56 pages • 1 hour read
Salman RushdieVictory City
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 1
Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1: “Birth”
Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary
Content Warning: The section of the guide contains mentions of sexual abuse and misogyny.
The narrator of Victory City explains that the story is adapted from an “immense narrative poem” (3) by a poet and prophetess named Pampa Kampana, who died at the age of 247. The poem was found in a clay pot. It was originally written in Sanskrit and titled Jayaparajaya, which means Victory and Defeat. The poem spans 24,000 verses and describes the rise and fall of the Bisnaga Empire, a unique empire that appeared in Southern India in the 14th century. The narrator admits to not being a scholar or a poet. As a result, Pampa’s story will be retold in “plainer language” (4).
The story begins in the 14th century in what is now the south of India. An old king named Kampila Raya rules over the tiny principality of Kampili, which is where Pampa is born and raised. When Pampa is nine, the Kampili army is defeated in a lopsided battle with a much stronger army representing the sultan in Delhi, to the north. To the people of Kampili, this battle is cataclysmic, but from a broader
Related Titles
By Salman Rushdie
East, West
East, West
Salman Rushdie
Fight of the Century: Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases
Fight of the Century: Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases
Michael Chabon, ed., Ayelet Waldman, ed., Adrian Nicole LeBlanc, Meg Wolitzer, Louise Erdrich, Héctor Tobar, Neil Gaiman, Jacqueline Woodson, Rabih Alameddine, Ayelet Waldman, Brenda J. Child, Michael Chabon, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Salman Rushdie, Jesmyn Ward, Aleksandar Hemon, George Saunders, Scott Turow, Timothy Egan, Steven Okazaki, Sergio de la Pava, Andrew Sean Greer, Geraldine Brooks, Anthony Doerr, Brit Bennett, Yaa Gyasi, Moriel Rothman-Zecher, William Finnegan, Marlon James, Morgan Parker, Jennifer Egan, David Cole, Lauren Groff, Ann Patchett, David Handler, C.J. Anders, Dave Eggers, Jonathan Lethem, Michael Cunningham, Elizabeth Strout, Li Yiyun
Good Advice is Rarer than Rubies
Good Advice is Rarer than Rubies
Salman Rushdie
Haroun and the Sea of Stories
Haroun and the Sea of Stories (Khalifa Brothers, #1)
Salman Rushdie, Paul Birkbeck, Paul Brickbeck
Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991
Imaginary Homelands: Essays and Criticism 1981-1991
Salman Rushdie
Joseph Anton: A Memoir
Joseph Anton: A Memoir
Salman Rushdie
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder
Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder
Salman Rushdie
Midnight’s Children
Midnight’s Children
Salman Rushdie
Quichotte
Quichotte
Salman Rushdie
Shalimar the Clown
Shalimar the Clown
Salman Rushdie
Shame
Shame
Salman Rushdie
The Enchantress of Florence
The Enchantress of Florence
Salman Rushdie
The Golden House
The Golden House
Salman Rushdie
The Ground Beneath Her Feet
The Ground Beneath Her Feet
Salman Rushdie
The Moor's Last Sigh
The Moor's Last Sigh
Salman Rushdie
The Satanic Verses
The Satanic Verses
Salman Rushdie
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
Two Years Eight Months and Twenty-Eight Nights
Salman Rushdie
Featured Collections
Books on Justice & Injustice
View Collection
Challenging Authority
View Collection
Colonialism & Postcolonialism
View Collection
Magical Realism
View Collection
Nation & Nationalism
View Collection
Popular Study Guides
View Collection
Power
View Collection
The Future
View Collection
The Past
View Collection