An African saying which I have always heard in talks by my favorite author Sanjeev Sanyal is, "Until the lions have their historians, tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunter". This is what has happened to Indian History as well right from our text books to the public discourse on history. So, for me personally whoever writes anything from an Indic perspective is doing his or her part to rectify the past.
The book Saffron Swords is a collection of 52 short stories about the warriors of Bharat, includes some familiar names like Bajiprabhu Deshpande and Kanhoji Angre that apart, most of the names are new to me. I haven't gone through the whole book as yet, but I can surely say that it is worth the time spent on reading it. I am not suitable to review the book from a technical point of view as I am just an amateur in the field of history. However, will try and write what I felt. The first thought which came to my mind after reading the first few stories is people are surely going to question the authenticity. To answer them I can say that, I have met the author heard from her the painstaking journey of finding these valorous warriors from historical records, visiting these interior places, interpreting the local folklore and puting it in words and for me all that was as authentic as it could be.
In one of the stories the author mentions about the movie 300, I don't remember anyone questioning the movie's authenticity we all took it at face value, was it only because it came from the west? Most probably the answer is yes. I would urge you to read the book without any bias, the interested readers can even go further and research more on this and help the Indic narrative.
PS: The story on Bajiprabhu Deshpande lacks a few details. This will be evident to almost every person who has read Babasaheb Purandare's writings or heard his talks, however, it conveys the nub of the story and hence we can live with it.
The book Saffron Swords is a collection of 52 short stories about the warriors of Bharat, includes some familiar names like Bajiprabhu Deshpande and Kanhoji Angre that apart, most of the names are new to me. I haven't gone through the whole book as yet, but I can surely say that it is worth the time spent on reading it. I am not suitable to review the book from a technical point of view as I am just an amateur in the field of history. However, will try and write what I felt. The first thought which came to my mind after reading the first few stories is people are surely going to question the authenticity. To answer them I can say that, I have met the author heard from her the painstaking journey of finding these valorous warriors from historical records, visiting these interior places, interpreting the local folklore and puting it in words and for me all that was as authentic as it could be.
In one of the stories the author mentions about the movie 300, I don't remember anyone questioning the movie's authenticity we all took it at face value, was it only because it came from the west? Most probably the answer is yes. I would urge you to read the book without any bias, the interested readers can even go further and research more on this and help the Indic narrative.
PS: The story on Bajiprabhu Deshpande lacks a few details. This will be evident to almost every person who has read Babasaheb Purandare's writings or heard his talks, however, it conveys the nub of the story and hence we can live with it.
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