Fated to Live: Princess Amodini, #1

By C Phillip

A fugitive princess in an enemy kingdom. 

18-year-old Satya is the best female medical student at Satvikshila University in the kingdom of Satayu. Her dream is to become a doctor and spend her life treating patients. Unknown to all, she secretly uses healing magic to administer miraculous cures. Born with the gift, her powers are also the sole proof of her true identity - Princess Amodini, the last remaining survivor of the royal family of the fallen kingdom of Amritambu.

A chance encounter brings her face-to-face with Veerata, the great general of Satayu who conquered Amritambu. Seeing him suffer from an old battle wound, she heals him using her powers in the hopes that he will save Satvikshila from the clutches of a corrupt feudal lord. Failing to recognise the princess, missing for the last three years, Veerata is attracted to the beautiful and intelligent young maiden who saves his life. Determined to guard her secret, Satya and her two trusted companions, Madhav and Sulochana, intend to leave Satvikshila and find refuge elsewhere. But their plans are thwarted when Veerata seeks her aid in treating a dancer from the kingdom of Videha, who is slowly being poisoned to death.

Will Satya be able to save the poisoned dancer while still keeping her powers and her identity a secret from her sworn enemy?

• Language: English
• Publisher: C Phillip
• Release date: Jan 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201964818

C Phillip

C Phillip is a Mumbai-based, self-published author of two book series, one light novel and short stories. She writes action-packed historical fiction and fantasy novels with a generous helping of romance, suspense and strong female leads. Her short story, 'The Prince and the Flute Player', is featured in a charity anthology, Children of War, that explores the experiences of children trapped in war and seeks to honour those affected by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.  Apart from writing books, C Phillip is engaged in active research on women's empowerment in ancient India, which she uses as a basis for creating credible, diverse, dynamic and multifaceted characters. 

Book preview

Content Warning

This book is a work of fiction containing explicit and vividly visual scenes of violence, blood, suicide, sexual assault, death, mental illness and self-injurious behaviour that may be upsetting and triggering for some readers. Unsuitable for all readers under the age of 16.

Blurb

Fated to Live–The Lost Princess of Amritambu

Book One of the Life & Exploits of Princess Amodini

A fugitive princess in an enemy kingdom.

18-year-old Satya is the best female medical student at Satvikshila University in the kingdom of Satayu. Her dream is to become a doctor and spend her life treating patients. Unknown to all, she secretly uses healing magic to administer miraculous cures. Born with the gift, her powers are also the sole proof of her true identity–Princess Amodini, the last remaining survivor of the royal family of the fallen kingdom of Amritambu.

A chance encounter brings her face-to-face with Veerata, the great general of Satayu who conquered Amritambu. Seeing him suffer from an old battle wound, she heals him using her powers in the hopes that he will save Satvikshila from the clutches of a corrupt feudal lord. Failing to recognise the princess, missing for the last three years, Veerata is attracted to the beautiful and intelligent young maiden who saves his life.

Determined to guard her secret, Satya and her two trusted companions, Madhav and Sulochana, intend to leave Satvikshila and find refuge elsewhere. But their plans are thwarted when Veerata seeks her aid in treating a dancer from the kingdom of Videha, who is slowly being poisoned to death.

Will Satya be able to save the poisoned dancer while still keeping her powers and her identity a secret from her sworn enemy?

Fated to Strike–The Last Queen of Amritambu

Book Zero of the Life & Exploits of Princess Amodini

A warrior queen in a fallen kingdom.

When the white stallion of Satayu breeches the borders of Amritambu, Queen Nandini orders it's capture against the better judgement of her entire court. She refuses to surrender her kingdom peacefully to the Ashwamedha ritual that allows the horse to wander freely and declares Satayu a sovereign empire over all other kingdoms in the continent.

Capturing the magnificent beast means war against the forces of Veerata, the invincible young general of Satayu, who conquered even the great kingdom of Matsya. Nandini's insignificant army falls to his might in a single week. Under orders of King Padmapani of Satayu, Veerata must capture both the queen and her younger sister, Princess Amodini, alive. But he finds the palace deserted and the fiery young queen waiting to ambush his soldiers in a secret room in the tallest tower.

Can Veerata convince Nandini to surrender and save her own life or will they perish together inside that ill-fated room?

And where is Princess Amodini?

A Quick Note

Common Attire in Princess Amodini’s World

This book is a work of fiction based in a parallel universe of ancient India. The clothing, described here, is derived from the traditional dress of ancient India, which is one of the main pieces of evidence marking the existence of gender equality during that period. Most historians agree that both men and women, even children, wore the same three pieces of clothing that constituted the complete dress. These three pieces are referred to liberally throughout this book and are essential to the plot.

The lower body garment, called Antariya, consists of a cotton cloth, mostly white, five yards long, tied below the navel, and covering the entire lower body up to the ankles. The front end of the antariya hangs in long pleats from the waist till below the knees while the other end is passed through the legs and tucked at the back. The men in ancient times wore loosely-fitted antariyas while the women sometimes also wore tightly-fitted or knee-length ones. Over the centuries, the antariya has evolved into its current form called dhoti, specifically worn by Indian men.

