Queen Tara

Queen Tara tells the story of Tara, the Maratha queen who took up the struggle when her people seemed beaten. As a child she asks her father whether she might one day be the fierce goddess Bhadra Kali. He answers that Shivrai taught that breaking an enemy's belief in his own power is a greater victory than killing him in battle.

That lesson matters when Aurangzeb sends the full weight of the Mughal empire against the Marathas: more than a million men, enormous wealth and some twenty years of unrelenting war. From the ruins of defeat, resistance spreads from forts to forests and river valleys. Tara, whose name means a radiant star, rallies the fighters and devises unconventional strategies.

The empire does not break the Maratha spirit. A widowed queen, injured soldiers and people worn down by war all become part of the fight, and the Sahyadri hills ring with battle once more. The book follows Tara of the Deccan, the queen who would not be defeated.