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Lankecha Sangram (लंकेचा संग्राम)
लंका जळेल, अंधःकार व्यापेल. पण प्रकाश टिकू शकेल? भारत, खिपू ३४०० वखवख. राग. दुःख. धुमसते निखारे, युद्धाची ठिणगी पेटवण्यासाठी अधीर पण हे युद्ध वेगळे आहे. हे धर्मासाठी आहे. सर्वश्रेष्ठ देवीसाठी हे युद्ध आहे. सीतेचे अपहरण झालेले आहे. निडरपणे ती रावणाला तिला ठार मारण्याचं आव्हान देते - रामाला शरण यायला लावण्यापेक्षा ती मरण पत्करेल. दुःखाने आणि क्रोधाने राम वेडापिसा झाला आहे. तो युद्धाच्या तयारीत आहे. संताप हे त्याचे इंधन आहे. एकाग्रचित्तता हे त्याचे सुकाणू आहे. आपण अजिंक्य आहोत अशी रावणाची समजूत होती. आपण वाटाघाटी करून शरणागती घडवून आणू असा त्याचा विचार होता. त्याला माहीत नव्हतं... भारतीय प्रकाशन विश्वातील सर्वात वेगवान खपाच्या दुसऱ्या क्रमांकाच्या मालिकेतील -राम चंद्र मालिकेतील पहिली तीन पुस्तके राम, सीता आणि रावण यांच्या वैयक्तिक प्रवासाचा शोध घेतात. या विशेष चौथ्या पुस्तकात, त्यांच्या कथांचे धागे एकमेकांवर आदळतात आणि स्फोट होतो एका नृशंस संग्रामाचा. धर्मनियमांनी बांधलेला राम निर्दय, क्रूर रावणाचा पराभव करेल? लंका भस्मसात होईल, की कॉडलेल्या वाघासारखी पलटून तुटून पडेल? विजयासाठी युद्धाची भयानक किंमत मोजावीच लागेल का? सर्वात महत्त्वाचे, विष्णूचे उत्थान होईल? आणि या भूमीच्या खऱ्या शत्रूंना विष्णूचे भय वाटेल? कारण भीतीपोटीच प्रेम जन्म घेते. "अमीश भारताचा सर्वात मोठा साहित्यिक रॉकस्टार आहे.' - शेखर कपूर
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Sambhaji
Even as a child, Sambhaji has known he must stand alone. His mother died when he was barely two, and his father was always absent—chasing his own dream of ‘Swaraj’, fighting to keep the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb at bay. As the eldest son, Sambhaji is the true heir to Shivaji. He is valorous, wise and has the makings of a capable statesman. But there are dark forces at play in the palace. Shivaji’s other queen, Soyrabai, is scheming to place her son Rajaram on the throne, and she has the support of several ministers whose misdemeanours Sambhaji is determined to expose. On 3 April 1680, Shivaji dies unexpectedly, and it is finally time for Sambhaji to rise to the challenge. He must now fight Aurangzeb, who has spent twenty years trying to smoke out the ‘mountain rat’, and whose presence in the Deccan poses an increasingly grave threat to the Maratha empire. And what could be better than the enemy’s own brother-in-law willing to hand him the rat on a platter. A moving portrait of an often misunderstood braveheart, Vishwas Patil’s Sambhaji is a massive bestseller that has sold over a 100,000 copies in Marathi. Cinematic and ambitious in its scope, this is a keenly researched and splendidly executed period drama about one man’s struggle to preserve his father’s legacy and of the price extracted by the throne and the homeland.
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Krishnayan
‘You will suffer a beastly death—die lonely, helpless and aggrieved.’ Gandhari’s curse has come true. Near the confluence of the Saraswati, Kapila and Hiranya rivers, Krishna lies under an Aswattha tree, fatally wounded by Jara’s arrow. In his final moments, he reminisces about his time in the mortal world, and the women in his life appear before him. The self-assured, erudite royal consort Rukmini, the most precious of his 16,008 wives, asks him why he is embarking upon moksha alone when she was a fellow traveller on his journeys through dharma, artha and kama. Satyabhama, who came into his life carrying the Syamantak diamond in her trousseau, and dazzled him with her beauty and charm, grapples with the meaning of their marriage. Draupadi, his friend and confidante, is eager to know if Krishna ever desired her romantically. And Radha, one with Krishna in heart and soul, although she is another man’s wife, prepares again to free him of all ties, like she did when he had left Gokul. Kaajal Oza Vaidya’s Krishnayan, stitched together with what these four extraordinary women meant to Krishna is at once vivid and intense and also tender, but not for a moment weighed down by sentimentality. Indisputably the biggest bestseller of all time in Gujarati literature—having sold over 200,000 copies and gone into more than twenty-eight editions—it is a finely wrought portrait of a mortal God who is said to be the all-embracing consciousness of the universe itself.
