Book Review - Hastinapur Crumbling by Ayush Kumar

Hastinapur Crumbling

Hastinapur Crumbling by Ayush Kumar is, first and foremost, a compulsive page-turner. Even a reader such as myself, saturated by the recent glut of mythological fiction on the market, found this book hard to put down, simply because of the brilliant writing and the character development.

Hastinapur Crumbling takes two characters from the Mahabharatathe morally conflicted Bhishma Pitamah, and the vengeful Shakuni, and traces through their points of view how the conflict of ideologies culminates in the catastrophic war all of us know from the stories. While Bhishma, the last of his lineage, attempts to preserve the empire and its crumbling vestiges, Shakuni seeks nothing more than to dismantle the power structure entirely. This premise drives the story, and Ayush is clever in the subtle additions he makes to the narrative. Marauding Greeks on the border? Sure! Sinister tantrics? Yes please.

The author weaves in and out of the tale we know and love, and adds flavours that may not appease the purists, but sure make this a thoroughly engaging readperhaps the best piece of mythological fiction to come out this year. The chapters told from Gandhari's and Shikhandi's points of view are extraordinary in their creativity, while certain scenes (including how Shakuni got his dice) still give me goosebumps for their intensity.

My goal with Hastinapur Crumbling was to finish it over the course of a week, but I found myself unable to stopI ended up finishing it over two nights, devouring pages while marvelling at the writing.

Ayush is one of the most brilliant new writers to emerge this year, and Hastinapur Crumbling is a definite must-read.

Price: Rs. 399

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.in/dp/8119058739?