Salman Rushdie’s fifteenth novel, Victory City, is a powerful epic chronicle of the rise and fall of Vijayanagar (the capital city of the historic southern Indian Vijayanagara empire). The story is based on the archaeological discovery of the Jayaparajaya, a poem by a writer named Pampa Kampana, and its title translates as “Victory and Defeat”. Through this novel, Rushdie explores the process of writing history, how it is recorded and how significance is apportioned. He also takes aim at the populist exploitation of historical narratives for political gain.
The unnamed narrator’s voiceovers and alternative versions of stories alert readers to the intersections of memory, memorialisation and history. Rushdie is interested in how history is argued over and rewritten in contemporary moments, and Victory City showcases his research with detailed descriptions of court life, city dwelling and of encounters with travellers.
Victory City takes an interesting position in Rushdie’s wider body of work. It could be read as a companion volume to ideas he explored in The Enchantress of Florence (2008), where a European traveller arrives at the court of the Mughal emperor Akbar, claiming to be the son of a lost Mughal princess, Qara Köz, with magical powers. Women take a central role in the world-building of both novels – Pampa, like Qara, is an enchantress.
At a time of resurgent nationalism, Rushdie’s turn to the historical epic is interesting in its recourse to medieval history and the lineages he develops. Victory City is profoundly humanist, with an appeal to justice, respect and equality – and perhaps a prism through which to reflect on how these ideals are increasingly under threat.
Victory City marks a return of sorts for Salman Rushdie, who has not set a novel substantially on the Indian subcontinent for over a decade. It is an assured storyteller at the height of his powers, revealing once again how important India is as a fount of his imagination. It is also a plea for tolerance – completed before Rushdie was brutally attacked in August 2022, it can be considered a riposte to what his assailant stands for.