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The Runaway Boy
The first part of Byapari’s extraordinary trilogy of novels begins in East Pakistan. It tells the story of little Jibon, who arrives at a refugee camp in West Bengal as an infant in the arms of his Dalit parents escaping from the Muslim-majority nation. Deprived of the customary sweetness of a few drops of honey at birth, he grows up perpetually hungry for hot rice in the camp where the treatment meted out to dispossessed families like his is deplorable. Jibon runs away when he’s barely thirteen to Calcutta because he’s heard that money flies in the air in the big city. His wildly innocent imagination makes him believe that he can go out into the world, find work and bring back food for his starving siblings and clothes for his mother whose only sari is in tatters. And once he leaves home, through the travels of this starving, bewildered but gritty boy, we witness a newly independent India as it grapples with communalism and grave disparities of all kinds. We have seen boys like Jibon hanging from the open doors of train carriages, loafing about on station platforms, washing dishes at roadside dhabas, peering at you through your car windows at traffic signals. In this deeply affecting novel, you see a Chandal, Namasudra boy in all these places. You are exposed to his fears, his grit, his spirit for survival—all through Byapari’s inimitable gaze. This is a work of great brilliance and beauty.
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Bandookdweep (बंदूकद्वीप)
बंदूक. तसं म्हटलं तर एक साधासा शब्द पण ह्याच शब्दामुळे डीन दत्ताच्या दुनियेत उलथापालथ घडून येते. दुर्मिळ पुस्तकं विकणारा आणि चार भिंतीतल्या शांत आयुष्याची सवय झालेला डीन. मात्र त्याच्या ठाम समजुतींना धक्के बसायला लागतात आणि सुरू होते एक विलक्षण यात्रा! वाटेत भेटणाऱ्या माणसांच्या आठवणींच्या आणि अनुभवाच्या गुंत्यातून वाट काढत ही यात्रा त्याला भारतातून लॉस एंजेलिस आणि तिथून व्हेनिसला घेऊन जाते. वाटेत त्याला ह्या प्रवासाची चक्रं फिरवणारी त्याच्यासारखीच बंगाली-अमेरिकन पिया भेटते; टिपू नावाचा एक धडपड्या तरुण पोरगा आजकालच्या जगण्यातलं वास्तव डीनच्या डोळ्यासमोर उलगडून दाखवतो; कोणा गरजवंताला मदत करायचा आटोकाट प्रयत्न करणारा रफी भेटतो; आणि ह्या सर्वांना गुंफणाऱ्या कथेचा दुवा सांधणारी एक जुनी मैत्रीण चीन्ता भेटते. स्वतःविषयीच्या, लहानपणापासून ऐकलेल्या बंगाली लोककथांबद्दलच्या आणि आजूबाजूच्या जगाविषयीच्या त्याच्या समजुती पार उलट्या-पालट्या करून टाकणारा हा प्रवास आहे. अमिताव घोष ह्यांची बंदूकद्वीप ही काळ आणि अवकाशाच्या विस्तारात संचार करणारी एक उत्कृष्टरित्या साकार झालेली कादंबरी आहे. विनाशाच्या उंबरठ्यावर असलेल्या जगाची, वाढत्या स्थलांतराची आणि अनिरुद्ध परिवर्तनाची ती कहाणी आहे. मात्र ही कहाणी आशादायकही आहे. ज्या माणसाची जगावरची आणि भविष्यावरची श्रद्धा दोन असामान्य स्त्रियांमुळे दृढ होत जाते त्याची ही कथा आहे.
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Panipat
The third battle of Panipat—the final one, the bloodiest of them all. The Marathas and the king of Afghanistan, Ahmad Shah Abdali, fought to claim the throne of Delhi. While the face-off had stretched on for months on the elevated flat land of Panipat, the actual conflict took place on 14 January 1761. And within a span of twelve hours, 150,000 soldiers lost their lives. About 80,000 horses, bullocks and elephants were slaughtered. The Maratha warriors―the Peshwa’s cousin Sadashivrao, son Vishwasrao and step-brother Shamsher Bahadur― and their allies, chieftains Malharrao Holkar, Jankoji Shinde and Ibrahim Khan Gardi, defied the bitter cold of the north and months of starvation, fighting to the last man. The campaign brought the Maratha empire to its knees, emptying out its coffers and decimating an entire generation. This battle most horrific has dazzled generations of historians. Its tactics, ingenious battle formations and fortifications, its reputation as the supreme war of wits has kept the third battle of Panipat alive in public memory. But a war is not only glory and splendour. It is fought by flesh-and-blood people with feelings and motivations big and small, and who come alive in Vishwas Patil’s Panipat. His ability to weave gargantuan research into effortless storytelling truly shines through in this tale. Among the five highest selling Marathi novels of all time, Panipat has received thirty-eight awards since its release in 1988, sold more than 250,000 copies, and been translated into several languages. Published in English for the first time, this novel is an essential read for every lover of historical fiction.
