: Throwing his aged father into prison, Kamsa occupied the throne of Mathura. Commanding a formidable army he thought he was unstoppable. The threat to his power came from an unexpected quarter, from a cowherd boy who was rumored to be his cousin Devaki's eighth child, Krishna. Moreover, there was a divine prophecy that Kamsa would meet his end at the hands of the eighth child of Devaki.
: Vritra, the invincible asura, was created by Sage Twashta to avenge the death of his son, Vishwarupa, who had been killed by Indra. There was no weapon in the arsenal of the gods that could stop Vritra as he went on a rampage. Indra and the gods appealed to Lord Vishnu for help. Vishnu told them that only a weapon made from the bones of Sage Dadhichi would kill Vritra. The battle between Vritra and Indra was first told in the Rigveda. The version used here is taken from the Bhagawat Purana.
: In the 5th century AD the Hunas of Gandhara or modern Afghanistan had their eyes trained on the rich kingdoms of India. Toramana, the leader of the Hunas and after him his son, Mihirakula, were determined to conquer the prosperous kingdom of Magadha. But they had a formidable rival in its ruler, Narasimha Gupta Baladitya and when the Hunas turned their eyes on Malwa it was King Yashodharma who fought them off.
: When the king saw a strapping lad astride the aged shoulders of his guru, he knew something was amiss. Soon he realized that, if young Raman was around, it was best to expect the unexpected. This village bumpkin was no fool, even the fiery goddess Kali had given in to his wiles. Wheeding his way into the mighty Vijayanagara court, it was but a short step into the heart of King Krishnadeva Raya, who welcomed a laugh or two to lighten his busy day.
: When a weaver dies, one of his wives drives the other one and her daughter out of the house. But the gentle and generous nature of the daughter brings good fortune. Six queens plot against the seventh, jealous that she is bearing the King's heir and accuse her of witchcraft. A thoughtless queen decrees that anyone who cries in her kingdom will be thrown out, not foreseeing that one day she too might feel sorrow.
: A wonderful account of Ranjit Singh - the regal aura of the king himself, his grand military generals and ministers, the magnificence of his palace, his state and above all his strikingly disciplined and splendidly dressed army. The book is an unparalleled tribute to the supreme majesty and splendour of the Lion of Punjab, which did not fail to impress even the British. This is a reprint.
: Even though Nahusha, the son of King Ayus and Queen Indumati, was spirited away at birth to be killed by the demon, Hunda, he lived on to achieve immortality. Married to Ashokasundari, the beautiful daughter of Shiva and Parvati, he was elected to be the king of heaven and then his mortal mind succumbed to the sin of pride. The stories of Nahusha are taken from the Padma Purana and the Mahabharata.
: When Usha, daughter of the asura king, Bana, dreamt of a handsome youth, she lost her heart to him completely. Little did she know that he was Aniruddha, grandson of Krishna. Nor did she ever imagine that their love would lead to a fierce battle between the Yadava forces of Krishna and the demon army of Bana, aided by the wild hordes of Shiva