ISBN: 9789381626610    Publisher: Yatra/Westland Year of publishing: 2012     Format:  Paperback No of Pages: 502        Language: Hindi

The year is 340 BC. A hunted, haunted Brahmin youth vows revenge for the gruesome murder of his beloved father. Cold, calculating, cruel and armed with a complete absence of accepted morals, he becomes the most powerful political strategist in Bharat and succeeds in uniting a ragged country against the invasion of the army of that demigod, Alexander the Great. Pitting the weak edges of both forces against each other, he pulls off a wicked and astonishing victory and succeeds in installing Chandragupta on the throne of the mighty Mauryan empire. History knows him as the brilliant strategist Chanakya. Satisfied- and a little bored- by his success as a kingmaker, through the simple summoning of his gifted mind, he recedes into the shadows to write his Arthashastra, the 'science of wealth'. But history, which exults in repeating itself, revives Chanakya two and a half millennia later, in the avatar of Gangasagar Mishra, a Brahmin teacher in smalltown India who becomes puppeteer to a host of ambitious individuals- including a certain slumchild who grows up into a beautiful and powerful woman. Modern India happens to be just as riven as ancient Bharat by class hatred, corruption and divisive politics and this landscape is Gangasagar's feasting ground. Can this wily pandit- who preys on greed, venality and sexual deviance- bring about another miracle of a united India?. Will Chanakya's chant work again?. Ashwin Sanghi, the bestselling author of The Rozabal Line, brings you yet another historical spinechiller.
Read less

Ashwin Sanghi entrepreneur by day, novelist by night has all the usual qualifications of an Indian businessman. Schooling at the Cathedral and John Connon School, a B.A. (Economics) from St. Xavier's College and an M.B.A. (Finance) from the Yale School of Management. Ashwin is a director of the M.K. Sanghi Group of Companies, which has business interests in real estate development, automobiles, manufacturing and engineering. Besides being a businessman, Ashwin manages a parallel career as writer of fiction. Ashwin's first novel, The Rozabal Line was originally self-published in 2007 under his anagram-pseudonym Shawn Haigins. The book was subsequently published by Westland in 2008 and 2010 in India under his own name and went on to become a national bestseller. Chanakya s Chant is his second novel in the historical fiction genre. The book has remained on AC Nielsen's India Bookscan Top-10 for all of 2011. It won the 2010 Crossword-Vodafone Popular Choice Award in September 2011. UTV has purchased the movie rights to the book and a film based upon the story is expected soon. Dr. Shashi Tharoor released the novel in Mumbai calling it an enthralling, delightfully interesting and gripping read with historical research that is impressive. The Hindustan Times has called it a cracker of a page-turner. Ashwin is also working towards a Ph.D. in Creative Writing from Bangor University in Wales. Ashwin lives in Mumbai with his wife, Anushika and his eight-year old son, Raghuvir.
Read less