Book Review of Immortals of Meluha

Name of the book: Immortals of Meluha

Author: Amish Tripathi

Originally published: February 2010

Publisher: Westland Press

Genres: Fairy tale, Fiction, Fantasy fiction

About the author

Amish Tripathi is a recognized contemporary Indian fiction writer best known for writing The
Shiva Trilogy. His debut novel, Immortals of Meluha, made a record-breaking sell within a
few weeks of its launch making him an internationally acclaimed Indian author.

Born on 18 October 1974 in Mumbai, India, Tripathi grew up in a religious household. His
grandfather was a Pandit and a teacher at Banaras Hindu University. He belonged to a
middle-class family, who encouraged the religious and worldly learning. Since a very early
age he was a voracious reader. One of his favorite subjects was history. Belonging to a
traditional bourgeois family, he had to make a career choice that would support his family in
the long run. Although he had a keen interest in history and longed to be a historian, he did
not follow his dream owing to the perpetual financial struggle that the profession would
entail.

Upon graduation from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, in Science, Tripathi went on to study
Business Administration. He received his MBA from Indian Institute of Management,
Calcutta. For fourteen years he worked in the field of finance as marketing and product
manager at multiple firms, including Standard Chartered, DBS Bank and IDBI Federal Life
Insurance. According to the author himself, he never intentionally wanted to pursue a
career in writing. Studying science and finance also inspired him to become a scientist or an
industrialist. However, fate had something else planned for him.

Introduction

The Immortals of Meluha, was published in 2010. The re-imagination of the legend of Shiva
is set in the land of Meluha. The story moves forward with the arrival of the protagonist,
who helps the Meluhans against evil forces. Shiva’s journey teaches him a valuable lesson
and shows him his destiny. The book received rave reviews from critics all over India and
paved way for the sequels; The Secret of the Nagas and The Oath of the Vayuputras. The
Shiva Trilogy became a huge commercial success acquiring the status of the most rapidly
sold books in Indian history. The trilogy has been translated into 14 different languages.
Moreover, Dharma production of Indian cinema has recently bought the film rights for The
Immortals of Meluha.

About the story

Hinduism believes him to be the third of the supreme trio, the one whose exceptional
powers of annihilation make way for new creation. They equate him with Rudra, the storm
deity, as well as the one who protected the earth twice, once by swallowing the poisonous
fumes emitted by the very serpent used as a churning rope to bring out the nectar of
immortality from the ocean, thereby turning his neck blue, and then by cushioning the
raging fall of the Ganges to Earth with his hair. Sati was his first love. Parvati was his last.
They call him Nataraj or Lord of the cosmic dance. They call him Shiva. Lord Shiva.

Now amalgamate Shiva, King Daksha, Sati, Parvateshwar, Nandi, Brahma and the nectar of
immortality, called Somras. What you get are chapters straight out of Indian mythology,
which presumably would also fall under the children’s Amar Chitra Katha series- ‘Tales of
Shiva’.

Shiva, in all his convolution as the destroyer, sporting a snake for a neckpiece, matted hair,
and accompanied by a hoard of demons, is craftily planted as the protagonist of ‘The
immortals of Meluha’, authored by Amish.

Amish from IIM, gives us a book which ferries us away from the campus life theme of sorts
into the mythological portal of demigods and mortals.

‘Immortals of Meluha’ is set in 1900’s, an era where civilization is at its peak in the Indus
Valley. Shiva is a Tibetan tribal leader, who is invited to Meluha, a utopian society, a society
founded and established by a great King of the sun clan or surya vansh – Lord Ram. However
he finds himself stranded in an age old feud between the Suryavanshis and Chandravanshis,
the latter whom occupies the holy land of Ayodhya. Little does Shiva know that the
Meluhans have been foretold about a warrior, who would redeem them from the
Chandravansh oppression, and Shiva’s blue neck ratifies the prophecy. Shiva is the One.

The characters in this book have been transported to a new dimension and place; quite
disparate to their original roles in Hindu myth. Daksha plays the crafty yet earnest Meluhan
king who wheedles Shiva into accepting his newfound responsibility and to fight for the
Suryavanshi race. Sati, his daughter, Xena like warrior princess and a draconian follower of
Meluhan law makes Shiva go weak in the heart and knees.

Parvateshwar, commander- in-chief and godfather to Sati, eyes Shiva incredulously. Nandi, a
Meluhan officer, goes on to become Shiva’s trusted aid and ally in battle. This is
metaphorically true of Nandi, the bull, who is originally Lord Shiva’s steed. Brahma is a
noted scientist and creator of the Somras.

‘Immortals of Meluha’ takes us along a spiral of events – love, war, duty and destiny. Amish
reintroduces old characters in a new context. Shiva’s portrayal as a young warlord with a
dark past, his hesitation to acknowledge his ‘saviour’ role, and slowly if not completely
coming to terms with it, along with the sprigs of love he feels for a woman, very well makes
us believe that he could have been as human as any one of us, subject to the same emotions
that any normal man would.

Though the language is atypical of 1900 BC, and would definitely cause distress to those
who hoped for an authentic script, it reaches out to the youth, and helps us to relate to the
hero. After all it is about Shiva, and his journey towards the status of Mahadev.

The book ends with us in obvious eager anticipation of the sequel. A tad too Bollywood in a
couple of places, but what’s being Indian if we don’t love drama?
Why I reached out for this book in the first place? I loved the paperback cover. Visual
gratification. I hope the second book has an appealing cover too.