Rebel Sultans by Manu S Pillai

There is only one silver lining in the otherwise dismal Chennai Airport- Higginbothams book store.

Whenever I am in Chennai Airport (after dodging the falling ceiling and window panes) I make a beeline to the book store.  It is a tiny store and does not have a very wide collection.  Occasionally I am lucky.  This is where I picked up Tales of Old and New Madras by S. Muthiah and The Courtesan, The Mahatama and the Italian Brahmin by Manu S. Pillai.  I enjoyed both the books tremendously.  One for the rich history of Madras and the other for the quirky tales from the past.

This time when I saw that Higginbothams had Rebel Sultans by Manu S. Pillai I just had to purchase it.

The book paints a very vivid picture of the  Deccan Sultans- the time between Malik Kafur and Malik Ambar.  This was when Bijapur, Golconda, Vijayanagara flourished.  Hyderabad was built. The fanciful might think Vijayanagara was a Hindu kingdom surrounded by Muslim regimes but the truth, as Manu Pillai, points out was far from it.  It was all about politics.  Religion just happened to be there.  So there were Muslim soldiers in the Vijayanagara army and there were Hindus in the administration of the Sultans.  Everything was mixed up and the only thing that mattered was the kingdom. 

Many of the sultans were "characters".  Ibrahim Adil Shah thought of himself as Saraswati's son and tried to rename Bijapur as Vidyapur (distinctly Sanskrit name "City of Learning).  I chuckled my way through the book reading about the idiosyncrasies of many of the Sultans.

At a time when powers to be are trying to polarize India along the lines of religious identities, the book was a balm.  To read about a time when all religions flourished without the menace of long arching hatred. It is not to say that it was wonderful time but it is to say that the present times leave a bitter taste.