JOIN USTechie’s debut novel on Vijayanagara empire
IT professional Kamal Niranjan has written his debut book ‘Hakka & Bukka — Dawn of the Vijayanagara Empire’, which hit the stands recently.
The 34-year-old was deeply inspired by Amar Chitra Katha comics and the sketches in them, which led him to narrate the life of Hakka and Bukka.
Ask him about the story and he says: “It is an underdog story that delves into the lives of lesser-known heroes of the Sangama dynasty. These valiant brothers rose from the ashes of defeat of their sorrowful past to herald a golden period in medieval Indian history that lasted for three centuries.”
It is about “their humble beginnings and the birth of Vijayanagara, the land of victory”, he adds.
The novel is aimed at readers between 15 and 40 years. It involved a preliminary research of gathering dates and events of the medieval Indian history, around the time of the advent of the Vijayanagara empire, and chronologically collating them.
“The process took around two to three months, after which I developed a proper storyline. After this, I embarked on an eight-month-long journey to write the feature-length novel,” says the Rajarajeshwari Nagar resident.
So, why did he base his novel on the Vijayanagara empire? Niranjan says, “Amar Chitra Katha comics, and the lack of information in our educational books about these heroes of Karnataka led me to explore these stories.”
Niranjan and his mother (who was a social science teacher) feel that the warriors’ contribution to “the country’s cultural heritage has been sadly overlooked to a great extent”.
“This motivated me to use facts and blend it with fiction to create a historical fiction. The main challenge was to get information from various sources, which were limited,” he says.
Niranjan’s favourite author since childhood is R K Narayan. “I mostly prefer reading books on historical fiction. I loved S L Bhyrappa’s ‘Aavarna’, an English translation of a popular Tamil novel called ‘Ponniyin Selvan’, and a few books by Paul Coelho,” the author adds.
Ask him if more books are in the pipeline and he says he “would like to narrate untold or lesser-known chapters from our Indian history”.
The book is available online and is priced at Rs 399.