About the Author Amish is a 1974-born, IIM (Kolkata)-educated, boring banker turned happy author. The success of his debut book, The Immortals of Meluha (Book 1 of the Shiva Trilogy), encouraged him to give up a fourteen-year-old career in financial services to focus on writing. He is passionate about history, mythology and philosophy, finding beauty and meaning in all world religions. Amish's books have sold more than 5 million copies and have been translated into over 19 languages.

Foreword I have always said that all my stories are the blessings of Lord Shiva. How they come to me, how they develop in my imagination, how I see them, everything, is His blessing. But He has blessed me beyond my capacity. I cannot write faster than a book every one-and-a-half to two years. And at that pace, I will die before I write down the entire story ideas that He has already blessed me with. I cannot carry these stories to my cremation prayer.

Hence, the idea of a Writers' Centre. It was a suggestion from my team, and it made eminent sense to me. I work with a team of writers, to whom I relate the complete story, and the research material to be read. They then write the first draft, which I then work upon. So, the genesis of the story and the final writing is done by me, while a team drives the first draft. We have tried our best to ensure that the books from the Writers' Center read like any other book of mine. But we wanted to honestly state, upfront, that these books are a result of a team effort, and not just my sole work. The writers in the daters' Center are paid, regardless of the fate of the book. And their names are on the cover, if they choose it. If they choose to remain anonymous, for whatever reason, then the co-credit is given to the Writers' Centre.

Now, what is this book about?

A giant tide of history for the last 2,000 years was defined by a flood of horrific violence. It wiped out all the ancient cultures of the world: Pagan Rome, mystical Egypt and Greece, Zoroastrian Persia, idol-worshipping Central America, and too many others. But one ancient civilization stubbornly refused to die. One proud culture refused to break or be overwritten. It retreated at times, but is one of the rare few still left standing. And that civilization is India.

When invaders came to our land, we needed heroes and heroines to lead us. Defend us. And we had many such-brave men and women who had the courage and determination to fight. But if you read our history in detail, you will find that the biggest challenge for these heroes and heroines was to somehow unite our fissiparous society to fight those foreigners. We did have a national consciousness, as the millennia old Vishnu Purana evidences, but the default tendency in us Indians is to fight each other. Infighting is our favorite pastime, which we stop only briefly when the enemy is at our doorstep. So this was the biggest challenge that confronted all our heroes and heroines-from Marinara and Bukka Raya, to Maharana Pratap, to Chhatrapati Shivaji, to Lachit Borphukan, to Rani Abbakka, to Maharaja Ranjit Singh, to Mahatma Gandhi, to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, to countless other great men and women. The challenge, always, was how to stop our constant infighting.

These leaders succeeded where others failed. They succeeded in uniting us.

Sadly, many of these heroes and heroines have been airbrushed out of our history books. And if there are one thing these great men and women demand from us, their descendants, is that we remember their tales. That we share their stories. That we celebrate them. And learn from them.

Today, more than ever, we need to hear the chronicles of these great people who united us land by making us confront the brutal foreign them back and survive.

This book is of one such hero, a fictional by real events. The story of the magnificent I, of the 11th century.

It is depressing that most people across: have not even heard of the name of this great let alone know his story.

But worse, and heartbreakingly, at present, India. And therefore, there is dispute over w community he belonged to. Many communities were one of them. British gazettes, written many the life of this remarkable warrior, can be us, many competing claims. I don't know what’s the truth is that he was Indian. A proud son of Mohan I have not taken any stand on this. I do not he belonged to.

All I say in this book is that King Soheldev Indian, who fought to protect Mother India at our land, was threatened by the most victory invaders. He united all-Hindus of all castes, Indian Muslims-under his leadership. They fine motherland. And won us a glorious victory. Head but there also is learning from this great son we unite, as Indians, we are unbeatable.

Book's Contents and Sample Pages