‘We are warriors, Painda. The Khalsa does not think of war as entertainment; death is not a joke, killing men is no festival,’ said Gobind. A boy grows up, suddenly, into adulthood when he is brought the severed head of his father. He is born to rule but never acts like a monarch. Invincible as a warrior, he has the soul of a mystic. Poetry fills his heart. Few men before or after him have used a bow as he does, few men mastered their sword like him. Guru Gobind Singh turned villagers into warriors, sent shivers up the spine of the army of Aurangzeb and set the foundation stone of the great Sikh empire. The Sacred Sword is a historical fiction based on his life and legend.

Hindol Sengupta is the Editor-at-Large at Fortune India, the Indian edition of Fortune magazine. He is the author of Recasting India and The Liberals, which received praise from globally renowned economists and public policy experts. Sengupta is also the founder of India's only open government non-profit, the Whypoll Trust. He has worked as a political interviewer on Bloomberg TV and as an anchor and reporter with the Indian editions of CNBC and CNN. Online ideas platform IdeaMensch included him on its list of 33 global social entrepreneurs who make the world a better place.