The Many Lives of a Rajput Queen: Heroic Pasts in India, C. 1500-1900

Padmini is a legendary--some say historical--queen in 14th-century Rajput renowned for her beauty and for immolating herself rather than submit to a suitor. Sreenivasan (history, State U. of New York-Buffalo) traces the multiple narrative traditions about her, and locates them within the historical moments in which they were produced and circulated. The study began as her Ph.D. dissertation at Jawaharlal Nehru University. Annotation 穢2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)