Rise of an Empire, Birth of a Dynasty: Chanakya's Chant by Ashwin Sanghi

The year is 340 BC. A hunted, haunted Brahmin youth vows revenge for the gruesome murder of his beloved father. Cold, calculating, cruel and armed with a complete absence of accepted morals, he becomes the most powerful political strategist in Bharat and succeeds in uniting a ragged country against the invasion of the army of that demigod, Alexander the Great. Pitting the weak edges of both forces against each other, he pulls off a wicked and astonishing victory and succeeds in installing Chandragupta on the throne of the mighty Mauryan empire.

Modern India happens to be just as riven as ancient Bharat by class hatred, corruption and divisive politics and this landscape is Gangasagar’s feasting ground. Can this wily pandit—who preys on greed, venality and sexual deviance—bring about another miracle of a united India? Will Chanakya’s chant work again?

Ashwin Sanghi has always been, according to me, the closest thing India has to Dan Brown. He picks incredible figures from Indian history and weaves great tales from them, connecting them to the world today. Chanakya’s Chant was actually his first book that I read, and one that was quite interesting. Chanakya faced terrifying odds as he trained Chandragupta Maurya to establish the Mauryan Empire. What really interests me is how different he

is from the regular Brahmin as he was portrayed in that time. A learned mind and an ascetic appearance, but with a greed for power and a calculating attitude that belongs to a strategist - Sanghi brings alive this interesting figure who worked in the shadows to become powerful and he ties it to a story in Modern India, where a learned man is grooming a young woman of meager means to become the leader the country needs. While she works hard to fight for her ideals, he works behind the scenes to eliminate her enemies and protect her vision. Fast paced, action packed, emotionally charged, it’s quite like a Bollywood movie!