Historical Fiction

 I love history and ok with fictionalized versions too for they add some amount of emotions and human aspect to the whole story. Example the story that Sambhaji, son of Shivaji the chatrapathi of Marathas defected to the Mughals and joined them for a couple of years and that’s fact but what was the political conditions that led to this is fleshed out in the book The Life and Death of Sambhaji by Medha Bhaskaran.

Anyways, this one is not about that but something else that caught my attention. I was reading the history of Nayakas of Chitradurga and reading the full line of books by Ta Ra Su. When I was reading his book Vijayothsava he made a statement or rather a paragraph about the ruler of Keladi Somashekara Nayaka, husband of Chennamma of Keladi. That he was the worst womanizer and women in his kingdom were not safe and sort of equated him to the worst of the medieval rulers.

I didn’t buy the story multiple reasons for one, Keladi Chennamma is a very famous historical figure and has earned her name in history for being a righteous ruler who stood against the great Mughal emperor Aurangzeb and was loved by her people till she died and gave their lives to defend their queen against the greatest odds. Also, they did not have a child of their own and Somashekara Nayaka was experimenting with drugs to solve the same is something else I remember reading from childhood days. Lastly with the AI search I got to know another story of how he fell in love with a dancer and ignored the kingdom for her sake.

None of the above says Somashekara Nayaka was a lecherous being in any sense and makes me wonder why Ta Ra Su says so in his book. Yes it’s writers liberty but in the process of showing something great one should not cast wrong impressions about something else which is equally good.

Ps: the childhood memory of reading got triggered when I saw the name Bharame Mavutha in the search

Pps: this story I had a background and hence didn’t believe makes me wonder if other stories where I have zero background how much or Authors liberty has been ingested 🤔

History brings perspective

Growing up as a kid, I hated Social Studies and specially history. Looking back I blame it on the teachers who refused get us fired up about history. Thanks to my dear friends for getting me hooked up with podcasts and I am becoming a history buff. Granted I still can’t remember the exact dates of events and I am now listening for fun instead of an exam.

One should study history and not just once own country’s history but world history or at the least the major events that shaped the world we live in. I have been listening to this podcast on crusades back in the Middle Ages (1100-1300 ad) and I think it has added a new dimension to my view of the world.  

Before the crusades podcast, my interest in history had been either Indian history or the biggest event of modern times the world war II and to some extent world war I. While listening to the podcasts on ww II I was mind boggled by the scale at which the war took place and finally got to appreciate the fact that  our (Indian) then leaders like Gandhi and Nehru supported the British against the axis forces, that's a separate blog post in itself. It made me believe human consciousness evolves to an extent in parallel across the globe irrespective of the distance.

Now back to crusades podcast, after listening to almost 90 odd episodes each 25 minute long spanning from 1st crusade to king Louis crusade I have learnt the following things

• Back in those days the whole world believed in pillaging and looting of conquered territories
• Back in those days mass killing of captured population was part of common culture
• No empire or kingdom lasts for ever, Rome got destroyed by the barbarians from Europe and Byzantine empire got destroyed by crusaders, the Muslim empire got destroyed by the Mongols and so on
• Intolerance towards practice of other religion was truly up to the whims and fancies of the kings/rulers and their needs.
• If I think Hinduism has too many castes/sects, Christianity and Islam have their own with each one claiming superiority over other
• Infighting and Traitors aren't patented to India alone they exist all over the world
• Destruction of property or materials that are sacred to other religion or conversion of their place of worship to your own was also a common practice
• Feudal system and practice is not a patent of India alone, it existed all over the world
• Money and trade always and mostly trumped religion
• Catholic church in the middle ages was corrupt beyond my imagination, I never truly comprehended this till I started hearing the podcasts

In short, I have been blaming the Islamic invasion of India for destruction of property and looting and killing of innocents and I have to an extent come to terms that the world was like that back in those days and I do feel we have come a long way since then.