#LockdownRead Finished reading the book 'Krishnadevaraya of Vijaynagara' by Srinivas Reddy. A gripping tale of how he expanded his empire from 1509-1529. Historical account of how Vijayanagara became the most prosperous city and battles with Gajapati king and Bahamani rulers

The king forged an alliance with Portugese, who had by then, established themselves in Goa controlling the trade ports used for importing horses and elephants! These Portugese also introduced firearms in India which were used in felling of the Raichur fort of Adil Shah!

Using the historical accounts of Portugese travellers, his court poets and his own writings, the king is shown as a highly ambitious but short-tempered dharmic warrior. He spent first 8-10 years of his rule expanding his empire and subsequent years in promoting art and culture

#LockdownReading After reading about the great king Krishnadevraya, I got further intrigued about the political history of Decaan during medieval times. ‘The Rebel Sultans’ by Manu S. Pillai perfectly summarises the Deccan of 14th-17th century. (1/n)

Foundation of the Bahmani sultanate and Vijayanagara empire, split of the sultanate into 5 kingdoms, arrival of the Portuguese, links with the Persian Kings, early battles with the Mughals - it covers stories of intrigue, palace coups and political machinations (2/n)

Despite attemps to whitewash the brutal killings unleashed by the Sultanate armies and an endeavour to paint the political battles as irreligious (which I did not find very convincing), Manu S Pillai has presented a lot of wonderful facts using authentic historical sources n/n)

Next in the #LockdownReading series was ‘The CEO Factory: Management Lessons from Hindustan Unilever’ by Sudhir Sitapati. An insider’s peak into how HUL (now Unilever) functions, and how nimble footed it is in it’s response to any perceptible business threats (1/2)

A fascinating anecdotal tale of real life corporate stories which makes for a gripping read. (2/2)

#LockdownReading continued. Completed a month of reading books digitally. Had tried this earlier as well, but could never quite warm up to not having the touchand feel of freshly printed pages. But the ongoing lockdown has changed my reading habbit (perhaps for good now). (1/n)

Have mostly read about the history of medieval India from the 13th-18th century. Followed this sequence
1. Krishnadevayraya (by Srinivas Reddy)
2. Rebel Sultans- Deccan from Khilji to Shivaji (by Manu S Pillai)
3. Maharana Pratap - The Invincible Warrior (by Rima Hooja)

4. An Intimate Portrait of Jahangir (by Parvati Sharma)
5. Shivaji : The Grand Rebel (by Dennis Kinkaid)
6. The History of Kohinoor (by William Darlymple and Anita Anand)
7. Savarkar: The Father of Hindutva (by Vaibhav Purandare) (3/n)

Each of those books is a treasure trove of fascinating information. Best part of this digital reading has been to read about an incident, a historical figure or a place and go to google or youtube to know more about them - from Hampi's ruins to Chhattrapati Shivaji's forts (4/n)

To mix it up, also read
8. The CEO Factory (by Sudhir Satpati)
9. The Indian Conservative (by Jayatirth 'Jerry' Rao)
10. A Century is not enough (by Sourav Ganguly)
11. We Indians (by Late Khushwant Singh)
Now reading - 12. The Life of Tipu Sultan (by Kate Brittlebank) (5/n)

All thanks to @juggernautbooks for making these books available on their app during this lockdown period. The way the books appear in digital format on their app is quite compact and neat, makes for easy reading.

Will add more to this thread with tidbits from each book (n/n)