I have always been a fan of Amish Tripathi’s writing. I loved the Shiva trilogy, but was a little underwhelmed with the series based on Bhagwan Ram. When I heard of his book on Maharaja Suhel Dev I immediately bought it.
Historical Maharaja Suhel Dev
In the history books of India, Maharaja Suhel Dev is missing … just like many other illustrious sons of this land like Emperor Lalitaditya. When the 1000 year reign of the Cholas can be reduced to half a page or one page at best, its easy to wipe out smaller reigns and their monarchs.
The most important reason why our children must know about Maharaja Suhel Dev and the battle of Bahraich is because post that, the Islamic invasions stopped for 150 years. That small fact must have ensured that the left leaning historians conveniently buried the legend of Maharaja Suhel Dev :). They couldn’t hazard a sense of pride that the natives would feel and consequently become more confident of themselves.
Maharaja Suhel Dev pulled together a confederacy of smaller kingdoms and killed the nephew of Mahmud Ghazni (the barbaric plunderer of Somnath temple), Salar Masud in the battle of Bahraich in 1033. For the next 150 years, India was free of Islamic invasions. As expected, we have a “shrine” for Salar Masud at Bahraich but nothing is known about Maharaja Suhel Dev !
Well done, Indians, for we voted these history-fakers to power.
The Book by Amish Tripathi –
The book is of course a fictional account of Maharaja Suhel Dev’s life while keeping the historical elements in their place. Its beautiful written in typical Amish style. Its engaging and if you are an Indian, it fills you with pride. I just wish Amish hadn’t weaved in the contemporary politics into it in the form of advise by certain characters but its a great read still. I am not writing about the characters etc because that will take away the fun of reading the book. Its just released and would be unfair to the author.
Recommendation – 4.5/5. A must read. Also check out the Wikipedia link – SuhalDev