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Yugandhar
‘Shivaji Sawant’s deep insights into the stories of our gods and goddesses, and his intriguing interpretations of these, have always been a source of delight to me. A must read for all those who love reading about Indian history and culture.’ Amish, author of the Shiva Trilogy and Ramchandra Series. Struck by Jara’s arrow, Krishna lies prone under a sprawling Kadamba tree. In his last moments, he looks back on his life and begins to speak, not as an incarnation of Vishnu but as a mortal who walked the earth and followed his dharma. As the stories of his childhood in Gokul and his youth in Mathura and Dwaraka unfold, people close to him appear by turns to examine Krishna’s life through the prism of their relationship with him. Rukmini tells the tale of their marriage and of her seven co-wives; Daruk, his charioteer, revisits Krishna’s travels and the many wars he accompanied him on; Draupadi, his confidante, describes his fondness for the Pandavas and his role in the Mahabharata; Satyaki, his commander-in-chief, marvels at his astute military tactics; his pupil Arjun speaks of lessons from the Gita; and Udhdhay, his cousin, reconstructs the breathtaking grandeur of his persona. Shivaji Sawant’s Krishna is an imperfect, flawed human. He is many people at once-a herdsman, a warrior, a statesman, a lover and a seer. He is complex and hides in him a vastness that no one person can entirely fathom. A consistent bestseller in Marathi since its first publication in 2000, Yugandhar goes beyond the familiar tales from the Mahabharata, and probes his life to understand this most beloved of gods.
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When We Were Offerns
साहित्यातील नोबेल पारितोषिक आणि बुकर पारितोषिक-कादंबरी लिहिणार्‍या कादंबरी लेखक 'द रेमाइन्स ऑफ दि डे' या कल्पनेतून हे आश्चर्यकारक काम केले. विसाव्या शतकाच्या सुरूवातीच्या शांघायमध्ये जन्मलेल्या, त्याच्या पालकांच्या स्वतंत्र गायब झाल्यानंतर बॅंकांना वयाच्या नऊव्या वर्षी अनाथ केले गेले. आता, वीस वर्षांपेक्षा जास्त काळानंतर, तो लंडनच्या समाजातील एक प्रसिद्ध व्यक्ती आहे; तरीही त्याला प्रसिद्धी मिळालेल्या संशोधनात्मक कौशल्यामुळे त्याच्या पालकांच्या कथित अपहरणांची परिस्थिती प्रकाशझोत टाकू शकली नाही. आपल्या स्वत: च्या, वेदनादायक भूतकाळाचे रहस्य सोडवण्याच्या आशेवर बँका त्याच्या आठवणीच्या सीथिंग, चक्रव्यूहाच्या शहराकडे जातात, केवळ युद्ध हे जाणवते की शांघाय प्रतिष्ठेच्या पलीकडे आहे आणि त्याच्या स्वत: च्या आठवणी आसपासच्या लोकांवर विश्वास ठेवणे तितके कठीण आहे. त्याला. कुशल, संशयास्पद आणि मानसिकदृष्ट्या तीव्र, जेव्हा आम्ही अनाथ होतो तेव्हा स्मृतीच्या बदलत्या गुणवत्तेवर आणि एखाद्याच्या भूतकाळाचा बदला घेण्याची शक्यता यावर सखोल ध्यान ऑफर करते.
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The Fourth Peshwa
The Maratha empire that Chhatrapati Shivaji established in 1680 passed into the hands of the Peshwas in the 18th century. The empire, which spanned across large parts of Western, Central and Northern India, suffered a severe setback when the Marathas lost the third battle of Panipat to Ahmad Shah Abdali in 1761. The then Peshwa, Nanasaheb Balaji Bajirao, could not recover from the humiliation of his defeat and the devastating loss of his eldest son Vishwasrao and younger brother Sadashivrao, and soon passed away. When the sixteen-year-old Madhavrao succeeded Nanasaheb, he was met with empty coffers, a royal court fraught with internal dis- sensions, and an uncle, Raghunathrao, raring to usurp his throne. He set about resurrecting the empire while keeping the Nizam of Hyderabad and the East India Company at bay. Not only did he revive its lost glory and pride, but also widened its boundaries. Ranjit Desai’s The Fourth Peshwa tells the story of a frail young man who was compelled to prematurely step into his father’s shoes, but who rose to the occasion. Now into its 34th edition in Marathi, this is an absolute classic all fans of historical fiction ought to have on their shelves.
