The Shiva Trilogy ~ Amish Tripathy
*Spoiler alert*
Tired of being at constant war with another tribe, Shiva, chief of a Gunas (a Tibetan tribe) decides to cross the Himalaya and relocate to the Suryavanshi kingdom – Meluha. Nandi and other Meluhan soldiers lead the way. On reaching Meluha, the tribe members are given somras, a drink that kills anti-oxidants in the body thereby increasing longevity (most Meluhans are over a hundred years of age). When Shiva takes it, his throat turns blue and the Meluhans believe that he is Neelkanth, the saviour of whom prophecy spoke of. Daksha, the emperor, Kanakhala, the prime minister and many others proclaim him as God and entrust him the task to destroy ‘evil’. However, there are others like military chief Parvateshwar, who do not immediately accept him as God.
Meluha is a highly organized society. The people love rules and hold very high moral values. The citizens are divided into four castes based on their abilities and interests. While the Brahmins are men of science, Kshatrias are soldiers, Vaishyas are traders and Shudras are labourers. There are sub-castes which denote the rank like Nandi is a bull, which is a high rank in Kshatriya but not as high as a tiger. It is an egalitarian society where no work is considered small and women, too, are free to choose their profession. The rules and the system were put in place by a charismatic king Ram and hence it is called Ram rajya.
There are attacks on villagers by masked men. According to the Meluhans, they are Nagas – a tribe of deformed people. They believe because of bad karma, some children are born with deformities, like extra limbs or deformed nose, and such children are sent to the Naga-land across Narmada. They also believe that Chandravanshis, their rival kingdom, has joined hands with Nagas and is mounting attack on Meluha and hence they are ‘evil’.
Meanwhile, Shiva falls in love with Sati, Daksha’s daughter. Romance, which is not epic, follows and eventually they marry.
Meluhans attack Swadeep, the Chandravanshi kingdom, and take their king as hostage. The Swadeepan princess Anandmayi (who is really hot, wears revealing clothes and takes milk bath once a week) is angry at Shiva because they too have a legend of Neelkanth who was to save them from the ‘evil’ Meluhans.
Shiva is confused. Chandravanshis are stark opposite of Suryavanshis. There are numerous poor in Swadeep, there is economic, social and political inequality in the society. There are bureaucrats who sit on files and take bribes, there are labour unions that go on strike if their demands are not met, there is a lot of poverty and the system is irritatingly inefficient. Yet, Shiva realizes, they are not ‘evil’.
Shiva turns his attention to Nagas, wondering if they were ‘evil’. Later, it turns out that they, too, are not ‘evil’ but victims of the great ‘evil’. Shiva, thus, embarks on the journey to find what is evil and how to destroy it. He is helped by Vasudevs (a group of people who, like IAS officers, are selected through a tough competitive process), Nagas (including Ganesh who has elephant ears and a trunk-like-nose and Kali, who has several hands), some Meluhans and Swadeepans.
The book is racy and keeps the reader engrossed. However, it is not a literary piece that one would like to re-read. It would not make its place among the classics. It’s something one would read on a train journey.
I read Immortals of Meluha when it was released and honestly didn’t think much of it at first. What intrigued me was the trailer I saw on Youtube and the idea that Lord Shiva may have been a human before he became a legend and a God.
I liked the plot, but found many dialogues (especially ones between Shiva and Sati) really corny. It is like a TV soaps not much logic but high on entertainment value (I’ve seen girls go gaga over really corny dialogues that RK – of Madhubala—says). There is so much PDA, endless flirting between sensuous Anandmayi and uptight Parvateshwar and touchy family moments like Ganesh protecting his younger brother Kartik. Amish Tripathy has covered most of the mythology and legends associated with Lord Shiva.
Where the story fails miserably is covering the journey Shiva makes from being a tribal leader to being a God. Meluha is a highly rational society, where a person earns his or her place in the society through talent and merit. Yet, when Daksha, who had ulterior motives, proclaims Shiva as Neelkanth, everyone starts treating him as God. There are some who take time like Parvateshwar, who starts admiring Shiva for his military acumen and is overwhelmed when he joins the Melhuan fleet. But it’s just not enough reason to treat him as God. Moreover, it is hard to see eye-to-eye with Parvateshwar because Shiva’s military innovations – like the turtle formation and trident—were neither original nor out-of-the-box. We have seen them in movies and serials. Though one may argue that these might have been an innovation when we see the time the story has been set, but it does not impress me as a reader and certainly does not convince me how he was suddenly accepted as God.
Although numerous philosophical questions have been discussed and debated in the three books, there is no particular philosophy that Shiva endorses. He does not fight against an evil dictator or for a certain cause (he starts fight against somras in book three). When you look at history and how Budhdhism, Jainism and Christianity came into being and how Budhdha, Mahavir or Jesus came to be revered as God, the plot seems weak. Shiva was put on the pedestal because of his blue-throat.
There are other discrepancies too like in Meluha, which depicts epitome of a rational society, there are age old traditions that are followed without questions.
Even though the last book, ‘The Oath of the Vayuputras’, answered all the questions and tied loose ends, it seemed that a little less effort was put in the book as compared to its predecessors. It could have been a little tighter and some parts could have been rewritten. I presume this book had lesser number of drafts.
If you like Bollywood movies and watch TV soaps, if you are looking for entertainment and not literary satisfaction, if you are ready to overlook inconsistencies and logic, if all you want is something for light reading, then this is the series for you.
