Ganesh Suman asked Sathyajith Panachikal:

What compelled you to write this book, Sathyajith? What were the fundamental motivations?

Sathyajith Panachikal Hello Ganesh,
Thanks for the question.

I was always a history aficionado.

When I participated in a short story contest organised by our local Library, I wrote a tale based on a minor historical incident , about Harsha Vardhana and his sister Rajyashri who was abducted by a rival king. One of the judges later asked me if I had plagiarised the story from somewhere. I replied that I just elaborated on a single sentence in a book that caught my attention. Although I did not win the prize , that set me thinking; my story,perhaps, appeared to have been written by a good writer.The judges could not believe that it was I who wrote it.A fifteen year old boy cannot write such things- that’s what the judge’s question implied.

However , it emboldened me to focus on historical anecdotes which most people did not take seriously.And I was really yearning to write a historical novel. But first of all,I needed to hone my skills and I began scribbling short stories and Flash fictions . I pored over books and articles on writing , plot and craft and joined online creative writing courses whenever I had some free time.

The story of Bimbisara and Ajathasatru intrigued me the moment I read it, thanks to Amar Chitra Katha.While there is little dispute that Chandragupta Maurya does qualify as the greatest emperor India ever had, historians tend to ignore the fact that Bimbisara was equally strong and was instrumental in safeguarding the country from such formidable foes as Cyrus the Great and Darius. Compare this to Chandragupta’s subjugation of Seleucus Nicator.Although Bimbisara did not have a showdown with Cyrus or Darius, he effectively thwarted their designs to invade India in the great period of churn known as the Axial Age.He and later his son Ajathasatru laid the foundations for Pataliputra thereby the redeeming the glory of the erstwhile Magadhan Empire of the Vedic age. All that the Nandas, Mauryas and Guptas needed to do was to build on that momentum.

This King, Bimbisara, who was the first ruler to have a standing army, first to introduce tax collection , the only king destined to have extended patronage to the likes of Buddha and Mahaveera and nurtured an egalitarian society, in my view, called for more respect and admiration.

And the abominable story of Ajathasatru, who seeks redemption from the sins of patricide,and who too would eventually face the same fate as his father,required a retelling.

So did Jivaka the protagonist and narrator of this chronicle who , despite being the most celebrated physician of his time, was conveniently sidelined by historians, relegating him to the obscure corners of the past.

Furthermore, I wished to highlight the fact , at the risk of being labelled jingoistic, that ancient India was an unbelievably prosperous, culturally vibrant , intellectually superior landscape which was too scientifically advanced for its time.
Ancient India and its people, collectively, was a supercomputer that churned out inventions after inventions, provided solutions and discoveries.

It thought for the world.

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