SUHELDEV THE KING WHO SAVED INDIA BY AMISH TRIPATHI

SUHELDEV THE KING WHO SAVED INDIA BOOK DSCRIPTION:-

Legend of Suheldev: King Who Saved India is the eighth book by Amish Tripathi, and the first book from The Immortal Writers’ Centre. It was released on 20 June 2020 and is published by Westland Publications. It is based on the legendary Indian king Suheldev who defeated the army of Salar Maqsud in the Battle of Bahraich in 1034 CE.

The story begins in 1025 CE when Mahmud of Ghazni sacks Somnath Temple and breaks the idol of Lord Shiva. The prince of Shravasti, Malladev, dies trying to save the temple. When his brother Suheldev comes to know of this, he feels enraged and promises retaliation.

Together with his father King Mangaldhwaj, Suheldev goes to Kannauj to ask for King Ajitpal’s help in countering Mahmud’s further attacks. But instead, they are insulted and sent back. On their way back, they notice a Turkish camp and engage in a fight with them.

They kill all of them and realize that the Turks can be beaten if taken by surprise. So, Suheldev decides to exile himself and attack the Turks by surprise while pretending to have rebelled against King Mangaldhwaj so that Mahmud doesn’t attack Shravasti.

Years pass and by 1029, Suheldev becomes famous as the bandit prince and a thorn in the side of the Turks. During this time, he also loots Qasar Khan, a special envoy of Mahmud and the governor of Kannauj but treats his wife with respect and is kind to his six year old. After looting them, he lets them go. He also visits Bareilly and meets a Turk called Aslan who is a disciple of the Sufi saint Nuruddin Shaikh.

Once a maulvi, Zayan, gets into a conflict with Nuruddin calling him a supporter of kafirs and Zayan’s nephew attacks Nuruddin. In order to save Nuruddin, Aslan attacks Zayan’s nephew, killing him in the process. Due to this, Nuruddin casts Aslan away as he hates bloodshed. Suheldev who was watching this befriends Aslan and invites him to join his team to which he agrees. He sometimes goes to spy on Turk soldiers for Suheldev as he himself is a Turk and understands Turkish.

In 1030, the Turks attack Delhi. The king of Delhi, Mahipal Tomar, is killed in the battle and the Turks win. After winning, the Turks kill all the soldiers and men in Delhi, not even sparing babies. Women are sold in slave markets.

Everyone who was related to the king is killed so that there can be no claim to the throne except for two people — Jaichand, Mahipal’s son-in-law and the ruler of Sirat who wasn’t present in Delhi and the king’s commander-in-chief Govardhan, whose father was the king’s fifth cousin. Govardhan is saved because he retreats in time with a band of 30 soldiers.

Govardhan decides to go to Sirat for Jaichand’s help but on the way, a woman tells him that Jaichand is a supporter of the Turks and he would hand him over to them and that was the reason why he didn’t help Mahipal in the battle.

The woman is later revealed to be Suheldev’s spy and tells him the whereabouts of Suheldev and Govardhan joins his team.

Suheldev and his team go to villages attacked by the Turks. On one such visit, he goes to a village of leather workers which is destroyed by the Turks and all the people killed except a woman called Toshani who was saved because she was away when the Turks attacked. Toshani used to be a soldier in Kannauj army but deserted it when Kannauj surrendered to Mahmud of Ghazni. Toshani joins Suheldev’s team. Suheldev later falls in love with Toshani.

In one of his attack on Turks, Suheldev is gravely injured and nearly succumbs to his wounds, but Aslan saves him. But, it turns out that Aslan was actually Mahmud’s nephew, Salar Maqsud, in disguise and he only helped and saved Suheldev to kill him at the right place and at the right time so that he may be made into a good example. It also turns out that he went to meet Karim in his spy mission, who was the head of Turkish invasion of India. It is also revealed that Karim was Maqsud’s lover.

In the meantime, Mahmud dies of unknown reason and a civil war breaks out among his sons. As a result, all the Turk armies are called back and so is Maqsud as he was Mahmud’s strongest commander in chief. Maqsud, as Aslan, tells the news of Mahmud’s death to Suheldev saying Turks are not going to attack India for some years as they are into a civil war. He further tells him that he is not required in the mission for sometime as the Turks are gone and he is going to find some new Sufi master for himself. Thus, he leaves Suheldev and sets back to Ghazni in order to help Mahmud’s rightful heir get the throne. In the meantime, Mangaldhwaj succumbs to cancer and Suheldev returns to his kingdom and ascends the throne. Before his death, Mangaldhwaj says that he had created a confederacy of 21 kings to repel any Turkic invasion and Suheldev leads it.