People often ask me how I do my research for my books. Any genre, even those seemingly not requiring much research, like romance, do need the author to carry out some research. In romance, research could be about places. With thrillers, it could be about places, government organisations and their structure, weaponry and a host of other things.

So what does research mean for writers of historical fiction?

Let me illustrate with how I did it for The Battle of Vathapi series. The first stop for most writers of historical fiction are books on history. Authentic books on history. For The Battle of Vathapi, I started off with the History of South India by K. A. Neelakanta Sastri., the doyen of South Indian history and historical research. Since most of the action is set in South India, this seemed like a reasonable starting point. However, the action also moves up north, to Ujjain. I bought the entire 11 volume set titled The History and Culture of the Indian People by R. C. Majumdar. This set is a must have for all lovers of Indian history and who would like to use it as a reference manual.

I also looked at the Mahavamsa, the chronicles that contain the history of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. Quite a bit of action in The Battle of Vathapi trilogy is set in Sri Lanka and it was important to get the names and time periods of the various kings right.

The biggest advantage an author has, in this day and age, is the internet. And search engines. There is so much easy information available on the web. Add to that the presence of software like Google Maps which allows one to easily look at geographical contours and features and calculate distances between places. It makes the job of modern authors so much easier than what say, Mr. Kalki would have had to do when he was writing the Ponniyin Selvan and other books in the 50s.

So what are the kinds things that historical fiction authors look for, when they carry out research? The main aspects that I look for, are the following:

• Historical Facts – Historical facts could include the names of kings and queens, battles that they have fought, buildings / temples that they have built, their allies, their sons and daughters, the generals and ministers who aided them. I also often look at lists of the king names from an era and derive names of characters from old dead kings. Coming up with character names that are suitable for a given period is critical and very difficult. Looking up names of kings allows me easy access to names that I can then modify as required. Saves me a lot of time eventually.
• Places – The old names of places need to be used in historical novels. What were the places like? Sometimes there are descriptions of places like say, Kalidasa’s description of Ujjain in Meghadutam. There might be inscriptional evidence available that talk about land grants, villages, palaces and temples that existed during a particular time. The historical fiction author, during his world-building must make use of this information to give his readers a feel for what the places might have looked like.
• Buildings – What kinds of buildings were there during those times? What architecture was used for building temples? How were palaces laid out? Cities? There is a wealth of information available on all these aspects.
• Food – The food that people ate during a particular period in time. Again, to immerse the reader in an era, it is important to help the reader understand the kinds of food that were eaten.
• Attire – What did the men and women wear in that time period? During times of peace. At war.
• Climate – What was the climate like during the time of the year?
• Vegetation – What kinds of plants and trees are grown in the different regions?
• Culture – What were the dominant religions? What were their festivals? How did they celebrate them? Were the temples we see now, existing then? If so, did they look the same? Different?
• Weaponry and Tactics – What weapons were used during those times? Were their mechanical instruments? What about siege engines? Magonels. Catapults. What tactics were used in war? What kinds of strategies — offensive and defensive — were used then? Was there gunpowder available? Or some mixture that could be used to start a fire or as an explosive?

These and more are what I look for when I research a time period, prior to starting out on my story.

Finally, there is no better research than visiting the places that one is writing about. For The Battle of Vathapi, I visited most of the places that appear. Sigiriya, Pollonoruwa (which I used as a substitute for Anuradhapura), Vathapi, Mahabalipuram, Aihole, Pattadakkal. It is important to visit places since it gives an author the lay of the land.

As you can see, there is a method to the madness you read in a historical fiction novel. Hopefully, I have given you a glimpse of the hard work that goes into writing the books that I write.