The Hill of Devi

The novelist E.M. Forster opens the door on life in a remote Maharajah’s court in the early twentieth century. Through letters from his time visiting and working there as the Maharajah’s private secretary, he introduces us to a fourteenth-century political system where the young Maharajah of Devas, ‘certainly a genius and possibly a saint’, led a state centred on spiritual aspirations. A loving and affectionate portrait of a forgotten world, ‘The Hill of Devi’ chronicles Forster’s infatuation and exasperation, fascination and amusement at this idiosyncratic court. He leads us with him to its heart and the eight-day festival of Gokul Ashtami, marking the birth of Krishna, where we see His Highness Maharajah Sir Tukoji Rao III dancing before the altar ‘like David before the Ark’.