Shiva Trilogy as Mythic Fiction: A Critical

Evaluation
A Thesis submitted to

Vinoba Bhave University

Hazaribag-825301

for the Degree of

DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
in

ENGLISH
in the Faculty of Humanities

by

Neha Kumari
Research Scholar
Vinoba Bhave University
Vide University memo no. VBU/Exam/Ph.D/R/2469/2018 dated 06/08/2018

under the supervision of

Dr. Rajesh Kumar

Associate Professor
University Department of English
Vinoba Bhave University
Hazaribag – 825 301 (Jharkhand)
India
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Abstract

The framework of the thesis entitled “Shiva Trilogy as Mythic Fiction: A

Critical Evaluation” is designed to trace the growth and development of Indian

English Popular Fiction and its particular genre Mythic Fiction with a central focus

on Amish Tripathi‟s fiction series, the Shiva Trilogy, that includes The Immortals of

Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas and The Oath of the Vayuputras. Using

descriptive, analytical, and interpretive approaches of the Qualitative Methodology,

the thesis traces the genealogy and presents the analysis of mythic archetypes

employed in the Shiva Trilogy. The research has analysed the modernisation of

mythic archetypes in the Shiva Trilogy, employing both Jungian and Frye styles of

criticism. Focusing on the genealogy is opted by Jungian critics and presenting an

analysis is the work of Frye‟s. In the thesis, the focus is more on analysis than on

genealogy. In the Shiva Trilogy, mythopoeia on the life story of Lord Shiva has been

created by Amish. The research identifies the tools through which the projection of

mythopoeia is achieved.

The research work consists of seven parts. The first part is “Introduction.” In

this part, there is a description of the Research Outline, followed by the description

of the Research Methodology employed in the research. It is followed by “Scope and

Limitations” of the research work. After it, there is a sub-section on the life and

works of Amish Tripathi. This section describes the factors and reasons behind the

author‟s choice to pen and experiment with the genre of mythic fiction. There has

remained a long tradition to experiment with Indian mythology. The result of such

freedom has resulted in three thousand different retellings of the epic the Ramayana

as mentioned by A. K. Ramanujan in his article “Three Hundred Ramayanas: Five

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Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation.” Such freedom of expression has long

remained part and parcel of the Indian culture. Next, this chapter presents “Review

of Literature.” Some articles penned by different authors on Tripathi‟s works during

the last half-decade have been analysed in this portion.

Chapter I is “An Overview of Mythic Fiction.” In the last decade, Indian

English Mythic Fiction, one of the genres of Popular Fiction, has risen remarkably.

Indian mythology has never suffered stagnancy. Its retellings with alternate

discourses, with a few changes in narratives, have appeared frequently from time to

time. The section discusses the texts and schools of philosophies that have been

upholding the culture of freedom of expression since antiquity. Lately, in the last

decade, Indian English Fiction has been flooded with Indian Mythic Fiction. The

neo-mythologists have taken a lot of liberty in altering narrative and discourse. The

thesis describes in detail the function and purpose of myth, mythology, legend, and

folktales. The thesis analyses the factors behind the sudden rise of Indian Mythic

Fiction with a detailed description of the novelists, their mythic fiction, and their

particular treatment of the traditional myth and mythology. Devdutt Pattnaik‟s The

Pregnant King, published in 2008, is usually regarded as the first true example of

Indian English Mythic Fiction. Major writers in the genre are Amish Tripathi, Kavita

Kane, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Anand Neelakantan, Anuja Chandra Mauli,

Sharath Komarraju among others. The chapter discusses their works and also how

their narratives suit the contemporary scenario and appeal to the readers.

Chapter II is entitled “Indian English Popular Fiction.” The past two decades

have witnessed tremendous growth in the publication of Indian English Popular

Fiction. The chapter catalogues the factors behind the unprecedented growth and

development of Indian English Popular Fiction. Popular fiction is often criticised,

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mocked at, and looked down upon by many who label it as inferior to Literary

Fiction, generally due to the light-hearted treatment of the subject matter. The

chapter discusses in detail the features that differentiate Popular Fiction from

Literary Fiction. Popular Fiction usually has high sales and has a great sway on its

readers. The chapter analyzes why and how Popular Fiction captures the wide range

of the interest of its readers and what values it offers, along with the flaws of the

genre. Popular Indian English Fiction emerged with the publication of Five Point

Someone by Chetan Bhagat in 2004. The work instantly became famous. After the

publication of this work, the Indian publication industry realised the scope of selling

Indian English Popular Fiction in the Indian market, and then onwards, Indian

English Popular Fiction has been a booming industry witnessing an unprecedented

rise. All kinds of sub-genres of popular fiction are being experimented with by many

writers. A few names among them are Devdutt Pattanaik, Preety Shenoy, Amish

Tripathi, Ravindra Singh, Savi Sharma, Ajay K. Pandey, Christopher K. Doyle,

Arpit Vageria, etc. The chapter discusses their works in detail.

Chapter III is entitled “The Immortals of Meluha: Myth Redefined.” The

Immortals of Meluha, published in 2010, is the first novel of the Shiva Trilogy

series. Amish Tripathi has created a mythopoeia i.e. creation of a new myth, using

mythic archetypes on the life of Lord Shiva of Hindu mythology in it. The series

comprises The Immortals of Meluha (2010), The Secret of the Nagas (2011) and The

Oath of the Vayuputras (2013). In the series, Amish creates a story in which a

common tribal boy, predestined to become a leader akin to a god, raises himself to

the level of godhood through his merit, strength of character, destiny, and benevolent

endeavours. In the novel, the central character, the tribal boy Shiva, is furnished with

all the mythic attributes of Lord Shiva. Other mythological characters of Lord
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Shiva‟s pantheon are also created in a new light. During the course of transferring

the attributes, the author has remained successful in rationalizing the old story in

modern terms as well as retaining the aura and mysticism of traditional mythic tales.

He has given equal treatment to several other popular characters of the pantheon i.e.

Sati, Parvati, Daksha, Veerini, Mahrishi Bhrigu, Veerbhadra, Nandi, Kritika, Kartik,

Ganesh, Kali, Parsuram Bhagirath, etc. Amish retains the bottom line of the myths

and creates a completely new story out of it. For instance, both in mythology and in

Shiva Trilogy, Bhagirath is responsible for diverting River Ganga but the story in the

novel has a different reasoning. As the present Indian young generation is familiar

with the bottom lines of the traditional mythology, Amish‟ narrative is accepted by

them on the strength of its modern dynamics of rationality. It has been beautifully

and mesmerizingly organised by Amish. He has done justice to his craftsmanship of

all the mythic archetypes. The chapter analyses how Amish has created the

archetypes from the prototype. It also discusses the deviations in the use of the

traditional symbols in the novel.

Chapter IV is entitled “The Secret of Nagas: Myth Extended.” The second

novel in the series, The Secret of Nagas, continues the story of the previous novel,

The Immortals of Meluha. It uses the contemporary issues of cultural pluralism and

multiculturalism. In the novel, The Immortals of Meluha, two opposing races of the

Chandravanshis and the Suryavanshis are contrasted for their ideals and r codes of

life. They regard each other as corrupt and evil. By the end of the first novel, it is

established that neither of the races is bad or wrong but only different. In the novel,

the third race, the Nagas, are born with physical deformities. They are portrayed as

evil. In the novel, The Secret of Nagas, the secret behind their physical deformity as

well as their not being evil is revealed. The ages-long illusions, prejudices, and
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differences among these different races are contradicted by the prudence,

intellectuality, decision-making, and rational attitude of the protagonist Shiva. The

chapter presents a detailed discussion on the narrative and characters of the novel

through the mythological perspective.

Chapter V is entitled “The Oath of the Vayuputras: Myth Re-stabilized.” In

the novel series, it is the task of Shiva to find the evils in society and to eradicate

them. In the first two novels, Shiva‟s adventurous journey reveals to him the nature

of evil and in the third novel of the series, he works to fight the evil and those who

deliberately or unknowingly stand by it. Many of the problems in Amish‟ fictional

society are akin to our contemporary world and the author presents an alternative

point of view before the readers in this regard. In this part, the whole story is brought

under the ambit of rationality. The chapter, along with a discussion on the formation

of mythic archetypes, discusses also how it correspondences to our contemporary

society and demands.

The last argument section of the thesis is “Conclusion.” It establishes how the

aims and objectives of the research work have been achieved. This section is

followed by an extended Bibliography.

Among the writers of mythic fiction, Amish Tripathi, with his publication of

his fiction series, the Shiva Trilogy, has constructed a separate dais for himself and

emerged as a distinct name owing to his style of handling Indic mythology and his

creative dexterity of employing mythic archetypes for creating mythopoeia. Almost

all other writers, in their attempt to create mythic fiction, have experimented with

discourse and have made little alteration in narrative. Amish‟s treatment of the

mythology is innovative as he has created a mythopoeia employing the mythic

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archetypes. While employing the mythic archetype for a completely new story, he

has remained successful in retaining the mystical aura and the religious stances on

the one hand and fusing it with the contemporary demand of rationality and creating

a captivating tale on the other.

Myth is often taken as synonymous with the Sanskrit word, „mithya,‟ i.e.

falsehood. Such an allegation on myth or mythology is unjust as its meaning at the

time of creation and its meaning at the time that it is being read in the future have

undergone altered socio-cultural stances from the time of its inception to the time of

its conception. As there is no written record of the interpretation of symbolism,

allusions, etc. used in a myth or mythology at its time of inception, it remains

exposed to interpretations and misinterpretations, depending on the demand of the

age and the mind-set of the interpreter. It can be said that a myth is neither true nor

false - what matters is its interpretations. Thus, a myth serves its purpose at a given

point in time if it contributes to retain and channelize the demands of society.

To sum up, the thesis presents a discussion on myth, mythology, legend,

folklore, mythopoeia, Indian English mythic fiction, Indian English Popular Fiction,

the affinity between mythology and magic realism, etc. In particular, the thesis

discusses how the Popular Mythic fiction writer, Amish Tripathi, has artistically

created mythopoeia on the life story of Lord Shiva in his novel series, the Shiva

Trilogy, that has been inspiriting, directing, and influencing the modern youth. The

thesis also establishes that Amish Tripathi has rightfully made a distinct name for

himself.
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Introduction

The present thesis is an attempt to appraise the contribution of the Indian

writer, Amish Tripathi, to Indian English Popular Fiction. Amish has used various

Indic myths to create storylines that have been received extremely well by readers.

With this perspective in view, a detailed analysis of the three novels of his Shiva

Trilogy, The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas and The Oath of the

Vayuputras has been taken up in the seven parts of this dissertation.

1:1: Research Outline

The research work is divided in seven parts. “Introduction” is followed by the

chapters “An Overview of Mythic Fiction,” “Indian English Popular Fiction,” “The

Immortals of Meluha: Myth Redefined,” “The Secret of the Nagas: Myth Extended,”

“The Oath of the Vayuputras: Myth Restabilized,” and finally, “Conclusion.”

“Introduction” presents a general primer to the topic, Research Outline, Research

Methodology, Scope and Limitations, and the life and works of Amish Tripathi,

followed by a review of literature. Chapter I, “An Overview of Mythic Fiction”

discusses myth, mythology and mythopoeia in the context of Indic theology and their

use in Indian English fiction. Chapter II, “Indian English Popular Fiction,” offers a

detailed portrayal of the rise and growth of the Indian English Popular Fiction in the

21st century to provide a relevant standpoint to the doctoral dissertation. Chapter III,

“The Immortals of Meluha: Myth Redefined,” is an analysis of the first novel in the

trilogy, The Immortals of Meluha. Chapter IV, “The Secret of the Nagas: Myth

Extended,” scrutinizes the second book in the series, The Secret of the Nagas.

Chapter V, “The Oath of the Vayuputras: Myth Restabilized” deals with the myth
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related aspects of the final book in the series, The Oath of the Vayuputras.

Eventually, “Conclusion” sums up the discussions in the earlier chapters and arrives

at the inference that Amish Tripathi has employed myth and mythopoeia

imaginatively and skilfully to produce some of the most popular works in Indian

English fiction. The seven parts are followed by a comprehensive bibliography

mentioning the various primary and secondary sources in print and electronic media.

The general formatting of the thesis and printing on both sides of the pages is

in accordance with the University Notification no. VBU/Ex-/R 607/2021 dated

9/3/2021.

1:2: Research Methodology

The research scholar has used primarily Qualitative Methodology comprising

descriptive, analytical and interpretive approaches to discern the different facets of

Tripathi’s novels in the Shiva Trilogy at theological and fictional levels. The

descriptive approach provides broad as well as subtle insights into the narrative flow

of the novels and identifies certain specific features of Amish’s fiction in these

books. The descriptions are analysed through the tools of comparison, evaluation and

print and web resources. The texts are interpreted from the appropriate viewpoint on

the basis of these systematic exercises.

1:3: Scope and Limitations

The dissertation looks at the liberal and inventive usages of mythopoeia and

Indic myth in the three novels of Amish’s Shiva Trilogy, The Immortals of Meluha,

The Secret of the Nagas and The Oath of the Vayuputras. Although it engages

occasionally with myths in the works of several other writers of Indian English
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popular fiction and non-fiction, it limits itself principally to the three novels

mentioned above. The engagements provide a referent canvas for the assessment

being undertaken.

1:4: Life and Works of Amish Tripathi

Amish Tripathi (born 18th October, 1974) is an ex-economist turned writer

who basically has been writing fiction based on Indian religious mythology since

2010 when his debut novel The Immortal of Meluha, the first book in the series of

three novels entitled Shiva Trilogy, was published. It became a huge success due to

the efforts of his astute marketing policy and its gripping reading content. It became

a bestseller within a week and sold 45,000 copies in less than four months. The

success of the first novel was followed by the other two novels of the Shiva Trilogy

series, titled The Secret of Nagas (2011) and The Oath of Vayuputra (2013). Till date

his other novels are the books of the Ram Chandra series titled Ram: Scion of

Ikshvaku (2015), Sita: Warrior of Mithila (2017) and Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarta

(2019). Apart from this, a work of non-fiction, Immortal India – Young Country,

Timeless Civilization (2017) which comprises articles and speeches on religion,

mythology, history and social issues has also been published and has made it to the

bestsellers list.

Amish’s Shiva Trilogy and Ram Chandra series are commercial milestones

in the history of Indian English fiction as these have become the fastest selling book

series in the annals of Indian publishing. Since 2010, over 4 million copies of the six

books have been sold in the Indian subcontinent, notching a gross retail sales of ₹

120 crore1, and enabling Amish to earn more than ₹ 16 crore. Another evidence of its

popularity can be witnessed by the translated editions of these fictional works into a
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number of Indian and foreign languages such as Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi,

Telugu, Malyalam, Marathi, Kannada, Spanish, Portugese, Polish, Indonesian,

Turkish and e-books in English, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada

and Malayalam.2

Amish has earned numerous awards and recognitions. He has been ranked

among the top 100 celebrities in India by Forbes India in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015

and 2017. He was selected an Eisenhower Fellow, an exclusive programme for

outstanding leaders from around the world. He has earned Society Young Achievers

Award for Literature for the Shiva Trilogy and Raymond Crossword Popular Fiction

Award for his book Scion of Ikshvaku. He has also been awarded Communicator of

the Year Award, 2014, Dainik Bhaskar Readers’ Choice Award, 2016, Distinguished

Alumnus Award, 2017, and Icon of the Year Award, 2017. He has been recognised

as the Man of the Year 2013 by Radio One, India’s First Literary Popstar, 2015, and

Pride of India in 2014 & 2015.3 Another scale to measure his popularity is the

number of his Facebook and Twitter followers which has mounted to 44.2K on

Twitter and 63,547 likes on his official fan-page on Facebook.4

In an interview with Kuldeep Mishra for the news channel Aaj Tak on 13

July 2015, Amish spoke about his future writing career and plans, hinting that he

would be writing mythic fiction for the next 20-25 years whether anyone reads it or

not and that it would comprise the history of 3000 years, from 12000 BC to 9000

BC. According to him, his present fiction is the fiction of the Vedic people i.e. from

Manu till 3500 BC, when the Indus Valley Civilization collapsed. He regards the

generation after 3500 BC as Ayogya Vansaj (unworthy descendants). The Shiva

Trilogy series covers the period around 1900 BC while the Ram Chandra Series is

set in 3400 BC.5

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Tripathi grew up in a middle-class household in Mumbai’s Kemps Corner

where his father—who has a passion for Urdu poetry—worked as an engineer in the

construction giant firm Larsen & Toubro. In an interview with Peter Griffin for

Forbes India (8 June 2013), Amish describes his family and himself in the following

manner:

I grew up in a very religious family: my grandfather was a pandit in Benares

and a teacher at the Banaras Hindu University; my parents are very religious.

But it is also a very liberal family, which in traditional India is not a

contradiction. By ‘liberal’ I mean the ability to accept an opposing point of

view, to question. The word ‘Upanishad’ means ‘sitting at the feet of your

guru.’ You’re supposed to listen to someone and ask questions, because

that’s what deepens your understanding. Because we were allowed to ask

questions, I understood our philosophies at a much deeper level …. We are a

family that is obsessed with knowledge, and I’ve always been a voracious

reader. As an author, you need all that knowledge; you have to draw from so

many sources. One of my favourite subjects is history.6

Amish graduated in Mathematics from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai, and is

an alumnus of the 32nd batch of IIM Calcutta. Originally, Amish wanted to be a

historian but economic concerns didn’t allow him to do so. For 14 years, he served

the finance industry, in companies such as Standard Chartered, DBS Bank, and

IDBS Federal Life Insurance. He wrote his first novel, The Immortals of Meluha, as

a part time writer and shifted to full time writing after gaining financial security.

Presently, Amish lives in Mumbai with his wife Preety Vyas and son Neel Tripathi.
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Amish, who describes himself as a voracious reader, claims that he never

thought that he was going to be a writer. He describes his writing career as god-

willed instead of self-willed and believes that his “books are Shiva’s blessing.” 7 In

this context, he describes his writing career in the following words: “…with due

apology to Shakespeare, some people are born writers, some people achieve it after a

lot of hard work, some people have a writing career thrust upon them. I am in that

last group.”8

Amish’s religious faith also took a sharp turn with his career shift from

banker to fiction writer. He turned into an atheist in the early 1990s but returned to

the faith when he began writing his first novel. He is a religious liberal. In his puja

room at home, besides the idols of Lord Shiva and other Hindu Gods, he also

regularly worships pictures of the Muslim Kaba, Mother Mary, Jesus Christ, prophet

Zarathustra and Gautama Buddha and symbols of many other religions in the honour

of his father’s statement that there is some beauty to be found in all religions. In the

Jaipur Literary Festival, 2011, he stated that the Truth is one, but the wise man

knows it as many; God is one but we can approach Him in many ways. The source

for this liberal philosophy is extracted from the scripture Rig Veda, quote 1.164.46,

which states:

bUæa fe=a o#.kefXuekgqjFkks fnO;% l lqi.kksZ x#Reku~ A

,da lf}çk cgq/kk onUR;fXua ;ea ekrfj'okuekgq% ॥†ˆ॥9

It translates like this: “They called him (God) Indra, Mitra, Varuṇa, Agni;

and He is heavenly Garuda, who has beautiful wings. The truth is one, but the sages

(or learned ones) call it by many names or describe him in many ways; they called
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him Agni, Yama, Mātariśvan.”10 It states that every form represents God, the wise

one recognises it and does not create any conflict. Amish expands this view in the

present state of multiculturalism. He believes that our country is monopolized by

secular extremists on the one hand and religious extremists of all religions on the

other while the sentiments of an average Indian are liberal. He has tried to infuse

this philosophy as a dominant undercurrent in his literary works.

The first two decades of the 21st century have witnessed a mythic revival as a

large body of mythic fiction has started appearing in Indian English fiction. These

works demonstrate distinct traits: first, a traditional story presented in varying

perspective; second, fusion of the present with the mythic past in order to create a

detective narrative and, third, creation of mythopoeia i.e. the act of making (creating)

mythologies by employing mythic archetypes to invent a completely new story.

Amish has created mythopoeia in the Shiva Trilogy while his Ram Chandra Series is

a retelling of the great Indian epic the Ramayana.

The word “myth” has been derived from the Greek word mythos, which

simply means “story.” A myth is a religious story that people of a certain

demography, culture and geography usually believe to be true but without any

concrete evidence to prove its authenticity. It runs from generation to generation in

the oral form until it is written down. Most of the time, the oral exaggeration of myth

overshadows the truth underneath. For example, a myth may have a symbolic value

when it is created. With the passage of time, people usually begin to believe more in

its manifestation than in the symbol or the allegory it presents. Thus, the bridge that

connects manifestation and meaning snaps and creates confusion between symbolic

truth and the manifested mythic tale. Myths relate either to supernatural beings like

god, demigod, ghost, witches, nymph, djinns, etc. or to earthly beings like saints,
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prophets, martyrs, historical figures, god-incarnate, etc. and their prowess and the

miracles wrought by them. Notably, myths are transmitted orally from generation to

generation and in the process there may occur changes either through imagined

addition or deliberate deletions. Hence, the final transcribed version may vary from

the original narrative. A. K. Ramanujan in his Three Hundred Rāmāyaṇas: Five

Examples and Three Thoughts on Translation has refuted Valmiki’s Ramayana as

the original version of the Ramayana but he has referred to it as the perfect retelling

of Lord Ram’s legend.11 In his time, there was a controversy regarding the

synchronicity of the period of Lord Ram and Maharishi Valmiki which now has been

ascertained through technological developments. By using the precise details of

planetary positions vis-a-vis the zodiac constellations described by Maharishi

Valmiki in Valmiki’s Ramayana, through the software named Planetarium, used to

predict planetary movements and configurations, Mr. Saroj Bala and Pushkar

Bhatnagar have determined important dates stated in the Ramayana, starting from

Lord Ram’s birth-date to the date of his return to Ayodhya. It states Ram’s date of

birth as January 10, 5114 BC. All the dates fall exactly with the astronomical shifts

as described in the Ramayana by Valmiki.12 In the Ramayana, Valmiki is Ram’s

contemporary and his Ramayana is the biography of Lord Ram. Still, the fact is that

there is not any such written manuscript from the ancient times. The retellings must

have added or transmitted the previous version based upon the social shift of the age.

However, the calculation of the planetary movement cannot change although the

geographical details and incidents may have been interpreted in different ways by

different writers in various ages. With the passage of time, layers of novel

interpretations often subvert the older ones and turn history into myth. This is the

process through which mythology works - either by reduction or by exaggeration.

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Reduction occurs when an elevated fact is condensed into myth and exaggeration

occurs when an elevated myth is constructed about a non-entity. Thus the word

‘illusion’ often becomes synonymous with “myth.”

There is a plethora of popular myths in India, for example, the myth of the

Aryan invasion of India. It was a theory expounded by Max Mueller which says that

the Aryans came to India in 1500 BC. It is still believed to be the truth by many.

Stories, television serials, movies and theories are made and developed on the

Aryan-Dravidian cultural and political clashes as an outsider vs. insider motif even

though the Max Mueller Foundation itself has rejected the theory claiming that it is

no longer valid because Indian history is much older than the period mentioned by

the German Indologist. However, it serves to show how a myth can create historical

confusion.13

Amish has employed one of the most popular Indian myths associated with

Lord Shiva, a prime deity in Hindu religious faith, in his fiction series Shiva Trilogy.

The source of the mythopoeia for the fiction is the mythology in the Shiva Purana.

He has based the characters of his novels by employing the archetypes of the Shiva

Purana, like Lord Shiva, Daksha, Sati, Kali, Ganesha, Kartik, Veerbhadra, Nandi,

Vasuki, etc. In his works, all these are humans.

In the Shiva Trilogy, the protagonist Shiva is an archetype of Lord Shiva. He

is a human being instead of a god, using words and phrases like “Goddamnit,”

“bloody hell,” “In the name of God what is this nonsense?”, etc. like a common man

and possesses the essential characteristics of Lord Shiva in an earthy manner rather

than in the mystical. The whole adventurous story revolves around the search of evil

that relates to the traditional Hindu philosophy of the Trinity.

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The Trinity or Trimurti is a concept in Hinduism according to which the

Wheel of Supreme Time performs the cosmic functions of creation, maintenance,

and destruction. These cosmic functions are personified in the forms of Brahma, the

Creator, Vishnu, the Preserver and Shiva, the Destroyer or Transformer. 14 In the

Shiva Trilogy, this Trinity is not a cosmic institution but an earthly institution though

the mysterious presence of a divine power has been maintained. In the Trilogy,

Amish centres the Rig Veda philosophy and modulates it into a new one which states

that no people or social institution are bad or evil as long as they remain unpolluted

by greed.

In the fiction, the earthly institution of Brahma has created Somras for the

welfare of the people. It is an elixir that increases longevity. Meluha, a place of

perfection created by Lord Ram, the seventh incarnation of god Vishnu in Hinduistic

faith, has been fictionalized. Its citizens enjoy the privileges of the elixir and lead a

happy and sophisticated life. Amish propounds the idea that earlier, the elixir was

consumed in restricted quantities but its mass production has created a humongous

side-effect leading to various ailments such as physical deformity, yearly plague,

depletion in the water level of River Saraswati, etc. Yet, its producers are not ready

to acknowledge the fact and have spread a number of allegations against those who

suffer its contra-indications. The victims, the Naga people, suffer physical

deformities and launch an armed assault to destroy its production centres and try to

kill the people associated with its production. For this act they are termed terrorists.

The novels suggest that the production of elixir for public good has been

undertaken for centuries by the institution of the Vasudev (Vishnu). However, now,

the advantages have turned into evil effects, and so, Shiva (Mahadev) must emerge

to destroy it. He is most awaited by all. In order to ascertain that the candidate
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trained for the role of Destroyer by the institution will be received unanimously and

unquestionably, the institution relies on the superstitious faith of the people. It is

rumoured that the dispeller of evil will be a “Neelkanth,” the one with a blue throat.

It is supposed that when a medicine is administered to the selected candidate by the

institution, his throat will turn blue. However, in the fiction, as Shiva is not an

omniscient God but a human chosen by the Divine and not by the institution to

perform the task of destroying social evil, the true challenge before him is to

determine ‘What is Evil?’ In the journey to identify the evil, many other prevalent

negative social customs are confronted, remedied and removed. In all the three

fictional works of the Shiva Trilogy, the campaign continues until the evil is

determined and destroyed.

The setting of the Shiva Trilogy is a Utopian society based on the communist

model in the backdrop of the Saraswati Civilization or Indus Valley Civilization. The

Saraswati Civilization is one of world’s most ancient civilisations along with the

ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations. It thrived between 3300 BC and

1300 BC and its mature period was 2600-1900 BC. Amish has picked a particular

year, 1900 BC, for his setting as it was the year after which this civilization began to

decline. The reason of the decline of such a great civilization is hitherto an unsolved

mystery as its script has still not been decoded. Amish has fictionalized this mystery

to frame the climax of his work.

Amish has fused the locations of the Indus Valley Civilization with the

locations of the Vedic Age. For example, Meluḫḫa or Melukhkha is the Sumerian

name of the Indus Valley Civilization. Lothal, a port city in Gujarat in western India,

etc. are original IVC sites while Srinagar, Ayodhaya, Vaishali, Ujjain, Kashi,

Panchwati, etc. are Vedic sites. The geographical area of the novel is also contiguous
 12

- to the Indus to the Vedic to the modern period. Tapas Pal, in his book, Vedic

Geography - The Theoretical Survey, has stated the geographical extent of the Vedic

period:

The geographical information in the Rig Veda, to put it in a glance, more or

less pertains to the area from Uttar Pradesh in the east to Afghanistan in the

west, the easternmost river mentioned in the text being the Ganga, and the

westernmost being the western tributaries of the Indus. the area of the Rig

Veda extended from western Uttar Pradesh to Afghanistan. The home of the

Vedic Aryans, during the period of composition of the Rig Veda, was the mid

part of this area: the Saptasindhu or Punjab, the Land of the Five Rivers

surrounded on the east by the Sarasvati and on the west by the Indus. Their

eastern horizon was western Uttar Pradesh and their western horizon was

Afghanistan.15

In the novel, the location of Meluha, the empire of the Suryavanshis, is

somewhere around the modern Indian provinces of Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal

Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan. The

empire of the Chandravanshis is supposed to be in the present Indian states of

Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. The land of the

Naga people, Dandak Forest, with its capital at Panchwati, comprises the modern

Indian states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Chattishgarh, Odisha and

Madhya Pradesh.

Traditionally, the two Indian royal lineages, Suryavanshi and Chandravanshi,

the Sun and the Moon dynasty, are historically prominent in India. The two major

races in Amish’s fictional work are modelled after the traditional Suryavanshi and
 13

Chandravanshi clans. Amish has created a Utopian society of the Suryavanshi clan,

descendants of Lord Ram, who reside at Meluha, a place of perfection and prosperity

as it is a disciplined, law-bound community and believes in the ideals of “Satya,

Dharma, Maan”—Truth, Duty, and Honour. This society is not afflicted by social

problems such as gender bias, class or caste conflict and inequality. Besides, they

enjoy the privileges of consuming the elixir called Somras which not only keeps

them hale and hearty but also increases their life span. The ideals of the life of the

Chandravanshi clan of Swadeep are in contrast with the ideals of the Suryavanshis.

The Chandravanshis believe in personal freedom and their motto is “Shringar,

Saundarya, Swatantrata” - Passion, Beauty and Freedom. In the novels, the two are

enemies. Amish has presented this contrast between the life, ideals and ways of these

two clans and has tried to establish at the same time that all ways are good in

different senses.16, 17, 18

Amish is often asked in his interviews about the selection of the character

Shiva for his story. He usually comes up with two answers. First, he says, “I know it

sounds strange but I honestly believe that I didn’t pick the story, the story has picked

me. I’ve written absolutely no fiction before The Immortals of Meluha.”19 He

believes that he was destined to be a writer and write on this very topic. Second, he

says that Shiva has rebellious qualities that the youth like because the youth

themselves are rebellious. Amish says:

I will have to give you the genesis of the books. It began as a pure

philosophical thesis. A thesis on what is evil and that got converted into an

adventure to convey that philosophy. And if you have to write an adventure

to convey a philosophy on evil, well then the best hero is the destroyer of evil

himself, Lord Shiva. And having said that, one must also say he’s a very
 14

exciting god to write about even in his traditional form. He’s a very

democratic god, he never talks down to his devotees, and he treats his wife

with respect – something which many men, frankly, across the world can

learn from. He’s a brilliant dancer, he is the god of dance, he is a brilliant

musician, he’s the god of music as well, he drinks bhang, he smokes

marijuana, he’s a fierce warrior. With due respect to other gods, Lord Shiva

is a very cool god; he’s a fun character to write about.20

Vedanta Philosophy is the foundation of the ideas presented in the Shiva

Trilogy as he has based his theory on it by either valorising or contradicting the

Vedanta Philosophy. For example, the Vedanta Philosophy of Life Cycle states that

birth and rebirth are based on Karma (deeds) but according to Amish it is random

happenings. He has also tried to present plausible, alternative theories for the many

social norms related to untouchability, feminism, child-bearing, concept of truth, etc.

The Shiva Trilogy is usually categorised as fantasy myth. It also has the

characteristics of science fiction, the Gothic and the thriller with historical romance;

notably, many of the sub-genres of popular fiction. His novel presents an exotic

adventurous tale with alternative ideas of social norms as well as an acquaintance

with our nation’s great history of the Saraswati Civilization.

His second novel series, the Ram Chandra Series, is the retelling of the great

Indian epic, the Ramayana. The Ramayana is one of the longest epics in world

literature, consisting of nearly 24,000 verses, divided into seven Kandas or books

and about 500 sargas or chapters. It narrates the bravery of the divine Indian

prince, Ram, in rescuing his wife Sita from the demon king, Ravana. It depicts the

duties of relationships, portraying ideal characters like the ideal father, the ideal
 15

servant, the ideal brother, the ideal wife and the ideal king and is ascribed as a work

by the Hindu sage Valmiki.

There are many retellings of the Ramayana in various Indian languages

written in different periods by numerous writers and with different perspective.

Besides, there are Buddhist, Sikh and Jain adaptations. There are also Cambodian,

Indonesian, Filipino, Thai, Lao, Burmese, and Malaysian retellings of the tale. A. K.

