Random Ramblings

A brief Comparison of Two Historical events of great significance

Almost every Indian would have heard of the battle of Panipat but a few would have heard of the battle of Bahraich

This book by Amish Tripathi is an attempt to fill that huge gap in our knowledge of history of Bharat.

The book starts around thousand years ago, in 1025, describing the looting of Somanath temple by Mahmud of Gazani. The temple is defended by a small force led by Prince Malledev of Suhasti (100km from present day Lucknow) Every single defender is brutally killed by the Turks and the temple is looted and destroyed.

This raid is followed by a period of sporadic raids and plunder by the Turks. The kings of small States make peace with the Turks , at an to enormous cost , to be on the winning side as the invaders were considered invincible.

Raja of Suhasti,  Mordhwaj thought  otherwise. He made a valiant effort to unite the hindu kingdoms against the islamic invaders , to defend Bharatvarsh.

In the course of his efforts to unite the kings, he travels across the country , sometime in stealth , with only a small contingent of soldiers , along with his son, Prince Suheldev.

In one such trip , he encounters a band of Turkish marauders, that he manages to defeat with very little casualty to his own troops.

That’s the time the Prince Suheldev makes up his mind to wage a guerrilla warfare against the Turks , till such time a united front could be established.

Years passed; the king continued in his efforts to create a confederation of States while the Prince and his band of soldiers made a name for themselves ,in the border villages as the nemesis for the Turkish Barbarians.

In 1033, the King dies and Prince Suheldev succeeds him.

Around the same time the nephew of Mahmud of Gazani, Salal Maqsud invades with an army of over 1,00,000 soldiers.

This time , his aim was not to loot and scoot but to rule over Bharat and establish an Islamic State.

The Chola empire under King Rajendra Chola was too powerful and the Turks intended to subjugate the northern kingdoms first and thereafter gradually expand southwards.

King Suheldev had forged a formidable alliance with 21 Kings and a large army was mobilized to confront the barbarians.

King Suheldev chose the plains near Bahraich to take on the Turks as the terrain was protected on both sides from possible outflanking moved ,by forests and a Lake.

What followed was a complete rout of the invaders. For once, the Turks were paid back in their own coin; there were no prisoners taken and every one of the invaders was killed in battle.

Till today ,the grave of Salar Masud stands testimony to the botched invasion. Ironically there is a cult following of Indian muslims for this barbarian while a memorial for Raja Suheldev is still in the making. That’s the typical Indian brand of secularism.

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On 16 February 2021, the foundation stone of Maharaja Suheldev Memorial was laid in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, through video conferencing by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the project that would include the installation of an equestrian statue of Maharaja Suheldev.^[23] The Government of Uttar Pradesh, headed by Yogi Adityanath, celebrated the day as the birth anniversary of Suheldev and issued an official note on stating, “King Suheldev had fought, defeated and killed the Ghaznavid general Ghazi Saiyyad Salar Masud in a famous battle held on the bank of Chittora lake in Bahraich in 1033.”^[24]

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Like all Amish Tripathi novels, the style is racy , descriptive and totally absorbing.

The book has been written not by one writer ,but a team of writers. The genesis of the story and the final writing was done by Amish Tripathi while composing of the first draft was left to a team of writers, who were given the general idea and recommended reasearch materials.

Keeping with the spirit of the book,

I sign off with

Jai Maa Bhaarat!

Glory to King Suheldev and Glory to Mother India.

For me Kalki (R Krishnamurthy) has been the bench mark for historical novels and I can’t help it.

Have read Akilan, (Vettrithirunagar ) Ko Vi Manisekaran, Sandilyan , Balakumaran and Vikraman (longest list of historical novels)

Nandi’s charge is the first book ,I have read in English , that is based on South Indian history .

Be that as it may, most historical fiction tends to become action and adventure stories based on the adventures of spies . Often spies had to cross the proverbial seven seas and seven mountains just to hand over an olai.(a message)

The kings were confined to their palaces. Romance in the royal families also didn’t make much sense as they married to meet the political compulsions and that too more than once.

So Ponniyin selvan has a soldier-spy (redoubtable Vandiyathevan) a devotee spy (Azhvarkadiyaan) a bikshu spy (Naganandi) etc.

Arul mozhi varman himself is neither a king or the crown-prince and so could indulge in adventure and romance across two countries.

Then authors resort to the king moving about incognito..like mahendravarman as a soldier ‘vajra bahu’ in Sivakamiyin sabatham and narasimhavarman as sivanadiyar in ‘partiban kanavu’

Coming to the the book ‘Nandi’s charge’ the plot is fairly simple. Three tasks are assigned to three soldiers for a common purpose of weakening the enemy before the campaign.

The idea of three parallel threads running concurrently  makes an interesting read. Well, going to realms of fantasy, if the three protagonists had had communication through Instagram, the visuals would have been terrific.

Kannan’s exploits is all about guerrilla warfare (the word is from Spanish originated in 19th century; wonder what was the Tamil word in 7th century and whether it captures the essence of the warfare conducted by trained soldiers against other trained soldiers in certain circumstances )

Adventures of the other two teams ; Elango and Sangamitra ; Muthuvel and Sadaiyan ; are a kind of catch me if you can type escape and evasion stories.

Each of the stories by itself could have made a stand alone novel as these characters never meet each other after the first chapter!

The author, right at the time of introduction seems to  like Elango and Kannan more as compared to Muthuvel. We have Sangamitra for Elango and Indumathi for Kannan while Muthuvel is left high and dry with Sadaiyan , the lovable , little thief.

The minor unit tactics of Kannan and his teams are absorbing. From military point of view also the moves appear authentic. Just a thought ; an ambushing party taking up on itself to perform cremation of it’s victims would be a huge drain on time and energy besides giving off a huge smoke signal.

There is also the capturing of a fort wherein the main action is cutting off the reinforcement. It makes an interesting read, as any battle seen from the comfort of a secure place is always captivating.

There would be some issues debatable , but just as in a game of chess, if neither player makes a mistake , we are going to see a boring draw.

Normally , any body of troops engaged in a tactical move, as against purely administrative move would follow certain drills. When encountering a water obstacle, normally infantry crosses first, secures the far bank called the bridge head and then other troops including cavalry follows. The logic is that cavalry cannot hold ground. But then, one might say,  in the ancient days, what was cavalry but horse-mounted infantry?

There is jungle lore, watermanship, and plain bloody infantry tactics with all that  mud,sweat, and blood.

Over all an engrossing read !