Love in the shadow of intrigue
Urnabhih/ by Sumedha V Ojha/A Mauryan
Tale of Espionage, Adventure and Seduction
Publisher: Roli Books
Genre: Fiction
Extent: 351 pp
Price: Rs 350
Sumedha Ojha
has set this fast-paced thriller in the Mauryan age, a little after the
adventurer turns king and is crowned Chandragupta Maurya. The story gets off to
a somewhat stilted start and the awkward language (more about that, anon) only
serves to drag it down. However, the turnabout comes well before the halfway mark and it is an effective turnabout.
After which the tale picks up speed, the characters come to life and the book
has the reader well and truly hooked.
The narrative is one of derring-do, a political thriller
with the right doses of mystery, romance and strategems, The main protagonists are the young and comely
Misrakesi of Ujjain, who comes to the
court of the newly crowned king in Pataliputra with just one aim: to avenge the
death of her beloved sister. She holds none other than the fabled Chanakya,
Chandragupta`s powerful preceptor, to blame for her sister`s death. Well, she contrives to be alone with the astute guru
in his chamber but far from plunging her
small dagger into his heart, Misrakesi quickly joins the ranks of his devoted
acolytes, and turns spy for the Mauryan empire, one more cog in Kautilya`s endlessly
cogitating wheel. The man who manipulates people and circumstances now, in a
deft maneuver, holds her in his palm.
What makes Misrakesi`s life in the shadowed
lanes more interesting is that she is a courtesan
and soon sets up a pleasure house in the
heart of the city. Enter the hero, Pushyamitra Sunga, tall, dashing, deadly… and
Misrakesi`s immediate boss. Pushyamitra heads the Nagrik Suraksha Parishad. It
is of course, just a matter of time
before both these strong-willed people
fall headlong into love with each other. In the best traditions of thrillers,
however, this is where the tale takes another twist, and the couple sets off to the neighbouring kingdom of Kaikeya on
a dangerous mission, a mission vital to the plans of the Maurya king as well as
his guru.
Ojha fills in the many details with a
precise hand, and the result is a pleasure as the words come alive in glorious
Technicolour on the page. Tempestuous Misrakesi, who is as beautiful as she is intelligent, is a great foil to the
brawny yet brainy Pushyamitra. Above them all looms the shadow of Chanakya:
wise, all-knowing, all-seeing and all anticipating, too. He remains a shadow
though, and the reader gets the impression that this is a deliberate act of
restraint on Ojha`s part. All the other characters
who walk onto the pages of this novel leave their mark: Misrakesi`s attendants Mrinalini and Manjari at the
Apsara Sabha; Sreelekha, who is unaccountably jealous of our heroine and starts
some incendiary rumours about her; Chandramukhi, the living
ghost with a mission of her own; Siddharthak, Pushyamitra`s aide whose swagger and posturing hides a keen mind and an
agile body; the sagacious and austere Kaikeya Maharani Shailanandini; the wily
Maha Amatya of Kaikeya Narsingh Dev, and
a small host of others, including a fascinating cameo by a Vish Kanya, no less.
Urnabhih means a spider web, and as
the story progresses, the reader is indeed put in mind of an all-encompassing
web. The plot twists are clever, intricate and somewhat trellis-like but the
reader is always taken into confidence regarding the various political
intrigues. The wealth of descriptive details are consistent, and sometimes become
positively lyrical. The thin thread of
mystery is stretched taut but never so tight that it snaps. The sexual tension
between Misrakesi and Pushyamitra is well- wrought, a smouldering live wire all through. She is Mata Hari
crossed with the apsara Menaka, and she has in her lover, a serious and seriously
sexy Pushyamitra. What they have between them is flammable yet they subordinate
themselves and their emotions to the one cause: the cause of their motherland,
the unity of Jambudweep. The cause of their king, and yes, the cause of the
omniscient guru, Chanakya.
While the spotlight may be on the
clandestine methods Misrakesi and Pushyamitra need to use, first in
Pataliputra, then in Kaikeya to further their own ends, it is occasionally pulled back
into a wider beam, allowing the reader a keen look at palace politics, the
lives of the poor and the marginalized, the part played by religion in all
lives across the board, the declining fortunes of the Nanda dynasty even as the
new king Chandragupta strengthens his
hold on the land; there is even mention of Alakshendra and his Greek soldiers, who,
not so long ago, ruled this part of the country. And of course, there are glimpses of the enigmatic Chanakya`s
eternal vigilance and strategizing.
However, to hark back to that awkward
language, the absence of a sensitive yet ruthless blue pencil is keenly felt. Far
too frequently, sentences run like this: …the brush strokes revealed their oneness with
the sculpting on the wooden pillars; the princess has been convinced to marry
the samrat; I am grateful for you taking out the time to meet me; they were for
survival but will do well for his end; he expanded like a bubble in the breeze
of her appreciation; yes you do have a look like hers.
People`s expressions stiffen, they are
`edgy with` themselves; an outfit `accents` the swell of muscles on someone;
yet others are `given a pause,` or are `clutched at` as a saviour.
But the story wins through. The book
has all the panoply of historical fiction, and has been painstakingly researched but in the end, it is a lovely love
story. That it has as background the court of Chandragupta Maurya and Royal Advisor
Chanakya, is the bonus for the reader.
Remember Misrakesi, Ojha apparently
has plans to bring her back in a new adventure.
Ad copywriter turned journalist turned writer Sheila Kumar is the author of a collection of short
stories titled Kith and Kin (Rupa
Publications). Her short stories have appeared in several anthologies. She edits copy for a brace of technical
magazines and reviews books every month for a couple of national
newspapers.
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