Ramanujan in his article, “Three Hundred Rāmāyaṇas: Five Examples and Three

Thoughts on Translation,” claims that there are three hundred retellings of the

Ramayana.21 The Tamil Ramayana by Kamban in the 12th century titled

Ramavataram, the Telugu retelling of the Ramayana titled Ranganatha Ramayanam

written by Gona Budda Reddy in the 14th century, the Assamese retelling

by Madhava Kandali in the 14th century entitled Saptakhanda Ramayana,

Ramacharit Manas by Tulsidas in 1576 in Awadhi language (a dialect of Hindi),

the Bengali retelling Krittivasi Ramayana by Kritibas Ojha in the 15th century, the

Kannada Ramayana Torave Ramayana by the 16th century poet Narahari, the Odia

Ramayana titled Dandi Ramayana or Jagamohana Ramayana written by the 16th

century poet Balarama Dasa, Marathi by Sridhara in the 18th century and

in Maithili by Chanda Jha in the 19th century. They are just a few examples. In

modern times, Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana (2013), written by

Devdutt Pattnaik, has been conceived from Sita’s perspective. Ramayana

Vishavruksham, meaning “Ramayana: The Poisonous Tree,” written by

Ranganayakamma in Telugu and published in 1974, criticizes the Hindu

epic Ramayana from the Marxist viewpoint. Asura: Tale of the Vanquished, written

by Anand Neelakantan and published on 14th May, 2012, is a novel depicting the

tale from the viewpoint of Ravana. The numerous retellings of the Ramayana until
 16

the 20th century vary from one another still they maintain the essence of goodness,

idealism, devotion, etc. Among the modern interpreters of the tale, there seems to be

an unprecedented zeal to hairsplit the original story, and they often turn protagonists

into antagonists and vice versa.

Amish’s second novel series, the Ram Chandra Series, is speculative fiction.

It retells the Ramayana. The exact date of the publication of the Ramayana is still

uncertain. Most probably it was written around 4th to 7th century BC. Amish’s

version is a prose alternative of the mythological historical narrative of one of the

most renowned kings of the Ikshvaku Dynasty, Lord Ram, who is revered as an

incarnation of God by the people of Hindu faith. Amish has taken full liberty in his

retelling by altering the traditional story. Though the basic plot line is identical with

the traditional yet almost all other aspects have been changed. Three novels of the

series have hitherto been published. These are Scion of Ikshvaku (2015), Sita,

Warrior of Mithila (2017) and Raavan, Enemy of Aryavarta (2019).

Scion of Ikshvaku is the first novel of the Ram Chandra series. It opens in

medias res in the style of an epic. Ram and Lakshman go out in the forest to hunt an

elusive deer. They hear the voice of Sita shouting for help. When they come back to

their camp, they find that Sita has been kidnapped by Raavan [sic], an Asura king of

Lanka. Ram sees the Pushpak Viman, an aircraft belonging to Raavan, and shoots an

arrow but it is of no avail as it is already out of range. Ram discovers Jatayu

breathing his last. It is clear by his condition that he has been tortured badly. In the

novel, Jatayu is a Naga i.e. a deformed human being with a face that appears like that

of a vulture. In the Ramayana by Maharishi Valmiki, Jatayu is a bird who is the King

of Vultures.
 17

The story goes into flashback, thirty-three years ago, when a battle took place

between Dashrath, the King of Ayodhya, and Kubaer, the King of Lanka. The

Lankan army has devastated villages in the radius of fifty kilometres of a place

called Karachapa. A meeting is arranged in which Raavan, the commander of the

Lankan army, arbitrates between Kubaer and Dashrath. As Dashrath is treated with

humiliation, he is infuriated and declares war. Dashrath has never lost a battle in his

life until now and is overconfident. He fights this battle without proper planning and

is defeated by the well-disciplined Lankan army led by Raavan. Dashrath is

somehow taken away from the warfield by Ashwapati, father of Kaikeyi, the second

queen of Dashrath. Kaikeyi safely takes him to the palace. She herself is badly

wounded by the Lankan soldiers chasing them.

Kaushalya, the first queen of Dashrath, gives birth to a son on the same day

that Dashrath loses his battle to Raavan. He is named Ram. Dashrath and many

others blame Ram’s bad luck for their loss in the battle. In no retelling of the

Ramayana, such a battle takes place between Dashrath and Raavan and Ram is

considered the most beloved and most favourite son of his father. Throughout the

Ramayana, Dashrath is full of praise for Ram. There are many verses in which

Dashrath express his unmatched respect and love for Ram. Verse thirty-two of Sarga

(chapter) I of Ayodhaya Kanda of Valmiki’s Ramayana mentions that Ram is

“çhfrlatuuS% firq% (priitisamjananaiH pituH)” i.e. a spring of joy to his

father.22 In verse thirty-eight of Sarga I of Ayodhaya Kanda, Dashrath compares

Ram’s virtues with those of the greatest gods and declares that Ram is superior to

them in virtues. He says:

 18

;e'kØleks oh;sZ c`gLifrleks erkS AA

egh/kjleks /k`R;ka eÙk'p xq.koÙkj% A23

It translates thus: “Ram is equal to Yama and Devendra in valour, to

Brihaspati in wisdom and to a mountain in courage. He is more virtuous than me.” In

Hindu belief, Yama is the God of Death and the supreme judge or justice of the

afterlife of the souls. Devendra is the supreme god or King of Heaven and Brihaspati

is the preceptor of the gods and is revered as God of Wisdom.

In another episode of the Ramayana, Kaikeyi asks Dashrath to fulfil his

earlier promise of the grant of any two boons by him. She demands to send Ram in

exile in the Dandak Forest for fourteen years to fulfil one boon. Dashrath replies that

he loves Ram so much that he cannot survive without him. He says:

fr"BsYyksdks fouk lw;Ze~ lL;e~ ok lfyye~ fouk AA

u rq jkee~ fouk nsgs fr"BsÙkq ee thfore~ A24

(Verse 13, Sarga 12, Ayodhya Kanda)

It translates thus: “The world can exist without the sun, a crop without water.

But life cannot continue in my body without Ram.”

Kaikeyi bears a son and names him Bharat. Sumitra, the third wife of

Dashrath, has twin sons - Lakshman and Shatrughan. Manthara, the head maid and

foster-mother of Kaikeyi, has a daughter called Roshni. The character of Roshni and

incidents concerning her are new additions by Amish.

All the four brothers go to the ashram of Sage Vashishta for education. Once,

during the holidays, Lakshman gets badly wounded. In order to save him from the
 19

wrath of his mother, Ram tells a lie that he had taken Lakshman with him to the

stable where a horse had kicked him. This is the only time when Ram tells a lie. This

episode is also an addition. It seems that Amish has employed it to reveal the truthful

nature of Ram.

In the ashram, the real identity of the boys is kept hidden. Ram believes in

equality before law while Bharat believes in freedom. Such opposite natures in the

brothers is also Amish’s invention and is not the part of the traditional narratives.

Lakshman is suspicious by nature. He has deep faith in Ram and always stands by

him. Shatrughan has delicate features but he is well-versed in the Vedas, Upanishads

and the Samhitas. He always follows Bharat. In the Ramayana, Shatrughan has nice

features but a ferocious nature. When he finds out that Manthara, the hunchback

maid of Kaikeyi, is the instigator of Ram’s exile, he drags her through the palace and

is about to kill her when Bharat stops and pacifies him. Sarga 78 of Ayodhya Kanda

describes it. In the novel, after they complete their education, they return to

Ayodhya.25

Ram is given the duty of maintaining law and order in Ayodhya. He does his

work meticulously and the crime rate declines. They all celebrate the Rakhi festival

with Roshni whom they regard as their sister. Roshni becomes a skilled doctor and

serves the poor villagers. Once, when she is returning from a village, she is gang

raped and brutally murdered by Dhenuka and his friends. They all, except Dhenuka,

are publicly tortured and executed. Dhenuka is underage so he cannot be executed.

Kaikeyi, under the influence of Manthara, convinces Bharat to kill him. Dhenuka is

kidnapped from jail and brutally murdered. Ram does not like it and wants to punish

whosoever has broken the law.

 20

Maharishi Vishwamitra comes to Ayodhya seeking the help of Ram to defeat

the Asuras who had attacked his Ashram in the Dandak Forest. Ram and Lakshman

go with him. The Asuras are only fifteen in number and the Malayaputras are

capable of defeating them easily. Ram is told that the Asuras will never attack

Ayodhya as their Guru Shukracharya belonged to Ayodhya. Asuras believe in the

concept of only one God. In the novel, they are vanquished and convinced by Ram to

go to the land of the Parihas. In the Ramayana, Maharishi Vishwamitra fetches Ram

to kill a demoness called Tadaka but the story of Shukracharya and the land of the

Parihas is Amish’s addition in his novel. While returning, Ram, Lakshman and

Maharishi Vishwamitra stay in Mithila. Arishtanemi, the military chief of the

Malayputras, suggests the name of Ram as a match for Sita, King Janaka’s adopted

daughter. Ram is impressed by Sita when he sees her and consents to participate in

the swayamvar. Sita meets Ram and wants to help him win the swayamvar but Ram

refuses any help and says that he will win her hand by dint of his skill and honour.

Ram succeeds and marries Sita. Lakshman marries Urmila, Sita’s younger sister. In

the Ramayana, no swayamvar takes place. It is later, in the retellings, made

especially famous through the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas. In the Ramayana, in

Sarga 66 of Bal Kanda, when Vishwamitra takes Ram and Lakshman to Mithila, he

requests King Janak to let the brothers see the legendary bow of Lord Shiva. The

King mentions that he has announced that he would give his daughter Sita to the one

who is bold enough to wield Shiva’s bow. He says that many valiant ones tried

earlier but none succeeded. He offers Ram the opportunity. While others were unable

to even move the bow, Ram breaks it as he stretches its bowstring to check the

tautness. Thousands of men witness Ram’s feat but they are not the participants in
 21

the swayamvar, only the assemblage at King Janaka’s court. 26 The institution of the

Malayputras and incidents concerning it are Amish’s addition.

In the Scion of Ikshvaku, Raavan also comes to the swayamvar with his

bodyguards but fails due to his arrogance. Then he attacks Mithila with ten thousand

soldiers. One thousand soldiers are killed on both sides. Ram shoots an Asuraastra, a

kind of nuclear weapon, at the Lankan army. The use of the nuclear weapon was

banned by Lord Rudra, the previous Mahadev. The clause is that whoever uses this

weapon will be banished from Sapt-Sindhu for fourteen years. Most of the soldiers

of the Lankan army either die or are taken captive. Raavan escapes in his Pushpak

Viman, his aircraft, with his brother and a few soldiers. As no swayamvar takes

place in the original Ramayana, Raavan’s ire and vengeful attack on Mithila is

clearly Amish’s addition in his novel. Later, Ram announces self-banishment

although no one asks him to do so. The battle by Raavan and the use of a nuclear

weapon and its consequences also are Amish’s addition.

Ram and Lakshman come to Ayodhya with Sita and Urmila. They are

welcomed by the subjects of Ayodhya and the royal family. In the Ramayana, the

royal family of Ayodhaya, along with saints and ministers, goes to Mithila and a

grand marriage ceremony takes place in which four Ayodhayan princes are married

to four Mithila princesses. In the Scion of Ikshvaku, Ram requests King Dashrath to

banish him, but Dashrath does not agree at first. Kaikeyi asks Dashrath to grant her

two boons that Dashrath had promised her when she had saved his life in the Battle

of Karachapa. Her first wish is the banishment of Ram and the second is to make

Bharat the crown prince. Dashrath has no recourse but to agree because he cannot go

back on his word. Ram, Lakshman and Sita leave the royal palace. Bharat carries

Ram’s slippers and declares that he will put these on the royal throne after
 22

Dashrath’s death and that he himself will never sit on the throne. In the Ramayana,

Bharat is not present at Ayodhaya when Ram is sent into exile as he is at his

maternal grandfather’s house. When he comes back, he rebukes his mother for her

injustice towards Ram and goes to the forest to fetch him back. Amish omits, adds,

invents and rearranges the events as he finds fit for his retelling such as Sita meeting

Jatayu and asking him to provide protection during the exile.

In the novel, when Ram gets the news of Dashrath’s death, he performs a

yajna in the forest. Sita had received the Somras from Vashistha. She gives it to Ram

and Lakshman. Ram notices that some people are following them and Sita informs

him about Jatayu. They are invited to join the fleet. The Somras and its consumption

have been used by Amish to continue the narrative of the Shiva Trilogy in the Ram

Chandra series. The institutions invented in the Shiva Trilogy e.g. the Vayuputras,

Vishnu and Mahadev, etc. have also been used in this series along with the adjunct

of new institutions such as the Malayputras.

In the book, after around thirteen years of Ram’s exile, Vibhishan and

Shurpanakha, Raavan’s step brother and step sister, come to him to seek help. Ram

allows them to stay with them for a week. On the last day of their stay, Shurpanakha

requests Sita to accompany her to the river. Ram and others hear the shrieks of a

woman and find that Sita is dragging Shurpanakha with her hands tied. Sita reports

that Shurpanakha had stuffed Sita’s mouth with pipsqueak, a herb to induce

unconsciousness, and then had pushed her into the river. Shurpanakha denies the

accusation. Vibhishan tries to mediate but Shurpanakha suddenly pulls out a knife

and rushes at Sita. Lakshman pushes her and she falls on the ground and in the

melee, her nose is incised by her own knife. Shurpanakha asks Vibhishan to retaliate

but he refuses. Shurpanakha shouts wrathfully that her brother Raavan will exact
 23

revenge and then they leave the camp. In the Ramayana, we find only the character

of Shurpanakha coming to kill Sita and lure Ram and her mutilation by an angry

Lakshman.

In the novel, Ram and his men keep changing locations in order to avoid

being traced by Raavan. One day, Ram and Lakshman go out to hunt a deer. Ram

hears Sita calling out his name. He rushes to the camp but sees the Pushpak Viman

leaving. He shoots an arrow but it is of no avail. He discovers Jatayu, wounded badly

and dying. He informs Ram that Vishnu i.e. Sita must be saved. The first novel of

Amish’s Ram Chandra series finishes at this point.

Book two of the series centres around Sita’s life. Traditionally, she is

regarded as the incarnation of goddess Laxmi, the wife of Lord Vishnu. As the

Ramayana focuses on the life of Lord Ram, there isn’t much description of the early

life of Sita, except the incident narrated by King Janak in which he describes how he

had found Sita while performing the harvest ritual. Amish uses this absence of her

details in the Ramayana as an authorial opportunity and creates mythopoeia in his

novel Sita, Warrior of Mithila by inventing a mythic story of Sita’s life. He portrays

her as a bold, intelligent and independent being – an equal partner of Ram rather than

a woman following her husband submissively. The novels of the Ram Chandra series

make her a being in life and flesh.

Sita, Warrior of Mithila is the second novel in the Ram Chandra Series. The

novel opens with the kidnapping of Sita - the incident with which the first novel of

the series also starts. This novel covers almost the same span of time and incidents as

in the first novel but from a different vantage point in such an accomplished manner

that it can be read as an independent work.

 24

The action in the novel starts in 3400 BC, when Ram, Lakshman and Sita are

in the forest with the members of the Naga tribe led by Jatayu. It is Sita’s turn to

cook and Lakshman and Ram are on a hunt for victuals. Raavan arrives in his

Pushpak Viman and massacres all the Naga guards. Sita hides but when she sees

Jatayu being tortured, she reveals herself. She kills some of the Lankan soldiers but

is ultimately caught and given an aesthesia.

After this, the story moves back thirty years, when the girl-child Sita was

found in the north of the Trikut Hills, Deoghar, by King Janak and Queen Sunaina of

Mithila. Sita is surrounded by six fierce wolves trying to kill her but a vulture saves

her. The vulture is wounded grievously but does not let the wolves harm her.

Sunaina adopts the baby and names her Sita. In the Ramayana, in verse 13 and 14 of

Sarga 66 of Bala Kanda, King Janaka mentions that he had found Sita during the

yearly harvest ritual in which the king of the state has to be the first one to plough

the fields.27

Mithila is a small and poor kingdom. It used to be rich once but the Gandaki

River has altered its course and left Mithila without the necessary resources.

Sankashya, the neighbouring kingdom, is ruled by Janak’s brother Kushadhwaj and

he has benefitted by the change in the course of the river. The mention of Mithila as

a poor, small and weak kingdom is Amish’s addendum.

When Sita is around six years old, she goes to a slum and loses her way back.

She is surrounded and attacked by a gang of thief-boys but is saved by a tall and

strong girl named Samichi. As Janak is more interested in studies than in his

kingdom, his brother Kushadhwaj wants to snatch power from him. He makes his

own royal seal that signifies the separation of his kingdom from Mithila. During one
 25

of his visits to Mithila, Sita tears his royal seal, causing further alienation between

the two kingdoms. In the original Ramayana, there is no rift between the brothers.

Verses 16 to 19 of Sarga 71 of Bal Kanda of the Ramayana describe how and why

Janaka made his brother the King of Saamkaasha (renamed Sankashya by Amish).

Sudhanva, the earlier king of Saamkaasha, used to beleaguer Janaka to surrender

Shiva’s bow and Sita to him. In the ensuing battle Janaka defeated and killed

Sudhanva and installed his brother Kushadhwaj as the King of Saamkaasha. 28

In the novel, when Sita is ten years old, she goes to Shvetaketu’s gurukul to

receive education. Sita is extremely intelligent and has great battle skills but she is

also impulsive. She befriends Radhika in the gurukul. She meets Hanuman,

Radhika’s brother, who is a warrior of the Vayuputra tribe. Maharishi Viswamitra,

Chief of the Malayputras, visits the gurukul and is impressed by the spear throwing

skills of Sita. He asks Sita a few questions on philosophy and is satisfied with her

answers. In his mind he makes a plan to make her Vishnu. Sita meets Hanuman and

is gifted Ekmukhi Rudraksha, the rarest of the rudraksha beads. Vishwamitra visits

the gurukul for the second time, a yajna is performed and Sita takes oath as a Vishnu

in front of Agni. In the Ramayana, Hanuman enters the story from verse 13 of Sarga

2 of Kishkindha Kanda when Sita has already been kidnapped.29 In the Ramayana,

Sita sees Hanuman for the first time in Sundar Kanda (verse 19, Sarga 31) when he

comes to Lanka in search of Sita.30

In the novel, Sunaina visits the gurukul. She is old and weak now. She goes

on an elephant ride with Sita. She tells her that her demise is near and that Sita will

have to take care of Mithila after her. Sita is made Prime Minister of Mithila.

Sunaina dies soon after. Urmila, Sita’s younger sister, is beside herself with grief but

Sita consoles her. She appoints Samichi the head of the police force. Mithila’s police
 26

force has only four thousand recruits. The state has no standing army. Sita constructs

a three-storey building for the slum-dwellers of Mithila. Because of its honeycomb

like design, it is named Bees’ Quarter. Sita joins a race with Samichi. Under a

conspiracy, parts of Sita’s chariot are replaced with faulty ones. Sita meets with an

accident but her life is saved. She comes to the conclusion that it must have been

done by Kushadhwaj and decides to take revenge. She plans a surgical strike to kill

Sulochan, Prime Minister of Kushadhwaj and hires Mara, an assassin. Mara

assassinates Sulochan without attracting suspicion.

The economic condition of Mithila improves gradually owing to good

governance by Sita. She visits Agastyakootam, the capital city of the Malayaputras.

There she is hailed as the new Vishnu to the accompaniment of the chanting of

Sanskrit mantras. Sita visits a large cavern and notices bird nests inside. She is told

that they sell the nests to the Lankan King Raavan. When she asks about the

relationship between Raavan and the Malayaputras, Vishwamitra tells her that he

will let her know later. Radhika visits her in Mithila. She comes to know that Guru

Vashishtha has chosen Ram, the Prince of Ayodhya, to be the next Vishnu. Sita

muses about partnering the post of Vishnu with Ram as she believes that they

together can work for the prosperity of the nation.

Sita’s swayamvar, a ceremony to choose a husband from the ablest

competitors, is organized. She wants Ram to marry her. Vishwamitra has cleverly

brought Ram and Lakshman to Mithila. Aristanemi enters the name of Ram for the

swayamvar without seeking his consent which irks Ram and Lakshman. However, in

the street, when Ram witnesses Sita fighting while trying to save a little child who is

a thief, he is impressed by her and bows his head to her. Sita is perplexed and leaves.

Later on, Sita, Urmila and Samichi go to Bees’ Quarter to meet Ram. She is not sure
 27

whether Ram likes her or not but is impressed by him. Lakshman is fascinated by

Urmila. Sita invites Ram to see her in the Royal Garden next day and he agrees. In

the garden, Sita shows Ram the Pinaka Bow, the bow of Lord Rudra, to be used in

the swayamvar the following day. She advises Ram to practice with it but Ram

refuses, saying that he will win her hand only by just and fair means.

The swayamvar is held in the Hall of Dharma. The ceremony is about to

begin when Raavan enters with his brother Kumbhkaran and several other

bodyguards. Raavan takes the Pinaka Bow and is about to shoot it when he is

stopped by Vishwamitra. This infuriates Raavan and he shoots an arrow at the statue

of Mithi, the founder of Mithila and then departs. The swayamvar resumes. Ram

successfully wins the contest and marries Sita.

Raavan attacks Mithila with his soldiers. Seeing no other option to save

Mithila from Raavan, Ram uses the Asurastra. Ravana flees on the Pushpak Viman

but the rest fall victim to the Asurastra. Although no one asks Ram yet he decides to

go into exile. Sita meets Manthara and suspects that some evil plan is cooking in her

mind. She meets Guru Vashishtha and requests him to give her the Somras.

Dhruhyu, Manthara’s right hand, goes to Mara to order him to kill Ram but instead

Mara slays Dhruhyu on the spot. King Dashrath passes away in Ayodhya and Bharat

places Ram’s slippers on the throne of Ayodhya and runs the state.

From this point onwards, the story is the same as in the first book of the

series. Thirteen years of exile pass. In revenge for the slashing off of Shurpanakha’s

nose, Sita is kidnapped by Raavan in the Pushpak Viman. When she tries to attack

the Lankans, she is stopped by a woman soldier. To the shock of Sita and that of the
 28

readers, the soldier is none other than Samichi, the friend and the head of the police

force of Mithila. The story halts here, to be continued in the next book of the series.

Raavan: Enemy of Aryavarata is the third novel in the Ram Chandra series

by Amish Tripathi. The novel opens and ends with the kidnapping of Sita. It portrays

Raavan’s character as large but unheroic. In the novel, Raavan has been presented as

a larger than life character, a fierce warrior, skilled businessman, true lover, great

painter, musician and scientist. He has been presented as a man hounded by

unfortunate circumstances that have made him a villain despite his good heart.

The essence of the Ramayana is imbibed in its portrayal of ideal human

relationships. The characters stand as touchstones of social behaviour. It portrays

ideal standards of love, trust, faith, and respect. Amish’s version changes this ideal

state to one where everyone is selfish, plotting and quarrelsome.

Amish’s non-fiction work, Immortal India: Young Country, Timeless

Civilization, is an effort to present the current contentious social, historical, religious

and other issues. The book consists of thirty-six chapters which include articles,

interviews and speeches. It contains chapters on religion and mythology, social

issues, history, and musings. There are sub-chapters too. The aim of the book is

stated in its “Introduction” i.e. to remove the dust obscuring the real understanding

of India. It attempts to set right the broken bridge between Indians and India’s

cultural magnanimity. Though he censures Allama Iqbal for his folly in supporting

and advocating for a sectarian Pakistan yet he acknowledges the poet’s high stature

as a sublime Urdu poet and refers to his following lines:

Yunan~o~Misr-o-Roma sab mit gaye jahan se

Ab tak magar hai baki naam-o-nishan hamara,

 29

Kuchh baat hai ke hasti mitati nahin hamari

Sadiyon raha hai dushman daur-e-zaman hamara.31

It translates thus:

Greek, Egyptians and Romans have all vanished from this world,

But we are still here,

There must be something special in us that we have not been erased from

existence,

For the whole world has been against us for centuries.32

In these lines, poet Iqbal applauds India’s ages long thriving cultural heritage

by comparing it with other ancient civilizations of the world, Greek, Egyptian, and

Roman, that succumbed to the invaders. The poet claims that there must be some

exceptional potential in Indian culture that even centuries of cultural invasions by the

Arabs and colonization by Europeans could not completely annihilate it. Such a

reference makes the author’s objective clear. It is something that Derozio also did in

early 19th century when he undertook the charge to arouse the enslaved country with

his patriotic verses. He reminds the nation of its lost glory in his poem “To India -

My Native Land”:

My country! in thy day of glory past

A beauteous halo circled round thy brow,

And worshipped as a deity thou wast.

Where is that glory, where that reverence now? 33

In another poem, “The Harp of India,” he strives to string the unstrung harp

that sang the nation’s glory in past:

 30

… but if thy notes divine

May be by mortal wakened once again,

Harp of my country, let me strike the strain!34

By striking this note, Derozio strove to remind the countrymen of the

forgotten grandeur of their own country. A country without hope creates despaired

citizens and despaired citizens make a country desperate. Derozio, who is usually

referred to as the first nationalist poet of India, endeavoured to bring the countrymen

out of this state of hopelessness by reminding them of the country’s glory. Similar

efforts appear in both the fictional and non-fictional works of Amish.

Though only the last chapter of the book is titled “Musings” yet the whole

book seems to be a series of purposeful contemplations. For example, in a sub-

chapter, “Playing It by the Rules: Lord Ram’s Path,” he tries to vindicate the honour

of Lord Ram to prove that the lord is not anti-feminist. The charge of being anti-

feminist is usually levied upon Lord Ram for banishing his wife Sita from the

kingdom on the accusation of being unchaste because she had been detained for a

year by her kidnapper Ravana in his kingdom Lanka. The charge was levied by a

washer man. Amish argues that Ram had to do it because he is “Maryaada

Purushottam” - the ideal follower of rules. When Lady Sita suffers abandonment, he

too suffers the pangs of separation and ultimately ends his mortal life by taking Jal

Samadhi i.e. renouncing the body by drowning deliberately. Notably, Lord Ram

never remarried and was devoted to his wife. Amish also adds in the argument that

the Ramayana and the Mahabharata are not shrutis i.e. divinely-revealed

philosophical texts like the Vedas and the Upanishads but are “itihasa,” a historical

record in which archetypes have been presented. Lord Ram is an archetype of the

“ideal-follower of rules.”
 31

However, Amish’s argument has two major flaws. The first is regarding the

authenticity of the nature of historical events as recorded in the Ramayana and the

Mahabharata. Second, if Ram had just been following the rules, the question arises if

it was also a rule in Lord Ram’s kingdom to accuse women on unjust grounds of

being chaste or unchaste. To answer these, one must keep in mind that there are

hundreds of retellings of the Ramayana in India. The original Ramayana, composed

by Maharishi Valmiki, consists of no such incident. These incidents are the

interpolation in one of the much later retellings, the Ramcharitmanas, by Tulsidas.

Valmiki’s version dates back to several centuries before Christ and Tulsidas’ version

came out in the 15th century AD. Most probably, the author was influenced by the

altered socio-historical background.

The sub-chapters in Immortal India: Young Country, Timeless Civilization

under the chapter “Religion and Mythology” are; “Lord Shiva: The God of

Contradictions,” “Playing It by the Rules: Lord Ram’s Path,” “Happily Religious

and Liberal,” “Inter-faith Dialogue, Living Mythology,” “Unbridled Shakti, the

Purpose of God,” “Recasting Mythology,” “The Masculine/Feminine Way and Other

Questions,” and “How the Shiva Trilogy Ended and Other Questions.” In the

chapter, “Happily Religious and Liberal,” first Amish declares himself as a religious

liberal as he worships all faiths and then he sets out to define what liberalism is. He

proposes that the best definition of liberalism can be understood in the words of

Evelyn Hall: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right

to say.”35 He applauds liberalism in India. In the chapter, “Inter-faith Dialogue,” he

expounds the analogy between human body and religion. The source and destination

of all human bodies are the same but physical appearances are different. In the same

way, the source and destination of all religions are same but their ways of
 32

manifestation are different. This is the message that Swami Vivekananda relayed at

the Parliament of Religions, held at Chicago in 1893, in his introductory speech

entitled Response to Welcome. It is a morning prayer of Hinduistic faith: “As the

different streams having their sources in different places all mingle their water in the

sea, so, O Lord, the different paths which men take through different tendencies,

various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee.” 36

In the chapter, “Unbridled Shakti” Amish takes up the feminist cause and

advocates for the rights of women. He challenges the myth that religion ordains a

female to have a subservient status. He provides several examples to prove his point.

There is a myth that an Indian woman must serve the family as she is expected to

model herself after Sita who has been portrayed as meek and docile in the later

retellings, namely Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas. Amish mentions another version of

the Ramayana, Adbhut Ramayana, in which Sita has been portrayed as a fierce

warrior. Therefore, adherence to parochialism is not the fault of religion only.

Contesting the concept of the Deobandi Fatwa which makes it unlawful for Muslim

women to find employment in mixed-gender work groups, he asserts that such an

assumption is absurd as the first wife of Prophet Mohammad Ibn Abdulla, Lady

Khadija al-Kubra, was a successful businesswoman. Prophet Mohammed, who was

fifteen years her junior, was her ex-employee, and he honoured and respected her.

One of the greatest advocates of patriarchy, Lord Manu, favours respect towards

woman. Amish cites him: “Where women are honoured, the god are pleased.” 37 In

another chapter, “Happily Religious and Liberal,” he shatters the myth that women

are forbidden to perform religious ceremonies. He refers to Brihadaranyak Upnishad

which is written in the form of a spiritual debate between Maharishi Yajnavalkya, a

male scholar, and Maharishika Maitreyi, a female scholar.

 33

Amish gives credit to his marketing policy for the huge success of his books.

According to Amish, the mantra of the success of his books is marketing. He says,

“There’s a fallacy that’s very popular in the publishing world that a good book sells

itself: This is nonsense.”38 Amish always promotes his book diligently through

digital marketing. After a few dozen rejections by the publishers, he decided to apply

his management skill and launched the promotion campaign on the internet through a

live-action trailer on YouTube and an online community on Facebook and Twitter.39

With the increase in the fame of his fiction, celebrated artists like Sonu Nigam,

Taufiq Qureshi, Palash Sen and Bikram Ghosh too worked on the album. The

advertisement of the Ram Chandra Series was done even on ATM screens. He gives

due credit to advertisement for his success.

1:5: Review of Literature

Many articles have been published in the last half decade on either one of the

novels of the Shiva Trilogy or the complete series. These articles cover the different

aspects of the novel.

The article entitled “Ethical Wisdom and Philosophical Judgment in Amish

Tripathi’s The Oath of the Vayuputras” by Dr. Lata Mishra asserts in the abstract

that the recreation of myth in Shiva Trilogy has “become the living inspirational

scripture capable of providing spiritual direct to the present world.” 40 The paper

discusses how such an effect has been achieved by the author. In the novel, Shiva in

his childhood, fails to save a woman from sexual abuse and instead of helping the

lady, flees from the scene. His memory of failure to save the lady haunts him

through reccurring dreams. The article analyses this effect through Carl Jung’s On

the Nature of Dreams (1967). In the novel, Vasudev Pandits serve as Shiva’s aide
 34

and guide. It is mostly through their conversation that Amish has presented the

philosophy on which the novel is based. The article discusses the conversation

between Shiva and Vasudev Pandits through different theories of physics. These

theories are Newtonian Absolutism, Einstein’s Relativity, Heisenberg’s

Indeterminacy, Derrida’s Difference, Bohr’s Principle of Complementarity, Dynamic

System Theory, the Chaos Theory, Edward Lorenz’s Butterfly Effect, the philosophy

of Determinism, Quantum Theory, and Lacanian Thought.

In the article entitled “Rewriting Myth: A Critical Analysis of Amish

Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy” by Vikram Singh, the author states in the abstract that the

article describes how Amish has presented the ages old practices in a larger spectrum

in his novel. The article starts with a brief discussion of the new trends of Popular

Indian English Fiction and then presents a snapshot of the novel in brief. According

to the article, the novel “bollywoodizes” emotion and Shiva’s use of expletives like

‘bloody hell,’ ‘damn it,’ ‘bullshit,’ etc. make him look human.41

The article titled “Humanly Gods or Godly Humans: Representation and

Anthropomorphism of Mythical Characters in Amish Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy” by

Aritra Basu, MPhil, research scholar, University of Delhi, published in a journal

IJOHMN on February 2020, claims that it attempts to analyse the representation of

mythical characters at the level of anthropomorphism and it also attempts to

understand the character of Kali from a feminist understanding of disability. The

Cambridge Dictionary defines anthropomorphism as “The showing or treating of

animals, gods, and objects as if they are human in appearance, character, or

behaviour.”42
 35

The article coalesces fragmentary ideas rather than presenting a discussion on

the topic. Moreover, it discusses the disability of the character Kali by relating it to

the disability in women in general. The author also quotes Susan Wendell’s

“Towards a Feminist Theory of Disability” to create a connection between Kali’s

disabilities and universal disability in women in general. In the novel, Kali is a

powerful queen and her physical disability has nothing to do with her being a female.

Amish has created a society in his work where there is complete equality between

sexes.43

In another paper, “A Study on the Science in Shiva Trilogy in the Words of

Amish Tripathi,” by Sangeeta Devi, research scholar, Kalinga University, Naya

Raipur, Chhatishgargh, and Dr. N Gopal Krishnan, the supervisor, published in the

journal named Globus, the abstract asserts that it discusses “innovation, prescription,

the generation of Somras.”44 The article is divided in four sections: “Introduction,”

“Review of Literature,” “A Short Tale about Shiva Trilogy by Amish Tripathi,” and

“Conclusion.” In the first section, there is a general description of Lord Shiva as a

god. It also mentions that Amish’s book has been translated into many languages and

that the Indian market has a great scope for selling books in Indian dialects. In the

section “Review of Literature,” the author uses the contest of good and evil:

The present paper entitled: An Approach to Equanimity through Good and

Evil in Amish Tripathi Shiva Trilogy, centers around the comprehension of

the reasonable perspective for performing obligations with non-connection.

