Also he has a bee in his bonnet about things being fair or unfair which prompts him to act in an impulsive manner which is often times detrimental to his case.Īsh’s life is problematic from the very start when both his parents die and he is left in the care of Sita, a Hindu dai who takes him away from the ramifications of the war of 1857 and by providence lands up in the state of Gulkote and destiny takes him to Hawa Mahal wherein he befriends Anjuli – the “ Feringhi -Rani’s” daughter and several times thwarts Lalji, the young prince, from being murdered by the “nautch girl”-Rani who wants her own son to be the future Rajah.

There are two things which trouble him throughout his life – his capability of being in multiple skins: that of an English man, an Indian and even an Afghan and this sometimes complicates things for him to try to make others see his point of view and yet his insight and advice because of this capability is most of the time a very sound one. The story is about Ashton Pelham Martyn who is born in the cool mountain air of the north and is the son of an erudite English man. This time period covers events of the subcontinent, the War of 1857 and the Second Afghan war and has been written in the form of a hall mark of historic fiction even though it is a verbose piece but till the very end the captivating style which is also a beautification of the rich history and the landscape of the subcontinent, serves to embellish the different cultures and pervading geographic influences, people, topography and languages of this magically alluring land. Much has been written about the epic novel ‘ The Far Pavilions’, which is about the British Raj in India from the period prior to 1857 uptill 1879.

The far pavilions book review