Ira Mukhoty is the author of Akbar: The Great Mughal; Daughters of the Sun: Empresses, Queens and Begums of the Mughal Empire; and Heroines: Powerful Indian Women in Myth and History. Living in one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world, she developed an interest in the evolution of mythology and history, the erasure of women from these histories, and the continuing relevance this has on the status of women in India. She writes rigorously researched narrative histories that are accessible to the lay reader. Her next book, Song of Draupadi, a retelling of the Mahabharata through the stories of the courageous and resilient women of that great epic–Draupadi, Kunti, Satyavati, Ganga and others, will be published in April 2021.