Talks on Good and Evil powers with their exercises fill in as instrument to

comprehend the idea of Equanimity. The author recommends that one ought

to dependably support great individuals, propensities, conduct and mentality

for a definitive decent of society and attempt to bend fiendish, which is

 36

negative and dangerous in nature. Shiva the main hero in Shiva Trilogy

continues battling the Evil for an incredible duration and also grows up

logically and gets the comprehension of Equanimity in important and

practice.45

Section three presents a fragment of the story of the Shiva Trilogy. In the

conclusion part, there is a short description of the major characters of the novel.

Another article titled “Portrayal of Caste System in Amish’ Shiva Trilogy” is

by Kuldeep Barman, published in a journal named The Criterion in the October 2015

issue. It discusses the portrayal of the caste system and the pathos of the

marginalised in the novel. In the abstract, the author mentions that his paper aims to

present how the caste system is presented in the novel. According to him, there is a

discussion on “caste discrimination of the vikarmas and Nagas” 46 in the Shiva

Trilogy. In the novel, both Vikarmas and Nagas are neither caste nor race but certain

unlucky people belonging to all classes, those who have been socially segregated due

to their physical deformities, diseases, or handicap. They belong to a marginalised

section of society and are oppressed.

The abstract claims that Amish’s work reveals “the hypocrisy of Hindu

ideology and [show] a helpless community deciding to stop tolerating the crime.” 47

Amish’s work presents a theory of the caste system at the beginning, based on an

ideology of equality and justice. Nowhere in his work is there any mockery of the

Hindu ideology. Moreover, it is not the marginalised or helpless community that

rises to fight against the injustice in the novel but a prophesied redeemer. In the

novel, caste system is not based on birth but on one’s profession - everyone is free to

choose it according to their personal merit and skills. There is a group of

 37

marginalised people within the Meluhan society. They are called Vikarma or

untouchables. They come from all classes of society. When a person incurs incurable

diseases or if a woman gives birth to a still-born child, they are declared Vikarmas.

They are not allowed to touch anyone, and made to believe that their misery is the

result of their own deeds in their past lives. Both they and those who touch them

accidently are required to go through a purification ceremony. The theory that the

condition of the present life of the people is the result of the deeds done in their past

lives is referred to as “Law of Karma” in Hindu religious philosophies. Rather than

presenting a mockery of Hindu ideology, Amish has presented an alternative

explanation for such a theory. People were made to believe that they themselves are

the cause of their misery so that they would not unleash wrath and the frustration of

their own lives on others. Shiva is made to understand this logic in a conversation

with the Vasudev Pandit of Mohan Jo Daro. When Shiva complains against the

practices prescribed to and for the Vikarma, the Pandit explains the reason behind

such laws. He says that sometimes improving or transition in life gets out of one’s

control. He gives an example of an exceptional warrior who gets maimed by an

illness. He is still a warrior but is exceptional no more. Out of his discontent, he is

likely to perceive his condition as injustice and is likely to blame others like doctors

or society for his condition. A lot of such people together can create chaos and bring

instability in society. Shiva doesn’t like the logic yet he accepts it as true as in his

homeland the central cause of the war was the reluctance of the old leaders of their

enemy tribe to accept that they were no longer exceptional warriors and wanted to

live up to their older reputation. The Pandit says:

Their (Vikarma) combined rage can lead to unrest, even violence … if you

make a person believe that his misfortune in this birth is due to his sins in his
 38

previous birth, he will resign himself to his fate and not vent his fury on

society at large.48

As the number of Vikarma people has reached almost one twentieth of the

population of Meluha, Shiva finds the segregation of such a large number of people

from society as unjust and decides to remove the law of Vikarma. The point to note

here is that Vikarma has nothing to do with a class or caste.

Another group of marginalised people are the Nagas. They are not a race but

unlucky ones born with congenital diseases, with deformed or extra growth in their

bodies. As for centuries, the cause of their deformity was not known, their bad

Karma of the past life was held responsible for it and they were ostracised. Any

person belonging to any part of society, even royals, can be Nagas. Thus, the Nagas

too have nothing to do with caste. Their ostracism and segregation is not fair or just

in any way and Shiva as a saviour rises to fight against the injustice meted out to

them. The point is that the author of the article mixes caste with the marginalised.

In the article, the writer describes the condition of the marginalised i.e. the

Nagas and the Vikarmas, the way they are declared outcasts and the law for them,

the rules that they have to abide by and the condition of different marginalised

characters in the novel.

In the article entitled “Gender Equanimity in Shiva Trilogy” by R. Thiripura

Sundari, published in the International Journal of Creative Research Thoughts, the

author asserts that the article explores the idea of equanimity between the masculine

and the feminine gender presented in the Shiva Trilogy through the gender narrative

technique. According to the article, Shiva’s leadership capacity and decision-making

 39

capacity is his masculine trait and his dancing skill where he can convey emotions of

a woman is his feminine trait. Sati’s warring skills are her masculine trait. 49

The article entitled “Symbolism in Amish Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy: A Study”

by Madhan Ponkoliyandi50 and the article entitled “Recreation of Myth in Amish

Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy” by S. Vijaya Prabavathi and Dr. V. S. Shiny, 51 are identical

in the sense that both have presented a summary of the fiction and have discussed

how symbols of traditional mythology have been employed in myth-making by

Amish. The first symbol that the article, “Symbolism in Amish Tripathi’s Shiva

Trilogy: A Study,” discusses is the third eye of Lord Shiva. It decodes the symbol

but does not explain how it has been used with modification by Amish to suit the

narrative of the novel. The author of the article claims that the symbol of the snake

has been used by Amish by portraying it as a close associate of the Neelkanth. The

cover page of the second novel portrays Shiva holding a snake. “Naga” is the Hindi

word for “snake.” Physically deformed people are called Nagas in the novel. Lord

Shiva puts on a garland of a cobra snake and in the novel Nagas become close

associates of Shiva. The article doesn’t discuss this use of symbol but connects the

symbol of the snake with Kundalini yoga. For a Hindi-speaking reader, the word is

sure to create a mental image but in the narrative, the symbol of the snake is not

used. Two other symbols, “crescent moon” that is usually found on Lord Shiva’s

forehead and Damru or the pellet drum that Lord Shiva plays, have been discussed

by the author. When Shiva dances, he plays a pellet drum. The article asserts that a

soul journeys as an individual soul till it merges with the Universal Soul. The god

has to go through a purification process and Nandi, the bull of Lord Shiva,

symbolises the waiting of the individuals.

 40

The article entitled “A Critical Study on Women Characters of Amish

Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy,” written by Dr. Anoop Nair, asserts in its abstract that

fanciful stories and legends are used to keep the women in a subordinate or

subservient role in society. In the abstract, he writes that through the component of

“phantabula,” which means portmanteau of imagination and fantasy, Amish Tripathi

has retold the myth where he has created the fanciful character of adorned ladies.52 In

the section titled “Women in Science,” the author describes Sigmund Freud’s theory

of the human mind. The theory says that the human brain is divided into two

cerebrums. The right side of the human brain is responsible for passionate choices

and the left side is responsible for judicious reasoning. The two cerebrums are

associated with the Corpus callosum. According to the theory, in women this Corpus

callosum is more balanced than in men and so they can take a more balanced

decision.

In the section, “Ghost of the Story,” the author of the article mentions

Patmore’s ballad “The Angel in the House” that came to public notice with the work

of Virginia Woolf. The lady in the ballad is referred to as an “unadulterated” being

as she never prioritises herself and makes the life of everyone else comfortable. Such

sacrifices are expected from ideal women.

The next section is titled “Shiva Trilogy.” In this section, the author of the

article discusses the period mentioned in the Shiva Trilogy. The society in the Shiva

Trilogy is ruled by the law of Manu. Manu is an ancient lawgiver of Hindus. His

book Manusmriti lays down certain rules for women that confines them to a sub-

secondary role but at the same time, men are prescribed to respect them as God does

not reside at a place where women are not respected. The article presents both points

of view. Here, there are two points. First, Manusmiriti is not the only law book or
 41

religious book for Hindus, and the second is that Wikipedia refers to Patrick

Olivelle’s work Manu’s Code of Law which states that there are around fifty

different versions of the Manusmriti and the laws given in all these books are not

consistent.53

In the following section, titled “Phantabula,” the author mentions that Amish

has created the images of women in the novel from imagination. According to the

author, the images of women in Hindu mythology are accommodating, powerless,

and docile. It must be pointed out that in India, one of the popular trends of

worshipping is Shaktism where female deities and figures wield absolute power.

Besides, in Hindu mythology, it is the female deities that are regarded as the source

of a divine kind of power. Female deities are revered, invoked, and worshipped the

same way as their male counterparts, so the female figures in Hindu mythology

cannot be held responsible for the plight of Indian women. It should also be noticed

that India is a country where male worshippers worship female deities. Though

Indian society cannot claim equality in the treatment of the sexes yet history is filled

with powerful figures of female rulers and warriors. So, be it a legend or mythology,

there are strong ideal female icons, and Amish’s creation of powerful women seems

to be the product of those images rather than pure fantastic imagination.

In the succeeding segment, “Mythology of Lord Shiva,” the author of the

article presents a brief sketch of Lord Shiva in Hindu mythology. In the next

segment, “Overwhelming Women Characters,” the author describes the female

characters of the Shiva Trilogy. These characters are Ayurvati, Sati, Kali,

Anandmayi and minor women characters like Kritika, Renuka, Tara, and Kanakhala.

The article presents no connection between the first two sections of the article and

the rest.
 42

There are two articles by Nirmala Rani, “Modernisation of Myth in Amish

Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy and Ram Chandra Series” and “Myth and Reality in Amish

Tripathi’s Novels.” In the abstract of the former article, the author mentions that the

“paper throws light on realistic presentation of technology, the production of

Somras, the civilised lifestyle, and journey of a man from Tibetan tribe towards

becoming a god.”54 It starts with a discussion on myth and then presents the

fragments of the story. In the article, it is mentioned that the paper presents Amish’s

different interpretations of good and evil and the realistic presentation of Shiva,

Ram, Sita, and the other Indian gods and goddesses but these topics are not

addressed adequately. In the latter article, there is a summary of the novel but it does

not discuss how myth and reality coexist in the novel as the title mentions. In the

article, Somras and nuclear weapons have been referred to as supernatural aids while

in the novel these are scientific inventions.55

The article entitled “The Immortals of Meluha and the Science in their

Belief” is by Ambri Shukla, Suman Swati and Shuchi Srivastava. The segment “The

Law of Karma, Free Will, and the Broader Perspective of Dharma” presents mostly

quotations from the novel. In the segment “The Somras Drink of Gods,” in one

paragraph, the authors have presented a transliteration of certain sentences of the

novel and the rest are quoted lines from the novel. In the section “Universe and the

Concept of OM,” the writers present the famous philosophical concepts associated

with the sound in Hinduism but it doesn’t discuss in what context it has been used in

the novel and how it can have any relevance with science as the title says. 56

In view of these articles, this dissertation attempts a fresh orientation of

assessing authorial and oratorical freedom in the traditional narratives in popular

culture. To understand this trait, it is necessary to have a general idea of the

 43

alternatives in the diverse retellings of myths, legends and lore in India. The next

part of the thesis, Chapter I, deals with the matter.

 44

1:6: Works Cited

1. Satpathy, Kriti Saraswat. “Amish Tripathi’s Sita: Warrior of Mithila Trailer

Launch.” India.Com, 16 May 2017, www.india.com/lifestyle/live-streaming-

amish-tripathis-sita-warrior-of-mithila-trailer-launch-2136484.

2. “Amish Tripathi”. Wikipedia, Wikimedia foundation, 1 st February, 2018,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amish_Tripathi#cite_note-73 .

3. Velayanikal, Malavika. “The Man Who Brought Back God into Our Lives and

Built an Empire of the Soul.” YourStory, 18 Feb.

2014, yourstory.com/2014/02/amish-tripathi-meluha/.

4. Mishr, Kuldeep. “जिस ईश्वर पर जिखता हूं , उसके साथ कूंट्र ोवसी नह ूं कर सकता: अम श

जिपाठ .” Aaj Tak, 10 July 2015,

www.aajtak.in/literature/story/exclusive-interview-of-amish-tripathi-by-

kuldeep-mishra-and-nandlal-sharma-305058-2015-07-10.

5. Griffin, Peter. “Amish Tripathi: I have enough story ideas to keep myself busy

for the next twenty years.” Forbes India, 8th June, 2013,

www.forbesindia.com/printcontent/35355.

6. Pandit, Shruti. “My Books Are Shiva’s Blessings.” The Times of India, 1 June

2012, timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/books/features/My-books-are-

Shivas-blessings/articleshow/13704163.cms.

7. “Writing Career Was Thrust upon Him: Amish Tripathi.” Hindustan Times, 2

Apr. 2013, www.hindustantimes.com/books/writing-career-was-thrust-upon-

him-amish-tripathi/story-GsENP6MKk0FaIidUitbSBK.html.
 45

8. “Rig Veda Book 1 Hymn 164.” Sacred-Texts.Com, sacred

texts.com/hin/rvsan/rv01164.htm.

9. “Ekam Sad Vipra Bahudha Vadanti… – the Real Meaning.”

Nitaigaurangablog.Wordpress.Com,

nitaigaurangablog.wordpress.com/2017/02/03/ekam-sad-vipra-bahudha-

vadanti-the-real-meaning.

10. Ramanujan, A K. “Three Hundred Ramayana: Five Examples and Three

Thoughts on Translations.” The Collected Essays of A K Ramanujan, Oxford

University Press, 2004, pp. 131–160.

11. Bezbaroowa, Sunit, and Arvind Joshi. “Lord Ram Was Born in 5114 BC.” The

Times of India, 8 Nov. 2003, timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Lord-Ram-

was-born-in-5114-BC/articleshow/273107.cms.

12. Ibid.

13. Chaturvedi, B.K. Shiv Purana. Diamond Pocket Books (P) Ltd, 2004.

14. Pal, Tapas. “Physical Geography in Veda.Vedic Geography-The Theoretical

Survey.” Bonsai Publication, p. 16.

www.academia.edu/40375637/VEDIC_GEOGRAPHY_Theoretical_Survey_V

EDIC_GEOGRAPHY

15. Tripathi, Amish. Immortals of Meluha. Westland Publications, 2010.

16. Tripathi, Amish. The Secret of the Nagas. Westland Publications, 2012.

17. Tripathi, Amish. The Oath of the Vayuputras. Westland Publications, 2013.
 46

18. “Writing Career Was Thrust upon Him: Amish Tripathi.” Hindustan Times, 2

Apr. 2013, www.hindustantimes.com/books/writing-career-was-thrust-upon-

him-amish-tripathi/story-GsENP6MKk0FaIidUitbSBK.html.

19. Ibid.

20. Ramanujan, A K. “Three Hundred Ramayana: Five Examples and Three

Thoughts on Translations.” The Collected Essays of A K Ramanujan, Oxford

University Press, 2004, pp. 131–160.

21. Valmiki, Maharishi. “The Ramayana, Book II : Ayodhya Kanda - Book of

Ayodhya.” Valmikiramayan.Pcriot.Com,

valmikiramayan.pcriot.com/utf8/ayodhya/sarga1/ayodhya_1_frame.htm.

22. Ibid.

23. Ibid,

https://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga12/ayodhya_12_frame.htm.

24. Ibid,

https://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/ayodhya/sarga78/ayodhya_78_frame.htm.

25. Ibid, https://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga66/bala_66_frame.htm.

26. Ibid, https://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga66/bala_66_frame.htm.

27. Ibid, https://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga71/bala_71_frame.htm.

28. Ibid, https://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/kish/sarga2/kishkindha_2_frame.htm.

29. Ibid, https://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/sundara/sarga31/sundara_31_frame.htm.

 47

30. Tripathi, Amish. “Introduction.” Immortal India, Westland Publications, 2017.

p. 23.

31. Ibid, p. 23.

32. Derozio, H L V. “To India - My Native Land.” PoemHunter.com, 2 Sept.

2010, www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-my-native-land/.

33. Derozio, H L V. “The Harp of India.” PoemHunter.com, 2 Sept. 2010,

www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-harp-of-india/.

34. Tripathi, Amish. “Happily Religious and Liberal”. Immortal India, Westland

Publications, 2017, p. 12.

35. Vivekananda, Swami. “Response to welcome”. Addresses at the Parliament of

Religions. Ramakrishna Mission, 1907.

https://www.viveksamity.org/user/doc/CHICAGO-SPEECH.pdf

36. Tripathi Amish. “Unbridled Shakti”. Immortal India, Westland Publications

2017, p. 23.

37. Mohan, Shruthi. ”Rejected by 20 Publishers, Bestseller Amish Tripathi Is

Scripting History.” YourStory, yourstory.com/2016/12/amish-tripathi/.

38. Chakrabarti, Sujata. “Amish Tripathi’s Going Digital.” DNA India, 9 Apr.

2010, www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report-amish-tripathi-s-going-digital-

1369184.

39. Mishra, Lata. “Ethical Wisdom and philosophical Judgment in Amish

Tripathi’s The Oath of the Vayuputras.” Linguistics and Literature Studies

 48

1(1): 20-31, 2013, pp. 20-23.,

www.hrpub.org/download/201307/lls.2013.010104.pdf.

40. Singh, Vikram. “Rewriting Myth: A Critical Analysis of Amish Tripathi’s

Shiva Trilogy”. IRJMSH (International Research Journal of Management and

Humanity), Vol.7, issue.3, 2016, pp.146-149.

41. Definition: anthropomorphism.

dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/anthropomorphism

42. Basu, Aritra. “Humanly Gods or Godly Humans: Representation and

Anthropomorphism of Mythical Characters in Amish Tripathi’s Shiva

Trilogy.” IJOHMN (International Journal Online of Humanities), Vol. 6, no.

1, 2020, p. 9, (PDF) Humanly Gods or Godly Humans: Representation and

Anthropomorphism of Mythical Characters in Amish Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy

(researchgate.net)

43. Devi, Sangeeta & Krishnan, Dr. N Gopal. “A Study on the Science in Shiva

Trilogy in the Words of Amish Tripathi.” Globus ( An International Journal of

Management & IT A Refereed Research Journal), Vol. 8, No. 2, Jan-Jun 2017,

p. 1., https://globusjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/GMIT-JJ17-

Sangeeta-1.pdf

44. Ibid.

45. Barman, Kuldeep. “Portrayal of Caste System in Amish’ Shiva Trilogy.” The

Criterion: An International Journal in English, Vol. 6, Issue. V, October 2015,

pp. 063-071., https://www.the-criterion.com/V6/n5/010.pdf

46. Ibid.
 49

47. Tripathi, Amish. Immortals of Meluha. Westland Publications, 2010, p. 211.

48. Sundari, R. Thiripura. “Gender Equanimity in Shiva Trilogy”. IJCRT

(International Journal of Creative Research Thought), Vol.8, issue.7, July

2020, https://ijcrt.org/papers/IJCRT2007323.pdf.

49. Ponkoliyandi, Madhan. “Symbolism in Amish Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy: A

Study”. Literary Endeavour, Vol. 10, no.3, May 2019,

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342411565_Symbolism_in_Amish_

Tripathi’s_Shiva_Trilogy_A_Study#:~:text=From%20his%20poems%2C%20

he%20makes,%5BShow%20full%20abstract%5D.

50. Prabavathi, S. Vijaya & Shiny, Dr. V. S. “Recreation of Myth in Amish

Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy”. Journal of Xi’an University of Architecture &

Technology, Vol. XII, Issue. IV, 2020, pp. 4230-4242,

http://www.xajzkjdx.cn/gallery/415-april2020.pdf.

51. Nair, Dr. Anoop. “A Critical Study on Women’s Character of Amish

Tripathi Shiva Trilogy”. IERJ (International Education & Research Journal),

Vol.3, Issue.5, May 2017,

http://ierj.in/journal/index.php/ierj/article/view/2055/1948.

52. Olivelle, Patrick. Manu’s Code of Law. Oxford University Press, 2005, pp.

353-354, 356-382.

53. Rani, Nirmala. “Modernisation of Myth in Amish Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy

and Ram Chandra Series”. Research Review Journals, Vol. 04, issue. 03,

March 2019, https://rrjournals.com/past-issue/modernisation-of-myth-in-

amish-tripathis-shiva-trilogy-and-ram-chandra-series/.
 50

54. Rani, Nirmala. “Myth and Reality in Amish Tripathi’s Novels”. International

Journal of Current Advance Research (IJCAR), Vol. 08, issue. 03, March

2019, https://journalijcar.org/sites/default/files/issue-files/8902-A-2019.pdf.

55. Ambri, et al. “The Immortals of Meluha and the Science in Their

Belief.” IMPACT: International Journal of Research in Humanities, Arts, and

Literature, Vol.2, no.5, May 2014, pp.89–94,

file:///C:/Users/Asus/Downloads/THE_IMMORTALS_OF_MELUHA_AND_

THE_SCIENCE.pdf.

56. S. M. Chandran and Nair, A. S., “Humanising the Divine: A Select Study of

Amish Tripathi’s Immortals of Meluha”. English Language and Literature,

Vol. 5, no.2, pp.456-465, 2017,

www.rjelal.com/5.2.17a/456-465%20ABHIRAMI%20S.NAIR.pdf.

57. Pandey, Sandeep Kumar. “Humanizing Lord Shiva in the Novels “Shiva

Trilogy” of Amish Tripathi”. Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in

Allied Education (JASRAE), Vol. 15, issue. 07, pp. 657-662, Sep. 2018,

ignited.in/I/a/303676.

58. Chatterjee, Abhinaba. “Humanizing Theography through Mystical Mythology:

Amish Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy”. Research and Criticism, Journal of the

Department of English, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, pp.72-86,

www.academia.edu/14399949/Humanizing_Theography_through_Mystical_M

ythology_Amish_Tripathi_s_Shiva_Trilogy_by_Abhinaba_Chatterjee.
 51

Chapter I

An Overview of Mythic Fiction

In a country like India where lore and legends are interwoven in social

discourses, retellings of the Indic mythology have always appeared in oral traditions

and in print but the mythic revival or revival of mythological fiction that the first two

decades of 21st century have witnessed, is unprecedented. A large body of

mythological fiction has been produced since the dawn of the present century. The

genre, since then, has gained tremendous momentum. It is evident in works like

Roshani Chokashi’s Pandava series, Amit Majumdar’s Sitayana, Arjuna by Anuja

Chandramouli, Kavita Kane’s Lanka’s Princess, Chitra Divakaruni’s Palace of

Illusions, Anand Neelakantan’s Asura: Tale of the Vanquished, and numerous others.

Mythology is collective intellectual property. Indian epics, in particular, have

always remained creative fodder for generations of writers and artists. Retelling of

the epics with interpolations and circumstances of the respective ages and with

different perspectives have resulted in, for example, around three hundred versions

of the Ramayana by now - from Valmiki’s Ramayana to

Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas to Kamban’s Ramavataram to Shashi Tharoor’s The

Great Indian Novel to Devdutt Pattanaik’s Hanuman’s Ramayan, etc.1 C. N.

Ramachandran, in his article, “Ages Pass, But the Story Continues’ (A Note on Myth

in Modern Kannada Literature),” states in this reference:

The Ramayana and Mahabharata are a compendium of history, politics,

religion, ethics, and poetry; and they, as part and parcel of Indian collective
 52

experience, have fascinated, thrilled, teased and repelled the Indian

imagination since the time immemorial. Hence each age finds itself

compelled to return to these myths and to re-read them so as to make them

contemporaneous.2

In the article, C. N. Ramachandran claims that what has changed in the

retellings of mythology is “discourse” and not the “narrative.” Here, “narrative” is a

story and “discourse” is an argument through which the story is presented. Thus, the

discourse is a tool to manifest perspectives while “A narrative is a story that you

write or tell to someone, usually in great detail.”3 C. N. Ramachandran states:

If we can identify the two major dimensions of a literary text as ‘narrative’

and ‘discourse,’ what is questioned and re-valued is the ‘discourse’ and not

the ‘narrative’ which undergoes but a few minor changes in the course of

periodical critical exercise.4

The stance was partially true by the time the article was written in 2010 but

lately, Indian novelists have begun to take a lot of liberty with both narrative and

discourse in presenting mythological stories without bothering about the original. In

a way, poetic license presents the scope for numerous retellings.

In the India Today Conclave in New Delhi, March 17, 2012, Salman Rushdie

addressed the last session titled “Liberty Verses: I am What I am and That’s All That

I am.” In his address, he praised India as a land of homogeneity on the grounds that

no one is prosecuted in the land for non-conformity and even atheistic traditions such

as Shramanavada, Samkhyavada, Charvakavada, etc. have flourished in India

without any subjugation. He traces its roots in antiquity in the dramatic treatise
 53

Natyashastra by Bharatmuni that was written around 500 BC. He presents an

example from the text as the most ancient model upholding the freedom of speech. 5

Chapter I of Natyasastra by Bharatmuni, ‘Origin of Drama (nāṭya),’

discusses the origin of Indian art of drama. The story goes that the different races of

the denizens of Jambudvīpā (India) i.e. Devas (gods), Dānava, Gandharva, Yakṣa,

Rākṣas and great Uragas (Nāgas) approached Brahma, the Creator, with the request

to create something with “an object diversion, which must be audible as well as

visible.”6 Brahma promised that he “shall make a fifth Veda.”7 There must have been

the four Vedas composed by this time as they are known to us - the Rig Veda, the

Yajur Veda, the Sama Veda and the Atharva Veda. Brahma mandated that this new

knowledge on the Nāṭya (drama) would include the semi-historical tales

(itihāsa), conducing to duty (dharma), wealth (artha) as well as fame, will contain

good counsel and collection of traditional maxims, will give guidance to people of

the future as well, in all their actions, will be enriched by the teaching of all

authoritative works (śāstra) and will give a review of all arts and crafts.

The book also mentions that when the art of drama was crafted, the first

performance was exhibited in a festival which was being celebrated in the honour of

Indra’s (Chief of gods) victory. God had defeated the races of the Dānavas and the

Asuras, who were the enemies of the gods. In the drama, they were being portrayed

in a negative manner which they disliked, so the Daityas, along with their

confederates Vighnas (evil spirits) and Asuras, resorted to magical power to foil the

performance. When Brahma inquired of the reason, Daityas and the Vighnas

expressed their dissatisfaction:

 54

The knowledge of the dramatic art which you have introduced for the first

time at the desire of the gods, has put us in an unfavourable light, and this is

done by you for the sake of the gods; this ought not to have been done by you

who is the first progenitor (grandfather) of the world, from whom came out

alike gods as well as Daityas.9

After listening to their complaint, Brahma assuaged their anger and implored

them to give up their grievance and declared, “I have prepared this Nāṭyaveda which

will determine the good luck or ill luck of you as well as of the gods, and which will

take into account acts and ideas of you as well as of the gods.”10 Thus Nāṭyaveda or

drama, as ordered by Brahma, became the platform for all to voice their opinions.

It can be, as suggested by Salman Rushdie, taken as the earliest testimony

that the perspectives of all races were to be included without exception. It depends

on the wisdom and preferences of the audience to align themselves with whichever

side of reality they choose to believe. This freedom of speech and expression in India

is not only a textual demonstration but an ages long phenomenon. Its proof is the

flourishing retellings of mythic tales.

The sensitivity attached with mythology can be understood through the

works of Salman Rushdie. His second novel, Midnight’s Children (1981), uses

Indian mythology and political scenario extensively.11 He has taken absolute liberty

with the Indic myth but his work has never been censored in India. Indian readers

might praise or vilify his handling of mythology yet his fiction is read widely, even

as a part of academic texts in many universities.

In his fourth novel, The Satanic Verses (1988), he took liberty with Islamic

mythology. Consequently, Ayatollah Khomeini, the spiritual leader of Iran, issued a

 55

fatwā for Rushdie’s execution. He had to go in long hiding and since then the blood

money on him has increased to “$3.3 million from $2.8 million.” 12 Numerous book

stores were bombed and many people associated with the book i.e. translators, sellers

and distributors, were brutally attacked; many lost their lives. For example, his

Japanese translator, Hitoshi Igarashi, was stabbed to death. The Italian translator,

Ettore Capriolo, too was stabbed and was seriously injured. The Norwegian

publisher, William Nygaard, was shot three times but he survived. 13

Though the English word ‘myth’ may be equated sometimes with the Hindi

word ‘mithya’ i.e. ‘falsehood’ yet the importance attached to myth is not trivial or

insignificant. Mythology is usually extremely deep-rooted in human psychology. It

is because mythology blends itself with history and religious beliefs. In order to

explicate its function, it is important to distinguish it from legend and folklore. The A

to Z of Fantasy Literature distinguishes the terms as follows:

No clear boundary separates myths from legends and folk tales, but the term

tends to be reserved for stories that deal with creation and divine

administration to the world, rather than matters of imaginary history featuring

heroic or charismatic individuals (legends) or fancies that were never

afforded any kind of reverent awe (folktales).14

Thus, myth is a story of divine creation and administration of the world.

Lauri Honko, in his article “The Problem of Defining Myth,” discusses how myth

and history get entangled. He states, “Resurrection, a myth, may be a dastardly insult

to a Christian”15 so the alternative term used is “holy story or sacred history” and

thus, in the classification of Western mythology, the terminology would be “the

Creation as myth, the Crucifixion as history and the Resurrection as sacred

 56

history.”16 Here, the point to be noted is that “myth” and “sacred myth” both are

ultimately myths because the story of creation and resurrection both feed on belief

rather than on proof. Yet, when associated with history, it gets a sweeping authority

and religious fervour takes it from the status of a legend to a sacred myth.

A saint, a prophet or a mahatma as historical figure may get normal respect

but after divine revelation, through which the gods are supposed to rule the world,

they transcend into unquestionable authorities sanctified by God. When there is a

combination of the two, myth and history, it gets greater command. As the function

of the divine is usually unquestioned by the believers of a faith, a myth that may be a

truth, a semi-truth, a symbolic truth or a bizarre falsehood, becomes the ultra-truth,

the questioning of which is considered profane. This also partially answers the

persecution of Salman Rushdie. The Ramayana and the Mahabharata as two leading

Indian epics are full of sacred myths yet owing to India’s great tradition of freedom

of expression, both narrative and discourse-generated subversions of the epic have

appeared continually in different ages in various Indian languages.

The second and more important factor is the timing of its production. India,

at present, is undergoing great demographic and economic changes. Half of India’s

population is the youth and the youth have a tendency to question and overthrow

authoritarianism. Wikipedia refers to Kaushik Basu’s BBC report of India’s

demographic change, “India has more than 50% of its population below the age of

25 and more than 65% below the age of 35. It is expected that, in 2020, the average

age of an Indian will be 29 years ...”17 Since mythology equates with authority, there

appear retellings by the present young generation.

 57

India, presently, is a land of youth. The youth have aspirations and

aspirations need inspiration, the silage of which is the magnanimity of the past,

personal or national. The opening up of the Indian economy in the 1990s and the

resulting economic success has also led to a sense of pride in being Indian and

celebrating all things Indian. In the 21st century, when India is swiftly moving

ahead, it is looking back to the country’s past for inspiration which is usually found

in its historical conquests and cultural glory. In such a scenario, the Indian majority

i.e. the Hindus, seem to have found the grand Indian mythology as a source of

inspiration. Mythological past is a part of it. This may be the reason of the surfeit of

mythic Indian novels at the beginning of this century. In India, mythology is related

to a proud past, cultural and religious identity and thus, it is a bridge

between individual identity and national pride. Mythic revival can also be paralleled

with the revival of Hindu nationalism, identity and an overall pride in being Indian.

Initially, when a wave of myth retelling began to sweep into Indian publishing, it

went unnoticed at first but what really attracted the popular attention was the

immense possibility of selling mythic fiction. Moreover, when contemporaneity gets

intertwined into a mythic tale, it can “charm us, involve us, move us, encourage us to

intervene in history, positively or negatively, leading us backward or forward . . .”18

As an example, the myth of the Taj Mahal being yellow in Ashvin Sanghi’s

The Krishna Key can be discussed here. The yellowing of the Taj Mahal is a national

issue. The major reasons of yellowing are “air pollution, discoloration of marble due

to oxidation of its constituents, environmental neglect and wear and tear caused by

millions of tourists who visit it every year.”19 However, in his fiction, Ashwin Sanghi

introduces the myth of the philosopher stone Syamantaka, mentioned in the

Mahabharata. He uses B. B. Lal’s report, an Indian archaeologist:

 58

Chemical and petrographic studies have shown that the Taj marble has not

undergone mineralogical alteration, nor is there any evidence of chemical

weathering. The impact of acidic gases in the air has not been noticed, as

there is hardly any perceptible sulphation of the marble. 20

He also uses the report of NEERI (National Environmental Engineering

Research Institute), which claims that

[a]cid rains and damage to monuments due to sulphation/nitration are

contradicted by its own data. For example, data on rain water quality shows

that the pH values ranged between 6.1 to [sic] 7.7, a perfectly neutral range,

indicating that there are no acid rains. 21

The scientific reasons are yet to be ascertained for Taj Mahal’s discolouration

and for the time being, there is a lack of concrete scientific explanation. The fictional

alternative is a mythic explanation. In Ashwin’s narrative it has occurred because of

the philosopher stone which is hidden between the inner shell and the outer shell of

the dome.22

There is a third factor responsible for the growth of Indian English Mythic

Fiction. It is the rise in the use of the English language in India. Unfortunately, there

is no exact data of the number of English speakers. Earlier, during the colonial

period, it was the language of colonial masters and thus, a language of power. It

retains its power. It wields a status of the language of the elite and educated as it is

the language of global corporate markets, the business world and higher education.

