In the Bronze Age world of 2000 B.C.E., Hastinapura is a male-governed trading outpost, in the midst of many smaller matriarchies. This novel is the untold story of Hastinapura, narrated through the voices of three women whose desires, hopes and actions drive the dramatic events of the ancient city and introduces the reader to the possibly unfamiliar world of matriarchal power and matrilineal inheritance. Shantanu, the Kuru ruler of Hastinapura, has given his word to his consort Satyavati, that her descendants will rule as Matriarchs. But decades pass without a daughter or grand-daughter being born. Instead, sons inherit, extending the customs of a caravan to create a patrilineal tradition. I have no daughter, becomes Satyavati's lifelong lament and that of Kunti, Matriarch of Bhojpura, as her city collapses. It also echoes in the heart of the blindfolded Gaandhaari, who endures countless agonizing childbirths, hoping for a daughter. But when the girl child finally comes, Gaandhaari’s own position hangs in the balance of destiny. The Last Matriarchs of Hastinapura, Book II of the Fall of the Kurus series, follows the lives of Satyavati, Gaandhaari, and Kunti, as they manoeuvre to ensure that their descendants rule the burgeoning Hastinapura Empire. When compromise fails, partition seems the only solution - Hastinapura for the Kauravas, and Indraprastha for the Pandavas. But, like other partitions before and since, this too provides no permanent solution.

Book I: The Making of Bhishma, portrays the world of Hastinapura as its rulers try to manage the crisis. It explores the impact of this conflict on the life of Devavrata (Bhishma), eldest son of Shantanu, ruler of Hastinapura. His mother had committed suicide since the Kavi Sangha's one-family-one-child policy has required her to sacrifice seven of her children. Subsequently, Devavrata is disinherited so Shantanu can marry Satyavati, who demands the Kavi Sangha policies not apply to her. In a moment of anger, Devavrata vows to remain celibate. On the death of his father, he and Satyavati are compelled to rule as co-Regents for her underage sons - Chitrangada and Vichitravirya. But Devavrata is unable to prevent Chitrangada's murder by the invading Shakas. His subsequent actions to protect the borders of Hastinapura earn him the cognomen Bhishma (The Terrible). A secret love affair with Amba is cut short when she disappears. Vichitravirya dies just before his sons are born and Devavrata once again becomes co-Regent for his nephews, Dhritarashtra and Pandu. He narrates much of this story on his deathbed, as a prisoner of the sons of Pandu; other narrators fill in what he could not have known. At the end of his life, Devavrata muses over all that he gave up and left unmade in his own life while he built the Kuru Empire - an empire over which the Great War was fought.

Irawati Karve studies the humanity of the Mahabharata`s great figures, with all their virtues and their equally numerous faults. Sought out by an inquirer like her, whose view of life is secular, scientific, anthropological in the widest sense, yet appreciative of literary values, social problems of the past and present alike, and human needs and responses in her own time and in antiquity as she identifies them... Seen through her eyes the Mahabharata is more than a work which Hindus look upon as divinely inspired, and venerate. It becomes a record of complex humanity and a mirror to all the faces which we ourselves wear.

"I am Amba." The voice rang in Devavrat's ear like a forgotten melody. ... Ancient memories from lost time veered in and out of focus. The memories came with flooding questions. How could it be Amba? What was she doing, here and now? ...I must see her. He tried to turn. The stub of an arrow, sticking under his left shoulder, made him pause with every move, however slight. Devavrat Bhishma is dying, wounded. He tells Yudhishthira the story of how the Kurus established Hastinapur as a trading outpost on the frontier of Panchnad. The river Sarasvati dried up creating a crisis for Panchnad as cities were abandoned and immigrants poured into Hastinapur looking for safety and support. The Kurus under Devavrat address the crisis with social policy. The success comes at a cost to Devavrat's personal life. Devavrat's narration becomes part of the epic poem of the Great War. The story survives, memorised as oral history by the Kavi Sangha, the guild of bards. A thousand years later, the story is written down by Vyaasa, the head of the Kavi Sangha, with help from many others. "No Indian ever hears the [epics] for the first time ... It requires great courage, therefore to re-imagine [the Great War] as the author has done. He captures the reader's attention from the start, with a sense of theatre, making the characters tangible and even more complex than in the original. ....The book ... conveys the high tension of the immediate." -- S. Anandalakshmy, Ph.D. President Bala Mandir Research Foundation Former Director Lady Irwin College, Delhi.

"The best book on Bali for the serious visitor…Has the freshness of personal experience."--Dr. Hildred Geertz, author of Kinship in Bali and Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University In Bali, what you see--sekala--is a colorful world of ceremony, ritual, dance, and drama. What you don't see what is occult--niskala--is the doctrine underlying the pageants, the code underlying the rites, and the magic underlying the dance. In this book, author Fred Eiseman explores both tangibles and intangibles in the realm of Balinese religion, ritual, and performing arts. The essays collected here topics ranging from Hindu mythology to modern gamelan music. Eiseman's approach is that of a dedicated reporter in love with his subject--he has the knowledge and patience to explain the near-infinite permutations of the Balinese calendar, and yet he is still moved by the majesty of the great Eka Dasa Rudra ceremony. The author's 28 years experience on the island shows and this book rewards close reading--even by the most seasoned students of Balinese culture.

First of a new epic fantasy series inspired by an ancient Sanskrit epic and Indian mythology, Upon a Burning Throne evokes the expansive world-building and complex twists of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, N.K. Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy, and Ken Liu's The Dandelion Dynasty series.

The pedigree of being a demi-god in his previous life and the scion of the foremost dynasty in the Aryavarta should have ensured a smooth life for Prince Devavrata. But, it was not to be. His upbringing by Goddess Ganga herself and training under the best Gurus of his time could not change his destiny in any way. His struggle to keep his dynasty afloat lasted his entire lifetime. Despite repeated counselling from his mother, Vedvyasa and Vidura, among many others, the feeling of having failed in his primary mission of protecting the Kuru dynasty haunted him even on his bed of arrows. Although he was revered and simultaneously feared as Bhishma, he spent his entire life in a struggle to resolve his internal as well as external turmoil. Like ordinary mortals, it seems that the extensive knowledge of scriptures gained from his guru Maharishi Vasishta did not, in any way, help him in overcoming his miseries. Bhishma would have been known only as a great warrior and someone who resolutely stood by his word, had it not been for the grace of Sri Krishna which brought forth the other facet of his personality of being a Brahmagyani. That enabled him to address all queries of Yudhishthira, lying as he was on the bed of arrows, before his departure from this world.