Banker takes on Ten Kings!

Great news. Epic news in fact! Jacaranda Press, my new agents, have sealed our first deal. My first historical battle epic, TEN KINGS based on the Dasarajna incident in the Rig Veda, has been bought by new imprint Amaryllis Books in a very good deal. Thanks to Jay and Priya of Jacaranda, and Sanjana Roy Choudhury of Amaryllis! TEN KINGS will also be my first book published in Hindi and other Indian languages.

For those of you who have been following my career for a while, and/or were members of my old Epic India online discussion group, you may recall this as being the first book of my long-proposed historical fiction series retelling the entire history of India from the earliest known times to the present day. I referred to this book as either Dasarajna or Ten Kings (both mean the same thing) and it tells the story of the epic battle fought by King Sudas, an early chief of the Bharata tribe (descended from Bharata, son of King Dushyanta and Shakuntala, daughter of Vishwamitra) when ten of his neighbouring kingdoms invaded his territory and sought to wipe out the Bharata tribe in order to steal their land, which was located at a particularly fine site.

That site was the confluence of two of the five rivers of the region now known as the Punjab, and also the very location where the Indus Valley Civilization sprang up shortly afterwards, according to historians and archaeologists. How a single kingdom (tribe really) fought against a force more than ten times its size and withstood a shock attack such as the one described in the Rig Veda was a tale legendary enough to seem incredible even today. Yet, this being a historical incident, there are no ‘fantasy’ or ‘speculative’ elements in this story at all. Just historical detail as accurate as is possible given the paucity of information on that period, and a rousing battle epic.

A film director friend of mine heard the story when I mentioned it to him and instantly connected it with the story of the Spartans defending their land against the invading Persian hordes. I’m always uncomfortable with comparisons but yes, if a film were ever to be made of TEN KINGS it would probably be marketed as ‘the Indian 300′.

Except of course, as we all know, it’s much, much more than that. It’s the story of the valiant struggle of a lone king, betrayed by friends, allies, besought by enemies on all fronts, struggling to hold his own kingdom together in the face of certain destruction, fighting for survival against impossible odds – and triumphing. The victory of King Sudas against those Ten Kings was not merely a success for him. It was the reason why the Bharata tribe itself survived and continued to occupy the place we now know as India. The Ten Kings he fought against included people which would today be called Afghanis, Iranians, Assyrians, etc. So in a sense, it was not just the story of the Bharata tribe (of which we are all descendants) but also the story of the founding of India.

TEN KINGS will stand alone as a story and a book, and can be read on its own. But if it does well, which I’m very optimistic about, then I shall certainly continue writing the story of India through books set in the Indus Valley age, the time of Mahavira, Buddha, Ashoka, and so on. It’s a story to rival even the greatest epic of all, the Mahabharata, because this is the Bharata epic and it is a story very much still in progress!

I’ve been working on the book on and off for years. It’s almost complete now and Amaryllis Books expects to publish it in early 2011, perhaps even as early as January or February! I’ll update more info and details as that date approaches. Amaryllis plans to translate the book and issue Hindi and other Indian language editions, and my diligent agents will be seeking to sell foreign edition rights once I turn in the final manuscript as well. And this being a battle epic, it’s not impossible to expect that perhaps it may find its way to the big screen as well someday – even more likely than my Ramayana or Mahabharata series, since a single great story is more easily adaptable than a long series. Either way, expect great things from TEN KINGS!