkatesh does it with such ease that you end up rooting for both -even when they head towards a battle against each other.

 

The life in India in 12th century is brought out very vividly -be it the harems of Khijli, the ports of Gujarat, the court of Madurai. The book also keeps you hooked. You just stay up trying to read just one more chapter.

 

The book sticks to the facts as much as possible and the author's command over the language is amazing. Writing a book based on actual history is a bit difficult because, more often than not, the end is known to us. But kudos to the author for choosing these obscure heroes and bringing them to life.

This book has left me hungering for more historical fiction based on South Indian kings.

I am ending this post with a bit of shameless self promotion -read my short story on our Hoysala Queen Shantala here :)