Journey through the past

When a budding archaeologist working at the ruins near Khajuraho is sent back in time to 1022 CE, she finds herself in the medieval world of queens, concubines and King Vidyadhara, who built the crowning jewel of the Khajuraho complex— the Kandariya Mahadeva temple. Kama’s Last Sutra is a heady cocktail of romance, history and palace politics, deftly penned by award-winning documentary filmmaker and writer Trisha Das whose fascination with historical characters led her to pen this one.

“I especially wanted to write about the 11th century because it’s so poorly represented in our literature despite being such a culturally rich period. It’s called the ‘dark period’ in Indian history, partly because it didn’t line up with our modern ideal of a united India.

It did, however, have some standout historical figures and Vidyadhara is one of them. I figured any King who commissioned the incredibly explicit carvings on the Kandariya temple in Khajuraho and built one of the strongest and largest kingdoms of his day, had to be worth writing a story about,” she explains.

Researching the period wasn’t very challenging for her as it’s well documented by historians and the Chandela Dynasty has featured in academic books, most notably those by Sisir Kumar Mehta and R K Dikshit. “The Khajuraho temples and the erotic carvings have been written about extensively, especially by Devangana Desai, who is a leading expert on them. Also, a lot of information about the period is available through meticulous records ept by historians and artists accompanying invading armies,” she says adding that there’s a ton of misinformation too – a result of political climates on both the warring sides. “I researched this book for six months, sifting through as much material as I possibly could. I ven watched Youtube videos posted by foreign tourists who visited Khajuraho, to get their views on the erotic carvings. Those were entertaining, to say the least.”

Like Trisha’s previous female characters, this time-travelling heroine too isn’t a stereotypical archaeologist. Tara is sassy, sexy with a mind of her own. Perhaps, that’s what attracted the mighty king towards her. “Maybe because I have a mind of my own, I’m drawn to other women who do as well. Draupadi was well-known as a strong woman, for all her victimisation in literature. Any woman who yells at her husbands and dozens of other men while standing almost naked and bleeding in a royal court is no weakling in my eyes. Tara is much like many other young feminists these days – trying to reconcile her strength and independent personality with her femininity and vulnerability. She’s also embarrassed by her sexuality, like so many women these days, without realising that the shame she feels is not natural, but a habit that society has drilled into her,” she says.

In today’s political climate, writing about historical characters can have repercussions but according to the writer, fiction does manage to fill the gaps between the facts. While mythology has always been a grey area because it is often reinterpreted for relevance, history can’t be manipulated. “History is different – you can’t argue with historical facts. But you can learn from them. By sending a modern woman back in time, this story is able to have a modern perspective on history without changing the facts of what happened during that time. The reader understands immediately what is true and what is made up because of the way the story is constructed. That’s the beauty of fiction,” she believes.

The plot unravels at a turbulent time when the Indian subcontinent was divided up between warring Rajput clans and coveted by Mohammed Ghazni’s mighty empire. Inside the kingdom, Society at that time was extremely feudal and caste-driven where slavery, child abuse, atrocities against women and political unrest were rampant. Thousand years later, not much has changed. As a result, it becomes critical for a writer to exercise one’s artistic expression in making stories available that are of utmost social concern so that young readers can be sensitised. Says Trisha, “I’m a writer and also a mother and I’m going to be leaving behind a generation who will pick up the reigns of society after me. Just like I’ve picked up the reigns left behind by generations before me. My great-grandfather gave up his surname so that he could shed his caste.

Because of his actions, his descendants were able to be relatively caste-neutral. I need to do what little I can, using whatever skills I possess, to pass on the baton of progress. It just so happens that the only skill I possess is to write stories – you’d know that if you ever tasted my cooking.”