*Spoiler alert*
Tired of being at constant war with another tribe, Shiva, chief of a Gunas (a Tibetan tribe) decides to cross the Himalaya and relocate to the Suryavanshi kingdom – Meluha. Nandi and other Meluhan soldiers lead the way. On reaching Meluha, the tribe members are given somras, a drink that kills anti-oxidants in the body thereby increasing longevity (most Meluhans are over a hundred years of age). When Shiva takes it, his throat turns blue and the Meluhans believe that he is Neelkanth, the saviour of whom prophecy spoke of. Daksha, the emperor, Kanakhala, the prime minister and many others proclaim him as God and entrust him the task to destroy ‘evil’. However, there are others like military chief Parvateshwar, who do not immediately accept him as God.
Meluha is a highly organized society. The people love rules and hold very high moral values. The citizens are divided into four castes based on their abilities and interests. While the Brahmins are men of science, Kshatrias are soldiers, Vaishyas are traders and Shudras are labourers. There are sub-castes which denote the rank like Nandi is a bull, which is a high rank in Kshatriya but not as high as a tiger. It is an egalitarian society where no work is considered small and women, too, are free to choose their profession. The rules and the system were put in place by a charismatic king Ram and hence it is called Ram rajya.
There are attacks on villagers by masked men. According to the Meluhans, they are Nagas – a tribe of deformed people. They believe because of bad karma, some children are born with deformities, like extra limbs or deformed nose, and such children are sent to the Naga-land across Narmada. They also believe that Chandravanshis, their rival kingdom, has joined hands with Nagas and is mounting attack on Meluha and hence they are ‘evil’.
Meanwhile, Shiva falls in love with Sati, Daksha’s daughter. Romance, which is not epic, follows and eventually they marry.
Meluhans attack Swadeep, the Chandravanshi kingdom, and take their king as hostage. The Swadeepan princess Anandmayi (who is really hot, wears revealing clothes and takes milk bath once a week) is angry at Shiva because they too have a legend of Neelkanth who was to save them from the ‘evil’ Meluhans.
Shiva is confused. Chandravanshis are stark opposite of Suryavanshis. There are numerous poor in Swadeep, there is economic, social and political inequality in the society. There are bureaucrats who sit on files and take bribes, there are labour unions that go on strike if their demands are not met, there is a lot of poverty and the system is irritatingly inefficient. Yet, Shiva realizes, they are not ‘evil’.
Shiva turns his attention to Nagas, wondering if they were ‘evil’. Later, it turns out that they, too, are not ‘evil’ but victims of the great ‘evil’. Shiva, thus, embarks on the journey to find what is evil and how to destroy it. He is helped by Vasudevs (a group of people who, like IAS officers, are selected through a tough competitive process), Nagas (including Ganesh who has elephant ears and a trunk-like-nose and Kali, who has several hands), some Meluhans and Swadeepans.
The book is racy and keeps the reader engrossed. However, it is not a literary piece that one would like to re-read. It would not make its place among the classics. It’s something one would read on a train journey.
I read Immortals of Meluha when it was released and honestly didn’t think much of it at first. What intrigued me was the trailer I saw on Youtube and the idea that Lord Shiva may have been a human before he became a legend and a God.
I liked the plot, but found many dialogues (especially ones between Shiva and Sati) really corny. It is like a TV soaps not much logic but high on entertainment value (I’ve seen girls go gaga over really corny dialogues that RK – of Madhubala—says). There is so much PDA, endless flirting between sensuous Anandmayi and uptight Parvateshwar and touchy family moments like Ganesh protecting his younger brother Kartik. Amish Tripathy has covered most of the mythology and legends associated with Lord Shiva.
Where the story fails miserably is covering the journey Shiva makes from being a tribal leader to being a God. Meluha is a highly rational society, where a person earns his or her place in the society through talent and merit. Yet, when Daksha, who had ulterior motives, proclaims Shiva as Neelkanth, everyone starts treating him as God. There are some who take time like Parvateshwar, who starts admiring Shiva for his military acumen and is overwhelmed when he joins the Melhuan fleet. But it’s just not enough reason to treat him as God. Moreover, it is hard to see eye-to-eye with Parvateshwar because Shiva’s military innovations – like the turtle formation and trident—were neither original nor out-of-the-box. We have seen them in movies and serials. Though one may argue that these might have been an innovation when we see the time the story has been set, but it does not impress me as a reader and certainly does not convince me how he was suddenly accepted as God.
Although numerous philosophical questions have been discussed and debated in the three books, there is no particular philosophy that Shiva endorses. He does not fight against an evil dictator or for a certain cause (he starts fight against somras in book three). When you look at history and how Budhdhism, Jainism and Christianity came into being and how Budhdha, Mahavir or Jesus came to be revered as God, the plot seems weak. Shiva was put on the pedestal because of his blue-throat.
There are other discrepancies too like in Meluha, which depicts epitome of a rational society, there are age old traditions that are followed without questions.
Even though the last book, ‘The Oath of the Vayuputras’, answered all the questions and tied loose ends, it seemed that a little less effort was put in the book as compared to its predecessors. It could have been a little tighter and some parts could have been rewritten. I presume this book had lesser number of drafts.
If you like Bollywood movies and watch TV soaps, if you are looking for entertainment and not literary satisfaction, if you are ready to overlook inconsistencies and logic, if all you want is something for light reading, then this is the series for you.