The garment covering the upper body, called Uttariya, consists of a single loose piece of cloth, cotton or silk, maximum two yards long, similar to a shawl. It can be draped in a number of ways. The evolved version is called the dupatta and is a vital part of the female dress in India. For the sake of convenience, in this book, the characters, both male and female, drape it over their person in only one single way. One end goes over the left shoulder and covers the entire chest and torso, up to the navel. The other longer end of the same cloth is pulled from behind the waist, passed under the right arm, wound three times over the front of the abdomen, like a belt, and tied securely at the back. The antariya and uttariya together constitute the main parts of the traditional costume and shall be referred to as a common attire or garments throughout this book.

The third piece, called Kanchuka, is a light-weight, full or half sleeved, jacket. Soldiers wore a kanchuka made of leather, under their armour, when marching into battle. In daily life, however, a cotton alternative is mainly worn by little girls. In this book, the kanchuka is described as a light-weight jacket for ease of reading.

A fourth piece of cloth, only for women, is the Stanpatta. It is literally an ancient version of the bra. It is a single strip of cotton cloth, mostly white, wound a number of times over the breasts and shielded under the uttariya. The modern version is the choli or Indian-style bodice, available in various colours, shapes and sizes, worn with a sari or lehenga or palazzos. In this book, the stanpatta is described as a bodice only.

Apart from the above, the people also wore a cummerbund, known as kayabandh over their torso. It's usually a tightly wrapped, broad belt of thick cotton or leather, for added support to the antariya. Although its unisex, this book uses the cummerbund as part of the male dress only in an effort to reduce complexity.

The headdress in India is exceptionally complicated even to this day. It differs by gender, age, region, caste, sub-caste, socio-economic factors, occasion and season. This book has completely omitted the headdress for both genders since the plot works well without it.

The Sari is still the most traditional women’s garment in India, consisting of a single cloth of seven yards, made of all kinds of fabric, and elaborately draped around the body in a large number of ways, depending upon the region. A cotton skirt, tied with a drawstring at the waist is worn under the modern-day sari, along with a half-sleeve cotton sari-blouse. The sari, worn by some of the characters in this book, uses either cotton or silk fabric, and is paired with the same kind of skirt and stanpatta, instead of the sari-blouse.

Indian jewelry is also pretty elaborate. Both men and women can wear gold or bronze danglers and necklaces, armbands, waistbands, wristbands or bangles, toe-rings and anklets depending on their financial status. However, the danglers, anklets and wrist bangles are the most basic ornaments worn by all. The Royals of Satayu also wear pearls embedded in their gold jewelry as a mark of their ancestry. Teachers and students at the university wear mostly beaded strings instead of gold or bronze.

Hair is the last piece of the ensemble. Young women tie their hair into plaits, little girls into pigtails and older women wear it as a chignon on top of the head. Men keep the hair loose over their shoulders or tie it into a top-knot depending on the length. Sometimes both genders can be seen with dreadlocks.

This preface can be used as a reference for terms in all books in this series. It is not to be used as a foundation for understanding the traditional dress worn in ancient or modern India. More reliable sources can be found both online and offline with considerable research.

C Phillip

The Last Queen of Amritambu

Part 1

8325 BCE

In the early summer, a dashing, young, white stallion rode out in ceremony from the Kingdom of Satayu to wander through the entire continent, called Jambudvipa, for one year.

The horse wore glittering robes under its stately leather saddle. A large red scarf embellished with pearls, the insignia of the Satayu royal line, covered its massive mane. A small white banner hung from the golden crown over its forehead, marked with a sole Sanskrit inscription.

"This sacred horse belongs to the great monarch, Samrat Padmapani of Satayu. It carries the blessings of the Ashwamedha Yajna. Those who stand in its path must fight. Those who let it pass must accept Samrat Padmapani as the one and only emperor and swear allegiance to him." 

In Sanskrit, ‘Ashwa’ means horse, ‘Medha’ means sacrifice, and ‘Yajna’ means ritual. In effect, the Ashwamedha Yajna was a horse sacrifice ritual. Decades prior, ambitious rulers used this ritual on occasion to declare their sovereignty over the rest of the world. The inscription on the white banner worked as an open challenge to all the neighbouring kingdoms. 

Surrender or fight.

Padmapani, ruler of Satayu, had already proclaimed himself as ‘Samrat’, emperor of the continent, amid the year-long ceremony.

A retinue of the most skilled Satayu soldiers followed the horse close behind, ready to battle anyone who sought to capture the beast.

Veerata, the emperor’s maternal cousin and favourite young general, led the troops. Even at the young age of twenty-one, all feared him as an invincible warrior, a keen tactician, and a merciless executor.

Trained in military manoeuvres and weapons of all kinds since childhood, he had a lean and muscular physique, a chiselled face, and sharp features that betrayed his imperial lineage. The only aspects that set him apart from the Emperor were his blazing, amber-coloured eyes, and the curly locks of black hair that fell from a top-knot on his head down to his broad shoulders.

Like his soldiers, he wore heavy metal armour over a light-weight