Rebel Sultans: The Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji

by Manu S. Pillai

Manu S. Pillai narrates the story of the Deccan from the close of the thirteenth century to the dawn of the eighteenth. We witness the dramatic rise and fall of the Vijayanagar empire, even as we negotiate intrigues at the courts of the Bahmani kings and the Rebel Sultans who overthrew them.

Genres: History, India, Nonfiction, Indian Literature, Politics, Historical, Collections

360 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2018

About the author

Manu S. Pillai was born in Kerala in 1990 and educated at Fergusson College, Pune, and at King's College London. Following the completion of his master's degree, where he presented his thesis on the emergence of religious nationalism in nineteenth-century India, in 2011-12, he managed the parliamentary office of Dr Shashi Tharoor in New Delhi and was then aide to Lord Bilimoria CBE DL, a crossbencher at the House of Lords in London in 2012-13. That same year he was commissioned by the BBC as a researcher to work with Prof. Sunil Khilnani on the 'Incarnations' history series, which tells the story of India through fifty great lives. The Ivory Throne is Manu's first book.

Reviews

[Ashish Iyer · Rating 2 out of 5]

BORING!
Writing style wasn't good and unnecessary use of dry humor. 501 years of history cant be justify in 226 pages. It could have been longer and more detailed. Author seems to be whitewashing history, He is trying to pushing the narrative of Hindu and Muslim conflict was just politics/ court conspiracy and not religious one. The author emphasizes this multiple times. He even whitewashed violent part of Deccan history.

There is no reference to Malik Kafur’s destruction of Hindu temples, no objective mention of forceful conversions during the sultanate era, or such. Even the analysis of motivations behind the Muslim alliance during the Battle of Talikota was hilarious. No mentioned of over 5 million Hindus were killed by Muslim Sultans in war with Vijayanagara. Remnants of these destruction could be visible in places like Hampi. Author didn't mentioned Gulbarga the capital of the Bahamani Sultanate is still littered with hundreds of destroyed Hindu temples and a Hindu temple in Bijapur(Vijaypura) pulled down to create a Mosque. Many historical characters were skipped.

A Historian must be impartial, he should not twist facts and evidences to suit his own political agenda. Book is written from left historian perspective. Such a sad attempt to whitewashed Indian history. Even i have read his other book 'The Courtesan, the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin: Tales from Indian History'. It wasn't good either.

Deccan still awaits a comprehensive history which caters to general audience.

[Shivam Chaturvedi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had the great pleasure of listening to Manu Pillai live earlier this year - at the 2018 Jaipur Literature Festival. It was at a session where he was talking about his book called the Ivory Throne - and came across as someone who was extremely knowledgeable, insightful and with that carefree sense of humor that inevitably seems to creep in when you've read and seen so much of the past that almost everything in hindsight seems like a bit of a joke.

Those characteristics then have creeped right into this second book of his (haven't read Ivory Throne yet though). The book is a certified page turner, with a sum total of zero pages that are close to remotely boring. History was always my favorite subject, even back in school when the content was drab NCERT books. Rebel Sultans is nowhere remotely like that, and I believe someone even with a minor penchant for reading would be able to make through this book without any effort.

And while it is most certainly a pop-history book, made for a generation of people like me who rely on condensed versions of history, simplified if not over-simplified, the author throws in enough notes and bibliography for anyone seriously interested in the topic to be able to research further. And as an honest assessment, the leaps of faith, that any author of a history book must make, appear grounded in reality, and the book itself is a v2.0 of a pop-history book, i.e. definitely not your routine oh-everything-just-fits-in-a-perfect-mould-and-is-funny-too.

To his great credit, Manu Pillai brings alive the sordid, funny and glamorous world of medieval Deccan, populated by a remarkable cast of characters. I for one had always heard of the Bahmani Sultans, and the Qutb Shahi and the Adil Shahi dynasties. But in my mind (and this is after hours spent reading Wikipedia articles) they were always a jumbled up whole - never distinct from one another. What I take away from this book then is this clear distinction of their individual histories, an understanding of the key players of these dynasties, and how each of them contributed to the story of the Deccan before Marathas overpowered every story emanating from that region.

