“Legend of Suheldev – The King Who Saved India,” a historical fiction book, researched and written by a group of writers united under the banner, “An Immortal Writers Centre,” with the final touch or supervision by Amish Tripathi, a master of mythological fiction. It is the same book, previously announced as “Battle of Bahraich” by Amish, but due to lack of time, the group of writers molds the idea into a book.
The book is all about the King of Shravasti “Suheldev” who unite, formed, and led the confederate to save “Maa Bharati” from the foreign invader Mahmud of Ghazni’s destruction, robbing, and brutal massacre. Initially, by guerrilla war and finally, by a direct battle at Bahraich, he saved the “Maa Bharati” from these destructive invaders, brutal and blind followers of the religion who don’t value and respect others religions and hates them.
This book has all the masala that one can expect in an exciting, thrilling movie. The story revolves around series of events, start with the war death of Suheldev’s brother while saving Somnath temple from the Mahmud of Ghazni. Then mass and brutal killings, destruction of villages, and confidence of villagers, cruelty, robbing by Mahmud of Ghazni. Many Indian kings join hands and help him in destruction to save their kingdom and kingship. He used Hindu beliefs as weapons to destroy Hindu temples and kill people. Indian Kings and soldiers strictly followed all the battle rules, whereas he or Turks broke all the war rules, which gave them an upper hand. To stop any revolt in the future and keep people weak, Turks fights brutally, with the aim of “no mercy, no prisoners.” Suheldev swears to save “Maa Bharati” and take revenge for his brother’s death. He faces humiliation and non-cooperation from the other Indian kings because he is a non-Kshatriya and low caste king, which shows the impact of the Indian caste system on war against Turks. It explains his stand against the caste system and his role in breaking the barrier of caste. He forms a group of warriors for the Guerilla war and the destruction of Ghazani camps through small raids and attacks.
While saving one village, lady Toshani becomes a part of the group with her heroism. She comes close and develops a bond with King and starts a silent love story, but they sacrifice their love to keep his dedication and focus on his goal and promise. The sudden death of his father and King shatters him, but the people, other kings, and officers of Indian Kings who joined hands with Mahmud of Ghazni trust, support, and help him in this war and accept him as a King.
In Peshawar, Turks destroy temples and Buddhist monasteries and burn monks, but some monks safely escape and join Suheldev in India. The story of the escaped monk Ashvaghosha is kept secret and unanswered suspense only known to monk Sanghamani. Ashvaghosha does well as a soldier.
How does Suheldev become the savior warrior and win a battle with his different, pragmatic, and unique thinking? How difficult to reach, help offered by the Chola Kingdom suddenly reaches the battleground? Why did the powerful and important peace-loving man of Ghazni help Suheldev to fight Ghazni? Who is he, what is his role in the battle, and how he helps Suheldev? How does Suheldev use Turk’s religious beliefs to warn and threaten them to ensure no foreign invaders attacks “Maa Bharati” in the future again? How Indian King Rajendra Chola plans political conspiracy and civil war in Ghazni by assassinating Mahmud is one more unanswered suspense? With this, more interesting and entertaining suspense is good to read in the book.
Along with this thrill, the story is written considering the rich Indian culture and secularism in mind brilliantly by picturing various characters and events. It explained how people from all religions fought together, honestly for the single motto to save “Maa Bharati” from foreign invaders.
The characters Ashvagosha, Sanghamani, Toshani, Aslan, Abdul, Govardhan, Kashinath, Kerim, Salar Masud, Salar Maqsad, King Ajitpal, Jaichand, with some more, are used very precisely to plot events, to tell history through a good fictional story. It is a historical fiction book, so the writer used the freedom to mold the story, add events, characters, etc., as per his thought and convenience to create a good story. The book ends with some questions in the reader’s mind, which opens the possibility of the next book in the series.
The book doesn’t have the writing strength, like Amish’s previous books, but for the story of King Suheldev, his fight against the caste system, his role to form confederate to stop the destruction of villages, empires of Maa Bharati by Turks invaders, reconstruction of Somnath temple, Battle of Bahraich, to get some additional historical knowledge, and most importantly for “the Lost Hero of Indian History – King Suheldev” you can read it (but keep one thing in mind the character is real but the story is fictional).
Chetan Nikam 