MUMBAI, March 20: Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on Saturday lashed out at a US academic whose book on King Shivaji has enraged Hindu nationalists, who view the 17th-century warrior as a hero.

"We not only condemn it, but also warn the foreign author not to play with our national pride," Mr Vajpayee told a campaign rally in Beed district of Maharashtra state.

James Laine, a professor of religious studies at Macalaster College in Minnesota, in the book, "Shivaji: Hindu King in Islamic India", referred to rumours that the Hindu ruler had unclear parentage.

In January, activists of the right-wing Hindu outfit Shiv Sena attacked an academic institute in the Maharashtra city of Pune where James Laine conducted research, destroying a number of rare books.

Mr Vajpayee said he would consider a ban on the book for hurting "national pride".

"The federal government will support the state government and if they fail then we will initiate action on our own," Mr Vajpayee said.

The publisher, Oxford University Press, has already withdrawn the book.

Shivaji, born in 1627, founded the Maratha kingdom and made it his mission to rid India of Muslim rule. -AFP