![]() ![]() ![]() She is right, and her book takes the reader on a compelling journey through the shifting sands of stories told about Prithviraj. Talbot argues that what is most interesting and compelling about Prithviraj is not his true story (which we know little about anyway) but rather memories of him and their development over the centuries. As Talbot tells us, the appellation “the last Hindu emperor,” first applied to Prithviraj by colonial scholar James Tod, is a patently false descriptor. Indeed, even the title of Talbot’s book invokes a misleading characterization of Prithviraj. At the outset Talbot states that her interest lies not in the hard history of Prithviraj but in the idea of him. Those looking for the true story of Prithviraj Chauhan, an Indian king famous today for his failed stand against the invading Ghurid army in late twelfth-century North India, will not find it in Cynthia Talbot’s The Last Hindu Emperor. Reviewed by Audrey Truschke (Rutgers University - Newark) The Last Hindu Emperor: Prithviraj Chauhan and the Indian Past, 1200-2000.Ĭambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2016. ![]()
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