The Heroes and Their Storyteller

Author Amish Tripathi gets candid with TMS as the second book in his Indic series releases--on ignored heroes, his awe of the Cholas, to questioning a history writing with an excessive focus on Delhi

- ANUSHREE MADHAVAN

Author Amish Tripathi is in utter awe of Rajendra Chola—the man he was, the conquests he made, and the beautiful temples and city of Gangaikonda Cholapuram he built.

This sheer awe of one of the mightiest emperors of India comes across in Amish's latest book The Chola Tigers: Avengers of Somnath, which is part of his Indic Chronicles. The first in this series was Legend of Suheldev, released in 2020, which recounted the role of a King from Shravasti who mobilized Indians to fight the Turkic army after the destruction of the Somnath temple.

The book mentions the Chola general Narasimhan telling King Suheldev that they got vengeance from Mahumd as well.

Along with Narasimhan, the other passengers in this journey of revenge sought against Mahumd is a Chalukya king—whose father was a rival of the Cholas, a Gujarati merchant, a member of the Vavar community of Kerala—whose sole duty is to protect Lord Ayyappa, and a Chola officer. The King then asks to hear that story too, to which General Narasimhan hints that perhaps an author will write about it.

Their story, told in The Chola Tigers, is a celebration of a dynasty and a piece of history that hasn't gotten its due.

Excerpts follow:

Why did you plan on the Indic Chronicles series?
The Indic Chronicles is a re-look at the narrative of the last 1,300 years. There are various problems in the way history is taught to us. Even if the facts are still the same, the way they are presented to us has a very biased approach.

Our history has an excessive focus on Delhi. Most other regions are ignored. If you notice, Eastern India is ignored, Central India, King Bhoj is ignored; Western India is ignored. Most of the history of the last 1,300 years essentially focuses on the region between Khyber and Agra. Delhi is an important area but it is not the only important area of India.