A myth is the story of divine creation and action, and it is distinguished from

legend and folklore. Mythic fiction is inclusive of all and includes mythology,
 59

folklore, fairy tales, legend, etc. According to Wikipedia: “Mythic fiction is literature

that is rooted in, inspired by, or that in some way draws from the tropes, themes and

symbolism of myth, legend, folklore, and fairy tales.”23

Charles de Lint and Terri Windling are widely credited for the introduction of

the term “Mythic Fiction” in the latter part of the 20th century. A definition of

Mythic Fiction shows that it is a broad genre in the contemporary literary vista.

There are different writing techniques for the genre. First is the mythic retelling. It is

when a mythic narrative is borrowed fully from the original but is presented through

alternative discourses; second, when mythology is used as a symbol, for analogy,

displacement, comparison or allusion in fiction. People’s affinity with a mythic tale

makes them associate with the regenerated narrative. Third is “Mythopoeia” or

“myth making” where a new narrative is infused through mythic archetypes.

Mythic narrative has always been a part of Indian literature. In the last few

decades, it has appeared in Indian English fiction also. It has been used extensively

in the works of writers like R. K. Narayan, Mulk Raj Anand, Raja Rao, Anita Desai,

Salman Rushdie, etc. Mythology has been used as trope, theme, allusion and

symbolism. For Example, R. K. Narayan makes symbolic use of myths in his novels.

There is the Kaikeyi-Manthara myth in his novel The Dark Room, the myth of

Savitri-Satyavan in The English Teacher, the myth of Valmiki in The Guide, the

myth of Bhasmasur in the novel The Man-Eater of Malgudi, and the myth of Santanu

and Ganga in The Painter of Signs, etc.2

Raja Rao makes a digressional use of Puranic myths, local myths, rites and

rituals in his fiction. He copies the narrative style of the puranas - episodic in nature.

He writes in the Foreword of his novel Kanthapura:

 60

The Mahabharata has 214,778 verses and the Ramayana 48,000. Puranas,

they are endless and innumerable. We have neither punctuation nor the

treacherous ‘ats’ and ‘ons’ to bother us — we tell one interminable tale.

Episode follows episode, and when our thoughts stop our breath stops, and

we move on to another thought. This was and still is the ordinary style of our

story-telling.25

The technique of mythopoeia has been used extensively in the contemporary

Indian mythic fiction. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “Mythopoeia” as, “The

making of a myth or myths”26 and states its origin “from Greek muthopoiia, from

muthos; ‘myth’ + ‘poiein’ - ‘make.’”27 The term came to general notice after J. R. R.

Tolkien used it as the title of one of his poems, published in the collection Tree and

Leaf.

Mythopoeia is invented mythology which arises neither from oral traditions

nor from the penned one but in the author’s mind. What makes it mythology rather

than a simple story is its inclusion of mythic archetypes with their imposing

characteristic behaviour and thematic parallelism. Indian English mythic fiction has

been using this technique for the last two decades in two different ways. First is the

partial fusion of traditional mythology and the second is mythopoeia. The present

mythic fiction overlaps with urban fantasy. These two terms are sometimes used

interchangeably, but mythic fiction includes both urban and non-urban settings in

contemporary works. If we generalize the distinctive traits of the mythic fiction of

the 21st century, we can easily understand their features.

In the process of generalization, the first is the perspective-bound mythic

fiction. In such fiction, a writer uses different perspectives or discourses to present a

 61

narrative or traditional story. In such a retelling, a writer usually picks a

mythological character, often a minor character or a neglected or under-shadowed

one, and then retells the whole story from his or her point of view. As their role in

the original narrative is limited, authors resort to bold innovations to reformat the

story. In such novels, the preferred character becomes the protagonist and everything

revolves around his or her ideas and perception. An example of such a narrative is

Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana (2013) by Devdutt Pattanaik which is

the retelling of the Ramayana from Sita’s point of view. Sita’s Sister (2014) is the

retelling of the Ramayana by Sita’s sister and Lakshman’s wife, Urmila. Lanka’s

Princess (2016) by Kavita Kane is the retelling of the Ramayana from the point of

view of Shurpanakha, Ravan’s Sister. Sitayana (2019) by Amit Mazumdar is the

retelling of the Ramayana with multiple narrators. Arjuna: Saga of a Pandava

Warrior Prince (2012) by Anuja Chandramauli is yet another retelling of the

Mahabharata from the viewpoint of the third Pandav prince and great archer, Arjun.

Asura: The Tale of Vanquished by Anand Neelakantan is the retelling of the

Ramayana from Ravana’s perspective.

Among the perspective bound retellings of the Mahabharata are The Palace

of Illusions (2008) by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Yajnaseni: The Story of

Draupadi (originally written in Odia) by Pratibha Ray. It presents the Mahabharata

from Draupadi’s perspective. Arjuna: Saga of a Pandava Warrior-Prince (2012)

by Anuja Chandramouli presents the story from the perspective of the epic’s martial

hero, Arjuna. Asura: The Tale of Vanquished, Ajaya: The Roll of Dice and its sequel

Ajaya: The Rise of Kali by Anand Neelakantan present the story from the point of

view of the vanquished and defeated Kauravas. The Karna’s Wife: The Outcast’s

Queen (2013) creates a fictional character, Uruvi, supposedly the wife of the
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marginalised hero, Karna. She comes from the higher echelon of society but chooses

the lower caste Karna as her husband and suffers in the course. The Winds of

Hastinapur (2013) by Sharath Komarraju narrates the story of Santanu, the great-

grandfather of the Pandavas and the Kauravas. The Pregnant King (2008) by

Devdutt Pattanaik narrates the story of a lesser known character in the Mahabharata,

Yuvanashva, ruler of Vallabhi, one of the few that didn’t participate in the battle of

the Mahabharata. His story is narrated to the exiled Pandavas by the sage, Lomasa.

Menaka’s Choice (2015) by Kavita Kane presents the story of Brahmarshi

Vishvamitra, one of the most revered rishis or sages referred to in the Ramayana and

the Mahabharata, and the celestial nymph Menka. Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of

the Mahabharata (2010) is yet another retelling of the Mahabharata that also

includes folklore, women’s stories of Satyavati, Gandhari, Kunti, Draupadi and

narratives of minor characters such as Aravan, the Buddha, Ila and Shikhandi.

In these works of fiction, the plot resembles the plot of the original myth but

the circumstances, characterization, motif, psychology and action are altered. For

example, in the Ramayana, Lord Ram is sent into exile to Dandak Forest for fourteen

years by his father, King Dashrath, at the behest of his wife Kaikeyi. Kaikeyi had

been granted two long promised but unfulfilled boons by the King. Instigated by her

maid-servant Manthara that her son Bharat and not Ram should become king, she

asks for the requital of the two boons from king Dashrath. He cannot refuse as it was

his clan rule to never break a promise. Her first demand is to send Ram into exile for

fourteen years and the second is to make Bharat king. This story is presented in the

retelling but is tweaked with mythopoeia. For example, in Kavita Kane’s novel

Sita’s Sister, Kaikeyi sends Ram into exile not because she has been instigated by

Manthara but as an act of sacrifice. She deliberately transfers the blame on herself by
 63

becoming the cause of Ram’s exile because Ram’s exile is predestined. Even Ram

knows it and is thankful to her for her aid and sacrifice. In another example, in

Amish’s novel Scion of Ikshvaku, Kaikeyi demands Ram’s exile but the real reason

is that Ram has used the Daivi Astra (Divine Weapon) called Asuraastra, a gas

missile, the unauthorised use of which is banned by Lord Rudra, the previous

Mahadev, and those who break the law are to be punished with banishment for

fourteen years.

Though these stories belong to mythology and the authors use their high

imagination to reset the perspective and psychology of the preferred mythological

character in the mythic past yet the author definitely doesn’t have a time machine to

travel back in time to get the facts so what he must do is to fuse the present social

condition with the mythic past. For Example, The Pregnant King (2008), written

by Devdutt Pattanaik, follows the story of Yuvanashva, a childless king, who

accidentally drinks the magic potion meant to make his queens pregnant. It is set in

the backdrop of the Mahabharata and has references to characters and incidents in

the Kurukshetra, as well as the Ramayana. Throughout the book, the author

highlights the paradoxes and ambiguities of gender which is a current social issue.

This fusion through which the interpolation is done is based on

contemporaneity. It is something that may take us backward or forward, add

positively to the present circumstances or may create confusion. To explain this, we

can take the example of Karna’s Wife by Kavita Kane. The novel presents the

difficulties of the warrior princess Uruvi, who belongs to the Kshatriya caste, high

up in the caste hierarchy, when she becomes the second wife of an outcast king,

Karna. The novel presents the conflicts in the caste hierarchy due to which Karna is

humiliated throughout his life. However, if caste hierarchy was really so rigid, there
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must not be any scope for Karna becoming king. Another version of the

Mahabharata presents Karn’s second wife Supriya in the novel Mritunjaya by

Shivaji Sawant.

Perspective-centred mythological fiction can further be divided into two

categories: first, the one that retells the story from the victor’s point of view and

second, from the point of view of the vanquished. Almost all the retellings of

mythological stories hitherto have been composed to present the victor’s point of

view because it is believed that it is virtue that always triumphs. In the second

category, the most prominent is Aanand Neelakantan’s fictional works. His novel

Asur: The Tale of Vanquished is the retelling of the Ramayana but from Ravana’s

perspective. Through the novel, he has valorised Ravana, justified his deeds and

presented Lord Ram in a dark light as a helpless hypocrite. He has altered the story

to suit his narrative need of presenting Ravana as a hero and Ram as a villain. His

mythological fiction Ajaya: The Roll of Dice and its sequel Ajaya: The Rise of Kali

are a retelling of the Mahabharata but from Duryodhan’s point of view. In both these

versions of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, all traditional heroic characters are

presented as either helpless or hypocrites. For example, in one version, Karna and

Pandavas are helpless puppets, impotent in the hands of fate and Brahminism. Lord

Krishna is depicted as a hypocrite. Society is a darksome world where evil rules and

conquers and the virtuous whimper helplessly. Surprisingly, all these three books are

on the bestsellers list. It is the author’s artistic capacity to find fault with the winner

and to stand with the defeated that has brought popularity to the novel in the

postmodern times.

In such narratives, the author brings the epic down to the level of romance.

With the gods being pushed out of a focal role, the epic action turns into adventurous
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action. Exclusion or minimisation of the element of the divine from the epic

narrative during retelling is a common practice in these novels.

Mythology also complies by the theory of evolution where characters and

interpretation of a story evolve in the retellings according to the demands of the

contemporary society. Some stories and characters evolve and extend while others

get extinct. Certain new ones are introduced and expanded. It is to be noted that all

important Vedic gods that were given special reverence in the text are not prime

deities today. Some gods that have only been mentioned in the passing in Vedic texts

have separate texts written on them now and occupy prominent places while some

have lost their preeminence. This can be explained partially with the help of an

example. For instance, the Swaminarayan Sampradaya is a flourishing sect of

Vaishnava Hindus in the present times. It had been initiated by yogi and ascetic

Swaminarayan, also known as Sahjanand Swami, in the 19th century. He is regarded

as an incarnation of Lord Vishnu by the followers of the sect. In the Vaishnav

temples, the prime deity in the sanctum-sanctorum is Lord Vishnu. The central texts

that a Vaishnav follows covers the life of Lord Vishnu and the psalms and hymns are

dedicated to him but in the Swaminarayan temples, the chief idol of Lord Vishnu in

the sanctum-sanctorum is replaced by the idol of Swaminarayan. Thus, the

foregrounded prime deity of the yore is relegated to the background by the

introduction of the new deity. This new central deity, Swaminarayan, never claimed

himself to be a god but he received apotheosis as a son of God or an incarnation of

God. The legends and the mythologies followed naturally. The texts introduced by

Swaminarayan are Shikshapatri, Vachanamrut, and Satsangi Jeevan. Though the

prime deity mentioned in Shikshapatri is Lord Krishna, another incarnation of Lord

Vishnu, the hymns and psalms sung in Swaminarayan temples are centred on and
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dedicated to Swaminarayan. Yogi and ascetic Swaminarayan of the 19th century

becomes Lord Swaminarayan, a god, from the 20th century onwards. With the

flourishing of the sect, flourish many more saints, mystics and ascetics of the order

as well as the legends and myths. In this manner, mythology also evolves, retaining

the old and assimilating the new in order to conform to contemporaneity.

With its evolution, a mythic story may be more religiously grounded and may

gain greater authority. The converse too happens often. If a writer interprets the new

version by blending in it stronger spirituality and mysticism, it gets more grounded

and acquires greater authority. On the contrary, if the author identifies it with the

banal realities of the contemporary world, the mythic story loses its current and

ground with the passage of time and may become extinct. When Tulsidas wrote the

Ramcharitmanas, he elevated the aura of spirituality much higher than the one

presented in Valmiki’s Ramayana and so the text, even after four centuries of its

composition, thrives with religious fervour and acceptability of the myth. Mythology

itself is the child of an age. A child remains biologically the same from nativity to

demise but his personality may change depending on the circumstances and the

environment. Similarly, myths are reborn in every cultural age but their grain is

garnered by the values, demands and sentiments of the times. A myth evolves

through centuries. For example, in Valmiki’s Ramayana, speculated to be written

around 7th to 4th BC, neither the husband nor the son of Shurpanakha is mentioned.

She is an asura or a demoness who creates havoc and is lustful. A sorcerer demon

named Vidyutjiva which means “lightning tongue” is mentioned but no relationship

is mentioned between Shurpanakha and Vidyutjiva. In the 12th century Tamil

version of the poem by the poet Kamban, popularly known as Kamba Ramayanam

or Ramavataram, Shurpanakha and Vidyutjiva are mentioned as husband and wife.

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Later, in the Thai version and the folklore of south, Ravana, the brother of

Shurpanakha, kills Vidyutjiva by mistake and as recompense allows his sister to rule

the area of Dandak Forest.28 In the 21st century, author Kavita Kane infuses all these

previously developed lore into a new yarn and presents a fiction focusing on the life

of Shurpanakha, the Princess of Lanka. The title of the novel is Lanka’s Princess

(2017). In the novel, Vidyutjiva is the king of the mightiest clan called Kalkeyas

whom even the mighty Ravana is unable to defeat. Kalkeyas have been mentioned as

unscrupulous, blood-thirsty, brutal, boorish, and immoral. In 2015, a tollywood

blockbuster, Bahubali, presented a horde of barbarians called Kalkeyas in the movie.

Apparently, the description of the Kalkeyas in the novel is drawn from the motion

pictures. Traditionally, Kalkeyas are mentioned as a race of demons but before the

advent of the movie, they were hardly recognised in popular imagination. In the

novel, Vidyutjiva courts and traps Shurpanakha into marriage because he wants to

usurp the kingdom of Lanka. In spite of being lecherous, Vidyutjiva maintains a

clean image before his wife. In the novel, Shurpanakha is known as Meenakshi. The

source of this name is unknown. Ravana keeps a watch over Vidyutjiva and kills him

for his treacherous attempt to usurp his kingdom. Everyone tries to reason with

Meenakshi but she doesn’t believe that her husband has wronged her or her

kingdom. She secretly plans revenge on her brother. When Ram and Lakshman come

to Dandak Forest, she deliberately lets herself be mutilated and then instigates

Ravana to take revenge for her, thus inviting his destruction. In the forest, her son is

killed accidently by Lakshman so, after the war, she moves to Ayodhaya where she

conspires the banishment of Sita and when she is about to kill Lakshman and his son

Angad to avenge the death of her son, she gets compassionate when Lakshman
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confesses that he had killed her son by mistake and has ever since felt guilty about it.

Thus, a whole life is evolved through the retelling of a myth.

The character of the rakshasas or asuras or the demon clan also changes with

the reshaping of myths. In Valmiki’s Ramayana they are portrayed as pure demons

that are unscrupulous, hideous, lustful, immoral, and deal in magic. However, in

many later versions like Ramavataram, their character is vindicated as full of good

passion. The 21st century Indian mythic fiction paints the previously negative or

demonic character into new shades where they are both human and humane. They

are also presented as unheroic heroes and victims.

Retelling of a myth is also shaped by existing values. The household power-

politics between daughter-in-law and son-in-law is a problem in every other Indian

joint family. In the mythic fiction, The Palace of Illusion, by Chitra Banerjee

Divakaruni, this power-politics has been presented as one of the central themes. This

novel is the retelling of the Mahabharata from Draupadi’s point of view, the wife of

the Pandavas. In the novel, Kunti, the mother of the Pandavs, has been presented as a

woman wielding complete authority over her sons. Draupadi muses:

From the stories I’d heard about Kunti, I’d admired her. I’d imagined that if

she did indeed become my mother-in-law, she would love me as a daughter.

Now I see how naïve I’d been. A woman like her would never tolerate

anyone who might lure her sons away. 29

In the novel, absurd and funny incidents between the two have been

described. For example, when Arjun wins the swayamvara and brings Draupadi

home to their hermitage, Kunti asks Draupadi to cook a lunch of brinjals and to

prepare it, she gives her a single brinjal, a lump of salt and a minute amount of oil.
 69

She refuses to give her any turmeric or chilli. Because of the small amount of oil,

when the brinjal begins to burn, Kunti rejoices at the failure of her daughter-in-law.

Degrading the royal princess into such mean acts can only be contrived by the

workings of the postmodern imagination. No version or retelling of the Mahabharata

ever stoops to this. Young readers that have hardly any first-hand knowledge of the

myth, may get the notion that such conflicts are the part of Indian tradition and

culture. The novel describes Draupadi’s secret love and longing for Karna, who had

also been the part of her swayamvar but was refused permission to participate. The

fact whether he had been refused participation or was not able to complete the feat of

the given task at the swayamvar is debatable as different translations and versions of

the Mahabharata vary in description. In the novel, Draupadi stops Karna from

performing the tasks of the swayamvar in order to stop the impending fight between

her brother Dhristadhymna and Karna. Later, she is made to wed all five Pandavas.

All through her struggle, she regrets not having Karna as her husband and secretly

desires him. This posture is not found in any traditional tale. Although the novel is

an enchanting tale, there is much ridiculous deportment. In another mythic novel

titled Menka’s Choice by Kavita Kane, Menka, the celestial nymph, has been

presented as a heavenly courtesan who has to follow the biddings of gods while her

only desire is to have a family.

To draw heroes out of nonentities and vice versa is one of the interesting

features of the 21st century Indian mythic fiction. Addition or reduction in the

traditional mythology is not a novel phenomenon. When a retelling is introduced, a

minor character that was previously insignificant, is given specific attention with the

values adulated or degraded. In the traditional retellings of the Ramayana, the

character Vedavati is the daughter of Brahmarishi Kushadwaj and a lady of

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remarkable beauty. She rejects the proposals of all mortal kings and prays to Lord

Vishnu to have him as her husband. Ravana finds her during her austere meditation,

mocks at her and proposes to her. When he is rejected, he tries to molest her. She

immolates herself and curses him that she would be born again to be his destruction.

However, contrary to the traditional tale, Amish Tripathi’s Raavan: Enemy of

Aryavrata, the third book in the Ram Chandra Series, presents Vedavati as the

character who is Ravana’s childhood love and who he has been searching for. For

example, Krishna Coriolis by Ashok K. Banker that includes Slayer of Kamsa

(2010), Dance of Govinda (2011), Flute of Vrindavan (2011), Lord of Mathura

(2012), Rage of Jarasandha (2012), Fortress of Dwarka (2013), Rider of Garuda

(2013), and Krishna Coriolis (2020), is the grandiose retelling of the epic poem, the

Mahabharata. On the other hand, Aditya Iyenger’s Mahabharata series is a tale of

pure war, stripped of any moralising or conflicts of right and wrong i.e. dharma or

adharma, supernatural elements, political or ideological agenda. The author, in an

interview for Scroll.in, taken by Jai Arjun Singh, states the reason for his choice of

such a narrative:

As a writer, I wanted to tell a different kind of story, one that spoke about the

nature of masculinity. I took out the supernatural details so that the reader

could focus more on the internal conflicts of the characters rather than the

“coolness” of the weapons. I wanted to bring out the horror of the war and

the sheer nightmare of having to kill your own family, which I feel gets lost

in some modern retellings.30

The retellings by Devdutt Pattanaik exhibit a unique feature. It is the

symposium at the end of every chapter where he presents multiple stances on the

same narrative, arising from various retellings, folk lore and oral tradition. He also
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describes the significance of certain beliefs and occurrences. For example, Sita’s

“agnipariksha” or trial by fire is well known but it is the least known tale that

Lakshman also had to go through the trial. This story comes from Baiga Ramayana.

Pattanaik writes a whole chapter on it titled “Lakshman’s Chastity” in his retelling of

the Ramayana. Ram is proud of his brother’s integrity so Lord Indra decides to

examine and test it. He sends a celestial nymph called Indrakamini to seduce

Lakshman but he spurns her. Indrakamini leaves strands of hair on his bark cloth to

arouse suspicion. When Sita notices the strands of hair, she questions him. In

response, he performs the trial by fire. Such obscure stories and interpretations have

been presented in the discussion at the end of each chapter in Pattnaik’s book.

Another feature of the 21st century mythic fiction is its portrayal of the

images of mythic female characters in a new light where instead of being submissive

or weak, they are powerful, strong, aggressive, self-assertive, and even manipulative.

They are either remodelled into the strong images of the modern woman or given the

prominence denied in the previous retellings. In many of the 21st century versions,

Lady Sita has been presented as a fierce warrior who fights by the side of Lord Ram.

In Sita’s Sister by Kavita Kane, Sita’s Sister Urmila has been presented as a strong

character, who holds the whole family together after the demise of King Dashrath

and the exile of Ram, Sita, and her husband Lakshman. She also has sound

administrative skills through which she helps Bharat to rule as king regent. The

Hastinapur Series by Sharath Komarraju, a trilogy that includes The Winds of

Hastinapur (2013), The Rise of Hastinapur (2015), and The Queens of

Hastinapur (2017), narrates the story of the Mahabharata by various female

characters like Amba, Kunti, Satyavati, Gandhari, Madri, Pritha, etc. A narrative
 72

from a female’s point of view adds new nuances of female agency, psychology,

authority, desires, and demands that had been hitherto left unexplored.

The second distinctive trait is fusing the present with the mythic past in order

to create a detective yarn. Among such novels the most popular are The Rozabal

Line (2008) and The Krishna Key (2012) by Ashwin Sanghi, The Mahabharata’s

Secret (2013), The Mahabharata Quest: The Alexander Secret (2014) and The Secret

of the Druids (2017) by Christopher C. Doyle, The Emperor’s Riddles (2014) by

Satyarth Nayak, etc. In all these novels, one common trait is that they are trying to

unravel some secret from the mythic past. For example, in The Krishna Key, the

search is for the Philosopher Stone Syamantaka of the Mahabharata times. In

Mahabharata Quest the search is for the elixir that was produced during Samudra

Manthan (churning of the ocean), an episode described in the Bhagavata Purana, in

the Mahabharata and in the Vishnu Purana. In such novels, either a murder takes

place in the beginning or something goes missing. A search begins to find the truth,

the culprit and the objective. The most interesting factor in such novels is that it

acquaints the reader with national heritage, historical facts and takes him on a sort of

Bharat Darshan (India Tour). Though at the end of the rigorous search nothing

precious is found yet it proves the adage that the journey is always more exciting

than the destination. What counts is the treasure of experiences acquired through the

journey and a sense of national pride.

Third comes the writer who creates mythopoeia i.e. employing mythic

archetypes to create a completely fresh story. The term “mythopoeia” derives

from Greek, meaning “myth-making”. Mythopoeia is a narrative genre in

modern literature and film in which a fictional or artificial mythology is created by

the writer. This meaning of the word “mythopoeia” follows its use by J. R. R.
 73

Tolkien in the 1930s. The authors in this genre integrate traditional mythological

themes and archetypes into their fiction. Such stories have nothing to do with the

plot and story of the original myth but only with the archetypes. Among such novels,

Amish Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy is an established set of books.

The Shiva Trilogy is based on the myth that Lord Brahma creates good for

human beings and Lord Vishnu preserves it. But when good turns into evil due to

human greed, Mahadev (another name of Lord Shiva) emerges to destroy it. In the

Shiva Trilogy, Brahma has already created a good. It is Somras, an elixir that

increases life span. The people of Meluha, a place of perfection created by Lord

Rama, enjoy the privileges of the elixir and live a happy and sophisticated life but

due to its side-effects, many others suffer. This good has been preserved for

centuries by the institution of Vashudev (Vishnu) but now as the good has turned

into evil, Shiva (Mahadev) emerges to destroy it.

The story is not of gods but of humans as Amish says that in his book, Shiva

is a human being. He gets injured in battles, he feels pain, he makes mistakes and

then learns from them. His character is inspired by the scriptures but it doesn’t

follow them strictly. The function of Brahma-Vishnu-Shiva has been described rather

like an earthly management institution. When the novel opens, the good has already

been created so there is no elaborate description of the function of Brahma. The

function of Vishnu has been described in detail. In the novel, there are competitive

exams for qualifying as a Vishnu or Vashudev Pandit at which both the Suryavanshis

and the Chandravanshis (two opposing tribes in the novel) can appear. If a person

passes the test, he has to give up his former identity to become a Vasudev Pandit.

Their duty is to preserve the Good and instruct and help the Destroyer whenever he

appears.
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The emergence of the Destroyer is not autonomous but is managed by the

institution known as the Vayuputras, a tribe created by the previous Mahadev. In the

novel, the previous Mahadev was Lord Rudra. Gopal, the Vasudev Chief, initiates

Shiva in the novel along with the functions of the Vasudev and the Vayuputras

institution. He says that there are two purposes that a Vasudev serves. The first

purpose is to appoint the next Vishnu from among them and the second, to serve the

Mahadev. Mahadev’s key question is: what is evil? For the Vishnu, there are two key

questions: What is the next great good? And when does the good become evil? He

says that a good becomes evil when human beings over-exploit it. The Bhagwat Gita

says “Ati Sarvatra Varjayet” (Excess must be avoided). As Mahadev himself doesn’t

know what actually evil is, the adventurous story of the thrilling novel moves from

one twist to another unexpected turn. In the journey to find a particular evil, other

evils are also encountered and banished.

Once people become used to a good, they can’t be persuaded to believe that it

has turned into evil. So, the institution of the Vayuputras manipulates superstition

and blind faith of the people. In the novel, they spread the rumour that a Neelkanth (a

god with blue throat) will emerge to destroy evil and remove all their problems.

Thus, Amish has brought the mythological Neelkanth to the level of a person

possessing a university degree as the Vayuputras control the institution of the

Neelkanth. They train a probable candidate for the role of the Neelkanth and if they

believe that evil has risen, they send a Neelkanth to destroy it. For this, they

administer a medicine to the candidate when he enters adolescence. If the candidate

drinks the Somras before he turns fifteen, his throat will turn blue. People’s blind

faith in the Neelkanth ensures that they would follow him and evil will be taken out.

But in the novel, Neelkanth arises without the acknowledgement of the Vayuputras,
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adding to the mystery. Only later it is revealed that Shiva, the Neelkanth, was also

trained by his uncle Lord Manobhu, an ex-Vayuputra who had left the institution

owing to difference of opinions. Although Amish has brought gods down to a human

level yet he has maintained the dignity of the mystic god Neelkanth.

In Hindu mythology, the destroyer is always Lord Shiva but in the novel it is

only a name given to a boy who is trained for the role of the destroyer. In the myth,

there is a story behind the birth of Shiva. One day, Brahma and Vishnu argue who

between them is more powerful. A great blazing pillar appears, the roots and

branches of which extend beyond view into the earth and sky. Both Brahma and

Vishnu move out to find the beginning and the end of that pillar. Brahma turns into a

goose and flies up to discover the top of the pillar, while Vishnu turns into a boar

and digs into the earth to look for its roots. However, both of them fail and come

back to find that Lord Shiva has emerged from an opening in the pillar. Recognising

Shiva’s great power, both gods accept that there is a third power that rules over the

universe. But in the novel, Lord Manobhu gives this name to his nephew whose sixth

vortex (chakra) has been active since his birth, which is unusual as it can be activated

only by rishis and ascetics after years of meditation. Amish creates a myth that

Mahadev Lord Shiva was a stillborn. In Hindi, shav means ‘stillborn.’ His mother

names him Shiva, a truth that is rarely known. Lord Manobhu reveals this name so

that the Vayuputra Chief, Mitra, who is his friend, can recognise Shiva when the

right moment comes.

Besides Shiva, many other mythic archetypes like Daksha, Sati, Kali,

Ganesha, Kartik, Veerbhadra, Nandi, Vasuki, etc. appear in the novel but with

interpretations different than those found in the original Indian myth.

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The novel is set in the backdrop of the Saraswati Civilization or Indus Valley

Civilization of 1900 BC. Amish has created a Utopian, ideal society called Meluha, a

society akin to the communist society model where there is no gender-bias, class or

caste conflict or inequality. In doing so, he has sometimes refuted and sometimes

valorised Vedanta philosophy, the accumulated wisdom of divine sages through

centuries. For example, the novel refutes the Vedanta philosophy of Life Cycle.

According to the Vedanta philosophy, birth and rebirth are based on Karma (deeds of

the previous birth) but to him it is random happenings. He has also tried to reorient

the notions of untouchability, feminism, child-bearing, concept of truth, etc. in his

novels after the manner of the Marxist philosophy of state policy.

Amish’s retelling of the Ramayana continues his philosophy and the

functions of the earthly institutions of creation, preservation and destruction

presented in his previous novel series, Shiva Trilogy. Mythologically, Lord Ram is

believed to be the seventh incarnation of Vishnu so Vishnu is presented as an

institution in this series. The first book of the series, Scion of Ikshvaku, was

published on 22 June, 2015. The novel begins with a war between

King Dashrath of Ayodhya and Raavan of Lanka in which King Dashrath is defeated

and fatally injured. It retells the story, describing the childhood of Ram, the tutelage

of the four princes, socio-political conditions of the time which mirrors current India,

Ram’s marriage and his 14-year exile in the Dandak Forest where he is accompanied

by wife Sita and brother Lakshman.

The second book of the series is Sita: Warrior of Mithila, published on 29

May, 2017. It centres on Princess Sita who is mythologically believed to be the

incarnation of Goddess Lakshmi, consort of Lord Vishnu. The novel depicts her as

an intelligent statesman, keen strategist and great warrior. This novel covers the
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period from the discovery of infant Sita by the childless King Janak and Queen

Sunaina of Mithila. She is selected and trained to perform the role of the next Vishnu

by Maharishi Vishwamitra, the head of the Malayaputra tribe. The head of the

Malayaputra tribe is in charge to select and serve the next Vishnu. She finds her rival

candidate in Ram, the eldest prince of Ayodhaya so she effects a successful plan to

marry him. Ram, the rival candidate for the candidature of Vishu, is mentored by

Rishi Vashistha. Sita’s groom is selected through a swayamvar in which the Lankan

king Raavan gets humiliated. Raavan attacks Mithila. In order to save Mithila, Ram

uses the forbidden weapon named Asurastra and as punishment of its use, he is sent

into exile for fourteen years. Sita and Lakshman also accompany him in the exile.

The novel recounts their adventures in the forest until Sita is kidnapped by Ravana.

Gayatri Jayaraman, in her review of the book Sita: the Warrior of Mithila,

claims that for the first time, the most deserved portrait of Sita has been presented in

it, as an independent entity instead of being depicted merely as a submissive wife.

She states:

Amish’s feminism is that he rescues the Ramayana from the pettiness of

womanly jealousy and empowers even the most villainous of women with

substantial motive. Manthara is a powerful businesswoman seeking a revenge

none could hold against her. Queen mother Sunaina sets the agenda for

Mithila. The man-hating Samichi, Sita’s attendant, rises through the ranks to

be chief of a largely male police force and then prime minister. And Kaikeyi

is a side note.31

Instead of being a tale of love, the novel is more a mystery thriller. The epic

narrative is manipulated and made inclusive of modern sociopolitical problems. In

 78

one of the incidents in the novel, Roshni, Manthara’s daughter, suffers gang-rape and

murder. The culprits are executed except Dhenuka, who is underage. In present India

too, an underage convict can’t be given capital punishment. Even the institution of

Vishnu has internecine fights for the selection of the candidate. King Dashrath has

been depicted as a stupid, bed-ridden ruler, who is easily manipulated by his queens,

instead of being a great king of the scion of Ikshvaku as presented in the original

Ramayana. The three queens engage in a power fight and their sons have been

depicted in a state of complete chaos, contrary to the peaceful and prosperous

kingdom depicted in the Ramayana. The novel surfaces as a strong retelling of the

Ramayana.