So all in all, I walked away an extremely happy history lover, gladly consuming every interesting tidbit lying around in these pages (and there's no dearth of them) - serious and funny alike. The author needs to be lauded for his impeccable research and writing style - there is a lot of information packed within this book. But almost at no point do you really feel overburdened with information.

The only thing in the vicinity of a complaint is the author's almost persistent drumbeat that a religious divide in the medieval ages is a modern myth. Its true that politics and power always were and always have been the real reasons for bloodshed, with those in upper echelons only happy to use religion as a frontal motive. He props up several evidences with regards to this, which all make sense, but he ends up overdoing that a little. And while there are compelling evidences to indicate that religious divisions were comfortably forgotten when questions of power were concerned, the plethora of evidences that indicate clear persecution along religious lines is conveniently ignored in framing this story.

While not all Muslims are/were bad, and not all Hindus are/were good (as some would conveniently have you believe), unnecessary mongering for India being the paragon of communal harmony in the medieval ages - and that religious persecution was only a means to power is an almost equally naive view. Which unfortunately for some reason is one of the foundation pillars of this book (among many others ofcourse). And so if Mr Pillai was a little more accepting of the truth, I believe a spectacular book would have become even better.

Having said that, it deserves no less credit for lighting up my weekend mornings (and a couple of late nights too) with two of my favorite things in life - Books and History. PS - the cover art is DOPE.

[Hrishikesh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Severally disappointed.

On the face of it, the subject matter of the book was deeply fascinating. Our view of history is so overwhelmingly Delhi-centric, that I looked forward to a well-written, concise, and readable history of the Deccan. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

One reason for my disappointment is that the subject matter is extremely complex. From "Khilji to Shivaji (Maharaj)" is a period of about 7-odd centuries. Justice cannot be done to such a vast period in a span of 200-odd pages: the author ought to have either expanded on his length, or ought to have focused on a specific period in this entire epoch.

While this period saw quite a few era-defining individuals, it also had its fair share of court intrigue and toppling-of-titular-heads-with-regular-frequency. Which is true of almost any period in history. However, this book rarely rises above being a series of court conspiracies. There are perfunctory references to cultural or social history, but these references hardly added much to my understanding.

I also did not enjoy the writing style. The use of dry humor seemed a little forced and did not come naturally. I believe that it is an instrument that should be resorted to only if one is a master of the subject, and carries that critical gravitas.

All-in-all, a book that promised much, and to which I had looked forward to with much enthusiasm; but ultimately, unsatisfying. It started off well, but nose-dived by the middle.

[Ajay · Rating 1 out of 5]

At first i thought "Yayyy" finally i get to read book on south India because we were always force to read Delhi centric history but this book was a huge disappointment. There was so many dry humor. This book doesn't justify history of 700 years in just 200 pages. Even proper references were lacking. The problem with this book is it is too biased. And it felt like author was trying to push the narrative of Hindu Muslim conflict was just political one not religious one. It seems author attempt to whitewash the more violent episodes of issues between Islamic and Non-Muslim. He keep on repeating this issue. This later spoil the reading experience.

Book felt like collection of articles from internet. There was no deep research and at times it felt book was rushed in many places without any proper explanation. There was no reference of Malik Kafur’s destruction of religious sites. He came from Delhi to Madurai. No mentioned of it. No mentioned of forceful conversions. Most of temples in Deccan area destroyed and mosque were made over it. I expected more about Shivaji and there isn't much about Elichpur.

Book is entirely written from leftist point of view. Extremely disappointed. We expect historian to be unbiased, rationalist and write true story, how harsh truth maybe. We are not in nursery class to get "goody goody" feeling after reading such book. We read such books to educate ourself. He has done a great disservice to history of India through this book. This book has limited depth, no new research and offers nothing new but an opportunity for the author and the publishers to milk the growing interest in the genre.

