“World seizer” Aurangzeb, the sixth Mughal emperor to rule over India for 49 years was known for his ghastly acts of violence. Yet it was a single, unique sentence that 35-year-old Aditi Mukherjee came across during her readings that influenced the debut novelist to pen down a historic fiction which shows the ruler in a completely different light — The Last Mughal Warrior in Love.
“I was reading a book on Mughal history and I came across a section which mentioned that Aurangzeb once fell in love with a woman, but it didn’t go well. And that’s all, there was nothing more on this subject,” says Aditi, who was so struck by the idea of Aurangzeb falling in love that she started reading more about the tainted warrior. “Here is this Mughal emperor known as a temple destroyer, bigot and a fundamentalist, who fell in love, yet one rarely gets to hear about his alternate self. He had these shades of grey to his personality, like us. And it was this aspect about Aurangzeb that inspired me to write a book,” says Aditi.
The book, in Aditi’s words, starts when it’s supposed to end. “Aurangzeb beheaded his brothers and killed his father. And the book connects the dots, explains why he is so ruthless. It goes back in time, when he fell in love with a concubine and how she died. Aurangzeb’s ruthlessness stems from this loss and he takes out his anger on his family that never supported his love,” says Aditi. Even though the idea came swiftly, the process of writing it down in the form of a book was a discipline that took two years to master.
“For the first six months, I just read numerous books, articles and documents on Aurangzeb. Letters of Aurangzeb by Jamshid Billimoria, Royal Mughal ladies and their contribution by Soma Mukherjee, History of Aurangzeb by J.N. Sarkar (three volumes), The Peacock Throne by Waldemar Hansen and a lot of material available online helped me,” shares Aditi.
Having graduated from Nasr School and St Francis College, Hyderabad, Aditi is currently the vice-president of a Singapore-based education firm. “I am constantly travelling because of work. At home, I have three kids to take care of and I also love to sit down and read. Taking time out after all of this was certainly a challenge. Initially, the plan was to finish the book in a year, but then there was so much of research to be done that I had to extend it for one more year,” she says.
And her hard work paid off, as not one but four publishers showed interest in publishing her book. “The book has been well-received and I feel it’s because it has a strong plot and background. No matter how good a writer you are, you need to come up with a story that stirs one’s imagination and I feel that’s what this book does,” says Aditi, who is already on the second chapter of her next book, a contemporary fiction this time.