Graphic mythic fiction has also lately emerged into trend with the works of

Amruta Patil. Her three novels are The Parva Series: Adi Parva: Churning of the

Ocean (2012), Sauptik: Blood and Flowers (2016), and Aranyaka: Book of the

Forest (2019). She was awarded the Ministry of Women and Child Development’s

Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2017. The narrators of the first two books are Ganga and

Ashwathama respectively.

It is important to point out here once again the difference between myth and

mythic fiction. Mythology is the subjective truth of a people, transmitted in sacred

stories, while mythic fiction is about reframing or rearguing or reimagining old

stories to suit contemporary needs. The artist’s mind is free to imagine any world

and the artist’s vision enables the reader to view a whole other world. This enhanced

visual reading is also a vital reason behind the genre of mythology doing well.

Mythic fiction is being written in the 21st century with great velocity and

momentum, adding to the feeling of national pride and identity. It has become a vital
 79

part of Indian English popular fiction which has been surveyed in the following

chapter.
 80

2:1: Works cited

1. Ramanujan, A. K. “Three Hundred Ramayana: Five Examples and Three

Thoughts on Translations.” The Collected Essays of A K Ramanujan. Oxford

University Press, 2004, pp. 131–160.

2. Ramachandran, C. N. “Ages Pass, But the Story Continues: A Note on Myth in

Modern Kannada Literature.” Myth in Cotemporary Indian Literature, Sahitya

Akademi, 2010, p. 81.

3. “Narrative-Dictionary Definition.” Vocabulary.com,

www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/narrative.

4. Ramachandran, C. N. “Ages Pass, But the Story Continues: A Note on Myth in

Modern Kannada Literature.” Myth in Cotemporary Indian Literature, Sahitya

Akademi, 2010, p. 71.

5. “The Liberty Verses: I Am What I Am and That’s All That I Am.” India Today

Conclave 2012 Highlights, Session Videos, Photos and Q&A,

conclave.intoday.in/article/the-liberty-verses-i-am-what-i-am-and-thats-all-

that-i-am/3289/38.html.

6. Muni, Bharat. Natyashastra. https://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/the-

natyashastra/d/doc202329.html.

7. Ibid.

8. Ibid.

9. Ibid.

10. Ibid.
 81

11. “Chapter 4: Midnight’s Children. Mythic Labyrinth.” Shodhganga.

https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/168109/8/08_chapter%204.

pdf.

12. Report, Post Staff. “Iran Adds to Reward for Salman Rushdie’s Death:

Report.” New York Post, 16 Sept. 2012, nypost.com/2012/09/16/iran-adds-to-

reward-for-salman-rushdies-death-report/.

13. “The Satanic Verses: Violence, Assassinations and Attempts to Harm.”

Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 19th Jan. 2021,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Satanic_Verses.

14. Stableford, Brian M. The A to Z of Fantasy Literature. Scarecrow Press, Inc.

2009, p. 296.

15. Honko, Lauri. “(PDF) The Problem of Defining Myth.” ResearchGate, Scripta

Instituti Donneriani Aboensis, 1 Jan. 1972,

www.researchgate.net/publication/326882575_The_problem_of_defining_myt

h.

16. Ibid.

17. Basu, Kaushik. “South Asia | India’s Demographic Dividend.” BBC News,

BBC, 25 July 2007, news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6911544.stm.

18. Satchidanandan, K. “Introduction.” Myth in Contemporary Indian Literature.

Shahitya Akademi, 2010, pp. 1-21.

19. “Why Has The Taj Mahal Turned Yellow?” Science ABC. Science ABC, 19

Oct. 2019, www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/taj-mahal-turned-yellow.html.

 82

20. The trouble with the Trapezmium- Indian Environmental Portal.

indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/content/12319/the-trouble-with-the-

trapezmium/.

21. Ibid.

22. Sanghi, Ashwin. The Krishna Key. Westland Publications, 2010.

23. “Mythic fiction.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 25th Mar. 2020,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythic_fiction.

24. “Chapter-III: The Use of Myth in the Novels of R. K. Narayan.” Shodhganga.

shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/177335/9/09_chapter%203.pdf.

25. “Kanthapura: Rao Raja: Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming.” Internet

Archive, archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.475734.

26. “Mythopoeia: Definition.” Oxford Dictionary.

en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/mythopoeia.

27. Ibid.

28. Pattanaik, Devdutt. Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana. Penguin

Books, 2013.

29. Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. The Palace of Illusions. Picador India. 2008.

p.108.

30. Singh, Jai Arjun. “I Wanted to Write a Mahabharata Novel That Spoke about

the Nature of Masculinity.” Scroll.in. July 7, 2018, scroll.in/article/885585/i-

wanted-to-write-a-mahabharata-novel-that-spoke-about-the-nature-of-

masculinity.
 83

31. Jayraman, Gayatri. “Sita – Warrior of Mithila.: Book Review: Not Just

Another Work of Mythological Fiction.” News 18, May 29, 2017,

www.news18.com/books/sita-warrior of mithila-book-review-not-just-another-

work-of-mythological-fiction.
 84

Chapter II

Indian English Popular Fiction

The Canadian Encyclopaedia defines Popular Literature as:

...writing which has shown wide and continued acceptance, measured by

sales, frequent imitation, adaptation to other cultural forms and general

commercial success. The word “popular” is meant as a synonym for

“successful,” not as an antonym for “serious.”1

Popular fiction, as the definition implies, finds favour with a large number of

audiences, written on a repeated formula, and addresses the cultural norms of the

specified group of readers for which it has been written. By dint of its popularity, it

often becomes a towering commercial success.

Popular fiction or Genre fiction is usually placed in contrast to Literary

Fiction by referring to the former as “low or mass literature” and the latter as “high

or class literature.” Attempts have been made to distinguish one from the other yet

no clear boundary between the two has been drawn as their features overlap.

Popular fiction is commercial fiction and it is written with the prospects of

extracting from it a high commercial value. It is an obdurate fact that art survives

owing to its aesthetic values yet it is also true that art, at large, has always been a

commodity through all ages. Art is needed to please royal and other patrons if the

artist expects to gain annuity from it. It is debatable whether the greatest classical

masters like Shakespeare and Ben Jonson would have produced drama if their works
 85

had not attracted and been acclaimed by an audience. Authors write according to the

demands of the times.

In the present times, when commercialism has overtaken all branches of

knowledge and monetary gain has become the primary end of all endeavours, art has

been commoditised on a more intense scale. Media has played a great role in the

promotion of the arts. Art for entertainment has generated a huge market. The more

popular it is, the higher monetary profits it extracts. The market forces also motivate

an artist to cater to the taste of the masses. Popular culture stems from the production

of art as a commodity for a large populace.

Fiction, a piece of art, has always remained one of the popular choices of

entertainment since inception and therefore, its commercialisation is quite common.

Wikipedia refers to “Romance Literature Statistics: Overview” of Romance writers

of America which states that $1.37 billion in sales was generated in 2006 through

Romance fiction with the release of approximately 6,400 romance titles. Of all the

books sold, the share of Romance fiction was 26% in the year 2006. It presents the

statistics of “Romance Market Share Compared to Other Genres”:

 Romance fiction: $1.37 billion in estimated revenue for 2006

 Religion/inspirational: $1.68 billion

 Science fiction/fantasy: $495 million

 Classic literary fiction: $448 million

 Mystery: $422 million

 Graphic novels: $128 million2

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The data is an evidence of the high demand of popular fiction. So far as

known, although no data regarding the statistics of Indian popular fiction has yet

been analysed, the increase in the demands of sales of books shows the rise in public

reading. A survey of The Economics Times reports, “India’s book market, currently

worth Rs. 261 billion, making it the sixth largest in the world and the second largest

of the English language ones, is expected to touch Rs. 739 billion by 2020” and

“Fifty-five per cent of trade sales are of books in English.”3

Popular fiction, as the terminology implies, stands for the piece of work

primarily written with the aim to making it popular and its popularity is ascertained

by its high sales. In order to make it suitable for a larger number of readers, authors

usually take certain decisive measures, measures that distinguish it from literary

fiction. A piece of work is constituted of two elements: apparel and essence. Essence

is “the intrinsic nature or indispensable quality of something, especially something

abstract, which determines its character.”4 In fiction, essence is story, its theme, plot,

and narrative through which the story is presented. These elements are intrinsic but

abstract, presented through the apparel of language. Popular fiction simplifies both

apparel and essence of a fiction so that it can involve all levels of readers.

Readership also ascends from one level to another. A person’s education in

reading starts from letters at the nursery level and then ascends to words, then to

sentences, then to phrases, and so on. The stories prescribed in a primary school may

have similar aesthetic and moral values imbibed in them as the stories prescribed in

the high school or at the graduation level but the intensity of the presentation of their

essence and apparel grows stage-wise and so a graduate may not relish nursery or

higher secondary class stories. It is because he has already experienced and passed

through the level and craves for its enhancement. The level of perception also
 87

depends on how well-read a person is. Our mind is geared to capturing complexities.

With experience and learning, the boundaries of perceptions expand and so a well-

read person wants a more intricate and complex essence and apparel as compared to

a less read one.

Apparel is the level of language through which essence is presented. Instead

of the intricate decorative language of literary fiction, the language of popular fiction

is as simple as possible. The difference between the language of literary and popular

fiction is the difference between a complex statement and a simple one. Statement is

aphoristic while interpretation is descriptive. Though both have the same content yet

they differ in presentation. Its preference depends on the level of the perception of

the readers. The language of popular fiction is at a commoner’s level while the

language of literary fiction can be called its higher version. Greatest thoughts in

simplest words are considered best and hence, the worth of popular fiction should

not be criticized or judged on the basis of the language in which it is written but on

its content and execution.

Essence is an indispensible yet abstract quality of a work of fiction. It is its

story, theme, plot, and narrative. Popular fiction borders more on fantasy than on

reality. It is the story of the general rather than the particular and so it appeals to a

greater number of people. It does not mean that it serves no purpose in society.

Popular fiction takes on lighter but driving issues of contemporary times. Even if the

issue is intense, it is given light treatment. For example, in India, love marriages

outside the boundaries of caste, religion and states were taboo till a few decades ago.

Chetan Bhagat’s romantic novel, Two States, published in 2009, takes up this issue.

The novel had a great effect on the youth and society. Novels of popular fiction

usually have a simple plot where events or incidents are arranged in tight sequence.
 88

Popular fiction generally uses linear narratives. Very few experiments with narrative

techniques are seen in such a work. It is because the author tries to make it simple so

that everyone can understand it.

Popular fiction is also called Genre Fiction or Category Fiction. It is because

it can be easily placed into a category or type. Prominent genres of Popular fiction

are Crime Fiction, Fantasy Fiction, Romantic Fiction, Science Fiction, Inspirational

Fiction, Horror Fiction, etc., and their sub-genres.

Indian English Popular Literature has been in vogue for not more than the

last three decades. It is not that Indian English fiction didn’t exist but the genre of

popular fiction didn’t. Earlier, reading an English novel was the privilege of the elite

and not of the commoner. The popularity of English language and its spread is one of

the driving reasons behind the demand for popular fiction. Opening of a large

number of publication houses is also a prominent cause. Previously, writers had little

opportunity of getting their works published but with the emergence and

establishment of a number of publishing houses, writers have found a niche. As this

market yields good profit, more and more people are tempted to pen fiction. This has

resulted into the output of a large number of works of popular fiction. Some of the

popular publishing houses publishing fiction are Jaico Publishing House, Penguin,

Random House India, Rupa Publications, Hachette India, Aleph Book Company,

Pirates, Harper Collins India, Westland Publishers, Seagull Books, Srishti

Publishers, Scholastic India, etc.

The first prominent name to appear in Indian English Popular Fiction is

Chetan Bhagat. It would not be wrong if he is hailed as the Father of Indian English

Popular Fiction. His 2004 novel Five Point Someone can be held as a landmark in
 89

the publishing history of Indian English Popular Fiction. It is because after the

publication of this work, Indian Popular fiction boomed and saw an unprecedented

rise. Following Chetan Bhagat, came other prominent names like Devdutt Pattanaik,

Preeti Shenoy, Amish Tripathi, Ravinder Singh, Anuja Chauhan, Ashwin Sanghi,

Savi Sharma, Ajay K. Pandey, Christopher C. Doyle, Arpit Vageria, Anand

Neelakantan, Kavita Kané, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Indu Sundaresan, etc. The

writers of Indian English Popular Fiction have experimented liberally with its

different sub-genres.

Chetan Bhagat has authored eight novels and three non-fiction books. An

engineer and MBA degree holder, he worked as an investment banker before turning

into a full time author. His early novels largely drew themes from his own life. His

novels are Five Point Someone (2004), One Night @ the Call Center (2005), The 3

Mistakes of My Life (2008), 2 States (2009), Revolution 2020 (2011), Half Girlfriend

(2014), One Indian Girl (2016), The Girl in Room 105 (2018), and One Arranged

Murder (2020). His works of non-fiction are What Young India Wants (2012),

Making India Awesome (2015) and India Positive (2019). Except his last two novels

and Revolution 2020, all have been adapted into motion pictures.

Bhagat’s first novel Five Point Someone: What Not to Do at IIT was

published in 2004 and was adapted into a motion picture entitled Three Idiots that

was released in 2009. The novel centers on the life of three friends, Hari, Raju and

Ryan, in the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. As Bhagat is also an

ex-IIT student, the novel draws on his own experiences. Since its publication, the

novel has remained on the bestsellers list and has sold more than a million copies. 5 It

was a landmark in the sense that it made the publication industry realise that popular

literature has great scope and potential to sell in India. 30,000 copies of the book
 90

were sold in mere one month. It encouraged not only Bhagat but also many others

who could then dream of a career in writing. This has resulted into a flood of authors

writing popular fiction in India. Though the novel was initially criticised yet its

worth appeared before long as it focuses on the current education system and

aspiration of the students. The novel also has been a part of the syllabus of many

universities. The movie version is quite different. Wikipedia refers to an interview of

Bhagat in which he has claimed: “The film retains the soul of the book. 3 Idiots is

different from the book but at the same time it does borrow many things from the

book. The core theme and message of the film is coming from the book itself.” 6

While comparing the novel with the book, one easily notices that the novel’s

subtitle What Not to Do at IIT has been turned into “what to do at IIT.” The novel

cautions the students not to take studies lightly and shows how unruly behaviour can

ruin the life of a student while in the movie, such behaviour is not only presented in

exaggerated terms but even applauded.

Bhagat’s second novel, One Night @ the Call Center, published in 2005,

utilises the plot device of deus ex machina. The term is a Latin claque from Greek

which means “god from the machine.” In this plot device, a nearly unsolvable

problem resolves instantly, due to an intervention or unexpected occurrence. In the

novel, a call from God is deus ex machina that resolves the problems of the six

central characters of the novel working in a call centre. The problems faced by these

characters are general problems faced by many, such as unrequited love,

incompatibility in family life, thwarted ambitions, patriarchal set-up, generation gap,

unnecessary pressure at work place and inhuman behaviour of bosses. As such, the

problems are the problems of the contemporary generations. The novel has drawn a
 91

large number of readers and has sold more than a million copies. It was also adapted

into a movie entitled Hello in 2008.

The 3 Mistakes of My Life, published in 2008, is Bhagat’s third novel. In

2013, the movie version of the novel titled Kai Po Che! was released. The novel is

set in Ahmadabad, Gujarat. It pictures how the natural calamity of the 2001 Gujarat

earthquake, Godhra train burning and the consequent riots shape the lives of three

friends. This novel too has sold more than a million copies.

Published in 2009, 2 States: The Story of My Marriage is Bhagat’s

autobiographical romantic novel. The movie version was released in 2014 with the

same title. The story of the novel revolves around the hardships faced by two young

lovers in their marriage due to their origin from two different states and castes. The

author has replaced his and his beloved wife’s name with two fictional names Krish

and Ananya, hailing from Panjab and Tamilnadu respectively. The couple meets at

IIM Ahmadabad, falls in love and wants to get married but owing to their different

origins finds it difficult to convince their families to consent for the match. As the

issue is one of the crucial problems among the youth, the novel instantly found its

place among them and sold a million copies within only six months of its

publication. The movie version too became a blockbuster hit, grossing ₹ 171.02

crore worldwide against its ₹ 35 crore budget.

Bhagat’s novel Revolution 2020, published in 2011, is a romantic novel. It

presents the romantic triangle between Aarti, Gopal and Raghav. Though it depicts a

bewitching love story yet what makes the novel convincing is its thematic concern.

The novel centres on the corruption, political involvement and black money involved

in the private education sector. It mirrors the frustration of the students who have no
 92

option but to get cheated by paying high fees to private coaching centres and private

degree institutions. In the book, the novel’s title Revolution 2020 is a newspaper

started by Raghav to expose the corruption.

Chetan Bhagat’s sixth novel, Half Girl Friend, rejects and questions the

prevailing Indian notion of the superiority of the English language. Unfortunately,

the nation has undergone a period when education or learning has become

synonymous with the knowledge of English. Non-English speakers are made to feel

inferior. Chetan Bhagat takes up this issue and blends it with a romantic story. In the

novel, Madhav, a non-English speaker but a qualified basketball player from rural

Bihar, gets admission in St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, through sports quota, falls in

love with Riya, and after facing vicissitudes, finally unites with her. The novel also

presents the deplorable condition of education in rural India. Above all, it

successfully establishes that knowledge is superior to a language. A film based on

the novel with the same title was also released but it was not a great box-office hit.

Chetan Bhagat’s seventh novel, One Indian Girl, published in 2016, presents

the important contemporary issue of disillusionment felt by the youth regarding the

balance between their romantic aspirations and a family life. Bhagat’s eight novel,

The Girl in Room 105, published in 2018, is a whodunit, a sub-genre of crime

fiction. A “whodunit” or “whodunit” is an elision of “Who [has] done it?” It is a plot

driven story that revolves around finding the criminal who has committed the crime.

Double narrative is the central feature of Whodunit. A double narrative has two

narratives - one hidden and the other, open. The hidden narrative unravels gradually,

explaining cause and consequence. Readers are given clue after clue with a

cliffhanger effect. In Bhagat’s novel, the central character Zara gets murdered and

Keshav takes up the role of the detective.

 93

Bhagat’s novels are blended with sugar and spice fantasy elements that

please and entertain the readers. The worth of his fiction can’t be ignored as all his

novels deal with contemporary issues.

If Chetan Bhagat may be regarded as “the Father of Indian Popular Fiction,”

Devdutt Pattanaik can be regarded as “the Father of Indian Mythic Revival.” Devdutt

Pattanaik freed Indian mythology in modern times from the chains of stagnancy

through alternative interpretations of mythology in his mythic fiction and non-fiction

works. Though he too was criticised for his interpretations yet it is a fact that he

channelized a new nuance of understanding, questioning and analysis. He is an

MBBS and has done a course in Comparative Mythology. Currently, as a leading

Indian mythologist, author, and motivational speaker, he is one of the central figures

of Indian mythic renaissance. Devdutt opines: “… no society can exist without myth

as it creates notions of right and wrong, good and bad, heaven and hell, rights and

duties.”7

He has authored books on mythic reinterpretations, management, novels, as

well as children’s books. He has written more than thirty books on mythic

reinterpretation. The most popular among them are Myth=Mithya: A Handbook of

Hindu Mythology (2006), Shiva to Shankara: Decoding the Phallic Symbol (2006),

Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the Mahabharata (2010), 7 Secrets of Shiva (2011),

Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana (2013), My Gita (2015), Shiva to

Shankara: Giving Form to the Formless (2017), etc. In all these books, he has tried

to explain the meaning behind the mythic symbols, rituals, stories, lore, and legends,

often challenging previous interpretations. His Jaya: An Illustrated Retelling of the

Mahabharata and Sita: An Illustrated Retelling of the Ramayana, as the titles imply,

are the retellings of the Mahabharata and the Ramayana respectively. The uniqueness
 94

of the two books is that after every chapter, Devdutt presents a symposium of

multiple narratives and stances on the same story, published previously in different

texts. He has written two mythological narratives, The Pregnant King (2008) and Is

He Fresh?: Aka Kaula Hai?(2015).

The Pregnant King is the first English mythological fiction of the modern

times in India. It narrates the story of a mythological figure, Yuvanashva, King of

Vallabhi, of the Mahabharata times. The kingdom of Vallabhi is managed by King’s

mother Shilavati, who, in spite of being a dextrous statesman, can’t be the ruler

because she is a woman. Yuvanshava accidently drinks the potion meant for his three

wives to become pregnant and ends up being pregnant himself. After giving birth to

a child, he wavers between his desires to be called mother by the child and retaining

manhood in all other aspects. Though many incidents in the novel are bizarre and

fantastic, it explores modern cultural problems like gender roles, patriarchy,

polygamy, etc.

India today, in an article, “How Four Writers Announced Their Success and

Took the Indian Bestseller Mainstream,” published in 2014, referred to Preeti

Shenoy and three others viz. Amish Tripathi, Ravinder Singh, and Anuja Chauhan,

besides Chetan Bhagat, as the ones who have made a name in Indian English Popular

Fiction. It referred to Anuja as the one who has “yet to hit a stratospheric sales

graph” but referred to Preeti as “the only woman in the highest-selling league.”8

Preeti’s fiction can be termed as a blend of romantic and inspirational fiction; both

are the sub-genres of popular fiction. Her fiction can also be termed as feminist

popular fiction for it centres on the aspirations, ambitions, desires, dilemmas and

problems of the modern woman in a patriarchal setup. In her works, Preeti, like the

other authors of popular fiction, takes up the common day-to-day issues faced by
 95

millions of youth today. What makes Preeti’s fiction stand out is her presentation of

the female perspective and an inspirational undertone. Her debut novel Life is What

You Make It has sold more than 250,000 copies. It narrates the story of its

protagonist, a girl named Ankita, who recovers from bipolar disorder that she

develops after her ex-boyfriend commits suicide because she had dumped him. Her

other novels are Tea for Two and a Piece of Cake (2012), The Secret Wish List

(2012), The One You Cannot Have (2013), It Happens for a Reason (2014), It’s All

in the Planets (2016), The Rule Breakers (2018), and Wake Up, Life is Calling

(2019). Her Tea for Two and a Piece of Cake present the story of Nisha, who leaves

her career to marry Sameer to enjoy family life. After she becomes a mother of two,

her husband leaves her for a younger woman. It is the story of how Nisha manages

her life and relationships, refusing to submit to the circumstances. The Secret Wish

List narrates the story of a girl Diksha, who is stuck between her adventurous self

and her mundane married life with her husband. After sixteen years of married life

and mothering a child, she divorces her husband to move back to her ex-boyfriend

with whom she can enjoy her real self. Such behaviour in an Indian woman is

considered lechery as Indians generally deem motherhood as the final stage of

fulfilment for a woman. Leaving a child and a husband to fulfil one’s own desire is

unacceptable according to the social norms in this country. The novel somehow

challenges these social norms by placing the individual’s happiness and desires over

the prescribed mundane duty. It affects the readers tremendously. It can be compared

with the drama, The Ghost by Henrik Ibsen. When Pastor Manders accuses Mrs.

Alving of reading literature with radical ideas, Mrs. Alving says:

Well, I seem to find explanation and confirmation of all sorts of things I

myself have been thinking. For that is the wonderful part of it, Pastor
 96

Manders—there is really nothing new in these books, nothing but what most

people think and believe. Only most people either don’t formulate it to

themselves, or else keep quiet about it. 9

The desire to break out and find alternatives to the prescribed social and

cultural code runs in many hearts. It clashes with the notion of taboo. Though

traditionalists criticize change, there are many who empathize with it as it voices

their own desires. According to one of the reviewers, Chitra Karuppannan at

Mouthshut.com, the story of The Secret Wish List is misleading and opposite to what

the Indian culture teaches:

A woman after sixteen years of married life with a child, goes out to live the

remaining life with her first love . . . . After stating some silly reasons about

her husband . . . Before divorce itself she went stealthily for dating with her

first love when her husband went to [foreign] regarding his office work and

she left her son to her mother-in-law. I don’t think it is revolutionary novel,

instead it is just misleading society.10

Another reviewer on the same platform, Sweety Shushmita, opines that it is

the story of sixty percent of Indian women. She writes: “A story related to almost

60% of Indian women who suppress their dreams for their parents, husband,

children, and thinking about how society will react to it.”11

Roonita Naik, another reviewer witting for Anureviews.com, shares what she

has found in the novel:

One thing I learned from this novel is that every relation without love or care

eventually becomes just a formality, wherein both the individuals dutifully

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fulfil their responsibilities. Every relation requires equal efforts from both

individuals. The second thing is that every individual should stand up for

their rights or should voice their thoughts because whatever the situation be,

only you alone can help yourself out of it. 12

The worth of a popular fiction novel can never be understood without finding

out why and how it affects the popular audience. The reactions of the reviewers

show how popular fiction mirrors and voices their inner desires. Popular fiction is

usually criticised for being sensational. It often consists of escapist elements,

however, escapism through literature is a kind of comic relief in life. Sigmund Freud

compares such escapism of an adult into fiction with a child playing make-belief

games in his article “Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming.”13

Shenoy’s novel The One You Cannot Have (2013) presents yet another major

problem or dilemma faced by the Indian youth. Marriage of one’s own choice is still

not easy in India where a number of things are needed to match first i.e. religion,

caste, sub-caste, economic, and social status, etc. One of the major reasons of the

frustration in the Indian youth is incompatibility in marriage, rising out of whom

they want to marry and who finally they have to due to social and family pressures.

Whereas Bhagat’s novel 2 States presents the story of a couple’s successful

endeavour to unite in spite of differences, Shenoy’s novel The One You Cannot Have

presents the frustration of giving in to social demands. In the novel, Aman and Shruti

find perfect partners in each other but have to part due to the pressure from Shruti’s

home as her mother has a terminal illness. Shruti marries Rishabh and Aman marries

Anjali yet the two are unable to bond with their respective partners. These are

common issues faced by the youth so they easily connect with the fiction.
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Ravindra Singh started his writing career in 2007 with his autobiographical

fiction I Too Had a Love Story that has remained a national bestseller since its

publication. It is a romantic but tragic tale of the author and his beloved who died in

a car accident just before they were to be formally engaged. The novel’s protagonist,

Ravin, and Khushi, meet at Shaadi.com which is an online matrimonial website.

They talk over phone and fall in love. Their families fix their marriage but the girl

dies in a car accident and Ravin is left alone. Ravindra Singh’s second novel, Can

Love Happen Twice? (2011), is the sequel of his first novel. Most of Ravindra

Singh’s novels i.e. his first two novels and the later three novels - Your Dreams are

Mine Now (2014), This Love that Feels Right (2016) and Will You Still Love Me

(2018) - are romantic fiction that narrate light-hearted yet engaging tales of love and

relationship. The titles of his novels signify the light tone in which they are written,

with the view to providing pure entertainment. What makes them serious is their

autobiographical tragic element. His other two novels, Like it Happened Yesterday

(2013) and The Belated Bachelor Party (2019), are about the author’s journey from

childhood to his exposure to the world and his trip to Europe with his four friends.

Your Dreams Are Mine Now is a college love story between Rupali and Arun, set in

the background of intense college politics in the campus of Delhi University. This

Love that Feels Right narrates the story of Naina who is forced into marriage before

she knows her own mind and later falls in love with another man, Aarav, as her

insensitive husband has no time for anything but material gains. A review published

in The Times of India claims: “The book is a mirror to the present times of our

society. Couples might agree or not agree with this concept but we all know that it

exists.”14 His novel Will You Still Love Me narrates a love story between Rajveer, a

boy from Punjab and Lavanya, a girl from Meghalaya.

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Another novelist in the top-seller list is Amish Tripathi who writes

mythological fiction. He has published six novels so far; three novels in the Shiva

Trilogy series and three novels in the Ram Chandra series. The novels in the Shiva

Trilogy are The Immortals of Meluha (2010), The Secret of the Nagas (2011), and

The Oath of the Vayuputras (2013). The novels in the Ram Chandra Series are Ram:

Scion of Ikshvaku (2015), Sita: Warrior of Mithila (2017) and Raavan: Enemy of

Aryavarta (2019). He has also written a work of non-fiction, Immortal India (2017).

All his works are on the best-seller list.

Kavita Kane writes mythic fiction. In her novels, she picks an underrated, or

neglected, or less-focused character. She hinges to the traditional plot but fill the dots

with her own imaginative narratives. Her novels are The Karna’s Wife: The

Outcast’s Queen (2014), Sita’s Sister (2014), Menaka’s Choice (2015), Lanka’s

Princess (2017), The Fisher Queen’s Dynasty (2017) and Ahalya’s Awakening

(2019).

Anand Neelakantan’s fiction also appears on the bestsellers list. He writes

mythic fiction from the point of view of the vanquished. His most famous works are

Asura: Tale of the Vanquished (2012), Ajaya: Roll of the Dice (2013) and Ajaya:

Rise of Kali (2015). Asura is the retelling of the Ramayana from Ravana’s point of

view. The Ajaya series is the retelling of the Mahabharata from Kaurav’s

perspective. In order to present the vanquished as victims and winners as

perpetrators, the author alters the story, changes the interpretation, adds and omits

incidents to fit his narrative.

Anuja Chauhan’s fiction is what can be called “Chick lit,” a sub-genre of

popular literature. Cambridge dictionary defines “Chick lit” or “Chick literature” as,
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“stories written by women, about women, for women to read.” 15 The term is often

used and conceived as derisive. Anuja has reacted to the label. She says, “Chicks are

small, brainless, powerless creatures, bred to be eaten. I’m not a chick and I don’t

write for chicks.”16 Anuja has authored five novels, The Zoya Factor (2008), Battle

For Bittora (2010), Those Pricey Thakur Girls (2013), The House That BJ Built

(2015), and Baaz (2017). Apart from being a novelist, she is an advertiser and

screenwriter. Born on 17 September 1970, she worked seventeen years in the

advertising industry before becoming a full time writer in 2010. She is credited with

inventing famous advertising Hindi slogans such as “Yeh Dil Maange More!”,

“Darrke Aage Jeet Hai,” “Tedha Hai par Mera Hai,” “KitKat Break Banta Hai,” etc.

Anuja’s first novel, The Zoya Factor, published in 2008 by Harper Collins,

was turned into motion pictures in 2019, starring Sonam Kapoor Ahuja and Dulquer

Salmaan in lead roles. The central story of the novel is the love story of Zoya Singh

Solanki and Nikhil Khoda, captain of the Indian cricket team. In the novel, Zoya is

born at the very moment that India won the World Cup in 1983. It makes the Indian

team believe that she is a lucky charm as her presence makes the team win. Not only

her presence is hailed as propitious and accepted as the Zoya factor but also she is

hired as an official mascot. It is only towards the final chapters of the novel that the

myth shatters. The most absurd aspect in the novel is that not only the BCCI but also

all the Indians are dumb and acutely superstitious in believing that Zoya is the prime

factor of winning rather than the captain and his team.

Anuja’s second novel, Battle for Bittora, is also a love story, between

Sarojini or Jinni and Zain Altaf Khan. The two are childhood friends from Bittora.

Jinni reluctantly joins politics at Bittora at the behest of her grandmother, leaving her

job at Mumbai. There she finds her childhood friend as a candidate from the
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opposing party. Her third novel, Those Pricey Thakur Girls, has been serialised into

an Indian television serial named Dilli Wali Thakur Girls. It is the story of five

shenanigan daughters of Justice L. N. Thakur and Mamta Thakur; Anji, Binni,

Daboo, Chandi, and Eshu. Her next novel, The House that BJ Built is the sequel of

Those Pricey Thakur Girls. Anuja’s fifth novel Baaz is a love story between Flying

Officer Ishaan Fauzdaar and model Tehmina Dadyseth in the backdrop of the year

1971 when Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) was fighting for independence.

Indian author and screen writer Durjoy Datta’s novels are pure romantic

fiction with a motive to providing entertainment and making money out of it. His

earlier novels were co-authored but later he began to write alone. His novels are

referred to as coffee table novels presenting just another engaging romantic love

story. The commonplace theme of his novels is apparent from the cheesiness of the

titles of his novels. He started writing in 2008 and since then produces one or two

novels every year. His novel Of Course I Love You! ... Till I Find Someone Better

was published in 2008 and was co-authored with Maanvi Ahuja. Now That You’re

Rich! Let’s Fall in Love! published in 2009 and was co-authored with Maanvi Ahuja.

