Title: The Treasure Of Kafur
Author: Aroon Raman
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN-13: 9789382616122
ISBN-10: 9382616128
Language: English
No. Of pages: 400 pages
In 1312 A.D when Alauddin Khilji ruled the Delhi sultanate, his general Malik Kafur led the invasion of several Southern principalities. During these campaigns, it is said, he collected and hid 241 tonnes of gold, 20,000 horses and 612 elephants laden with looted treasure. He hid this treasure so that no one except him and his king knew its location.
The novel, written by Aroon Raman is set in 1580 A.D, fast-forwarding to when Akbar was the ruler of Hindustan. The story is about a boy, Dattatreya and his grandmother, Ambu, who have psychic powers. They live about 400 kos away from Agra in the village of Sillod and they know the secret location of Kafur's treasure.
Asaf Baig, the tyrannical King of Khandesh, discovers that they are privy to this secret and tries to force Ambu to reveal the location of the treasure. To save his grandmother, to change their kingdom's fate and to protect Hindustan from potential rule of cruel Baig, Datta is forced to make the journey from Sillod to Agra to deliver the truth to Akbar, while avoiding being captured by Baig's men.
My copy of 'The Treasure of Kafur' arrived on Thursday morning and by 8pm that day I was done, even though I had to go to work. I truly enjoyed the book. The story begins with a flashback and this combined with premonitions and artistically interesting ambiguity sprinkled throughout the book compelled me to go on. I needed to know! Having said that at certain points, I didn't understand things because too much information had been withheld from me by the author. Nonetheless, these points in the story were few and far apart.
The book is mostly fiction with a bit of fantasy and it honest truth, a couple of the 'fantasy' elements didn't appeal to me as much I hoped they would. Datta, did not impress me I had, had expected him to: him being the protagonist. His successes were more lucky than anything and I didn't care much about him as the 'hero'.
Despite, all this the book was surprisingly engaging and perhaps the best things about the book are that: one, the author does not treat this like a history lesson and two, that you don't even need to be interested in history to enjoy the book. On the other hand, it is sure to delight certain history lovers. The vocabulary used by Raman makes it easy to read for anyone who wishes to pick up this book.
Although jerky in the beginning, the story line flows fluently as it progresses. There are a lot of characters but they are never left in the background, helping us connect with them. The Treasure of Kafur is like a breath of fresh air in the increasing array of campus love stories. It is matures with the protagonist and the story telling is fast paced - written for the reader of today. There is love, angst, action, romance, friendship, loyalty, intrigue, adventure and fantasy. It includes everything one could want in a good book. I definitely recommend Aroon Raman's 'The Treasure of Kafur'.
Where to buy it: Order on Flipkart!
Other Books by this author: The Shadow Throne
The Treasure of KafurReviewed by Sanya Mathur on Mar 11 2014 Rating:
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