The time is 9 century A.D. The place, Pala Empire’s Capital Gour. Mahendrapala is the all powerful emperor. His territory stretches from Brahmaputra River in the East, to Ayodhya in the West, and Bhutan in the North to the Deltaic regions of Bengal in the South. But a dangerous palace conspiracy is brewing up. The Emperor’s own stepbrother Shuropala, whose uncontrollable imperialistic zeal has found support from a greedy and unscrupulous army chief Bhattarak, and the notorious vajrayanis, a break-away faction of the Mahayana Buddhists, under the sectarian chief Jalarka. Together, the three stitch one of the most heinous plans of coup-detat to change the course of history. But there is one man, Samudrasena, whose exceptionally gifted skills of warfare, diplomacy and navigational perception, complemented with a touch of humaneness, and religious commitment, throws up a matching challenge. With intricate detailing of the topography, society, economy, and even the fauna and flora, this book portrays a gripping celluloidic reflection of the time and people, amidst the twists and turns of events, that has all the ingredients to change the history of Buddhism in ancient India. With fact and fiction intermingling in all effortless narration, Susanta Kumar Biswas generates one of the most absorbing saga of a time that existed right here, just twelve hundred years ago.
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