As soon as Annae hit the bed, she pulled out the withered book which her teacher had handed her. Its cover page was missing. It was a handwritten copy and the writtings on it were almost faded out. She could vaguely make out the characters written in sanskrit. On the top of the page "The Fallen and Forgotten" was written in bold letters.
She couldn't read further as half of the page was torn. She began to roughly flip through the pages to get something interesting and something indeed caught her eye. It was a sketch - a potrait of some lady holding a beautiful flute. Though the sketch was in miserable condition, the emotion in her eyes were still incredible. As if whatever skill thecartist had was all used to portray those beautifully brown doe eyes. Her eyes had a perfect blend of pride, valour, beauty and authority. On further observation Annae realised that though the lady was dressed in ancient Indian style and wore numerous ornaments, her face looked surprisingly familiar. Yes the lady in the potrait was she herself. Annae was thrilled at the idea that they both had same faces.
This was enough to rouse her interests in the room and she began to read the book seriously. The book was in a bad state and her knowlede about sanskrit script was limited. But whatever she understood from the book was a story of the demise of the powerful queen of Kokanbhumi Empire - Rani Anaamikaa Bai.
The only daughter of the renowned army general Vishwas Rao Sawant, Anaamikaa was the epitome of beauty, brains and bravery. It was due to the efforts of the Sawant ancestors and her grandfather that the small estate of Raanpaar slowly turned out to be a prosperous small kingdom under their rule. As the only heir to this kingdom, Anaamikaa was sure to become the next ruler; the one who married her would obviously be the king. Thus there was a huge competition among her suiters to get her hand in marriage. Many of them were handsome and brave princes of mighty dynasties. One of the strong wooers among them was the heir of Fauzdaar clan, Mahish Rao Fauzdaar. Though his private life was a mess with many lustful rumours, Anaamikaa seemed to like him.
The second person who was also a strong opponent of Mahish was the ruler of Mohite clan - Vikram Rao Mohite. Though the kingdom of Mohites was smaller in area compared to Chaukul kingdom of Fauzdaars, their location and strategical value was far better than the Fauzdaars. It was open secret that though Prince Vikram was second most powerful prince in the Konkan Province he was uninterested in beauties and marriage. Many Princesses and damsels suffered from heartbreak while chasing him. Even so the friendship between the Mohites and Sawants favoured this relation.
Anaamikaa was originally married in Mohite family but she betrayed the trust of Mohites and joined hands with Fauzdaars. Due to compilation of Mohite and Sawant rules the Northern Kokan region had completely come under a single rule. The only opposition to this new founded rule was the Fauzdaars in the South. After the treacherous murder of Vikram Roa Mohite, the Fauzdaars overtook the rule. The Queen Anaamikaa Bai remarried the Fauzdaar King Mahish. Unfortunately she couldn't enjoy it for too long and mysteriously disappeared after some days. Mahish married a number of Princesses and daughters of ministers to strengthen his reign but was unsuccessful. Soon the Bhonsale clan in alliance with Rathod clan invaded the region thus ending the Fauzdaar rule and dissipating the Konkan Bhumi Empire.