Book Review: Padmini: The Spirited Queen of Chittor by Mridula Behari

I am reviewing this book in 2020 and there's a high chance that by now, most people in India are acquainted with this story because of the Bollywood movie, Padmavat. In my case, I'd also done some online research on this story before and after watching the movie. So, I was not too enthusiastic about reading this book.

What new could I be reading in this book was my question when I started reading it. However, right from page one, this book completely bowled me over with its beautiful and engaging narrative because the whole story is from Rani Padmini's point of view. This is a very clever idea because, had it been a third-person narrative, it wouldn't be so interesting as the story is well known.

It was a new experience reading this book because it felt as if I got the opportunity to read the diary of the most beautiful person. Interesting questions such as below were tackled in this book:

What is it to be the most beautiful person? Can you find true love despite being so beautiful? How do beautiful women tackle the hatred and jealousy of other women? Are they confident and secure? How did it feel to be the Second queen to a King? How does it feel to be blamed by the whole kingdom without any fault of yours? What are the complaints of beautiful people? And lastly, is beauty a boon or bane?

Trust me, this is not everything that's covered in the book. There's a lot more to Rani Padmini than just her physical beauty and the book justifies it. I emphasize on “beauty” in my questions because the book is about a renowned beauty and this is my tribute to her.

Through this book, we also get to know more about the history of Chittor and the values with which a Rajput is born and bred. The glories of heroes: Gora and Badal are depicted with pride. The reader will come across some never-heard-before concepts, one of them being: the segregation of women by their physical features, Jauhar, etc. References to ancient literature, poetry, scripts, and the customs of India are plenty.

Highly recommend it.

P.S: I thank my niece, Krisha Maroju for gifting me this book. I absolutely loved reading it and will always cherish this precious gift.