Even author previous books Ivory throne felt like book was commissioned by royal family and another book The Courtesan, the Mahatma and the Italian Brahmin was really bad. The hype is not worth it at all.

[Jayakrishnan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was a bit like a coffee table book that gave brief introductions to some of the characters who controlled the Deccan region in India, from the 13th to the 17th century. Its like a succession of cameos that left me more confused than enlightened about who is who.

The account of the destruction of Vijayanagar and how its rulers failed to protect it, was quite hard to digest. The author dedicates quite a bit of space to the destruction of the Vijayanagar kingdom by the four Muslim Sultanates. I wonder whether the current complacency of the Indian leadership (especially in the way they handled the Corona second wave) and the blind belief that much of the Indian population still seems to hold for a mediocre leader like Modi (he does not even take questions from the media) is a repetition of Rama Rayas mismanagement of the threat posed by a union between the various Muslim sultanates.

The book suffers due to the fact that Pillai's tone is a bit wishy washy. He fails to pick a side. Much violence took place between Hindu and Muslim rulers and between various Muslim rulers. Pillai simply describes the events. The book needed a more confident authorial voice. For example, in his book The Return of the King, William Dalrymple compared events of the past to those of the present, giving some structure to the events. Also, I am not sure, why the book is called Rebel Sultans. The rebel honorific seems to bestow nobility on Kings who sustained themselves almost entirely by attacking and humiliating lesser and more vulnerable enemies.

[Arun Divakar · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been to Hampi just once and it has been almost five years since the trip and the mesmerising architecture that I saw all over the place will stay with me for a long time to come. There was next to nothing that I knew about the Vijayanagara Empire before my visit there and two days before the trip I sat down and pored over what Google could offer me. What fascinated me most was how most of the internet literature referred to ‘The Battle of Talikota’ as the swansong for a great civilization. Roaming around the ruins of the Vijayanagara empire gave me a fairly decent understanding of the scale of destruction that was visited on the Vijayanagara empire and its capital and with my limited understanding of history at that juncture, I naturally assumed that the Deccan sultanates (who were the perpetrators of the destruction) were nothing but evil personified. A few months later was when I read Dennis Kincaid’s brilliant book on Chhatrapati Shivaji and that did dispel quite a few myths about my misunderstanding on the Deccan Sultans. If history teaches us a simple lesson, it is that no one individual/kingdom/government/empire is absolutely black or white and there are shades of grey everywhere. Manu Pillai’s book explores the shades of grey surrounding the Deccan Sultanates and their role in shaping and forming the history of the India of today.

The names first and there were five states that constituted the Deccan Sultanates : Ahmadnagar, Berar, Bidar, Bijapur, and Golconda. They were all as diverse as chalk and cheese and so were their rulers who ranged from chivalrous warriors to poets to absolute lunatics. Some of the rulers were born in India, some came from Persia and there was also Malik Ambar (an Ethiopian who rose to prominence in the Deccan) and it was a colourful cast that kept passing through the stage of history. As all this was happening, there were a multitude of other things happening in the background with advances in arts, warfare and architecture scaling great heights and ruthless battles for land being fought, won and lost in a sort of rhythmic way. While the South of India was going through these tumults, the north kept passing from one emperor to another before the Mughals finally kept their standards firmly entrenched for a long time. The Mughals had a love-hate relationship with Deccan for while they certainly wanted to expand their horizons to the south, these sultanates were a consistent thorn on their side and yet the tributes they paid were handsome enough to keep the Mughals at bay. While Akbar, Jahangir and Shajahan mixed muscle power and diplomacy while dealing with the Deccan, Aurangzeb had little time for diplomacy and wanted to expand all over the Deccan. In more ways than one, the campaigns in the Deccan were what finally tolled the death bell for the might of the Mughals under Aurangzeb. The long, costly and ultimately pointless campaigns in the south ultimately emptied the Mughal treasury and coupled to that was the rising threat of the Marathas who after the death of Shivaji (and the murder of his son Sambaji) had become a force to be reckoned with. In summary this is the story that this book talks about and Manu Pillai takes one chapter each for one empire and gives a bird’s eye view of it’s life from inception to oblivion.

