Armaan T Verma
Armaan T Verma
EMPEROR VIKRAMADITYA by Adity Kay Hachette India, 2019, 356 pp., 399
November 2019, volume 43, No 11

When a child thinks of a king, myriad images come to mind—of extravagance, of power, and of majesty. However, very rarely does the image of inner struggle strike the child’s mind: she may image a king to be invulnerable, or automatically capable of making perfect decisions. Therefore, any narrative of a king that also portrays his struggles, dilemmas or vulnerabilities is an eye-opening encounter for a child. One such narrative is Adity Kay’s Emperor Vikramaditya, the sequel to Emperor Chandragupta, that illuminates the inner conflict of duty against personal security that haunts Chandragupta Vikramaditya. With a lineage of great men behind him and an unwieldy and fragile empire to defend, ‘Chandra’ faces the risk of being just another soldier taking orders from his volatile and jealous brother. The book follows his actions in the face of political conflict and inner struggle, and the life lessons that emerge from them. We see a human face behind the historical figure, his difficult journey through the highways of history, and realize that he was like us. It can be empowering for a child to learn that all greatness is forged on the anvil of very human fears, doubts, and uncertainties.

Kay depicts a subcontinent that is now all but lost to us, which is challenging for a work of historical fiction. By alluding to the infamous Shaka invaders and Naga hill tribes, the book brings forth names of nations, peoples, and places as a brilliant method of familiarizing young readers with the power centres of India during the Gupta period. Large parts of the book are clearly the product of imagination, which one would expect when dealing with a time period that has relatively so little to show for it in terms of historical evidence.

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