Maharaja (English) Paperback – January 21, 2019

Very interesting review of history of these princes and the dark and shameful side of the "Pride of the British Crown"

Amazing

ORGIES: ACME OF A LIFESTYLE!Sex is the only activity that is common between all life forms in nature - human beings, animals, birds and marine life. However, human beings are the only species which get excited, titillated by imagining, reading adult (yellow) literature and watching live or videos depicting every permutation and combination of copulation for sexual stimulation and gratification. Human alone are the peeping Toms. For me, after having lived in the US since 1968, the human limits of sexual kinks, pursuits and appetites are best described by mathematical infinity!This wayward streak of thoughts struck my mind while reading the book, Maharaja by Diwan Jarmani Dass (1895-1971), who served as a key minister and confidante in the princely states of Kapurthala and Patiala. In all ages and places whenever there is inordinate accumulation of money and/or political power in the hands of one man, then beautiful women are attracted to him like the ants on a drop of honey.The book has 67 intimate palace stories filled with all intrigues and drama. They are independent of each other - like those of my reflections. One can read the book from anywhere, as any piece has no hard and fast connection with the previous and the following ones. At least 50 of them are hardcore sexual escapades of varying degrees. A lesson of human history is that most men dream of having sex with as many beautiful women as possible. On the other hand, a beautiful woman is fully cognizant of the power of her beauty over men. She thus optimizes her fortune. Both are at each other’s knees in the state of ecstacy. For one nearing the age of 80, it is as simple explanation as this.The Maharaja (2007) was presented to me by Surendra Lal Kapur, a friend for 51 ‘continuous’ years, when I visited him last Monday (July 23) at his home in Patiala. He is a student of physics by formal education, but he has a unique literary mind, as I too have it, though, coming from mathematics. His second novel (under publication) is like a volcano that spews out sexual fireworks far and wide.Well, I have nearly finished this book of 400 page. It has engaged my mind in a perversive way - not in a perverted way! Not only had I heard and known some of the stories, but I see them all the time where the wealth and/or power suddenly land over the life of a person.Being an author myself, reading this book leaves me wanting in a few aspects. In a recently presented research paper (in a literary conference), I defined three coordinates of a literary piece: namely; why it is written or what prompted the author to write it, the geographical place where it is written, and finally the date it was started on. The book, first written in 1969, is still selling after author’s death makes it a popular book for the public. That is why every version of the Kamasutra is still selling at street corners. The bottom line is that sex sells everything including sex!What impresses me again and again, is as to how a handful of British men and women gradually conquered and ruled over Indian masses (1747- 1947) - including these cocky princes. The British agents in each princely state treated the ‘disobedient’ princes like pieces of dirt, a feature which is often brought to light in this book.Individual men and women are not very different intellectually. It is a law of nature. But their collective physical and mental development by belonging to an organized religion, political system and/or institution set them apart from others. That alone can explain how one society rules and the other is ruled over. For instance, the Hindus have been/are being beaten badly by any collective group - a sad-running saga for the last several centuries. Out of nearly 500 princes during the British India, there were only 2 or 3 who tried to challenge the entrenched British power in India; say, by striking some deals with Italy’s Mussolini and Germany’s Hitler. However, the British intelligence not only thwarted any such design or coup, but removed those monarchs from the their thrones and confiscated their purses and pensions. That is exactly what the British intelligence did through the US FBI in curbing the Indian freedom fighters of the Hindustan Gadar Party in the San Francisco area. Even today, intelligence agencies of the Indian government may be rated at the bottom amongst those of the major nations. India’s borders are highly porous for the terrorists to sneak in and out of India.Well, such were my thoughts which swirled into my mind as I read through the Maharaja.Satish C. BhatnagarJuly 25, 2018 (Bathinda)

This one like it informative too

This book has been so carelessly proofread and/or edited that some sentences are incomprehensible. I do not recommend it, and am sending it back to Amazon.