My misconception about Hampi and it’s destruction was removed early in the book when I got to really understand what went on behind the scenes before the Talikota battle. The fact that the five kingdoms who never saw each other eye to eye banded together to crush a common enemy was indication enough that it was not a simple good vs evil battle. Vijayanagar was rich, luxurious and the behaviour from some of their kings left a lot to be desired even in matters of common courtesy. What followed the battle though was a ransacking which was unheard of in the south and it is only fortunate that all the relics of today were left to stand by the invaders. Right after the wave of destruction, the five kingdoms were at each other’s throats again ! It was a fickle alliance and once the common enemy was vanquished, nothing much held it together. The author gives a pretty well rounded perspective of the kingdoms, the key players and their role in the nation’s history. The narrative ends with the rise of Shivaji in Maharashtra and the epilogue talks about his rivalry with Aurangzeb and how the Marathas rose to be a superbly efficient force in the decades that followed.

What I did not really enjoy was the macro view of history. There is a lot of ground to cover and Manu Pillai pretty much makes a capsule out of each kingdom and gives it to us which means that an in-depth reading is just not possible. Another aspect that I noticed as a standout factor was that he is completely dismissive of the narrative of history in the Deccan to be one of Hindu-Muslim conflict. Instead of taking up, dissecting and proving wrong the evidence in the contrary, he pretty much outright says that ‘nope,this does not exist and so there is no point talking about it’. Personally I feel that an introspective and detailed approach would have strengthened the narrative much more. But ultimately history is also about the person who tells it and a reader should always be aware of not just history but also where it comes from.

Recommended as a high level summary of the history of the Deccan. Pillai’s witty, easygoing charm does rub off on the reader.

[Liju Kuriakose · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book which deserves a better translation.

Manu Pillai's anthology of essays has been ripped off its beauty, lucidity, and style as the translation fails to recreate it in Malayalam the same.

At many places in the book, the awkward sentences and surprisingly poor choice of words create confusion and prevents the reader from having a smooth read.

Terribly disappointed with DC books, the editors and proofreaders (or the lack thereof)! I hope that the author takes notice.
P.S.:
Having read atleast a few of these pieces in English, I would recommend an English edition of this book to all.

[Ganesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

ഒരു ഒട്ടപ്രദക്ഷിണം നടത്തിയ പോലെ ഉണ്ട്, ഒരുപാട് കാര്യങ്ങൾ വളരെ ചുരുങ്ങിയ പേപ്പറിൽ വേഗത്തിൽ എഴുതി തീർത്ത പോലെ ഒരു ക്രാഷ് കോഴ്സ്.

[Sajith Kumar · Rating 3 out of 5]

A run-of-the-mill narrative with rebellion only in its title..!

Well, that about sums up the book and also the disappointment in one neat sentence. Deccan has been a major theatre of political drama right from the dawn of history. A colourful chapter in that eventful run of history was played out between the years 1300 and 1700 CE in which the northern sultans took an active interest in subjugating it. Two attempts were made in the Sultanate and Mughal periods each. Both were doomed to eventually fail which in turn set in motion the rise of a powerful Hindu state in the form of Vijayanagar in the fourteenth and the Marathas under Shivaji in the seventeenth centuries. In the latter instance, Aurangzeb’s disastrous Deccan campaigns sapped the lifeblood of the empire and initiated the liquidation process of his bigoted government in particular and the crumbling of Mughal power in general. This book covers the extraordinary events in the Deccan (which is confined here to the modern Indian states of Maharashtra, Telengana and Northern Karnataka) from the invasion of Ala ud-Din Khilji to the years of Shivaji which extends to four centuries of intrigue, annexation, battles, wars of succession and in general, the flow of history. Manu S. Pillai is a talented young historian who had served in the literary team of Shashi Tharoor. He earned wide acclaim for his maiden title on the royal House of Travancore and remains one of the most promising writers in the budding stage.

