Sattva Rajas Tamas-Vivek Wagle

Book: Sattva Rajas Tamas 

Author: Vivek Wagle

Publisher: Platinum Press (Leadstart Publishing)

Is being born a king more important than being fit to be one?

Is the throne so dear to some people that they’ll go to any length to save it?

Sattva Rajas Tamas by Vivek Wagle is a story of a Kingdom torn between meritocracy and dynastic monarchy. Circa 800 B.C., King Sarthak of Manukeshwar decided to break away from the tradition and choose a King based on his talents, and not on the basis of his birth. For this, he organizes a series of tests and Kanishka, the son of a learned Rishi wins the Throne and is appointed as the King. After the demise of king Sarthak, Prince Jaivant, his firstborn uses treachery to usurp the throne for himself. What he fails to foresee is Kanishka’s resolve and his vow to uphold the law laid down by King Sarthak and his love for the people of the Kingdom. Through a maze od storytelling, we see the life of Kanishka, and how he fights for truth and justice and it has uncanny parallels in our current times.

Sattva Rajas Tamas by Vivek Wagle is written in a crisp narrative with each point being described in detail. Be it the symbol of self during the tests or the life in the forests, Vivek has taken each aspect of the story and described it in detail so that one not only reads the story but lives the tale. The journey of Kanishka is shown beautifully and his transformation is something that holds the plot together. The fight and skirmishes between Jaivant and Kanishka have also been taken into detail and there are multiple red herrings throughout the book that are a pleasure to find. One thing that I found odd in the book was at few places, the language seemed to have been changed using a thesaurus because the words didn’t seem to fit, but that was a very miniscule part of the book.

Talking about the characters, Kanishka has been created as a righteous person, who has a pure soul. His story has been detailed enough so that se get to understand why he does, what he does. The characters of Rishi Chaitanya and Rishi Siddhanatha have been crafted wonderfully, so much so, that one almost starts sympathizing with all that happens with them in the book. The character of Jaivant has been created in the Mirror Image of Kanishka and that shines out brightly from the plot. I specially loved the characters of Devanshi and Vaishali, for even they had smaller space in the book, they were 2 of the strongest characters in the story.

All in all, Sattva Rajas Tamas wins the battle by taking over 3.5 kingdoms out of my 5.