SHE BROKE UP I DIDN’T! ... I Just Kissed Someone Else!, published in 2010, Ohh

Yes, I’m Single..! And So is My Girlfriend!, also published in 2010. It was co-

authored with Neeti Rustagi. You Were My Crush! ... till You Said You Love Me!

published in 2011 and was co-authored with Orvana Ghai, If It’s Not Forever ... It’s

Not Love published in 2012 and was co-authored with Nikita Singh. Till the Last

Breath ... published in 2012. Someone Like You published in 2013 and was also co-

authored with Nikita Singh. He has also written Hold My Hand (2013), When Only

Love Remains (2014), World’s Best Boyfriend (2015), Our Impossible Love (2016),

The Girl of my Dreams (2016), The Boy Who Loved (2017), The Boy with a Broken
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Heart (2017), The Perfect Us (2018), Pocketful of Stories (2019) and Wish I Could

Tell You (2019).

Arpit Vageria writes Romantic fiction in a similar style. He also writes screen

plays for Indian television. His bestselling works are Be My Perfect Ending, You are

My Reason to Smile, I Still Think About You and Chokolate Sauce - Smooth, Dark,

Sinful. All these novels present complicated love stories through simple narratives.

These popular novels by Durjoy Dutta and Arpit Vageria present highly fantastic

elements where everything is possible.

Savi Sharma’s first novel Everyone Has a Story – An Inspirational Story of

Dreams, Friendship, Love & Life has remained on the bestselling list since its

publication. The novel was self-published by the author in 2015. Later, it was

published by Westland Publishers. It is the story of a girl Meera who wants to write

and is in search of a story. Her friend, Kabeer, a coffee shop manager, encourages

her to write. Kabeer falls in love with a girl named Nisha and proposes to her.

Another acquaintance of Meera Vivaan is a successful banker who is discontented

and wants to travel. The novel lacks a cohesive plot and finishes before any real

story begins. Her second novel This is Not Your Story (2017) is also a bestseller.

This novel too doesn’t have a regular plot. It is just the story of four different persons

– Shaurya, Miraya, Anubhav, and Kasturi - with different aspirations. Another two

novels of Savi are Everyone Has a Story – 2 (2018) and Stories We Never Tell

(2020).

Ashwin Sanghi was hailed by The Hindu as “India’s answer to Dan

Brown”17: “If Dan Brown can do it, we can do it much better; given the wealth of

symbols and symbolism in our ancient texts.”18 He writes grabbing fiction in the
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thriller genre, blending it with history, mythology, theology, anthropology, etc. He is

the author of bestselling novels like The Rozabal Line (2007), Chanakya’s Chant

(2010), The Krishna Key (2012), Sialkot Saga (2016), Keepers of the Kalachakra

(2018), The Vault of Vishnu (2020) and two novels of Private series; Private India

(2014), and Private Delhi (2017), co-written with James Patterson under the latter’s

Private series. He has also written non-fiction under almost identical titles. These are

13 Steps To Bloody Good Luck, 13 Steps To Bloody Good Wealth,13 Steps To

Bloody Good Marks, 13 Steps to Bloody Good Health, and 13 Steps to Bloody Good

Parenting.

Ashwin Sanghi’s The Rozabal Line is a historical thriller. It was first

published on 24 September 2007 in the United States under the pseudonym Shawn

Haigins. In 2008, the novel was published in India under the author’s own name. The

Rozabal shrine in Kashmir, India, is claimed by Ahmadiyya Muslims to be the actual

tomb of Jesus Christ. The claim was first made by Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the

founder of the Ahmadiyya movement in 1899. 19 The novel’s protagonist, Vincent

Clair, a priest, has a vision and visits India along with his sister Martha to unravel

the mystery. The novel consists of a number of sub-plots. Lakshar-e-Talatshar, a

terrorist organisation, is working to annihilate the world in 2012. R&AW, an Indian

intelligence agency, is trying to expose and foil the plan of the terrorists. Two

mysterious organisations, Opus Dei and Illuminati, also featuring in Dan Brown’s

The Da Vinci Code (2003), are at work. The story is bewitching as the hero is trying

to locate a secret document in which the lineage of Jesus is mentioned. The novel is

set in 2012 but it keeps shifting to past.

Sanghi’s Chanakya’s Chant was published in 2010. It is an historical thriller.

Sanghi has taken up the historical character Chanakya, the author of an ancient
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Indian political treatise, the Arthashastra. He was a king maker who strategized the

foundation of the Maurya Empire through Chandragupta Maurya. A teacher,

philosopher, economist, and royal adviser, he is regarded as the father of classical

Indian politics and economics. His strategies are said to have been the base for King

Chandragupta to organise Bharat as a nation in 4th century BC. Sanghi recreates the

story and parallels it with a fictional character, Pandit Gangasagar Mishra, in the

present times. Like Chanakya, Gangasagar is also instrumental in making Chandini

Gupta prime minister.

Sanghi’s third novel, The Krishna Key, is an anthropological thriller. It is a

murder mystery blended with mythology. His The Sialkot Saga is another thriller

with the mix of historical events. The novel narrates the story of how the lives of two

boys, Arvind Bagadia and Arbaaz Shiekh, are shaped along with the nation’s history,

the Indo-Chinese war of 1962, the wars with Pakistan in 1965 and 1971-72, the

national emergency of 1975-77, the Hawala scam in Bombay Stock Exchange, the

Bombay blasts of 1993, the 9/11 terrorists attacks on World Trade Center in 2001,

and the Mumbai attacks in 2008.

Ashwin Sanghi’s novels are a storehouse of world’s diverse theological

concepts, mythological beliefs, historical events, and contemporary events,

combined with a thrilling storyline. His stories are intensely engaging and

captivating. Though the novels have exaggerated sub-plots that have little to do with

the main plot yet they keep the readers on the edge with their nail-biting suspense.

Two other authors writing in the style initiated by Ashwin Sanghi in India are

Satyarth Nayak and Christopher C. Doyle. Satyarth has hitherto written only one

novel, The Emperor’s Riddles. It is a bestseller. He also writes screenplays for the
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television serial Porus. His novel is a mystery thriller. The novel presents two

parallel stories. In the past, one of India’s greatest rulers had hidden the secret of

great technological advancement, a secret that can tempt even a god to kill. The story

is set in the present and murders are being committed to acquire it. At the beginning

of the novel, Ram Mathur, father of Sia Mathur, is killed at the Ganga ghat in

Varanasi. Sia seeks help from Om Patnaik, an esoteric writer. Jasodhara, a television

documentarian, Parag Suri, the chief investigating inspector, and Alia Irani, a

journalist, along with Sia and Om, try to unravel an email of Ram Mathur that can

reveal the secret and the murderer, ‘Scorpion.’ Nine consecutive riddles take the

readers to different historical places of India. Tathagata, a Buddhist Samanera, is

directed by Bhikkhu, a Buddhist monk, to lead the party to the next riddle. In

Buddhism, the symbol of Triratna stands for the Three Jewels of Buddhism i.e. the

Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha. Paralleling this concept, the structure of the novel

is divided in three sections; Buddham, Dhammam and Sangham. The novel centres

on Indian history, mythology, ancient science and technology, Buddhist mythology,

philosophy, and iconography. The Hindu has published a comment on Satyarth’s

stance in the novel that he gave at the the Bangalore Literature Festival:

The book has three primary tracks, the first is a present-day track in which

Om Patnaik and Sia are on a trail of riddles. The second is a historical trail.

The third is that the book starts with a murder and the fourth is the

investigation. It is the first Indian work of fiction that is about Buddhism. 20

Christopher K. Doyle’s novels are a blend of fantasy, mythology, history,

science, and technology. His popular work is the Mahabharata Series that includes

The Mahabharata Secret (2013) and its sequels The Mahabharata Quest: The

Alexander Secret (2014), The Secret of the Druids (2016) and A Secret Revealed
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(2017). His Pataala Prophecy series includes Son of Bhrigu (2018) and The Mists of

Brahma (2020). In all his works, he picks certain invention mentioned in an ancient

text like nuclear weapons through which the Mahabharata war was fought or the

“Amrit” mentioned in the Mahabharata that was churned out of the ocean etc. He

makes such inventions look scientific. He then creates a myth that the secret of these

inventions is in the hands of an ancient secret agency that still survives. He takes an

historical incident and alters its essence. For example, in The Mahabharata Quest:

The Alexander Secret, he tries to show that Alexander’s invasion of India was in the

quest to find the elixir rather than a military campaign to widen his kingdom. He

links it to different geographical locations of archaic importance and merges

everything with the present happenings of murder, mayhem, inventions, and

developments.

Another Indian writer in the thriller genre is Piyush Jha. He is also a film

director and screen writer. His work Mumbaistan comprises three stories, “Bomb

Day,” “Injectionwala” and “Coma Man.” All his novels are set in the backdrop of

Mumbai. His other works of fiction are Compass Box Killer, Anti-Social Network

and Raakshas: India’s No. 1 Serial Killer. All his works are crime thrillers.

According to him, the slot of the crime thriller on the Indian platform was empty and

so he took up this genre. The Hindu states: “There are suspense thrillers and murder

mysteries, but in there is a vacant space when it came to crime fiction, and that’s

where I would like to slot Mumbaistan.”21

The mystery genre is itself intriguing and thrilling but when it is mixed with

history and mythology, its fascination surges. Dan Brown has experimented with it

in his fiction effectively. The works of Sanghi, Satyarth Nayak and Christopher C.

Doyle are successful Indian parallels. In their novels, there is uniqueness. It is to take
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the readers to the places of historical importance in the nation and intermingle

history with fictional present. For example, Christopher C. Doyle takes the readers to

Bairat, a district of Rajasthan, the Barabar Caves in Bihar, and Marang Buru, a hill in

Hazaribagh. The district of Bairat is known for its ancient history since the Mauryan

times. It contains the ruins of Bairat Temple, a Buddhist chapel that dates back to the

3rd century BC. Bairat Temple is one of oldest Buddhist shrines in India. The district

also has the ruins of a Buddhist monastery and two Asokan rock-cut edicts.22 The

Barabar Hill caves also date back to the Mauryan period and have Asokan rock-cut

edicts.23 According to a News 18 report, “The 4,431 ft high Parasnath hill is the

highest peak south of the Himalayas. The oldest of the Jain temples is located atop it.

Parasnath is the ‘Marang Buru’ or hill deity of the Santhals of Hazaribagh,

Manbhum, Bankura, and Santhal Parganas.”24 The authenticity of such historicity,

when fused with fiction, turns fascinating. It has helped the Indian writers in this

genre to find a place on the bestsellers list.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni writes novels in multiple genres, e.g. mythic

fiction, fantasy fiction, historical fiction, realistic fiction, etc. She is an Indian-

American. Apart from being a novelist, she is a poet and academician. Her two

novels The Mistress of Spices (1997) and Sister of My Heart (1999) have been

adapted into motion pictures. She has written two mythic novels; The Palace of

Illusions (2008), a retelling of the Mahabharata from Draupadi’s point of view and

The Forest of Enchantments (2019), a retelling of the Ramayana from Sita’s

perspective. In The Mistress of Spices, she uses magic realism and creates a fantasy

world of the power of spices and the agents controlling them. Spices are associated

with magical powers. A few girls are chosen by a secret mystic order to maintain and

spread the benefits of the spices among the mankind. These girls are supposed to
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work in the stores of Indian spices around the world but according to the edict, they

can’t physically touch anyone, go out of the store or use the power of spices for their

personal use. The novel presents the story of such a girl, known as Tilo, who has

been trained for the task and is in the charge of a store at Oakland, California. The

novel narrates how she helps her customers, and her love pursuit with a native

Amercian, Raven, against the law prescribed for her tribe.

Indu Sundaresan, another Indian-American, writes historical romance.

Between 2002 and 2010, she wrote the Taj Mahal trilogy that includes Twentieth

Wife (2002), The Feast of Roses (2003), and Shadow Princess (2010). The story

centres on Nurjahan or Mehrunissa, the twentieth wife of the Mughal emperor

Jahangir. Her novel The Splendour of Silence (2006) is a love story of Sam

Hawthorne, a U.S. Army captain and Mila, daughter of Raman, a local political

agent. The story is set in India in 1942 when the nation is on the verge of

independence. Another novel, The Mountain of Light (2013), is also a historical

romance and fictionalises the history of the 186 carat Kohinoor diamond.

Genre fiction or popular fiction has long remained an object of ridicule and is

charged with being low, futile and useless. Popular fiction doesn’t include an intense

or serious national or global issue, presented with gravity, but it tends to discuss the

common issues that many people face. It provides the entertainment that simple

minds relish. It is what makes popular literature important. Until lately, Indian

English fiction was a kind of literature that was written keeping in view the taste of

the literary elite. But literature must also keep pace with the changing times and

demands of society. Its work is also to keep the society vigilant by mirroring it. The

responsibility of the intellectuals is to engender, accelerate and monitor social

change with the tools of literature. Unfortunately, they are reluctant to share their
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learning and so learning and knowledge are monopolized by a particular class. As

fiction is central to mirroring the change, it remains a prime tool of reconstruction.

The aspirations, desires, problems, and dilemmas of the general masses need to be

discussed in the language they can grasp. This task is achieved by popular fiction.

This is the very reason movies made on them are successful. The writers of Indian

popular fiction in English fill this gap.

Against the backdrop of the first two chapters of this thesis, it becomes

crucial that the study of Amish’ Shiva Trilogy be taken up to observe the delineation

of myths in his English fiction. The next chapter begins the enterprise by embarking

on a study of the first novel in the series, The Immortals of Meluha.

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3:1: Works Cited

1. Colombo, John Robert. “Popular Literature in English”. The Canadian

Encyclopedia, 16 December 2013, Historica Canada.

www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/popular-literature-in-english.

2. “Romance Literature Statistics: Overview”. Romance Writers of America.

https://web.archive.org/web/20071223085813/http://www.rwanational.org/cs/t

he_romance_genre/romance_literature_statistics.

3. PTI. “Indian Book Market to Touch Rs 739 Billion by 2020: Survey.” The

Economic Times, 1 Dec. 2015,

m.economictimes.com/industry/media/entertainment/media/indian-book-

market-to-touch-rs-739-billion-by-2020-survey/articleshow/49996781.cms.

4. “Essence.” Essence Noun - Definition, Pictures, Pronunciation and Usage

Notes | Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary at

OxfordLearnersDictionaries.com, www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definiti

on/english/essence.

5. Kapoor, Mini. “What Makes Chetan Bhagat the One-Man Industry and Change

Agent That He Is.” India Today, 29 Aug. 2014,

www.indiatoday.in/magazine/cover-story/story/20140908-chetan-bhagat-

novel-half-girlfriend-two-million-copies-set-to-roll-off-press-805059-2014-08-

28.

6. Ramsubramani, Nikhil. “3 Idiots Retains the Soul of Five Point Someone’ -

Chetan Bhagat.” Bollywood Hungama. Https://Www.filmibeat.com, 26 Dec.

 111

2009, www.filmibeat.com/bollywood/features/2009/chetan-bhagat-interview-

261209.html.

7. “No Society Can Exist without Myth, Says Devdutt Pattanaik.” Hindustan

Times, 4 July 2016,

www.hindustantimes.com/books/no-society-can-exist-without-myth-says-

devdutt-pattanaik/story-PG1v4iB17j07dV5Vyv86QN.html.

8. “How Four Writers Announced Their Success and ...” India Today.

www.indiatoday.in/magazine/cover-story/story/20140908-how-four-writers-

announced-their-success-and-took-the-indian-bestseller-mainstream-805062-

2014-08-28.

9. Ibsen, Henrik. The Ghost. www.gutenberg.org/files/8121/8121-h/8121-h.htm.

10. Karuppannan, Chitra. “Opposite to Indian culture”. Mouthshut.com Review.

www.mouthshut.com/product-reviews/The-Secret-Wish-List-Preeti-Shenoy-

reviews-925754035.

11. Shushmita, Sweety. “A story related to almost 60% of Indian women.”

Mouthshut.com. Review.

www.mouthshut.com/review/The-Secret-Wish-List-Preeti-Shenoy-review-

qslpqmumoun.

12. Roonita Naik, et al. “The Secret Wish List by Preeti Shenoy.” Anu Reviews, 4

Mar. 2018, www.anureviews.com/the-secret-wish-list-preeti-shenoy/.

13. Freud, Sigmund. “Creative Writers and Day-Dreaming.”

http://www.kleal.com/AP12%20member%20area%20pd2%202013/Freud%20

and%20Frye.pdf .
 112

14. “Ravinder Singh’s This Love That Feels Right - Times of India.” The Times of

India, The Times of India, 6 Dec. 2016,

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/life-style/books/features/Ravinder-Singhs-This-

Love-that-Feels-Right/articleshow/55830578.cms.

15. “CHICK LIT: Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary.” Cambridge

Dictionary, dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/chick-lit.

16. “Anuja Chauhan.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 23 Dec. 2020,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anuja_Chauhan.

17. “India’s Answer to Dan Brown.” The Hindu. www.thehindu.com/books/indias-

answer-to-dan-brown/article4062221.ece.

18. Ibid.

19. Khan, AdilHussain. “From Sufism to Ahmadiyya: A Muslim Minority

Movement in South Asia”. JSTOR. Indiana University Press, 2015,

www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt16gzhtj. Accessed 26 Mar. 2020.

20. Datta, Sravasti. “A Historical Thriller.” The Hindu, 23 May 2016,

www.thehindu.com/features/metroplus/a-historical-thriller/article6488991.ece.

21. “Crime in Maximum City”. The Hindu. www.thehindu.com/books/crime-in-

maximum-city/article4184389.ece#!

22. “Viratnagar.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 19 Jan. 2021,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viratnagar.
 113

23. “Barabar Caves.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 12 Jan. 2021,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barabar_Caves.

24. Press Trust of India. “Parasnath Temple Area to Be Developed into Tourist

Centre.” Business Standard, 24 Feb. 2014,

www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/parasnath-temple-area-to-be-

developed-into-tourist-centre-114022400699_1.html
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Chapter III

The Immortals of Meluha: Myth Redefined

The Immortals of Meluha is the first novel in Amish’s Shiva Trilogy series. It

was published in February 2010 by Westland Publications, Chennai. Initially, the

sales were a bit sluggish but soon Amish devised a clever digital marketing strategy

and quickly enough the sales started soaring. Subsequently, the book became a great

hit also because it presented the myth of the great Indian god, Lord Shiva, in a

manner that touched the innermost chords of the Indian youth, especially the

millennial generation that had acquired a good command over English language. One

of the chief reasons of the acceptance of the myth and the associated mythopoeia was

that it was done in a manner which has appealed to the rational generation that

harboured in equal measures faith and scientific temperament. The Immortals of

Meluha also gave a great uplift to Indian English popular fiction and started a trend

that was followed by a number of new Indian writers.

This chapter is titled “The Immortals of Meluha: Myth Redefined” because

Amish has made modifications to the original mythology of Lord Shiva and in a

way, redefined the original narrative. To learn this, the study of the novel begins

with a detailed outline of its narrative.

4:1: Synopsis of The Immortals of Meluha

The background is set in 1900 BC. Historically, this is the period of the last

phase of the Indus Valley or Saraswati Civilization. The story starts at Lake

Mansarover, located at the foot of Mount Kailash, Tibet. Shiva, the tribe leader of
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the Gunas, is brooding over the proposal of immigration sent by Meluha, a nation of

developed civilization. Nandi, an emissary and captain, along with his men, is kept

under surveillance. Shiva contemplates the invitation. His uncle had made a

prophecy that his destiny is larger than the mountains and to achieve it, he will have

to cross them one day. Shiva and his men are on vigil as they have constant combats

and skirmishes with one of the other tribes, the Pakratis. The Pakratis attack and are

defeated by the combined forces of the Gunas and the Meluhans. Though the

Pakratis are defeated and forced to retreat, they kill ten unarmed Guna women and

children. Shiva realises that the land they are living in is fit only for barbarians.

These pointless battles would never end. He, with the consent of his tribe, decides to

migrate to Meluha. On the way, they are attacked by the Pakratis but the Gunas

easily repel their attack. At Nandi’s behest, Shiva pardons Yakhya, the Pakrati chief

and his men, who are asking for mercy. Nandi silently prays that Shiva may be the

man they are searching for.

Shiva and his entourage reach Srinagar, the capital city of Kashmir, where

Chitrangadh, the Orientation Executive, registers the tribe. Shiva’s tribe is kept under

quarantine in temporary quarters and they are administered healing medicines before

being given permanent settlements. Even the temporary quarters are magnificent. On

the very first night, the whole tribe, except Shiva, falls ill. The proficient medical

team of Lady Ayurvati handles the situation resourcefully. All the guests are told to

bathe and put on new clothes. In Shiva’s case the medicines produce good results.

His dislocated bone sets, his frostbitten toe heals and the scars on his knees vanish.

He feels strong and rejuvenated. His throat feels intolerably cold and has turned an

eerie iridescent blue. Lady Ayurvati, Nandi, Chitrangadh, Chenardhwaj, the

Governor of Kashmir, and all other Meluhans who realise its significance, turn
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deferential and subservient towards Shiva and call him ‘My Lord.’ A puzzled Shiva

is not informed why their behaviour has transformed.

The Meluhan King, Daksha, orders Shiva to be sent to their capital Devagiri.

Shiva is groomed and made presentable. He covers his throat with a cravat. Along

with Nandi and other soldiers, Shiva leaves for Devagiri. He senses that the

Meluhans are in some kind of predicament but is unable to guess what problem a

near perfect city can face. They pass through Panjab and reach Hariyupa. Jatta, the

captain of the river Ravi at Hariyupa, informs Nandi of a Chandravanshi terrorist

attack in a village temple at Jratakgiri in which all non-combatant Brahmins have

been killed.

Nandi informs Shiva about the Meluhan society. Meluha is a law abiding

society established by Lord Ram 1200 years ago. The population of Meluha is nearly

eight million. Meluhans are Suryavanshi i.e. followers of the solar calendar.

While they are crossing River Beas, the weather turns stormy and Nandi falls

offboard. Shiva jumps into the water and rescues him. In feverish delirium, Nandi

blabbers that he has been searching for Neelkanth, a person with the blue throat, for

a hundred years. Though Shiva notices that nobody in the kingdom looks old, he

ignores Nandi’s babble.

While Nandi is under treatment, Shiva finds time to wander into the city. He

goes to the temple of Lord Brahma. The Pandit at the temple welcomes Shiva and

hails him as Karmasaathi, a fellow traveller in Karma. Shiva is a pantheist. While

exiting the temple, he sees a magnificent lady with her aide and is instantly

enamoured with her. He keeps on looking at her until she goes into the temple and

then waits outside for her return to catch another glimpse of hers. When she comes
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out, she is attacked by unidentified men. A fight ensues in which the lady and Shiva

fight alongside, foiling the attack. Shiva tries to strike up a conversation but the lady

is curt. Shiva is told the lady’s name and assured future help. The woman is Princess

Sati, the daughter of King Daksha.

During the fight, Shiva notices a pendant on the leader of the attacker. The

leader is masked and cloaked in a black-hooded robe, covering his entire body.

Nandi interprets the pendant as the holy sign of “Aum.” The sound “Aum” is

considered the holiest of sounds, the sound of the universe. The sound was coded in

written form by a great Chandravanshi King, Lord Bharat, who tried to make peace

between two opponent dynasties, the Chandravanshi and the Suryavanshi. Nandi

describes the Chandravanshi as unprincipled, unruly, untrustworthy, corrupt, selfish,

and lazy with no rules, morals and honour. The pendant bears a serpent sign. It

indicates that the wearer is a Naga. Nagas, a race of people with physical

deformities, are considered hideous and blood-thirsty. They are forbidden to enter

Sapt-Sindhu i.e. the land of the Suryavanshis and the Chandravanshis and are

restricted across River Narmda. Nandi claims that their deformities are caused by the

sins of their past lives. Shiva does not fancy this logic.

He reaches Devagiri. The motto of the city-dwellers is engraved on the entry

gate. It is ‘Satya, Dharma, Maan” i.e. “Truth, Duty, Honour.” Shiva has an audience

with King Daksha, Prime Minister Kanakhala and the chief of the armed forces,

Parvateshwar. Parvateshwar is not too deferential towards Shiva as others are as he

believes that respect can be earned only through merit. Shiva is told about the legend

of the Neelkanth. It says that a Neelkanth, who would not be from Sapt-Sindhu,

would appear and erase evil from society. Daksha interprets the legend to Shiva and

adds that the task of the Neelkanth is to destroy the evil Chandravanshis. The nature
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of the problem in the kingdom is explained to Shiva. Meluha produces Somras, a

life-enhancing potion, the administration of which keeps the Meluhans young and

healthy. For example, the age of King Daksha is one hundred and eighty four years

but he does not look more than thirty. One of the most important ingredients to make

Somras is the water of River Saraswati but the Chandravanshi kingdom Swadeep has

changed its course. Besides, they make frequent attacks on Meluhan temples and kill

Brahmins. Shiva is unsure about how he can be helpful as he is no miracle inducer

yet he consents to do everything in his power.

Shiva is also informed about the Meluhan society. In Meluha, all pregnant

women have to deliver their babies at a state hospital called Maika where the babies

are adopted by the government. After birth, the mother has to return without her

baby and the child’s identity is kept secret. All children receive the same education.

Later, they face a state examination at the age of fifteen that decides their caste. They

are divided into four sections or castes. Those who belong to the intellectual

profession i.e. doctors, teachers, scientists, etc. are called Brahmin, warriors and

rulers are called Kshatriyas, craftsmen, traders, and business people are called

Vaishyas and farmers and workers are called Shudras. One caste can not do the work

of another. Women can also be Kshatriyas. In every caste or section there are sub-

sections. One chooses a caste based on their merit. When children turn sixteen,

interested parents can apply for adoption from the same caste as their own and

whichever child fits in their caste is given to them. Later, the law is changed for the

royal families who can raise their own children. Satyadhwaj, Parvateshwar’s

grandfather, stood against this privilege among the royal families and vowed that

their family would never have any birth children thereafter. Thus, Parvateshwar is a

celibate.
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Shiva requests everyone to halt his public exhibition until he understands the

matter more clearly by touring the kingdom. He insists on travelling to Mount

Mandar, the place where Somras is manufactured.

Meanwhile, he meets Sati in the royal gardens where she practices dancing

with her teacher and her aide Krittika. Shiva too performs a mesmerising dance. In

their second meeting in the garden, Shiva accidently touches Sati while instructing

her in a dance move. Sati starts and tells Shiva to go through a Shudikaran, a

purification ceremony. Sati is a Vikarma. She became a widow ninety years ago. Her

first child was still-born and her husband Chandandhwaj died on the day the child

was born. In Meluha, if a person incurs an incurable disease or if a parent delivers a

still-born child, they are declared Vikarma. The Vikarmas can perform all activities

but they have to keep away from others as their touch is considered defiling.

Shiva, along with Nandi, Kanakhala and an entourage, reaches Mount

Mandar. He meets Brahaspati, the Chief Scientist, who treats Shiva as his brother

and explains to him the manufacturing process of Somras. The royal fellows also

arrive, bringing King Daksha, Queen Veerini and Princess Sati. When Shiva is

introduced to Sati during the royal dinner, the two are surprised. Parvateshwar is

against the relationship developing between Sati and Shiva but King Daksha is

happy.

King Daksha and General Parvateshwar stay behind at Mount Mandar while

Shiva, along with Sati and Veerini, returns. During the return journey, they are

attacked by the same hooded men and his aides. Shiva repels the attack bravely.

Though the purpose of the attack seems to kidnap the Princess, King Daksha

considers it a terrorist attack and credits Shiva for foiling it.

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Shiva’s appearance as Neelkanth is made public in a grand exhibition

ceremony. Shiva’s tribe is also shifted to Devagiri at Shiva’s request. His childhood

friend Bhadra joins him. Bhadra has earned the title of “Veer” i.e. “brave” and he is

now called Veerbhadra. He has earned the title because he saved a caravan leader

from a tiger attack single-handedly. Shiva starts the state visit with Sati, Nandi,

Veerbhadra, Parvateshwar, Ayurvati, Brihaspati and others.

The hooded figure is tailing Shiva with his assistants. While crossing River

Beas, they witness a crocodile that attacks a woman. The hooded figure rescues the

woman at the risk of his life. When another woman sees the Naga taking the woman

out of the water soaked in blood, she thinks that the Naga is eating the woman alive.

She runs and comes across Shiva’s group with the plea to save the woman. Shiva

and Parvateshwar rush to the spot. They see the corpse of the dead crocodile and are

baffled as to why the Naga risked his life to save an ordinary woman.

Shiva’s entourage reaches Kotdwaar where the entire population of sixty-five

thousand people has gathered to witness the appearance of Neelkanth. Here, Shiva

sees a blind man who can get hurt in the melee and asks the authorities to let him in.

As he is a Vikarma, he can’t touch Shiva so Shiva himself touches the feet of the old

man and asks for blessings. This breach of law in public enrages Parvateshwar but he

doesn’t say anything. Shiva refuses undergoing any purification ceremony and

rejects the discriminatory social rule.

They cross Mohan Jo Daro. He visits a temple and the Pandit explains to him

the utility of the Vikarma Law. He says that if a person is made to believe that he

himself is responsible for his bad condition, he would blame himself rather than
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others and so his rage born from his frustration would not affect the society. He

advises Shiva to respect Sati and stand by her if he wants to win her.

Then they come to Karachapa. Its Governor, Jhooleshwar, organises a yajna,

a ceremonial fire sacrifice. Tarak, an ultra-conservative loudmouth objects to Sati’s

presence. Sati is not present on the platform where the yajna is taking place but is

away in a house built on the same citadel. Sati volunteers to leave the city-walls but

Tarak insults her. Enraged, Sati challenges him to Agnipariksha, a duel fought inside

the ring of fire until either of the two dies or succumbs. Though Parvateshwar wants

to fight on Sati’s behalf as she is his god-daughter and Brahaspati is willing to

privately assassin Tarak, Shiva supports Sati in her decision to fight for herself and

aids her with a clever strategy. The next day, Sati wins the duel and extends amnesty

to Tarak.

While Shiva’s convoy is passing through Karachapa, a village named Koonj

faces a terrorist attack by around five hundred Chandravanshi soldiers led by five

Nagas. Shiva boosts the morale of his soldiers and the villagers and they rush to

confront the attackers. They thwart the raid but Sati is injured by a poisonous arrow.

The arrow was fired at Shiva but she threw herself in the line of fire to save him. The

Agni Ban or poisonous fire arrow has no remedy and no one has escaped death

induced by its fever. Everyone loses hope except Shiva. Sati, perceiving that she is

on her deathbed, confesses her love for Shiva. Somras doesn’t have healing faculties

but in the case of Shiva it had healed him so he insists its administration to Sati.

Miraculously, Sati is healed too. The king and the queen rush to the spot. Before

Shiva can say anything, King Daksha offers Sati’s hand to Shiva. Shiva lays down a

condition that the Vikarma Law must be abolished. Daksha wants to remove the law

only for Vikarma women like Sati who give birth to still-born children but Shiva
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demands its complete abolition. Though Daksha is not happy about it, he accedes.

Parvateshwar is satisfied with Shiva’s decision as Lord Ram had mandated equal law

for everyone so if a law has to repeal, it must be repealed for everyone.

A seven day marriage ceremony takes place. Veerbhadra too marries Krittika.

On the sixth day, Brihaspati leaves for Mount Mandar as he has to conduct certain

experiments. On the seventh day, Mount Mandar explodes. The dead bodies are too

charred to be identified. Shiva finds the half-burnt pendant of the hooded figure on

the spot. It makes Shiva furious.

According to protocol, Swadeep is sent a message to surrender the terrorists

but they deny any knowledge of it. Meluha begins to prepare for the war. The

Meluhan army is outnumbered by the Swadeep army as Meluha has only one

hundred thousand soldiers against Swadeep’s one million soldiers. Yet, on the

strength of Shiva’s strategy, the proficient leadership of Parwateshwar and the valour

of the army, Meluha registers an enormous victory. In the war, Shiva does not

remain a bystander but is an active participant. This act wins him absolute deference

from Parvateshwar. In the battle, Drapaku, a Vikarma whose father’s feet was

touched by Shiva, is also allowed to raise an army of Vikarma soldiers. The five

thousand Vikarma soldiers play a decisive role in gaining the victory.

Shiva and Parvateshwar are anxious over the righteousness of the battle as no

Naga is found in the army of Swadeep. King Daksha is overjoyed as he has now

become the sovereign of both Meluha and Swadeep. He boasts that now they will

teach their superior ways to the people of Swadeep. It is found that Swadeep also

believes in the legend of the Neelkanth and Princess Aanandmayi claims that Shiva

has to be on their side and fight the evil Suryavanshis.

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The motto of the Chandravanshi is “Shringar, Saundarya, Swatantrata” i.e.

“Passion, Beauty, Freedom.” When Shiva enters the city, he tries to assure himself

that it may be the unruly and poor living standard of the Chandravanshis that is evil

but he is disillusioned. An old, shrivelled beggar happily insists with Shiva to share

his food. He realises that a nation where even the beggars have dignity cannot be

evil. Shiva goes to the temple and while returning, he finds the same Naga stalking

Sati. The Immortals of Meluha, the first book in the Shiva Trilogy, comes to an end

at this point.