While in the north the sultans tended to be more hidebound within religion, the Deccani dynasties were somewhat more cosmopolitan in outlook and accommodative of the Hindu natives. Akbar was the only Mughal sovereign who maintained truly cheerful relationships with Hindu rulers. In the case of Deccan, many such potentates are indicated by Pillai. Hasan Gangu, also known as Ala ud-Din Bahman Shah, who founded the Bahmani kingdom in Gulbarga, abolished jizya (the hated poll tax forced on Hindus) in his territories. This happened a full 225 years before Akbar was to repeat the same thing in the north. He visited Ellora caves with a Brahmin guide to marvel at the sculptural wonders. Another ruler of the same dynasty, Taj ud-Din Firuz Shah appointed Brahmins to high administrative positions as well as absorbing local Hindu chiefs as amirs of the aristocracy. The forefathers of Marathas, including the father and grandfather of Shivaji, were in the service of Bijapur and Ahmadnagar sultans. The most famous of them all is Madanna, the prime minister of the Qutb Shahis of Golconda.

Some sultans went a step further and engaged his subjects at a spiritually higher level. Ahmed Shah Bahmani is still venerated by the Lingayat community as a reincarnation of the mystic Allama Prabhu. His death anniversary (urs) is celebrated with pomp and splendor. Ibrahim Qutb Shah so favoured the Telugu language that he is known as Malikbrahma or Abhirama. However, Pillai notes that occasional destruction of temples continued unabated even in the midst of such tolerance. It is a mistake to conclude that the frequent wars and battles between Muslim sultans and Hindu rajas were of a religious nature. Even though he lists out a long line of Muslims respected and revered by Hindus even now, it is striking that not a single case of the other way round, that is, Muslims venerating Hindu chiefs and nobles is reported! Ibrahim Adil Shah II comes very close to enlightenment as he endowed temples, affirmed the rights of Hindu pilgrims and Portuguese Jesuits were allowed to establish missions in various parts of his kingdom. In his copper coins, he assumes the epithet of ablabali (friend of the weak, in Sanskrit). A number of his firmans began with an invocation of Goddess Saraswati. He took it as an honorific to call himself Saraswati’s son. He was closely identified with the goddess of vidya (knowledge) that at one point, he renamed his capital city Bijapur as Vidyapur. Ibrahim II’s eclecticism is amply evident in the Kitab-i-Nauras which he penned.

Manu S. Pillai repeatedly points our attention to the perpetual discord between kingdoms of Deccan. When the region first experienced an Islamic onslaught by the end of the thirteenth century, the pre-existing Hindu dynasties of Yadavas, Kakatiyas and Hoysalas were at each other’s throats. The same story repeated a century and a half later when the Bahmanis disintegrated into five branches – Adil Shahis of Bijapur, Nizam Shahis of Ahmadnagar, Qutb Shahis of Golconda, Imad Shahis of Berar and Barid Shahis of Bidar – who wasted no opportunity to fight among themselves. The author has included dynasty trees of all the five, even though only the first three had had any real significance and impact on events. When once they combined to defeat Vijayanagar in 1565, their glory was at its zenith. But the spirit of union didn’t last long and in a few decades, the Mughals snapped all of them up. By the time of these sultans, Deccan was a place that attracted job seekers from many parts of the known world. Persian nobles had a natural advantage as the court was Persian in style and language. Even Ethiopian slaves such as Malik Ambar rose steadily in the ranks and attained lofty positions. This led to the formation of two factions in court. The local aristocrats were called Dakhnis and the Iranians and Central Asians were called Afaqis, loosely translated as locals and westerners. This division again caused strife.

