Excerpts from the book:
(Dashrath- Kubera war)

‘How the hell did that barbarian trader Kubaer acquire the intellect for military strategy?’ asked Dashrath. Dashrath could scarcely conceal his Kshatriyan disdain for the trading class, the Vaishyas. https://twitter.com/adarshrjha/status/1278723262013272064

For the Sapt Sindhu royalty, wealth was the conqueror’s right when acquired as the spoils of war, but inappropriate when earned through mere profiteering. The 'Vaishyas’ ‘lack of class’ invited scorn. They were subjected to heavy regulation and a draconian system of licences....

and controls. The children of the Sapt Sindhu aristocracy were encouraged to become warriors or intellectuals, not traders. Resultantly, the trading class in these kingdoms was depleted over the years. With not enough money pouring in from wars, the royal coffers quickly emptied.

The gentle and restrained Kaushalya.....had been married to Dashrath for more than fifteen years now. Her inability to provide the emperor with an heir had been a source of constant dismay to her. Frustrated by the
absence of a successor, Dashrath had finally married Kaikeyi.....

Dashrath snorted angrily and turned around, ready to storm out of the tent. But Kaikeyi could no longer contain herself.
‘Dashrath!’she said harshly.
Dashrath stopped in his tracks. His favourite wife used that tone with him only when necessary.

Lying in her bed, Queen Kaushalya of Ayodhya appeared frail and worn.... In a culture that valued women for their ability to produce heirs, being childless had broken her spirit. Despite being the senior-most wife, King Dashrath acknowledged her only on ceremonial occasions.

‘Vishnu’ was a title given to the greatest of leaders who were remembered as the Propagators of Good. The sixth man to have achieved this title was Lord Parshu Ram. That is how he was remembered by the common folk.

Raavan’s barbaric hordes had decimated the Sapt Sindhu army. Though its prestige had depleted, Ayodhya’s suzerainty had not thus far been challenged by other kingdoms of North India.....Dashrath remained the emperor of the Sapt Sindhu, albeit a poorer and less powerful one.

(Kaushalya) understood that Ram should leave the Ayodhya palace. Emperor Dashrath had blamed him for the horrific defeat he’d suffered at the hands of Raavan, on the day that Ram was born.

Dashrath was convinced that Ram was born with bad karma and his birth was the undoing of the noble lineage of Raghu. There was little the powerless Kaushalya could do to change this.

Kaikeyi and her coterie had speedily let it be known that Dashrath believed Ram’s birth was inauspicious. Soon the city of Ayodhya shared its emperor’s belief.
(Ram left the palace with Vashishta)
He would be away from the Ayodhya nobility, which had never accepted him anyway.

Vashishta stepped out late in the night, expecting a tumult among his students; the conversation about Guru Shukracharya had been meant to provoke.
Hearing soft voices ahead, he soon came upon the silhouette of an animated Bharat in the company of a girl.

‘I’m sorry, Bharat,’ the girl said calmly. ‘I will not break the laws of my people.’
‘But I love you, Radhika … I know you love me… Why should we care about what others think?’

Vashishta (turned away as it) was inappropriate to intrude on a private and painful moment.

Vashishta ran his forefinger along the words of the inscription. ‘“How can the universe speak the name of Shukracharya? For the universe is so small. And Shukracharya is so big.”’
Ram looked up at Vashishta. ‘Tell me about him, Guruji.’

‘A very small minority still maintains that he probably was one of the greatest Indians that trod the earth.... he was born to a slave family in Egypt that abandoned him when he was but an infant......adopted by a visiting Asura princess, who raised him as her own, in India.

However, records of his works were deliberately obliterated and the ones that remained were heavily doctored by the powerful and wealthy elite of that time... a brilliant, charismatic soul who transformed marginalised Indian royals into the greatest conquering force of his time.’

(T)itle of the House of Ayodhya had been changed from the ‘Clan of Ikshvaku’, to the ‘Clan of Raghu’. Ram did not approve of this change, for to him it was a betrayal of his lineage. Howsoever great one’s achievements were, they could not overshadow those of one’s ancestors.

He would have preferred the use of ‘Clan of Ikshvaku’ for his family; after all, Ikshvaku was the founder of the dynasty. But few were interested in Ram’s opinions.

‘It’s a wonder Bharat Dada allowed you to tie a rakhi, Roshni Didi,’ Shatrughan broke the awkward silence even as he teased his elder brother.
‘Yes,’ said Lakshman. ‘Our dear dada certainly loves women, but not necessarily as a brother.’

Vishwamitra (said) ‘...India has a big heart. If a foreigner comes here and accepts our land as his motherland, he is a foreigner no more. He becomes Indian..'

Ram (said) ‘I say that the law must be equal for all. If you allow a man to marry many women, then you should also allow a woman to marry many men if she so chooses. What is wrong is that the current law favours men. Polygamy is allowed but polyandry is not. That is simply wrong.

Ram mused: How unworthy are we, the descendants of these great ancestors. Maharishikas Gargi and Maitreyi were rishikas, and today there are fools who claim that women are not to be allowed to study the scriptures or to write new ones.

Maharishi Satyakam was the son of a Shudra single mother. His profound knowledge and wisdom is recorded in our greatest Upanishads; and today there are bigots who claim that the Shudra-born cannot become rishis.

Ram bowed his head and brought his hands together, paying obeisance to the great sages of yore. A person becomes a Brahmin by karma, not by birth.

Sita had thought long and hard about the meaning of equality. She believed that true equality existed only at the level of the soul. But in this material world, everyone was, in fact, not equal.
(The) problem, according to Sita, was that in the present society,...

....a person’s path in life was determined by his birth, not by his karma. She believed that a society would be perfect only if people were free to do what they actually wanted to, based on their karma, rather than following the diktats of the caste they were born into.

And where did these diktats come from? They came from parents, who forced their values and ways on their children. Brahmin parents would encourage and push their child towards the pursuit of knowledge. The child, on the other hand, may have a passion for trade.

These mismatches led to unhappiness and chaos within society. Furthermore, the society itself suffered as its people were forced to work at jobs they didn’t want to do. The worst end of this stick was reserved for the poor Shudras.

Many of them could have been capable Brahmins, Kshatriyas or Vaishyas, but the rigid and unfair birth-based caste system forced them to remain skill-workers. In an earlier era, the caste system had been flexible.

(All) should be equal before the law and equally deserving of respect. But just that is not enough. We need to be harsh to destroy this birth-based caste system,’ said Sita.

‘It has weakened our dharma and our country. It must be destroyed for the good of India. If we don’t destroy the caste system as it exists today, we will open ourselves to attacks from foreigners. They will use our divisions to conquer us.’

Sita’s proposed that all the children of a kingdom must be compulsorily adopted by the state at the time of birth. The birth-parents would have to surrender their children to the kingdom. The kingdom would raise these children, educate and hone the natural skills

that they were born with. At the age of fifteen, they would appear for an examination that would test them on their physical, psychological and mental skills. Based on the result, appropriate castes would be allocated to the children.

(Sita says) 'justice in terms of “right” or “wrong” is a man made concept. It is entirely up to us to define justice in new terms of what is fair or unfair. It will be for the greater good.’

END OF THREAD