4:2: Setting of The Immortals of Meluha

The setting of the novel is 1900 BC i.e. the later phase of the Indus Valley or

Saraswati Civilization. Though the novel doesn’t directly refer to the civilization yet

there are references that suggest the setting. The name Meluha in the title has its

association with the Indus Valley Civilization. In Mesopotamians documents, written

in Sumerian language, the place Meluḫḫa or Melukhkha is referred to as one of their

prominent trade partners. On the basis of the location of Meluḫḫa or Melukhkha,

scholars identify it with the Indus Valley Civilization. 1

The structure of the Meluhan cities also matches the city planning in the

Indus Valley Civilization. For example, the city of Srinagar is erected upon a

massive citadel built of earth and surrounded by fort walls. It has a height of around

five meters and size of around a hundred hectares. Such brilliant architecture is an

effective safeguard against floods and enemies. Inside the fort wall, the city is a well-

planned urban settlement with residential areas, market areas, temples, gardens,

meeting halls, etc. Houses are simple multi-storey buildings in block structures.

There are roads and underground drainage facilities. Though the city is clean,
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ordered and affluent yet everything is in sobriety, nothing is flamboyant or

extravagant. The houses are painted in sombre colours like grey, blue and white.

Houses of the rich and the poor can be differentiated not by their design but by the

size of the block. All the cities of Meluha are identical. All these features were found

in the cities of the Indus Valley Civilization.

In Srinagar, Shiva’s tribe is kept in a three-storey building and given separate

living quarters for each family. Each room is furnished with luxurious furniture,

mirror, bed, mattress, linen bed-sheet, and clothes. The Gunas see cotton clothes for

the first time in their lives. In the bathroom, there is underground drainage system,

taps for water, wash-basin, and soap. All these facilities are novelties for the Gunas

and they find it magical. Cotton clothes, the underground drainage system and

identical buildings with roads around them were the features also of the Indus Valley

Civilization. Amish supplements the features with his own additions, borrowed from

the Vedic civilization to the modern day civilization.

4:3: Magic Realism and Mythology

Mythology is a collection of mythic stories that certain people believe in, in

spite of the fact that there may be no concrete evidence to prove it. One of the central

features of the mythic story is its supernatural, unreal or magical elements. These

elements are blended so flawlessly in the narrative that they appear quite natural. The

feature of the flawless appearance of magical elements in the narrative in a way so

that it seems quite natural and real is termed “Magic Realism.” The German art critic

Franz Roh is credited with introducing the term in the 1920s. It has been the

narrative preferences of many modern writers. A difference between myth and magic

realism is that the setting must be the real world in the latter. 2 Myths are stories
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based sometimes on facts and sometimes not at the time of their creation but they

gain credence with the passage of time, dependent up on a community’s beliefs.

The series, the Shiva Trilogy, uses the narrative style of magic realism. The

whole story moves around an elixir called Somras. As Somras is a mythological

potion with which the majority of Indian readers are acquainted; its existence is

convincing, especially with the author’s selection of the setting which is 1900 BC.

The antiquity of setting makes it more credible.

In the novel, Somras is presented as an invention. It is manufactured

regularly. In mythology, Somras is the drink of immortality while in the novel

Somras expands life expectancy. Its intake keeps people healthy and young only as

long as people consume it. Once its consumption is stopped, they age and die.

The novel mentions that its manufacturing needs a number of things but the

two major ingredients are the bark of the Sanjeevini tree and the water of River

Saraswati. Mrita Sanjivani, Vishalya Karani, Suvarna Karani, and Sandhani roots are

mentioned in the Sarga 74 of the Yuddha Kanda (Book of War) of the Ramayana. 3

The depredation of the water of the river is one of the bones of contention between

the two kingdoms in the novel.

The distribution centres of Somras in Meluha are being destroyed and the

priests or Brahmins responsible for the final processing of Somras before its

distribution are being killed in terrorist attacks. The terrorists contain the Nagas and

Chandravanshi soldiers although Swadeep denies any involvement.

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The main centre of manufacturing is Mount Mandar. In the legend of the

churning of the ocean, Mount Mandar is used as a churning rod. 4 (verse 18, Sarga

45, Bala Kanda)

4:4: Mythopoeia and Mythic Archetypes in The Immortals of Meluha

Mythic fiction uses mythic archetypes extensively. Archetypes are a

collectively conceived and accepted prototypal example of something that may be a

character, a symbol, a statement, pattern of behavior, an idea, an image, etc. that is

regarded as the basic or most primitive example of something and creates a canon of

its own. John Gallagher, in his article, “Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious

and Complexes,” defines archetypes in the following manner:

An archetype is a recognizable theme, pattern, circumstance, image, motif,

etc. which reoccurs in human culture and experience. Archetypes of the

collective consciousness are symbols and images which reoccur in dreams,

myths, religion, literature, drama, poetry, film, and television, etc. in all

cultures throughout the world. They may appear slightly differently, clothed

in personal and cultural associations, but their forms originate from the

collective unconscious.5

In the same article, he refers to the Jungian definition of archetype:

Archetypes are, by definition, factors and motifs that arrange the psychic

elements in to certain images, characterized as archetypal.6

Archetypes find their place in collective consciousness through the tool of

repetition. They find place in the consciousness in accordance with the belief system

of a certain culture of a certain society inhabiting a certain geographical area.

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Especially through the oral narrative repeated day to day and from generation to

generation it gets deeply imbibed in one’s psychological make-up and webs of the

correlative narratives of the prototypes and their archetypes. Channelized from

prototype to archetype, it undergoes considerable alterations so that in time an

archetype turns into another prototype. It is a continuous process. For example, the

genealogical evidences of the Shiva cult are traced as far back as the Indus Valley

Civilization and are found through the Vedic period to the present one. These

evidences are found in archeological findings, monuments and in literature. The

philosophy, theory and story around Lord Shiva, popular in our age, is not the same

as it had been years ago. A complex blend has emerged out of the Shaivite texts like

Shaiva Agamas, Shaiva Puranas, and Shaiva Upanishads along with the folk lore and

oral narratives. With the passage of time, the attributes, beliefs, manifestations,

nomenclature, and rituals involving and revolving around the Shiva cult have

changed considerably, with numerous additions and omissions in the preceding

beliefs. It has moulded the current convictions of the Shiva cult or Shaivism. Rather

than focusing on its genealogy, this research work focuses on the dominant and

accepted norms of the Shiva cult in our times and the application of these norms by

Amish in his fiction.

4:4:1: Shiva

Shiva, the protagonist of the mythic fiction series Shiva Trilogy is a human

prototype of the god, Lord Shiva, of Hindu mythology. In the novel, Shiva is a

human with godly characteristics traditionally attributed to Lord Shiva. Shiva is

framed with the perceptible physical and intrinsic characteristic features of Lord

Shiva although the inherent traditional meaning associated with the attributes differ

in the novel. As Indians, especially Hindus, are already acquainted with most of the
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aspects of Lord Shiva, the character in the novel appears mystical, assimilating the

earthly and the celestial.

Lord Shiva is one of the three prime deities in the Hinduistic concept of

cosmology. The three prime deities are Brahma, the Creator, Vishnu, the Preserver

and Mahesh or Shiva, the Destroyer. The three prime deities are the three

manifestation of One Supreme God. Shiva, the Destroyer, is regarded as the

destroyer of all things evil. In Amish’s work, the character Shiva is made to perform

the role of the destroyer of evil. Amish has turned the function of Brahma-Vishnu-

Shiva into an earthly management institution where Brahma, Vishnu and Mahadev

or Shiva are not celestial gods but humans with designated posts of the same name,

selected by an institution.

In the Shiva Trilogy, Amish has created mythopoeia, aligning the trinity

concept of god in Hinduism. In his fiction, Brahma, Vishnu and Mahadev are titles

given to persons through a rigorous selection process conducted by earthly

institutions whose task is to maintain balance in society. Amish creates the myth that

at periodic intervals, Brahma creates a good i.e. an invention for the benefit of

human beings. Its goodness is preserved by the institution of the Vishnu. Due to the

covetousness for overexploitation, goodness turns into evil and then a Mahadev is

made to emerge through the institution of the Vayuputras to destroy the evil.

In the Shiva Trilogy, Brahma has created Somras, an elixir that increases the

life span of the drinker. The people of Meluha have been enjoying the privileges of

the elixir for ages. They lead a happy and sophisticated life. Over time, its mass

production has resulted into inducing lethal side effects to some. The nature of the

evil is revealed gradually as it is Shiva’s task to discover and eradicate it. The novel
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asserts that it has always remained a great challenge to all previous Mahadevs to

ascertain the nature of evil. All other evils are automatically confronted and

eradicated. In the beginning of the series, Somras is presented as the greatest good

that turns out to be the greatest evil by the end of the series. The invention has been

preserved for centuries by the institution of Vasudev or Vishnu. As the goodness of

the invention has now turned into evil due to mass production for many, Shiva or

Mahadev has to emerge to destroy it. He is rumoured to be a Neelkanth, a person

with blue throat. The novel suggests that this person would not come from Sapt-

Sindhu i.e. the lands of the Chandravanshis and the Suryavanshis. It is foretold that

as soon as the designated god or Mahadev drinks Somras, his throat would turn blue.

In this novel, the name of Mahadev is Shiva. Traditionally, among the one hundred

and eight names attributed to Mahadev, Shiva is one, so the readers can easily

identify the connection between the two. In mythic fiction, a writer uses

nomenclature as a bridge between the existing myth and the mythopoeia that the

writer creates. In the first novel, the throat turning blue seems mystifying but in the

sequels, a scientific and reasoned outlook is presented to explain the occurrence. In

spite of scientific explanations provided in the later parts of the series, Amish leaves

a lot of questions unanswered that make Shiva a mystifying character. The novel

begins at the point of time when the emergence of Neelkanth is badly needed.

In an interview by Anupama Krishna kumar for Sparks magazine, Amish

claims and explains four Indian concepts of God. The first two concepts are the

doctrines of ‘Saguna Brahman’ and ‘Nirguna Brahman.’ This philosophy was

consolidated through Advaita Vedanta, expounded by Adi Sankaracharya, an Indian

philosopher and theologian. The period of Adi Sankaracharya is debated.

Traditionally, 788 AD is considered to be the birth year of Adi Sankaracharya while

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Theosophists and the followers of Adi Sankaracharya assert his birth year to be 509

BC. Dr. Surendra Pathak, in his article “Adi Shankaracharya: Contributions and

Influences on Sanatana Dharma and Indian Culture,” writes in this reference:

Jayendra Saraswati, head of the Kancheepuram Mutt in Tamil Nadu, also

said the Kanchi Mutt and four other hermitages at Dwarka, Sringeri, Puri,

and Badri insist that Adi Shankara was born in 509 BC and not 788 AD. He

elaborated on two major evidences supporting the pre-Christian era theory —

one that all the four mutts have had more than 70 pontiffs and, second, a

scientific carbon dating of the river Kaladi in Kerala proved that it flowed

just around 2,500 years ago.7

“Saguna” means “with attributes” and “Nirguna” means “without any

attribute.” The concept of “Saguna Brahman” refers to personified manifestation of

God i. e. factual, while the concept of ‘Nirguna Brahman’ symbolises a god that is

beyond any confined boundaries of shape, description and concept. The “Saguna”

form of God is a means to understand and attain the “Nirguna.” In their article, “Is

Sankara a Philosopher, Theologian or a Social Reformer?”, Dr. P. I. Devaraj and Dr.

Syamala K. explain the concept:

Saguna Brahman and Nirguna Brahman are not separate or two Brahmans.

The same Brahman appears as saguna Brahman for the worship of the

devotees; it is the same Truth from two different points of view. Nirguna

Brahman is the highest Brahman from transcendental view point

(paramathika); the saguna Brahman is from the relative view point

(vyavahaika). The Supreme Truth is that Brahman which is non-dual and

relation less.8
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Amish explains the third and the fourth concept of God. According to him,

the third concept is the concept of Avatar i.e. incarnation of God on earth as human.

The fourth concept is the human who raises himself to a god-like level e.g. Gautama

Buddha, Jesus Christ, etc. They attained godhood by attaining Supreme Knowledge.

The third and the fourth concept of godhood, as explained by Amish, can be aligned

with the ‘Saguna Brahman’. Conceptually, both ideas of God are identical. Both the

third and the fourth concept of God speak of a human who is revered as God. The

only difference is that the fourth concept has historical evidence and the third has

not. When a certain manifestation is beyond the boundaries of history, bereft of valid

evidences or retained with conflicting evidences, it is considered mythical. In Indian

mythology, Lord Ram, Lord Krishna, etc. are hailed as the incarnations of God on

the earth. Similarly, Gautama Buddha, Christ, etc. are also revered as the incarnation

of the Almighty. The lack of historical evidences has not reduced the validity of the

incarnations. On the contrary, it makes it more sacrosanct. Very few changes are

made to the prevailing myth. However, if one is reincarnated as a human, it must

have a historical back story. The telling and retelling of such stories have always

appeared with considerable changes, depending on the author’s imagination. Amish

does the same with the myth of Lord Shiva in his fiction series, Shiva Trilogy. The

unique aspect of his story is that rather than sticking to the traditional story line, he

has changed it completely. He has altered the story of the mythic incarnation of Lord

Shiva into a human incarnation. He creates mythopoeia i.e. an entirely new story

with traditional mythic archetypes. He fuses the new story with the ages old myth,

beliefs, symbols, and the topology and gives it a modern outlook through

rationalisation and a scientific approach. The way he remoulds it, helps his story

maintain both the elements of mysticism and scientific scrutiny.

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Amish has turned the mythical Lord Shiva into an historical Shiva whose

action raises him to the level of God. In mythology, Lord Shiva dispels evil because

he is the God. On the contrary, in the novel, Shiva becomes a god because he fights

to dispel evil. Amish has explained this concept through the character Shiva when he

invokes the people to rise against the evil. He says, “A man becomes a Mahadev

(Shiva) when he fights for good. A Mahadev is not born as one from his mother’s

womb. He is forged in the heat of battle, when he wages a war to destroy evil.”9

Through the series, Amish gradually unveils the attributes of Lord Shiva in

the character Shiva. In book one of the series, The Immortals of Meluha, Amish has

taken certain attributes of Lord Shiva and redefined it in a way to fit it in the story

and for shaping the character Shiva. The story elements of Lord Shiva, redefined in

The Immortals of Meluha, are Mount Kailash, marijuana, Gunas, Nandi, Tiger Cloth,

Dance, role of the dispeller of evil, unflinching love for Sati, the symbol ‘Aum’,

Neelkanth, Nataraja, Trident, Drum, Rosary beads, intense anger, and compassion.

Traditionally, the abode of Lord Shiva is Mount Kailash where he resides

with his tribe, the Gunas. Geographically, Mount Kailash is a high peak in the

Kailash Range near the Manasarovar Lake. It is a mountain range on the Tibetan

Plateau in China. In the novel, Shiva is a Tibetan tribe leader of the tribe Gunas. The

mythical Ganas of Lord Shiva have been turned into Gunas in the fiction series.

In the beginning of the novel, Shiva is twenty-one years old. He has a lithe,

muscular body, with numerous battle scars. He smokes marijuana, a mountain weed,

and dresses himself in a tiger skin skirt. Marijuana smoked in a chillum is a later

addition in the attributes of Lord Shiva. It is the popular folk belief that Lord Shiva

takes marijuana to sustain himself because he resides on Mount Kailash where the
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temperatures are freezing. In the novel, the habit of smoking the weed is neither

applauded nor condemned although Brahaspati, the Chief Scientist of Meluha, once

warns Shiva of its side effects. He points out that the worst side-effect is that it

“harms … memory, causing untold damage to … ability to draw on past

knowledge.”10 It is a side-effect caused by the weed. Shiva asserts cheekily that he

uses the weed to enjoy its side-effect. He says, “That is exactly why it is good, my

friend. No idiot who smokes this is scared of forgetting.” 11

The beginning of the novel sets Shiva as a being with a heroic personality.

He is on the alert as they are expecting an attack by an enemy tribe, the Pakratis. In

the early chapters of the book, Shiva’s physical description and actions present him

as a formidable warrior, as a person of strong character. A contingent has come from

Meluha, the richest and most powerful empire in India, led by its captain Nandi, to

invite the Gunas to immigrate to their land. Shiva muses perplexed when suddenly

he is reminded of a prophecy by his uncle. It says that his destiny is greater than the

massive mountains of the Himalayas and to attain it, Shiva will have to cross the

mountains. The prophecy declares, “Your destiny is much larger than these massive

mountains. But to make it come true, you will have to cross these very same massive

mountains.”12

In Gothic fiction, prophecies add to the element of mystery but here it adds

the element of both mystery and mysticism as the reader expects something

monumental. It happens because the mystic element is already related with the

mythological name of Lord Shiva and his attributes.

Shiva is lost in thoughts when he hears the sound of the conch shell which

signals an attack. He, his best friend Bhadra, and his men easily repel the attack.
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Nandi and his men were under vigil but they had managed to hide weapons in their

clothes and they too join the skirmish to help Shiva and his tribe. Though the

Pakratis are defeated and forced to retreat, they kill ten unarmed Guna women and

children. Shiva realises that the land they are living is not meant for civilized people

and that they never can avoid pointless battles. Though Shiva’s uncle had tried to

make peace and had even offered access to the shore of the lake to other tribes yet

his attempts to make peace were taken as his weakness and the battles continued.

Before taking any decision regarding the acceptance of the proposal of immigration

from Meluha, Shiva asks the opinion of his tribe members. According to the Guna

tradition, their chief makes all decisions for them and all hail in one voice that

Shiva’s decision is their decision. They depart.

It takes the Gunas five days to make arrangement for the passage. They know

that Yakhya, the Pakrati chief, would not allow them to go in peace. They are ready

to meet the attack and make arrangements accordingly. Shiva’s preparations provide

the first glimpses of his strategic expertise. He organises his camp in three concentric

circles of expendables i.e. animals, defenders i.e. men and vulnerables i.e. women

and children. When the Pakratis attack, they encounter a wall of animals that kick

them ferociously before they reach Guna’s men. Meluhan men too join in the fight.

The fighting styles of the Meluhans and the Gunas are quite different as the Gunas

follow no rules but Meluhans follows rules and avoid killing as much as possible. At

last, Yakhya is caught. Bhadra and the Gunas want Shiva to butcher him ruthlessly

but Nandi objects. He suggests that the Pakratis should be left alive as they are

begging for mercy and by giving amnesty, Gunas can prove themselves superior.

Shiva decides to forgive them. Nandi prays for Shiva to be the man they are

searching for: Shiva has the heart. He has the potential. Please let it be him. I pray to
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you Lord Ram, Let it be him.”13 The prophecy made by Shiva’s uncle, of a grand

future awaiting Shiva, and the words of Nandi foreshadow the upcoming events in

the narrative.

In popular folk culture, which is an amalgamation of numerous texts and folk

lores, Nandi is both bull and man. Amish has fashioned his fiction on conventional

belief and practices. As a man, Nandi is regarded as the head gate-keeper of Kailash

and as a bull, he is Lord Shiva’s vehicle. In both forms, he is considered intelligent,

an extremely devoted and close companion of Shiva. In folk culture, it is believed

that a prayer to Shiva is heard through Nandi. In all the Shiva temples, Nandi’s

statue as a bull stands outside the sanctum-sanctorum of Lord Shiva. Traditionally,

one propitiates the Shiva Lingam or the Shiva idol only after propitiating the Nandi

statue. Some people make a circle by putting the thumb and index finger on each of

the horns of Nandi and then peep through the gap between the horns to glimpse Lord

Shiva’s image in the sanctum-sanctorum. They also whisper their prayers into the

ears of the bull. This popular ritual is part of the popular culture associated with

Nandi. In the form of a human, the picture of Nandi in popular culture comes from

the exhibition of Puranic tales in motion pictures where Nandi is depicted as a person

with a bulky physique. The popular imagination of Nandi among the masses relates

to his massive build and the bull-like strength. Both these features have been

transposed by Amish into the character of the novel, Nandi. Rather than being a bull,

Nandi is a Meluhan captain who comes to Shiva with the proposal of immigration

from Meluha. Nandi of the novel has an “immense belly jiggling with every

breath.”14 He is obese yet has taut and toned skin with a child-like face. His obesity

is mocked by Shiva too. The trope of the bull is retained by Amish but with an

alternative explanation. In the novel, Nandi is not a bull but the totem of his tribe is a
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bull and so he wears an amulet inscribed with the image of the bull. Throughout the

novel, Nandi remains Shiva’s close companion. Their close relationship highlights

Shiva’s friendly nature. After arriving in Srinagar, a border province of Meluha,

when Nandi addresses Shiva as “sir,” Shiva insists on being called by his first name

and says, “I am your friend, not your Chief”15 although in protocol, Shiva is superior

to him. After Shiva’s revelation as Neelkanth, Nandi begins to refer to him as ‘My

Lord’ and turns deferential. Shiva’s treatment of him is still that of a friend. Later, at

Devagiri, before the King, Shiva requests the King to let Nandi be present in all their

audiences as he has been his companion since the beginning of the journey. In all the

exploits, Nandi stands close by Shiva. Shiva’s unfailing and unchanging behaviour

towards Nandi reveals Shiva’s consistency of a generous character.

Symbolically, Nandi refers to righteousness. It implies that Shiva rides on or

conducts with fairness. An Indian spiritual leader and the founder of the NGO the

Art of Living Foundation, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, in his lecture collection entitled

Understanding Shiva explains the symbolic interpretation of Nandi in the following

manner:

Bull has been used as a symbol of dharma (righteousness) from a long time,

throughout the world. Lord Shiva riding on the bull simply means that when

you are righteous and truthful, the infinite consciousness, the innocent

consciousness is with you.16

Traditionally, Shiva is portrayed wearing a skirt made of tiger-skin. There are

different explanations, stories and symbolic interpretations of the tiger-skin clothing

of Shiva. One of the most famous explanations comes from one of the Shiva Purana

stories. According to it, as an ascetic, Shiva has no qualms about worldly life and he
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wanders bare-bodied. Once he passes through a forest where many saints dwell with

their families. Shiva’s bare body mesmerises the women in the village and he

becomes the cause of their distraction. However, Shiva is not aware of it. Enraged,

the sages decide to teach him a lesson. They dig a pit and throw Shiva in along with

a tiger. Shiva kills the tiger, skins it and wears the skin to cover his body. Thus, the

tiger-skin symbolises “the victory of the divine force over animal instincts.”17 It also

turns Shiva into a god, “who emerged victorious in the battle and forever let such

forces [be] curbed under his superior power.”18

The same story is explained by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy in his work “The

Dance of Shiva.” In this story, the Rishis of Taragram Forest were the followers of

Mimamsa. They didn’t acknowledge the divinity of Shiva and tried to destroy him.

They created a fierce tiger with the power of the sacrificial fire and sent it to Shiva

but instead of getting affected by it, Shiva “smiling gently, … seized it and, with the

nail of his little finger, stripped off its skin, and wrapped it about himself like a

silken cloth.”19 Next, they sent a monstrous serpent that Shiva “seized and wreathed

about His throat like a garland.”20 Then a monster, a malignant dwarf, Muyalaka,

was sent. “Upon him the God pressed the tip of His foot, and broke the creature’s

back, so that it writhed upon the ground”21 and Lord Shiva resumed his cosmic

dance.

There are many other versions and interpretations of the same story.

According to one of the interpretations in oral culture, the pit is an intrigue and the

tiger is temptations of worldliness sent to distract his asceticism by arousing carnal

and sensory desires. Suppression of the tiger by Lord Shiva in no time symbolises

his unflinching stoicism. Thus, the wearing of the tiger-skin represents the

suppression of any kind of animal desire. However, in the novel, the tiger-skin cloth
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of Shiva is not treated in a significant manner although in the beginning of the novel,

Shiva is shown putting on the tiger-skin, which makes the reader connect his

character with the mythic Shiva. In the novel, Shiva uses a tiger-skin because his

tribe has not developed the cotton cloth. After reaching Meluha, he removes his

tiger-skin skirt and wears cotton clothes styled in the fashion of the Meluhan culture.

After coming to Srinagar, the capital city of Kashmir, a Meluhan state in the

novel, Shiva’s tribe is kept in quarantine in temporary quarters to preclude chances

of bringing in any infection. The Gunas are administered certain medicines on their

first day at Srinagar. The whole community, except Shiva, falls ill and gets fever due

to the medicine. Lady Ayurvati, the head doctor of Meluha, and her team, handle the

situation professionally. One of the medicines turns his throat blue. In mythology,

Lord Shiva gets a blue throat because he holds poison in it.

Shiva is regarded as “Neelkanth.” “Neel” means “blue” and “kanth” means

“throat.” Thus, “Neelkanth” means “one with a blue throat.” In mythology, Shiva is

Neelkanth because his throat holds “halahal” or the poison that came out of the

“Samudra Manthan” or the churning of the ocean. The story of the churning of the

ocean appears in several texts such as Bhagavata Purana, the Mahabharata, the

Ramayana, Shiva Purana, and Vishnu Purana. In some literatures, the story is

explained, in others only references are made. For example, in the Ramayana,

Shiva’s blue throat is mentioned in Chapter thirty-six of Bal-Kand when

Vishwamitra is narrating the legend of Kartikeya to Ram and Lakshman. He refers to

Shiva as “f'kfrd.Bks egkrik% (shitikantho mahaatapaah)”22 which means the

sublime-ascetic and bluish throated Lord Shiva.

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The ocean is churned to get “amrita,” the drink of immortality. Before

yielding nectar, the ocean yields poison. No one is capable of controlling the poison

that would otherwise destroy the whole creation. Lord Shiva is invoked and he

consumes and retains it in his throat. It turns his throat blue. He doesn’t let the

poison affect either his body or mind. Symbolically, it presents Lord Shiva as a stoic

entity, one whom even poison cannot affect. The devotees of Shiva draw a lesson

from this mythic tale, to become one who doesn’t let his mind or body be affected by

different poisonous elements or evil in the world and acts objectively and fairly.

Amish has also used the symbolic meaning of the myth in making the

character of Shiva. In the novel, Shiva is surrounded by the evil present in the world.

He has to find it in order to eradicate it but he has not to let himself be affected by it.

In the novel, Shiva’s blue throat has no relation with any kind of poison, it is a

metaphor. Till almost the end of the third book in the series, the cause of the blue

throat remains a mystery. Later, it is explained through a quasi-scientific elucidation

through the device of magic realism.

In the novel, Shiva’s blue throat is the required and rumoured necessity for

his recognition as the incarnation of Mahadev. His blue throat turns everyone, from

the king to the commoner, deferential towards him. For example, Lady Ayurvati’s

initial attitude towards Shiva is formal but when she finds out that he has the blue

throat, her attitude changes into the servitude of a devotee. When she looks at the

blue throat, she is so shaken that her palm leaf book slips from her hand and spills on

the floor. She staggers to the wall and begins to shed tears copiously. She utters,

“My Lord! You have come! The Neelkanth has come!”23

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Nandi and Chitraangadh too display similar reactions with the former

uttering that their lord, Neelkanth, has come and the latter adding that now they are

saved. With this incident, new elements of mystery are introduced. This poses a few

questions for the readers, retaining suspense in the subsequent chapters e.g.: What is

this medicine? Why did the throat turn blue? Who actually is Shiva? Why have the

great dignitaries of the kingdom suddenly turned deferential and subservient towards

Shiva? Why do they need him to save them and from what? The interest of the

reader is held masterfully by the author in the early chapters and the answers are

revealed gradually in the succeeding ones.

As a deity, only Lord Shiva is manifested in both the ‘Saguna’ and ‘Nirguna’

forms. In the Nirguna form, he is portrayed as a lingam or phallus symbol.

According to Shiva Purana, “Siva alone is nishkaala, nameless and formless, as well

as sakaala, embodied. In his formlessness, he is worshipped as the linga.” 24 Adi

Shankaracharya, an Indian philosopher and theologian, in one of his psalms,

‘Nirvana Shatakam,’ refers to Shiva as “fpnkuUn:i% (Chid-Aananda-Ruupah)”

which means “The Ever Pure Blissful Consciousness.”25

In his Saguna form, Shiva is depicted as an ascetic until Sati, Daksha’s

daughter, gains him for her husband. He is committed to Sati. When she commits

suicide, he avenges her and once again becomes an ascetic until she is reborn as

Parvati and through rigorous tapasya or meditation and worship, gets him as his

husband. Those stories are part of the Shiv Purana. In popular culture, these stories

are well-known. Through these stories, the Shiva-Sati and the Shiva–Parvati marital

love holds an idealistic state in Indian households. This ideal marital relation of
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Shiva-Sati is portrayed in the novel. In the novel, it is not Sati who has to strive to

get Shiva but the other way round. Also, Parvati is another name of Sati in the novel.

Goddess Sati, Lord Shiva’s consort, is regarded as Shakti, the centre of

universal power. Sati in the novel is a warrior. Thus, the motif of power is retained.

In texts like Shiva Purana, Vishnu Purana and Padma Purana, King Daksha is one

of the sons of Lord Brahma, the Creator of the World, and Sati is the youngest of his

daughters, begotten by his wife Prasuti or Veerini. As in the myth, Sati in the novel

is the daughter of King Daksha and Queen Veerini. In Amish’s work, King Daksha

is not Brahma’s son but of King Brahmanayak, the former King of Meluha. Both in

mythology and in the novel, King Daksha supports the match between Shiva and

Sati but later on, develops an intense dislike for Shiva which leads to Sati’s demise.

In retaliation, Shiva burns down the whole empire of Daksha. The reason and the

story behind the event in the myth and the novel are different. In book one of the

Shiva Trilogy, the story of the Shiva-Sati relationships is narrated up to the point of

Shiva courting and marrying Sati.

In the novel, Shiva falls in love with Sati at first sight even before knowing

who she is. His initial attempts to win Sati present him as a normal, twenty-one year

old immature lover boy, who is desperate to impress the object of his desire at any

cost. He fights for her, is desperate to know her name, dances for her, stands by her,

supports her, and does everything to win over her. Sati, on the contrary, cannot

reciprocate Shiva’s advancement as she is a Vikarma. Shiva fights against all odds

until he wins her heart and hand in marriage.

The depiction of Shiva as Nataraja i.e. the Lord of Dance, appears in Agama

literature such as the Anshumadbhed Agama and Uttarakamika Agama and in the
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temple engravings at the Ellora and Badami Caves.Traditionally, his dance is

referred to as the cosmic dance of the universe. Sharada Srinivasan in her article,

“Shiva as ‘Cosmic Dancer’: On Pallava Origins for the Nataraja Bronze,” refers to

the Tamil saint Manikkavachakar’s Tiruvachakam, dating between the 5th and the

9th century AD, to explain the philosophical concepts of the cosmic cycles of

creation and destruction associated with Nataraja: “…let us praise the Dancer

(kuttan) who in good Tillai’ shall dance with fire, who sports (vilaiyatu), creating,

destroying, this heaven and earth and all else.”26

Sharada Srinivasan in her article, “Cosmic Dance,” discusses quantum

physicist Fritjof Capra’s analysis of the interpretation of the cosmic dance of Shiva.

In his famous book, The Tao of Physics (1974), he writes:

For the modern physicists . . . Shiva’s dance is the dance of subatomic

matter. As in Hindu mythology, it is a continual dance of creation and

destruction involving the whole cosmos . . . The metaphor of the cosmic

dance thus unifies ancient mythology, religious art, and modern physics . . . 27

The Tao of Physics argues that the dance of Shiva symbolises the whirl of

subatomic particles of which the cosmos is made. According to science, energy can

neither be created nor destroyed, only its form changes. Shiva’s cosmic dance is

described as setting energy into motion, thus setting the whole cosmic energy or

force into motion and creating a balance between matter and energy. Ananda K.

Coomaraswamy in his “The Dance of Shiva” argues that this dance is not static,

fixed in a particular point of time of past, present or future but dynamic: “Its deepest

significance is felt when it is realized that it takes place within the heart and the self.

Everywhere is God: that Everywhere is the heart.”28

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Coomaraswamy states that the dance symbolises the five-fold action of the

functioning of the universe. These functions are in relation with the cosmic function

starting from a creation to a re-creation. He states:

The dance, in fact, represents His five activities (Pancakritya), viz.: Shrishti

(overlooking, creation, evolution), Sthiti (preservation, support), Samhara

(destruction, evolution), Tirobhava (veiling, embodiment, illusion, and also,

giving rest), Anugraha (release, salvation, grace). These, separately

considered, are the activities of the deities Brahma, Vishnu, Rudra,

Maheshvara, and Sadashiva.29

This theory is manifested through the Nataraja statue i.e. the statue of the

Lord of Dance, in his dancing posture. In the Nataraja image, Lord Shiva is depicted

with four arms. His upper right hand holds a Damaru, a pellet drum, and his upper

left hand holds fire. His lower right hand is an abhaya mudra or reassuring gesture

of dance and the left hand is bent downwards from the wrist. The palm of the left

hand faces inwards, away from the viewers. It points towards the raised left foot. In

his postures of dance his legs are bent, the right foot rests on a malignant dwarf and

his left foot is upraised. He has braided hair. River Ganga emerges out of the locks

and the crescent moon rests on his bun of hair. His body is adorned with both men’s

and women’s ornaments. His scarf is pictured as fluttering and he wears the sacred

thread. He dances inside a circle of flames which symbolises the cosmic energy that

rotates into motion with the dance.

