India, April 23 -- Author Ranjit Powar brought alive the women who played a pivotal role in Maharaja Ranjit Singh's empire in her historical novel, 'The Veil & The Sword', recently released at a 'baithak' in the city. The launch was followed by an engaging conversation with author and former diplomat Navtej Sarna. It took a woman to trace the shadowy lives of women who mattered in the rise and fall of the vast, multi-faith empire, with Lahore as its capital. Powar did so with the foresight and intensity of a psychologist - her professional calling - bringing forth mothers, wives consorts and dancing girls, all of whom shaped the trajectory of the empire that was eventually annexed by the East India Company under the direction of Lord Dalhousie in 1849. The odes of the Punjabi poet Shah Mohammad still resonate, often moving listeners to tears. "De gaye tohmatan te Kohinoor lai gaye lai gaye, aaas kaum di Kanwar Dalip Singh nu gore des Punjab ton door laye gaye(They defamed us, took away the Kohinoor diamond; the white men took away the hope of the community, Kunwar Dalip Singh, far from Punjab)." Returning to the narrative, Powar says, "History has been written by men and we have been led to believe that it was created by men! Where are the women? It is this gap that the book seeks to fill." The author also raises pertinent questions: "Who were the women absent from history who raised sons and daughters to be worthy? Who endured the humiliation of sharing wilful husbands with co-wives and concubines? And who quietly ran empires from behind the scenes?" In this deeply researched novel, written with the honesty of a psychologist and a women's activist, readers encounter them all - making it a one-of-a-kind work on the lost kingdom of Punjab....