A story, a history and a mirror held up against today s foibles; men and women described in detail; an image of India that lives. Katha takes great pleasure in presenting to you A Madhaviah, writer par excellence in a sparkling translation by Meenakshi Tyagarajan. Superb illustrations from none other than M Krishnan, the well-known wildlife photographer and spokesman for nature.

This is story of an Indian queen Rani Padmavati who was most beautiful woman of her time. King Ratan Singh became arrested in her beauty during a hunt of tiger in forest of Aravali in Rajasthan. Rani padmavati had a parrot named Hiraman who played very important role in love of two. Later on she became queen of king Ratan Singh of chittaurgarh. After sometime sultan of Delhi Allauddin khilzi came to chittaurgarh on invitation of king who had heard much about beautiful queen from Rag av chetan who was a traitor of chittaurgarh. In the palace of king sultan Allauddin khilzi saw Rani Padmavati through a life size mirror on Island palace. He fought many battles to capture beautiful queen but he got humiliating defeat all the time but last battle he won. Rani Padmavati along with sixteen thousand Rajput ladies did jouhar on Wednesday evening of 18th. August 1303 to save themselves from dishonor of enemy.

Threatened by an imminent invasion and scheming political rivals envious of her immense popularity, Rani Padmavati must rise to the demands of war and fight for everything she believes in.

Purushottam Dev, the Prince of Kalinga is a staunch devotee of Lord Jagannath of Puri. During a ride in a forest he meets and falls in love with Princess Padmavati of Kanchi. According to tradition, Purushottam Dev sweeps the chariot of Jagannath during the Car Festival. Padmavati's father is furious when he hears of this and refuses to marry his daughter to one who wields a broom. He humiliates Purushottam Dev who vows to take revenge despite his love for the princess. Padmavati despairs and is ready to end her life. But things suddenly take a turn for the better after Lord Jagannath himself assures Purushottam of his support.This Amar Chitra Katha is based on a legend from Orissa.

The JAINA-RUPA-MANDANA Volume I is an authentic work on Jaina iconography from the pen of a well-known authority on the subject, Dr. Umakant P.Shah, an eminent Indologist and art-historian with specialization in Jaina art and literature. Illustrated profusely with over two hundred monochrome plates, the work is a standard textbook and a very useful guide to all students in Indian art and archaeology and to Museum Curators. The work is supplemented with a large number of iconographic tables for images of all important Jaina gods and goddesses. Dr. Shah, the author, has for the first time given solutions to various basis problems of Jaina iconography supported with ample evidence from both archaeology and literature including unpublished original texts still in manuscripts.

This book is a collection of essays by eminent historians exploring a millennium of India s history between the eighth and the eighteenth century, conventionally understood as early medieval and medieval India. Though these terms are subjected to critical