Royina Grewal, in her first fiction book, Babur: Conqueror of Hindustan, the first book in the trilogy on Mughal fathers and sons, narrates the relationship of Babur and Humayun. She shares with Arjita Mishra the reason why she wrote only about four years of his lifetime
We know Mughals for their warrior skills, architecture and arts but, most of us don’t know that Mughals were great poets, too. The first Mughal emperor, Babur was a great poet and writer. In his autobiography, Baburnama, he has not only described his personal life but in the book, also gives a description of the history, culture and life of the people during his time and all the various areas visited by him like Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and parts of North India.
In her first book on fiction, author Royina Grewal has retold the stories of the life of the first Mughal Emperor, Babur, his relationship with his son Humayun and the battle of Panipat. Titled Babur: Conqueror of Hindustan, the book is restricted to only four years of the Emperor’s life. The author told us, “The narrative revolves around the years from the battle of Panipat till his death.”
Grewal narrowed down the timeline because she did not want to write about the landscape she was not familiar with. “I don’t know much about Afghanistan or Fergana. So, I took a conscious decision of not writing about the places that I have no knowledge of,” said the author.
Another reason that she shared with us was, “If I did write about his whole lifespan, then it would have been a very lengthy description. I, rather chose to keep it in a concise form to give it up my perspective,” she shared.
The book develops an intriguing persona of the emperor, Babur. It starts with the battle of Panipat where the emperor gathers his forces to fight with lodhi Sultan, Ibrahim lodhi. His eldest son and heir, Humayun, fights with him and makes his father proud with their success in combat.
The father-son duo, they develop their relationship amid the complications of the war and conspiracy. The story revolves around the question — can they trust anyone, even those who are closer to themIJ Or will they be able to defeat their enemies, both outside and within the empireIJ The book describes the fascinating tale of war, conquest, politics, love and loss, and brings forth the vibrant life of the Mughals.
Grewal told us that while writing, apart from Baburnama, she referred a book written by Abraham Eraly, Emperors of The Peacock Throne. According to her, “It is a book on Mughals and I consider this book as one of the best books written on them.”
Grewal who has earlier written books like — Sacred Virgin, Travels along the Narmada, In Rajasthan: A Travelogue and The Book of Ganesha. This is her first fiction book and she shared with us that she enjoyed writing it. “It gives you ultimate freedom, you can let your imagination run. You can have so much fun with fiction and I really loved every minute of writing this book,” said Grewal.
The next project on which she is working on is the next edition of her trilogy. “The next book which I have started is on Akbar-Salim (Jahangir) and after that I will start writing about Shahjahan-Aurangzeb,” the writer concluded and said that she has not finalised the name yet.