Description
A magnificent stone frieze-built up into curves and flourishes, peacocks and
curving vines and trailing leaves-runs like a thread through this gripping, sweeping
saga that spans a period of two hundred years between two invasions of Dilli-that
of Muhammed of Ghur in 1192 CE, and Taimur in the winter of 1398. For whom
was it carved, and what happened to it as family fortunes and dynasties rose and fell?
Ten-year-old Madhav comes to Dilli after his world is torn apart by the battle
in which Prithviraj Chauhan loses his throne and his life, paving the way for the
Delhi Sultanate. In the teeming city, Madhav starts a career as a stone carver, and
the craft becomes a manifestation of his very being. It eventually inspires him to
create his masterpiece, a stone frieze that he calls the Garden of Heaven.
Running parallel to Madhav's story is that of another family of stone carvers-
Nandu, his arrogant daughter Gayatri, and Gayatri's daughter, Jayshree, who
befriends an unusual, headstrong young woman who wears the clothes of a man
and one day leads her army into battle as Razia Sultan. A gentle courtier named
Amir Khusro also plays a part in this grand drama, as does Ibrahim, whose
forbidden love for Chhoti brings two families together. And then there is poor
and lonely Shagufta, who rescues Nasiruddin, a wounded Timurid soldier, and to
distract him from his agony, tells the story of her city and herself....
A richly human, layered and dramatic narrative about Delhi on the threshold
of a new phase in its long and eventful history, The Garden of Heaven holds the
reader in thrall till the end.