As noted earlier, this book is dishearteningly short of any original observations. Primary materials have not been gone into when the author researched for this work. For a description of Vijayanagar, Robert Sewell’s ‘A Forgotten Empire’ is abundantly dipped into, but whose authority is built on shaky grounds. The book includes several old photographs of monuments and tombs taken in the nineteenth century. This offers a delightful review on the very good state of preservation they are now bestowed with. Pillai claims that Hindu kings accepted the title of ‘Suratrana’ which is a transliteration of the Muslim sultan. This is contested in learned circles as the Sanskrit term also means ‘protector of gods’. The author affirms that the term marked their place in a wider world and a changed geography where that term carried tremendous potency. The episode of Shivaji and the rise of Marathas is relegated to the epilogue, but Pillai assures us that the sudden growth of Maratha power is quite another story. Perhaps his next book may be on this topic! The book hosts a sizeable section of Notes and a good bibliography. Most of the very old books in the list of references can be downloaded freely from Archive.org.

In spite of all this, the readers can not quite shrug off the feeling that a golden opportunity was wasted by the author.

The book is highly recommended.

[Vismay · Rating 1 out of 5]

‘Rebel Sultans’ reads like a cricket commentary, voluble but without any depth.

A rat-tat-tat of facts thrown your way, a jumbled assortment of characters moving in and out of picture without leaving any mark - Pillai manages to turn an interesting epoch of history into mindless drivel.

The principle problem is of course: he bites more than he can chew - 7 centuries condensed into a short book. Not focusing on any realm or a region, he skirts and flits around Shahs and Rajas and Mughals and Marathas in a very clumsy dance of words, giving his book an appearance of textbook, replete with data but utterly shallow.

He should have sat on this book a little while longer, not heeding the call of his publisher to meet the deadline. Because this feels like a rush-job, intended to repair than to recreate history as per his viewpoint.

A shame!

Somebody needs to shed a proper light on this era, as this book is ill-suited to serve the purpose.

[Kanishka Sirdesai · Rating 2 out of 5]

The blurb was misleading! Chatrapati Shivaji was only mentioned in the epilogue.

[Pallavi Sareen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars because I am not much into history but this book was good. I haven't read Manu S Pillai's The Ivory Throne and read this book because I basically have little to no knowledge about history. So when I started reading the book, I had expected it to be boring text that just went on and on but instead, I got stories of individual characters told in a good narrative.
I am sure I would have enjoyed it more if I had already known a little background about them, but what I did read astonished me. There were some clever kings, some fools and some kickass crazy ones.

It talks about Deccan's History but not as a collective whole but broken down and shown like a story in parts. I really enjoyed some of the stories like 'Kiss my Foot' and certain elements like the king who put a Quran next to his throne so the Muslims could bow without abandoning their customs. That just added such a human touch to the story. Because usually when we read about history, it is presented in an emotionless way. Even the blood of thousands, pillage, ransack, slavery, everything is written in a way to just present facts and not evoke any emotions.
But the author doesn't do that with this book. The King who knowingly that his death would ruin the kingdom, still gave the reigns of it to a twelve-year-old boy, showed me such a humane facet of history that I might forget the names but I'll carry those stories with me.
Moreover, the illustrations and paintings just made the book more interesting as it broke the monotony of the text. The book in itself is simplified for more easy understanding and even a history novice like me could understand what the hell was going on. But I was also flipping the pages every once in a while to read the notes for a deeper insight, or just to look at the pictures again. It is easy to get bored after a couple of pages with a book like this, but if you keep going with it, in the end, it is just worth dragging yourself to flip that next page. One thing is clear and that is that the author has really done his research with this book.
If you already enjoy reading history books, this will be a gem in your collection and if you are like me, and aren't much into it, you can still read and understand it for a better understanding of the history of Deccan.
I personally would not have picked this book, but now after I have read it, I am wondering if I should read the Ivory Throne as well.
P.S- The hardcover is so beautiful! When I took that dust jacket off, I was so happy with its look. This will probably be my most photographed book on my Instagram stories.