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Rebel Sultans (रिबेल सुलतांस)
रिबेल सुलतान्स हे एक नेत्रदीपक कथन आहे. पिल्लई यांनी आपल्या अत्यंत प्रभावी अशा कल्पनाशक्तीचा आणि उत्तुंग शब्दप्रतिभेचा वापर करून एक अस्सल थरारक पुस्तक लिहिले आहे. हे पुस्तक एकदा वाचायला सुरुवात केल्यावर संपल्याशिवाय थांबणे अशक्य आहे.- इंडियन एक्सप्रेस आपल्या प्रतिभासंपन्न आणि रसाळ शैलीने पिल्लई आपल्या वाचकांना मंत्रमुग्ध करतात...- द हिंदू रिबेल सुलतान्स, या पुस्तकामध्ये मनु पिल्लई यांनी तेराव्या शतकाच्या अंतापासून अठराव्या शतकाच्या आरंभापर्यंतची दख्खनची कथा सांगितली आहे. यात रंजक कथा आणि लक्षवेधी पात्रं यांची रेलचेल आहे. हे पुस्तक आपल्याला अल्लाऊद्दीन खिल्जीच्या युगापासून शिवाजी महाराजांच्या उदयापर्यंतचा प्रवास घडवते. त्या काळी दख्खन ही चमत्कारांना प्रेरणा देणारी भूमी होती. इथल्या खजिन्यांची, राजेलोकांची ख्याती दूरवर पसरली होती. ही भूमी समुद्रापल्याडच्या प्रतिभावंतांसाठी आकर्षणाचे केंद्र ठरत होती. दख्खन हे आवेशपूर्ण धाडसांचे क्षितिज होते. इथे येणाऱ्या प्रवाश्यांना लष्करात भरती करण्यासाठी उपलब्ध असणारी युरोपिअन नेमबाजांची पथके; हिऱ्यामोत्यांनी सजलेल्या बाजारपेठा पाहायला मिळत. इथल्या दरबारांमध्ये पर्शिअन, मराठे, पोर्तुगीज आणि जॉर्जिअन यांची भरभराट होत होती. दख्खनमध्ये शेकडो भवितव्ये रचली गेली, जी मुघल साम्राज्यांच्या असंख्य पिढ्यांच्या भीतीदायक असूयेस कारणीभूत ठरली. या पुस्तकात आपल्याला विजयनगर साम्राज्याचा नाट्यमय उदय आणि पाडावही पाहायला मिळतो; तसेच त्यांची सत्ता उलथून टाकणाऱ्या बहामनी राजांची आणि बंडखोर सुलतानांची षड्‌यंत्रेही पाहायला मिळतात. भारताच्या इतिहासातील मंत्रमुग्ध करणाऱ्या या काळाच्या प्रवासात आपल्यासमोर चांदबिबीसारख्या पराक्रमी राणीच्या हत्येसारखे थरारक प्रसंग, हिंदू देवतांची उपासना करणारा इब्राहिम दुसरा, मलिक अंबरसारखा इथिओपिअन सरदार आणि विजयनगरच्या हिरेजडित सिंहासनावर विराजमान झालेला कृष्णदेवराय अशी उल्लेखनीय ऐतिहासिक पात्रेही येतात. मध्ययुगीन भूतकाळातील विस्मरणात गेलेल्या प्रकरणावर प्रकाश टाकताना रिबेल सुलतान्स आपल्याला दख्खनमधील एका वेगळ्या युगाचे आणि एका वेगळ्या काळाचे स्मरण करून देते–एक असे युग ज्याने एका साम्राज्याचा अंत केला आणि भारताचे भविष्य नव्याने लिहिले.
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Raavan Aryavartacha Shatru (रावण आर्यावर्ताचा शत्र
WITHOUT THE DARKNESS, LIGHT HAS NO PURPOSE. WITHOUT THE VILLAIN, WHAT WOULD THE GODS DO? INDIA, 3400 BCE. A land in tumult, poverty and chaos. Most people suffer quietly. A few rebel. Some fight for a better world. Some for themselves. Some don’t give a damn. Raavan. Fathered by one of the most illustrious sages of the time. Blessed by the Gods with talents beyond all. Cursed by fate to be tested to the extremes. A formidable teenage pirate, he is filled with equal parts courage, cruelty and fearsome resolve. A resolve to be a giant among men, to conquer, plunder, and seize the greatness that he thinks is his right. A man of contrasts, of brutal violence and scholarly knowledge. A man who will love without reward and kill without remorse. This exhilarating third book of the Ram Chandra series sheds light on Raavan, the king of Lanka. And the light shines on darkness of the darkest kind. Is he the greatest villain in history or just a man in a dark place, all the time? Read the epic tale of one of the most complex, violent, passionate and accomplished men of all time.