Publisher's Synopsis
For she is the giver of life, the oldest, kindest, wisest of mothers. She has seen this land take form, swell with power. She has witnessed people pillage it, and bring about the end to the age of kings in a great, futile war. The battle of Kurukshetra may have lasted a mere eighteen days, but its seeds were sown during the long years leading up to it, on mountain slopes, in hermitages, behind curtained palace doors. And Ganga narrates the tale from the beginning, as she saw it happen. In The Queens of Hastinapur, the Lady of the River must learn when to withdraw from the realm in which the Goddess holds sway. Jarasandha, the king of Magadha, is preparing to take Mathura by force in his quest for expansion into the middle kingdoms, but must the Meru people intervene? Or should they let matters take their course? Meanwhile, a few thousand leagues to the north, two young princesses enter the royal house of Kuru, one wedded to the king, the other to a blind prince, both beginning on the tortuous paths that would shape their destinies. This is the Mahabharata like you've never seen it before. Riveting, heart-rending and intensely human. Ganga is about to speak, and we must listen. From the Back flap 'They claim to know her because she is unknowable. They see her form because she is formless. They speak on her behalf because she never utters a word.' This is the story of Ganga, Madri, Pritha and Gandhari: women of the Mahabharata who, driven by their fears and ambitions, trigger events that lead to an epic war, propelling kings, princes and warriors towards glory and bloodshed, sin and redemption. What came to an end in Kurukshetra took root in throne rooms and bedchambers, hermitages and sacred lakes, prisons and shrines, on horseback and under the stars. This immersive, gripping retelling of the Mahabharata through the eyes of its female characters reveals how fates are sealed and destinies altered when women begin pulling the strings.
