A spoke in the wheel.

A book on the spiritual journey of Buddha, interwoven with strands of history, and politics.

Dharmachakra Mudra

It was one of those book meets and I picked up a book that was nearest to me. I had met the author just few minutes ago and I liked her spoken language.I reckoned I would skim through the book and hand it out to the next niece or nephew celebrating his or her birthday. But I liked the very original outlook of the plot.

The book was called

A SPOKE IN THE WHEEL

Author: Amita Kanekar

Publisher HarperCollins India.

ISBN 81-7223-574-7

Genre Historic Novel.

Amita Kanekar a teacher of archaeological history and comparative mythology narrates a tale of the Buddha. Like the traditional Indian storytelling, it is metatheaterical in character where the story of the Buddha is revealed through the story of his biographer to be Upali. Upali is a Monk of the turbulent post Kaligan Maurya Empire he envisions the degeneration of the Aryravarta during the period of Gautama Siddhartha who came to be known as the Gautama Buddha or the Shakyamuni.

Personally to me the book seemed more relevant as the social health today is undergoing major upheavals like it did during the time of the Sakhya Muni and the post Kalingan Maurya kingdom.

A very interesting read though the pace might have been a little more upbeat if the period of Upali and Asoka Maurya was in active tense.

Looking forward to Kanekar’s next novel.