Kota, beautiful and regal, had once known love and dreamt of happiness. A lifetime ago. Before the murder of her father. Before she became Kota Rani, the wise regent who rules over Kashmir with a firm hand. As invaders and immigrants disturb the tranquillity of her land, Kota must find a way to protect her people. But at what personal cost? Can she weather the political intrigues and power-play of the court? Will she succeed in preserving the splendour and diversity of her society? Will social hypocrisy and notions of what a woman should be keep Kota from being the sovereign she knows she is? Set in fourteenth-century Kashmir, The Last Queen of Kashmir is the sweeping saga of a civilization in peril. It is also the tale of one of the greatest queens of the land - one that will speak to the men and women of today.Rakesh K. Kaul, whose family hails from Kashmir, migrated to the US in 1972. Rakesh was a founding contributor to the first Chair of India Studies at University of California, Berkeley, to the Center for the Advanced Study of India at University of Pennsylvania and the Mattoo Center for India studies at State University of New York.