[Ameya Joshi · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are many fine reviews of this book which I have now read, so at the cost of this appearing a cop-out, just jotting down the highlights:

- Yes, this is indeed "pop history" as someone on GR put, simplified for an audience without the patience to dig through academic tomes but yet backed up with an impressive set of references for those who do dare look things up and give us a certain amount of confidence. 99% of us won't though...

- Most of us have heard of all of these characters in the history we learnt in school. Most of us also wouldn't be able to draw a dynasty other than the Mughal's straight with it all being a jumbled mess. What this book does is to at least create that high level structure in your mind and set the 'context' - you do now know who is in who's team, or which are the teams even...

- It is however easy (and tempting) to get lost in the details beyond a point. I almost wanted those summary boxes ("Key Points") we had in our school textbooks somewhere in the narrative.

- Yes, the fact that kings did not divide on religious lines in that era is a very relevant point to emphasize and take away. Also yes, this was repeated a few times too many perhaps.

- Maps. The book needed more maps. Lots of them. To be able to connect history to the geography of today is one of the best ways to make it come alive no?

- The dry humour and irreverence in general is a most excellent way of writing history. Yeh dil maange more.

- To have 2 full books out before you're 28 just makes the rest of us feel bad about our lives... :-)

[Anirban · Rating 2 out of 5]

What worked for me:
1. The theme of the book. Through and through our history has mostly been North Indian-centric. This book was a change from that narrative, whereby the Deccan rulers were made the focus of the whole project.

What didn't work for me:
1. The writing style seemed rushed. Fitting in a 700 yr old timeline into 220 odd pages was a tough job, the result was that, to me, at times the pages became overwhelming. At times definitely had trouble keeping track of the timeline and characters.
2. The massacres, if not genocides(on both sides), have been shown too simplistically. The destruction of Hampi was also portrayed as just another day in the park.

[Akash · Rating 2 out of 5]

disappointed?

[Manish · Rating 2 out of 5]

When you are a young, socially connected and above all talented writer, '"word of mouth' is inappropriate to explain the manner in which your book becomes popular. With the success of Ivory Throne and the hugely entertaining "Medium Rare" column, Manu Pillai is a mini celebrity in social media.

So when Rebel Sultans released, the loud rounds of applause were impossible to miss. 
The premise of this work was exciting. The Deccan and its history were always a 'black hole' thanks to the numerous characters and the dominance of the Mughal dynasty during their hey day. Hence, to lay ones hand on a work dealing with the principal characters was simply amazing.

But unfortunately, the experience left me a tad disappointed. In spite of an engaging narrative style, there were periods when the book became tedious. While I have an overall understanding now of the principal characters, I'll definitely have to re-read many sections to retain the key characters and their contributions. 

[Amal Vinod · Rating 2 out of 5]

ഉപരിപ്ലവമായ കുറേ അഭിപ്രായ പ്രകടനങ്ങളുടെ ഒരു ഭാണ്ഡക്കെട്ട്. പുസ്തകത്തിന്റെ പ്രശ്നം ആണോ തർജ്ജമയുടെ പ്രശ്നം ആണോ എന്ന് വ്യക്തമായി മനസ്സിലാക്കാൻ സാധിക്കാത്ത തരത്തിൽ ആണ് ചിലയിടങ്ങളിൽ ഉള്ള ആശയ വൈരുദ്ധ്യങ്ങൾ. പുസ്‌തക സംക്ഷിപ്തം എന്ന നിലയ്ക്കാണെങ്കിൽ പോലും വായനക്കാരന് സംതൃപ്തി നൽകുന്നതിൽ പുസ്തകം പരാജയപ്പെട്ടിരിക്കുന്നു എന്നു തന്നെ പറയേണ്ടിയിരിക്കുന്നു.

