Horse of the Servant, tells the story of Nagoji Sawant, a Maratha cavalryman who survives Portuguese torture in Goa and a shipwreck in the Arabian Sea, only to wash ashore in the kingdom of Travancore. There he is drawn into the service of Marthanda Varma, the ambitious king who would defeat the Dutch East India Company at the Battle of Colachel (1741) and forge a southern empire that remained unconquered until Indian independence.

The novel explores loyalty, belonging, and the personal cost of statecraft through the eyes of an outsider who must choose between his Maratha past and the new land that claims him. It culminates in the Thrippadidanam ceremony of 1750, when Marthanda Varma surrendered his kingdom to Lord Padmanabha, making the state untouchable by noble rebellion.

This is the first instalment in a planned series, Blood and Thrones, which will chronicle pivotal moments in South Indian history through individual lives caught in the machinery of empire building.