I take absolute pleasure in going to a bookstore in my free time to browse through books to decide my purchases. Other than the standard favourite authors, it is a pleasure to buy a book by an unknown author merely based on the look and feel of the book in your hand, your intuition, the design of the front and back covers and the advertising material at the back. It was purely instinct and I am generally right 80% of the time .In fact authors like Daniel Silva and Vince Flynn were purchased by me in this way. Over the last one year due to paucity of time, I started buying my standard author books online from Amazon. They have a system that, they suggest books based on your recent purchases, analyzing your taste and one such book recommended by them was “The Rigveda Code ‘by Rashmi Chendavarkar. I decided to try my luck as the cover, contents and the period of the story appealed to me.
I finished it quickly as it was a small book of about 230 pages. At first read, it was delightful with a credible base of assumption for the story, as any myths related to the Mahabharata is of interest to me and are avidly welcomed by the reading public. There are many interesting arguments as to the period of the Mahabharata but it is not relevant as this story only takes some reference post that date.
The story is set about 300 years after the bloody Kurukshetra war and a child born to the King of Vrij in the capital Vaishali is the 
protagonist. In a majority of the stories only men are the real heroes and ladies only eye-candy. Learned men who are experts in astrology, predict a great and wonderful life for Rikshavi as a form of a messenger for an important edict dating back to Krishna. She grows up as a bright intelligent child filled with energy and curiosity. Her elder brother had died when quite young so, she was brought up with all affection. When her mother requests the royal preceptors to tutor her child in all the arts of war she is rebuffed as those lessons are imparted only to male children. Determined to bring her up as a true Kshatriya princess, she herself teaches her archery, leaving her to study the arts from other scholars.
The King, Rikshavi’s father is obsessed with locating “The Chakra”a fearful weapon used by Krishna during his days. A learned sage visits the King and when he casts Rikshavi’s horoscope, he is astonished at what it reveals. He foresees a wonderful life for her and predicts that, “She will rule without any position of power”.
They receive an invitation from the queen’s father to visit her land for her father’s 60th birthday. The new kingdom opens up a whole new world for Rikshavi as she was a precocious child. The queen then introduces Rikshavi to her archery teacher requesting him to enhance her skills. She then returns to her own kingdom after 7 months. By this time Rikshavi has turned 15 and reached puberty. She befriends a forest dweller Daara through his young son.
On returning to their house Rikshavi sees a youngster in the garden, who she is not sure of, with something troubling her. She pretends she is not well and sleeps in the same room as her parents and as she suspected the youth attempts to assassinate the king but Rikshavi’s throw of her dagger, saves the king’s life. They receive news through Daara (The forest dweller) that their kingdom is being attacked by the queen’s own brother as part of a deep rooted conspiracy. She cleverly plans a movement of her existing troops as a feint so as to draw the opposing forces through the forest and Daara and his men inflict attack them and inflict heavy causalities. The king now understands how smart and intelligent his daughter is and is reminded about the prophesy. Rikshavi now decides to take a tour of her kingdom to study the problems of her people.
Two youngsters Amogh and Vikram come from Takshsahila which is a foremost center of learning. She and Vikram fall in love with each other over time .Her prowess increase more when she designs a special bow with pulleys, which allow her to shoot at greater distances with the same strength. Her life took a dramatic turn when it was revealed that Amogh is the king’s son and not revealed earlier to protect his life from some enemies.
She learns that her grandfather is ill and when she visits him with Vikram they finds out that he is being poisoned. Vikram through a learned medical friend cures him and informs him about the conspiracy. Subsequently they come back and apprise her father about the whole attempt. She and her husband start setting up a university similar to Takshsahila in their kingdom but away from their capital.
They then get news that their kingdom is attacked and their father taken prisoner. Rikshavi now devices a whole series of events, to solve their problems permanently. She attacks her uncle who is behind all these conspiracies and in an epic battle she kills him with her famed long-distance bow. She plans to drive her kingdom’s attackers back and win back her father’s kingdom to install Amogh as the crown prince .She then executes her plans till fruition.
The story line is simple and told in a straightforward way. The language is nice without unnecessary deviations and it was a pleasure to read through. Since stories during these epic times are about various war strategies, I wish the author had written about the action portions in more detail. That would have contributed immensely to the story. It has been well-researched and sounds quite genuine .It’s a good book for a first effort by the author.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in stories around these times.