Padmini (The Spirited Queen of Chittor)

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About the Book At the beginning of the fourteenth century, an ambitious sultan, Ala-ud-Din Khilji, becomes infatuated with a famed beauty, Rani Padmini. He arrives at her doorstep in Chittor and lays siege to her fort. Padmini convinces her husband, Maharawal Ratan Singh, and his Rajput warriors to abandon any thought of surrender. Despite putting up a brave fight, when defeat seems imminent, Padmini chooses death by jaskar over dishonour.

Narrated from Padmini's perspective, this moving retelling of the famed legend brings to life the atmosphere and intrigue of medieval Rajpur courts. We cannot help but be swept along as Padmini grapples with the matter of her own life and death, even as she attempts to makes sense of what it means to be a woman in a man's world.

About the Authors Mridula Behari is an award-winning Hindi writer. Since 1977, she has written several short stories, novels and plays for the theatre, radio and television. Her work has also appeared in several leading publications such as the Hindustan, Saptahik Hindustan, Dharmayug, Saarika and the Kadambini, besides being translated into other Indian languages. The most recent among her many awards is the Rajasthan Sahitya Akademi's Meera Puraskar for 2008-09. She spends her time between Jaipur, Chicago and San Francisco.

Mitranand Kukreti is a freelance writer, translator and journalist who has translated several short stories and poems, including one by former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. He has also translated a book on artist Amrita Sher-Gil from Hindi to English, besides translating into Hindi C.K. Prahalad's bestseller The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. At present, he is working on a Hindi-English dictionary.

Preface do not remember how and when the idea of the story of Padmini, the Rajput queen of Chittor, took seed in my mind. But somewhere, the pebble of an idea dropped and the ripples it created stayed. Padmini was known for her surreal beauty. Literature has recorded how the extraordinary beauty of Helen of Troy and Cleopatra caused grief and misfortune. The story of Padmini, in medieval India, is yet another reiteration of this unpleasant truth. It stayed with me and I read everything I could about her in the ensuing years.

**Contents and Sample Pages**