[Roopa Prabhu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read to know the history of south. But the book by itself is not at all engaging, only the subject matter is. And hence only will power will help you in finishing the book and the thirst to know about south India’s history.

[Tasneem Ali · Rating 1 out of 5]

Personally.. I didn't enjoyed this book. It's more like a text book which reminded of class room study.

[Nishu Thakur · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring.
Dint enjoy it.

[VINOD · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hard to digest.Once completed half of the book nothing understood and characters so mixed up even hard to understand who is doing and what he is doing.Malayalam version so pathetic and I wont recommend this book to any one . Please save your valuable time for another book.

[George Sebastian · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring

[Rohit · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating account of Deccan India's history from the 13th to 17th century. A great way to learn about India's past which in popular culture somehow only revolves around the British, Mughals, a few accounts of the Mauryan empire and the Rajputs thanks to a few Hindi movies. For someone like me who hated how history was taught in school in a linear manner and found it boring back then and yet is curious now to learn about our past, this book is a must read.

Bought this book after hearing a fascinating podcast on the seen and the unseen, which had the author as a guest speaker.
As mentioned on the show, there are accounts in this book which are as gripping as the Game of Thrones, if not more. Stories in this book have potential to be spun off into multiple binge worthy shows.

[Anupama C K(b0rn_2_read) · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars
I'm not a person who loves non fiction, but the author does make the story interesting

[Ashok Krishna · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best books I got to read this year.

Will share the full review soon.

[Vishnu Chevli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Indeed a good coverage in Indian history..

This book made me read historical (not fictional one) books.

[Dipra Lahiri · Rating 4 out of 5]

A readable and fast-paced account of some 500 odd years of Deccan history, which begs fuller accounts of some incredible, fascinating characters like Chand Bibi and Malik Amber.

[Jyotsna · Rating 4 out of 5]

..... 'between 1339 and 1347, two families of obscure or humble origins, operating on opposite sides of the Krishna River, led movements that radically redrew the Deccan's political, and more importantly, conceptual map. The Tughluqs had shattered the south and vanquished its old houses. And from the doldrums emerged Vijayanagar and the Bahmani Sultanate that, for reasons of economics cloaked in a language of religion, waged war against one another till nothing but ashes remained.

Let's be honest, history in India is very convoluted. It has been bent to meet political needs, modified to make certain people look like 'foreigners' and over all, there's a very black and white picture of the whole medieval portion of Indian history, especially, Deccan history.

This book talks about all the events that transpired in the Deccan through a bird's eye view. A lot has been covered in the 221 page read, the rest of the 75 pages being being notes and bibliography, detailing every page and book the author used to write the book.

Going into this book, I didn't know what to expect, because it is a history textbook with facts detailed in every page (hence the four stars), but coming out of it you'll realise how little in general do we know about history and how do people manipulate it for us to create a grave divide.

It's a good, eye-opening, history textbook, that should be taught in schools.

[Alfa Hisham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Im still confused whether to rate it two or three. Probably I will wait for a week more to re-rate this. I picked this book up almost blindly seeing Manu Pillai as the author and because I have read Ivory Throne. But this one came off as a disappointment. Deccan History is massive, compressing it into 200 pages does not do justice. The book feels quite rushed in several places without adequate references. Also at several places, there is a back and forth jumping between timelines, which makes it difficult to keep track of incidents.

There is an overdose of anecdotes which is slightly distracting. I loved it in Ivory Throne, but in Rebel Sultans, it feels as though there wasn't much data that was gathered, hence OD'd on anecdotes. I felt there is an excessive use of dry humour. At certain places it makes it enjoyable to read but in other places, it simply looks forced.

Lastly, whether it was intended or not, the books felt like a massive justification. He tries to point out in several places that the conflict between the Muslim rulers and Hindu kings were merely political and not religious. But because he repeats it several times, it ruins the reading experience.

The best chapter I liked was The Ethiopian Kingmaker.