Punjabi

Base on a popular folk song and set in the historical period of Mir Manu that is notorious for large scale massacre of the Sikhs, Sundri is a symbolic representative of that milieu. Nawabs had courtiers were bent upon annihilating the Sikhs. The rulers were lustful and tyrannical. Hindus as a class failed to meet the challenge. At the best they could offer compensation to get back the captured girls. Men like Balwant Singh, brother of Sundri, and girls of her stock faced all kinds of persecution at the hands of the Moghul sepoys and humiliation at the hands of Nawabs. The story depicts incidents and events which inculcate universal brotherhood and love for humanity. A Sikh girl treats an injured Moghul sepoy but on learning that she is a Sikh woman he attacks with his dagger. Surasti, the earlier name of Sundri, was forcibly taken away by the Moghul official but when she is baptised and renamed Sundri, she earns respects of the members of the Sikh Jatha who treat her as their own sister.

Brought together in this volume are two of the most moving novels by one of India s greatest women writers The Skeleton and The Man. The Skeleton, is memorable for its lyrical style and depth in her writing. Amrita Pritam portrays the most inmost being of the novel's complex characters. The Man is a compelling account of a young man born under strange circumstances and abandoned at the altar of God.

This book consists of two volumes in total.