In the novel, Shiva meets Sati accidently in the royal gardens where she is

practicing dance in the company of Krittika under the tutelage of Guruji or teacher.

Shiva, in order to impress Sati, performs a dance with the same posture as shown in
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the traditional Nataraja statue. His dance is so mesmerising and perfect that Guruji

calls him Nataraja. Again, the Shiva of the novel is not the Lord of Dance or

Nataraja because he is a god but because he performs a lordly dance. He is referred

to as Nataraja. The central motif associated with the Nataraja Dance is the theory of

Cosmic Energy. This motif is retained in the novel. Shiva, in the novel, claims that

the Nataraja pose aligns his energy with the universal energy so that the dance

emerges of its own.

In Hindu religious philosophies, the sound ‘Aum’ or ‘Om’ is regarded as the

holiest of the sound. It is regarded as the primordial sound of the universe. In their

article, “Scientific Analysis of Aum Mantra in Knowing Self,” Manish Kumar

Dwivedi and Prof. S. K. Singh have explained the significance of the sound. They

have mentioned how the different Vedas and Upanishads refer to the sound ‘Aum’ as

the sound of God itself.30 Simon Heather, in his article, “Om – The Primordial

Sound” explains different interpretations commonly associated with the sound. In

one of the interpretations, the sound is aligned with the trinity concept of God:

“When taken letter by letter, A-U-M represents the divine energy (Shakti) united in

its three elementary aspects: Brahma Shakti (creation), Vishnu Shakti (preservation)

and Shiva Shakti (liberation, and/or destruction).”31

Timothy Burgin, in his article, “Unlocking the Mystery of OM,” describes

the importance of the sound in Yoga. He refers to Yoga Sutra of Patanjali that claims

that the sound ‘OM’ is the direct path to enlightenment: “The repetition of the sound

of Om, along with a deep contemplation of the meaning of what it represents, brings

both the realization of the individual Self (Atman) and the removal of obstacles that

normally block this realization.”32

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All these articles refer to the Mandukya Upanishad to explain what the

articulated sound of the symbol stands for. The Mandukya Upanishad mentions that

‘AUM’ or ‘OM’ has four sounds. First is ‘A’, second is ‘U’, third is ‘M’ and the

fourth is the silence after it. It is A+U+M+silence. These four states refer to the four

different states of consciousness. The sound A, U, and M represent the conscious

waking state, the unconscious dream state, and the subconscious deep sleep state

respectively. The fourth sound of the AUM represents absolute consciousness. It

pervades and illuminates the prior states of the sound. Manish Kumar Dwivedi and

Prof. S. K. Singh refer to the Mandukya Upanishad from verse 9 to 12 that mention

the fourfold etymological meaning of the sound AUM:

The first element of “Aum” is A, means Apti (obtaining, reaching) or from

Adimatva (being first). The second element is U, which is from Utkarsa

(exaltation) or from Ubhayatva (intermediateness). The third element is M,

from Miti (erecting, constructing) or from Mi Minati, or apīti (annihilation).

The fourth is without an element, without development, beyond the expanse

of universe.33

In Hinduism, all mantras or chanting (not verses) starts with the sound AUM

but the sound is most well-known for its association with the five syllable mantra

“AUM Namah Shivaya” where “Namah” means “salutation” and “Shivaya” refers to

Shiva. Thus, the sound has its unbound affinity with Lord Shiva.

The brain can be stimulated to enter a specific state with the use of a pulsing

sound, light or electromagnetic field through the method called “Brainwave

entrainment.” It can push the entire state into a specific state like a trance, enhanced

focus, relaxation, meditation, etc.34 Contzen Pereira in his article “A Comparative

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Study of Frequencies of a Buddhist Mantra – Om Mani Padme Hum and a Hindu

mantra – Om Namah Shivaya” presents a finding that shows that while chanting the

mantra “OM Na Ma Shiva Yah,” the lower frequency is 99.3 Hz that goes to the

higher frequency of 820.7 Hz. He mentions that the 639 Hz frequency, which is also

called Relationship Harmonization Frequency, is “used by healers and meditators on

individuals to enhance communication, understanding, tolerance, and love”35 and the

800-825 Hz range of frequencies “has been used in healing techniques for a person

for communication with the awareness of the spiritual order.” 36 He mentions the

results of Chanting OM in the mantras:

Chanting the OM in these mantras has a direct impact with the gamma wave

patterns of the brain which have shown 95T increased mental

activity/cognitive enhancement, freedom from distractibility, high levels of

info-processing, learning and focus, high short-term memory ability, and

migraine prevention.37

Due to the popularity of the mantra, its association with Lord Shiva is well-

recognised in popular culture. Amish has retained the symbol but with a completely

different interpretation that aligns it with the story of the novel.

Though there are many interpretations of the symbolic value of the word

AUM yet no mythology explains how this sound appeared in its written form. Amish

invents a myth for it. In the novel, Amish has created the myth of the ages long

enmity between two dynasties: the Chandravanshi and the Suryavanshi. In the novel

too, ‘AUM’ is regarded as the holiest sound but its manifestation in the written form

‘ॐ’ in Devanagari script is described as a result of a political alliance between the

two dynasties.
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In iconography, Lord Shiva is depicted with three eyes; two normal eyes and

a third, vertical eye. In mythology, Lord Shiva opens his third eye when he is angry

with someone and the ire of Shiva from the third eye scorches that person. In Puranic

tales, when Kamdev, the God of Love and Desire, hurls his arrows at Shiva, he

opens his third eye and Kamdev turns into ashes. In yoga, the third eye or Ajna is

equated with the sixth Chakra or vortex. The other Chakras are Root Chakra

(Muladhara), Sacral Chakra (Swadhisthana), Solar Plexus Chakra (Manipura), Heart

Chakra (Anahata), Throat Chakra (Vishuddha), and Crown Chakra (Sahasrara). 38 In

the yogic practices of Hinduism and Buddhism, Chakras are regarded as central

spiritual points. It is conceived that the Chakras are the points where spiritual forces

and bodily functions interact with each other. According to Yogic science, there are

88,000 Chakras in the human body with seven important one. These Chakras inhabit

the body from bottom to top.39

In the iconography of Lord Shiva, the third eye is symbolic. Two sensory

eyes can see the physical things but not the abstract. As Lord Shiva is an ascetic, he

is stoic and can perceive and repel evil abstractions that can easily affect others. 40

Thus, the third eye is symbolic of stoicism.

In the novel, the physical third eye is simply a deep red mark “on Shiva’s

forehead, right between his eyes.”41 In mythology, Lord Shiva’s third eye stands for

his divinity and stoicism. In the novel, the third eye is in the process of

materialisation, indicating Shiva’s attainment of the status of godhood under process.

Traditionally, Lord Shiva is portrayed as a god who is both calm and fierce.

He is portrayed in a meditation posture along with his wife. In mythic literatures and

folk lore, he is described as the god who is easy to please, compassionate to all and
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who has no prejudice against his devotees. He acts fiercely to every injustice. In the

novel, these features of Lord Shiva’s character have been transposed on the character

Shiva through many incidents. For Shiva to marry Sati, the law regarding

untouchability has to be rejected. King Daksha wants only a part of the law to be

scrapped so that it would allow his daughter to marry Shiva but Shiva does away

with it completely. There are soldiers who had earlier been declared as untouchables.

Shiva allows them to raise an army, countering the averseness of many who are still

stuck with the prejudice.

From the beginning of the novel, there are incidents of skirmishes,

encounters, battles, and a war that portray Shiva as a fierce warrior with strategic

brilliance. The encounter while returning from Mount Mandar is foiled due to

Shiva’s shrewd observation of the opponents’ strategy. Though King Daksha refers

to it as a terrorist attack, Shiva insists that it was an attempt to kidnap the royal

family. When Shiva’s caravan is crossing Village Koonj, the village is under attack

by five hundred Chandravanshi soldiers led by five Nagas. The soldiers and the

villagers are scared due to the presence of the Nagas but Shiva boosts their morale

and readies them for battle. The Nagas were supposed to be used by the

Chandravanshis. It is Shiva who observes that the Nagas are the leaders. Later, in the

war against Swadeep, the kingdom of the Chandravanshis, the whole war strategy is

formulated by Shiva. The trident is his weapon. In the novel, the narrative has been

retained. The trident is shown as an invention by Shiva during the war. He doesn’t

act like a bystander like King Daksha but fights alongside Parvateshwar. After

winning the battle, when they find no Nagas in the Chandravanshi army, Shiva

instantly withdraws from victory celebrations and engages himself in finding out the

truth.
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The story of this novel continues in the other two novels of the series where

other features and characteristics of Lord Shiva are transported to Shiva that make

Shiva an archetype of the Lord Shiva.

4:4:2 Sati

In mythology, Sati is the youngest daughter of King Daksha Prajapati, the

son of Lord Brahma, Creator of the Universe, and his wife Prasuti or Veerini. She is

Lord Shiva’s first wife.

According to Puranic stories, she is Adishakti, the supreme goddess. King

Daksha and his wife wanted the goddess to be their daughter. At Lord Brahma’s

suggestion, they undertook rigorous worshipping and penance to have her incarnated

as their daughter. Brahma wanted Adishakti to marry Shiva so that Shiva could be

turned from being an ascetic into a householder. In this way, the process of creation

could start. Adishakti agreed to be born on the condition that she should never be

insulted. After being born as Daksha’s daughter, she is named Sati. As was destined

and planned by Brahma, she marries Shiva. Initially, Daksha is neutral to the match

but later he becomes unhappy with it as he feels that he has lost his daughter to

Shiva. Once, when Daksha performs the Great Yajna, he does not invite Shiva and

Sati. Sati, believing that as a daughter she does not need an invitation, goes. Daksha

insults Shiva and feeling humiliated, Sati immolates herself. She forecasts that she

will be born again to a father whom she would respect. Later, she is reborn to

Hemavant or Parvateshwar, King of Mountains, and is known as Parvati. She

remarries Shiva and they have two sons, Kartikeya and Ganesh.

In the myth, Sati is born to wed Shiva but in the novel, Sati is born before

Shiva. In the beginning of the novel, Shiva is twenty-one years old while Sati is
 150

more than a hundred years old. She is a widow and Vikarma or untouchable. Her

first marriage was a political marriage that took place ninety years ago with

Chandandhwaj. She gave birth to a still-born child and her husband died on that very

day. Still, Sati looks young as she takes Somras, an elixir that keeps her youthful and

healthy.

In the novel, Sati has lived following all the duties assigned to a Vikarma.

She has been living a restricted life and undertaking the assigned penance without

fail for ninety years. The motif of penance is retained in the novel. In the myth, the

fruit of penance is Shiva. It is similar in the novel with a slight variation. In the

myth, all efforts are made by Sati but in the novel, it is Shiva who puts in major

efforts.

According to the laws of untouchability, Sati can’t even touch anyone let

alone marrying. Shiva finds such laws to be unjust and scraps it. He stands by Sati to

bolster her self-esteem. During the yajna at Karachapa, Tarak insults and objects to

the presence of Sati in unfair terms with callous words. According to the Meluhan

tradition, an unjust tormentor can be challenged to a duel called Agnipriksha. In it,

the duellists fight inside a ring of fire until one surrenders or dies. The challenger has

the option either to fight in person or to appoint someone else to fight on his behalf.

Sati challenges Tarak and decides to fight him. Tarak has a gigantic physique so

Parvateshwar wants to fight on Sati’s behalf but Sati refuses. Shiva stands by Sati,

bolsters her morale and trains her to fight. Sati wins. Thus, Shiva helps her to regain

her self-respect. In mythology, Tarak or Tarakasur is a powerful demon who

repeatedly defeats the Devas. Heaven is on the verge of collapse. Kartikeya, Sati’s

son and the God of War, kills him.42

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In the battle of Koonj, Sati gets fatally hurt. She flings herself before Shiva

when an Agniban or poisoned arrow is hurled at him. When Sati perceives that she is

on her death bed, she confesses her love for Shiva. Later, after recovery, they get

married. Thus, the neutral ascetic Shiva of mythology is turned into the passionate

lover Shiva. Towards the end of the novel, Sati is pregnant.

In mythology, Sati is reborn as Parvati, the daughter of Parvateshwar. In the

novel, the name Parvati is retained but with a different story. She is known as Parvati

because she is the god-daughter of General Parvateshwar, the chief of the armed

forces of Meluha.

4:4:3: Daksha and Veerini

In mythology, Daksha is the son of Lord Brahma, the creator of the world. In

the novel, Daksha is the son of King Brahmanayak, the great previous King of the

Suryavanshi kingdom Meluha. The identical names Brahma and Brahmanayak create

an archetypal pattern. Daksha is one hundred and eighty four years old in the novel.

In mythology, Daksha has the title of Prajapati i.e. the king of the people

because he is described as the ruler of all the people of the earth. In the novel, when

Daksha becomes the sovereign of both the Chandravanshi and the Suryavanshi

dynasty, the two major clans of the time, he takes the title of Prajapati. Thus, the title

is retained but with a different story. In mythology, Daksha has more than one wife.

His prime consort is Prasuti or Veerini. They have many daughters and the youngest

one is Sati who is his favourite. In the novel, Veerini is King Daksha’s wife and they

have only one daughter named Sati who Daksha dotes on. In the next volume of the

series, it transpires that Sati has a twin sister who is a Naga and so Daksha has

abandoned her.
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In mythology, Daksha is portrayed as an arrogant, self-asserting king. In the

novel, initially he is shown as humble but gradually his arrogance is revealed. He

wants only a part of the Vikarma law to be scrapped that would qualify his daughter

to marry. Thus, he acts selfishly rather than as a king with fair, just and equal law to

all. Daksha’s extreme arrogance is portrayed in his behaviour towards Dilipa, King

of Swadeep. He is not bothered about the absence of the Nagas in the Chandravanshi

army. The Nagas are considered the prime suspects of terrorist activities in Meluha

but he is busy in humiliating Dilipa by arresting and treating him as a common

criminal. He affectedly declares that they have superseded the victory achieved by

his father.

In mythology, Daksha is portrayed with the head of a goat. When Sati

immolates herself, Shiva scorches all living beings. Daksha’s head is also severed.

The next day, at the behest of Lord Vishnu, the God of Preservation, he reinvigorates

life into all beings. Though Shiva infuses life in Daksha too yet as a punishment, he

places the head of a goat on him. The motif of the goat and the shame associated

with it is retained in the novel. “Goat” is the chosen Kshatriya tribe by king Daksha.

It is so low that a person feels ashamed to acknowledge that he belongs to this tribe.

The novel creates the myth that in Meluhan society, one has to choose a tribe based

on his capacity and then has to qualify himself for it through written and practical

tests. Daksha’s cowardice is portrayed when he does not participate in the war but

acts as an onlooker from a raised platform. Yet, he congratulates himself for all the

victories.

In both mythology and the novel, Daksha is portrayed as a doting father of

Sati. In the novel, he acts in a way mostly unfairly so that he can keep Sati to

himself.
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4:4:4: Kanakhala

In the novel, Kanakhala is the Prime Minister of Meluha. Her duty is to take

care of administration, revenue and protocol. She belongs to the Brahmin or scholar

class. She is proficient. The portrayal of her image is radical. Her outfit is the

traditional attire of male scholars or Brahmins in India. Her head is shaven and it has

a tuft of knotted hair at the back. She puts on a Janau, a string tied across the left

shoulder down to the right side of the torso. From the beginning, she is reverential

towards Shiva. In the myth, there is no such human character but only a place with

an identical name. Kanakahala is the location where Daksha holds his Great Yajna.

4:4:5: Parvateshwar

In mythology, when Sati immolates herself, she wishes to be reborn to a

father whom she can truly respect. She is reborn to Parvateshwar or Himavat, King

of the Mountains and his wife Menavati. The motif of the mountain like

respectability of Parvateshwar’s character is retained in the novel.

In the novel, Parvateshwar is the Army General of the Meluhan forces. He is

a celibate. He is the god-father of Sati and so Sati has got the name of Parvati after

his name. He is the one whom Sati respects more than her own father Daksha. Thus,

there is a mythic parallel. In both mythology and in the novel, Sati respects

Parvateshwar more than Daksha.

The word Parvateshwar is the combination of two words “Parvat,” and

“Ishwar,” which mean “mountain” and “god” or “king” respectively. Thus, the literal

meaning of Parvateshwar is “King of Mountains” or “God of Mountains.” In the

novel, the meaning of the word Parvat is used metaphorically for the mountain like
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personality and character of Parvateshwar. He has an imposing physique and his

chosen tribe is “tiger,” the highest among the warriors. He is one of the few who do

not instantly become reverential to Shiva simply because he has a blue throat.

Gradually, when he finds Shiva to be worthy as a fair person and leader who abides

by Lord Ram’s law of equality, he begins to respect Shiva. He is a great warrior and

strategist.

4:4:6: Veerbhadra

In the novel, Veerbhadra is Shiva’s childhood friend and close companion. His name

is Bhadra. He earns the title “Veer” or “Brave” as he kills a tiger single-handedly. He

marries Kritikka, Sati’s closest companion and aide.

In the myth, Veerbhadra is incarnated from Shiva’s tuft. When Sati

immolates herself, Shiva performs the tandav, the wrathful dance of destruction. He

pulls two tufts from his locks and throws them on the earth. From it, Veerbhadra and

Bhadrakali are born. Shiva sends them to annihilate Daksha’s empire.

4:4:7: Nandi

In the Puranic stories, Nandi is the foster son of sage Shilada. He was

destined to die at the age of eight. He prays to Lord Shiva who frees both son and the

father from the cycle of life and death and takes them to his abode, Kailash. Shiva

makes him the chief of his tribe of Gunas and gives him a wonderful garland to

wear. Ever since, Nandi remains Shiva’s closest companion. He is also portrayed as

the bull which Shiva rides.

In the myth, Shiva removes Nandi from Earth to Kailash while in the novel

Nandi brings Shiva and his tribe from Kailash to Earth to the kingdom of Meluha.
 155

Nandi is a Meluhan army general who goes to Shiva with the proposal of

immigration and brings him to Meluha. Both in the myth and in the novel, Nandi has

a huge body and is Shiva’s closest companion.

4:4:8: Ayurvati

In the novel, Lady Ayurvati is the head doctor of Meluha. The name Ayurvati

has been used by Amish to make it sound identical with Ayurveda, the Indian

medical science. The history of the origin of Ayurveda is debatable. The knowledge

of Ayurveda comes from ancient Vedas viz. Rig Veda, Sama Veda, Yajur Veda and

Atharva Veda. Ayurveda, subordinate to the Ṛig Veda, is considered an Upaveda.

Upaveda (उपवेद) refers to “subsidiaries to the four Vedas.”43 Historically, the Vedic

Period was from 1700 to 700 BC during which the Vedas were written. It is assumed

that the Vedic texts were transmitted orally from generation to generation. Perhaps

the Vedic knowledge like Ayurveda existed even before the Vedic period i.e. in the

times of the Indus Valley Civilisation. As the novel is set in 1900 BC, the last phase

of the Indus Valley Civilisation, Ayurvati, as a doctor, practising Ayurveda can be

considered an archetype.

Her attire and attribute are like those of Prime Minister Kanakhala as they

both are from the Brahmin or scholar class. All ladies in Meluha put on dhoti, a cloth

tied around the waist and legs, a blouse i.e. a piece of cloth tied around the chest and

angvastram, a cloth draped over the shoulder. Men put on dhoti and angvastram.

What makes Ayurvati’s appearances different is her hairstyle and Janau. Her head is

shaved except for a knotted tuft of hair which is called “choti.” This hair style and

Janau are the traditional attributes associated with male Brahmins or scholars in
 156

India. Thus, a woman with these attributes is definitely an unorthodox creation by

Amish.

She is proficient. She handles any medical emergency skilfully. After

reaching Srinagar, the border province of Meluha, Shiva’s tribe, the Gunas, is kept

under quarantine in temporary quarters so that they do not infect others in case they

have a disease and are healed before they are given permanent settlements. On the

very first night, the whole tribe falls ill with high fever. Lady Ayurvati and his team

handle the situation expertly. A scribe each along with a nurse notes the details of

each patient on a palm-leaf booklet. It is almost like modern hospital management.

4:4:9: Brahaspati

In the novel, Brahaspati is the head scientist of Meluha who works at Mount

Mandar and heads the production of Somras. In the myth, he is identified as a deity

in Rig Veda, a planet in Agni Purana and a sage or rishi who is the teacher of Gods

in the Mahabharata. In all aspects, he is intelligent. The motif of intelligence is

transported to create his archetype in the novel. 44 He is a man of scientific temper

and believes that there is a scientific explanation to everything. He says, “I believe in

Science. It provides a solution and a rationale for everything. And if there is anything

that appears like a miracle, the only explanation is that a scientific reason for it has

not been discovered as yet.”45 He explains to Shiva why people tend to have more

faith in a messiah than in science. He refers to science as “a capable but cold-hearted

master”46 that provides people with the tools to fight but “most people find it easier

to wait for the arrival of the Messiah”47 who would fight on their behalf.

He doesn’t believe in the divine aspect of the legend although he respects

Shiva for his abilities and his willingness to fight for the rights of others. He tells
 157

Shiva, “…whether a man is a legend or not is decided by history, not by fortune-

tellers.”48 He explains to Shiva how Somras is brewed.

Brahaspati and Shiva foster a brotherly relationship. Brahaspati supports

Shiva in his courtship of Sati. In due time, their relationship becomes so close that

when Sati has to fight Tarak in a duel, Brahaspati proposes to assassinate Tarak,

which is against the laws, so that Shiva may not lose Sati.

When Mount Mandar is blasted in a terrorist attack, Brahaspati is supposedly

killed although his dead body is never found among the badly charred corpses.

After an examination of the magic realism and mythical archetypes in this

chapter, the next one takes up an inquiry into the second book in the Shiva Trilogy,

The Secret of the Nagas.

 158

4:5: Works cited

1. Dani, A. H., and B. K. Thapar. “The Indus Civilization.” The Indus

Civilization, Silk Roads Programme, en.unesco.org/silkroad/knowledge-

bank/indus-civilization.

2. “Chapter 1: Magic Realism: The Historical and Conceptual Origin.”

Shodhganga.

https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/110916/7/07_chapter%2

02.pdf.

3. “Yuddha Khand”. Valmiki Ramayana.

https://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga74/yuddha_74_frame.htm.

4. Ibid, https://valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga45/bala_45_frame.htm.

5. Gallagher, J. “Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious and Complexes.”

Academia.edu, www.academia.edu/32947677/Archetypes_of_the_Collecti

ve_Unconscious_and_Complexes.

6. Ibid.

7. Pathak, Dr Surendra. “Adi Shankaracharya: Contributions and Influences

on Sanatana Dharma and Indian Culture.” ResearchGate, 22 May 2016,

www.researchgate.net/publication/303408886_Adi_Shankaracharya_Contr

ibutions_and_Influences_on_Sanatana_Dharma_and_Indian_Culture.

8. Devaraj, Dr. P. I., and Dr. Syamala K. “Is Sankara a Philosopher,

Theologian or a Social Reformer?”, Ijmer.in, 1 Jan., 1970.

 159

indiaspiritually.blogspot.com/2012/11/is-sankara-philosopher-theologian-

or.html.

9. Tripathi, Amish. The Immortals of Meluha. Westland Publications, 2010, p.

344.

10. Ibid, p. 169.

11. Ibid, p. 169.

12. Ibid, p. 4.

13. Ibid, p. 9.

14. Ibid, p. 4.

15. Ibid, p. 13.

16. “Understanding Shiva - Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.” artofliving.org,

www.artofliving.org/sites/www.artofliving.org/files/understandingshiva.pd

f?viber.

17. Bureau, Zee Media. “Significance of Why Lord Shiva Wears Tiger Skin!

Read More.” Zee News, 12 Feb. 2017,

zeenews.india.com/entertainment/and-more/significance-of-why-lord-

shiva-wears-tiger-skin-read-more_1923617.html.

18. Ibid.

19. Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. The Dance of Shiva. p. 2.

www2.hawaii.edu/~freeman/courses/phil300/18.

20. Ibid.
 160

21. Ibid.

22. “Baala Khanda.” Valmiki Ramayana.

valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga36/bala_36_frame.htm

23. Tripathi, Amish. The Immortals of Meluha. Westland Publications, 2010, p.

23.

24. Menon, Ramesh. Siva, the Siva Purana Retold. Rupa & Co., 2006, p. 8.

25. Sridbhar, Nithin. “(PDF) Nirvana Shatkam: A Translation Commentary”.

www.academia.edu/4284199/Nirvana_Shatkam_A_Translation_Comment

ary.

26. Srinivasan, Sharada. “(PDF) Shiva as Cosmic Dancer: On Pallava Origins

for the Nataraja Bronze”

www.researchgate.net/publication/242523462_Shiva_as_cosmic_dancer_O

n_Pallava_origins_for_the_Nataraja_bronze.

27. Srinivasan, Sharada. “(PDF) Cosmic Dance.” ResearchGate, 1 Jan. 2007,

www.researchgate.net/publication/241662863_Cosmic_Dance.

28. Coomaraswamy, Ananda K. The Dance of Shiva. p. 4.

http://www2.hawaii.edu/~freeman/courses/phil494/05.%20The%20Dance%2

0of%20Shiva.pdf.

29. Ibid, p. 2.

30. Dwivedi, Manish, et al. “Scientific Analysis of Aum Mantra in Knowing

Self.” ResearchGate, 1 Mar. 2016.

 161

www.researchgate.net/publication/312153393_SCIENTIFIC_ANALYSIS_

OF_AUM_MANTRA_IN_KNOWING_SELF.

31. Heather, Simon. “Om - The Primordial Sound”.

www.simonheather.co.uk/pages/articles/aum.pdf.

32. Dorianna, et al. “Unlocking the Mystery of Om.” Yoga Basics, 14 Apr.

2014, Yoga Sutra 1.27-1.29,

www.yogabasics.com/learn/unlocking-the-mystery-of-om/.

33. Dwivedi, Manish, et al. “SCIENTIFIC ANALYSIS OF AUM MANTRA

IN KNOWING SELF.” ResearchGate, 1 Mar. 2016.

www.researchgate.net/publication/312153393_SCIENTIFIC_ANALYSIS_

OF_AUM_MANTRA_IN_KNOWING_SELF.

34. “What Is Brainwave Entrainment.” Read This before Using Brainwave

Entrainment - Warnings and Advice – UK,

brainworksneurotherapy.com/what-brainwave-entrainment.

35. Pereirain, Contzen. “(PDF) A comparative study of frequencies of a

Buddhist mantra – Om Mani Padme Hum and a Hindu mantra - Om

Namah Shivaya”. Vol. 3 Issue 4, April 2016,

www.researchgate.net/publication/301680304_A_comparative_study_of_fr

equencies_of_a_Buddhist_mantra_-

_Om_Mani_Padme_Hum_and_a_Hindu_mantra_-Om_Namah_Shivaya.

36. Ibid.

37. Ibid.
 162

38. Cameron, Yogi. “A Beginner’s Guide To The 7 Chakras.” Mindbodygreen,

8 Oct. 2020,

www.mindbodygreen.com/0-91/The-7-Chakras-for-Beginners.html.

39. “Chakra.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.,

www.britannica.com/topic/chakra.

40. The Story of Shiva’s Third Eye and Its Hidden Symbolism.

isha.sadhguru.org/us/en/wisdom/article/shivas-third-eye-hidden-

symbolism.

41. Tripathi, Amish. The Immortals of Meluha. Westland Publications, 2010, p.

390.

42. Menon, Ramesh. Siva, the Siva Purana Retold. Rupa & Co., 2006, p. 225.

43. “Upavēda: 7 definitions.” www.wisdomlib.org/definition/upaveda.

44. Dalal, Roshen. “Hinduism: An Alphabetical Guide.” Google Books,

Penguin Books India, pp. 86-87.

books.google.com/books/about/Hinduism.html?id=DH0vmD8ghdMC.

45. Tripathi, Amish. The Immortals of Meluha. Westland Publications, 2010, p.

140.

46. Ibid, p. 140.

47. Ibid, p. 140.

48. Ibid, p. 140.

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Chapter IV

The Secret of the Nagas: Myth Extended

The novel The Secret of the Nagas is the second volume in the Shiva Trilogy

series. It continues the story of the previous volume The Immortals of Meluha. The

story of this novel starts at the point where the narrative of the preceding novel

finishes. This chapter is titled “The Secret of the Nagas: Myth Extended” because in

many ways it widens the mythical and fictional momentum begun in the previous

novel.

5:1: Synopsis of The Secret of the Nagas

The Secret of the Nagas is the second novel in the Shiva Trilogy series. In

Ayodhaya, the capital of Swadeep, Shiva visits the Ramjanmabhoomi Temple. After

coming out of the temple, Shiva finds the hooded Naga lurking behind a tree. He had

made an attack earlier also and was responsible for the blast at Mount Mandar and

death of Brahaspati. Both Shiva and Sati chase and try to capture him. The Naga is

so skilled that he pins both of them down, numbing Shiva with a poisonous dart and

breaking Sati’s nose. He snatches a horse from a stranger and flees but throws back a

bag full of gold coins that could buy five horses for the owner of the horse. Shiva

exchanges one of the gold coins from the greedy owner with his own two.

The gold coin of the Naga is a currency of the Kingdom of Branga, one of the

Swadeep confederacies. The coin consists of a symbol of a horizontal crescent moon

and a network of lines running across. The moon symbolises King Chandraketu and

the network of lines are rivers. In Swadeep, there are many kingdoms with their own
 164

kings but different laws. Ayodhaya is the overlord and other kingdoms pay annual

tributes to Ayodhaya. King Dilipa informs Shiva that Branga is an extremely rich

kingdom but nobody is allowed to enter. He feels that they pay annual tribute to

Ayodhaya only to keep any interference at bay rather than being scared of a defeat in

the battle. It is rumoured that they suffer from repeated devastating plague. People

believe that the reason behind the plague is their certain disgusting eating habits.

Branga refugees take shelter in the Kingdom of Kashi so Shiva decides to leave for

Kashi.

Shiva and Veerbhadra are smoking chillum on the slope of a grassy hill.

Veerbhadra informs Shiva that if Swadeep had fought the battle by the strategy of

Prince Bhagirath, they would certainly have won the battle. The procrastination of

the war council in giving approval to the Prince’s decision foiled the strategy and

later he was proclaimed responsible for losing the battle. Shiva deplores the pathetic

condition of a nation where a genius is being suppressed by fools. Veerbhadra

informs that the prince is not favoured by his father, King Dilipa. While they are

talking, they hear the sound of a running horse and Prince Bhagirath’s voice trying to

control the animal. Shiva and Veerbhadra chase him on their own horses and save

the prince from falling off the hill. Shiva is impressed with Bharigath’s calm

composure while handling a life-threatening situation. He finds a nail buried in the

harness near the horse’s mouth which signifies that it is an intrigue to kill the Prince.

Shiva sends the Prince’s messenger to inform King Dilipa that his son is an

exceptional rider and he wants to see more of him and so he wants the Prince to

accompany him to Kashi. Shiva plans it so that the Prince can be saved from any

further conspiracy. Earlier, Bhagirath had called Shiva a fraud Neelkanth but now he

respects Shiva who is helping him without taking any credit.

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Anandmayi, the Princess of Ayodhaya, is enamoured with Parvateshwar so

she keeps calling him with her different demands and signals her interest in him.

Parvateshwar avoids her as he is a celibate.

Shiva’s contingent, containing Sati, Parvateshwar, Nandi, Veerbhadra,

Kritika, Bhagirath, Anandmayi, Ayodhaya’s Prime Minister Siamantak, and a

combined brigade of the Suryavanshis and the Chandravanshis, leaves for Kashi. On

the way, they first stop at Bal-Atibal Kund, a place described in the Ramayana, and

offer prayers. Sati feels being watched. They are being trailed by the same Naga.

The Queen of the Nagas is Kartotak. Her Prime Minister approaches the

hooded Naga at Bal-Atibal Kund. The Naga is her nephew. She advises him to put

Sati out of his mind and refers to her as a vile woman. The Naga persists on tailing

them and the Queen returns to her capital Panchvati.

Next, Shiva’s contingent stops at Magadh. The people of Magadh don’t

believe in the legend of Neelkanth so their arrival is kept a secret. Magadh is also a

confederacy of Swadeep. Mahendra, the King of Magadh, has two sons; elder

Ugrasen and younger Surapadman. The elder one is corrupt and stupid while the

younger is sane and intelligent.

Shiva visits the Narsimha Temple. Narsimha is one of the incarnations of

Lord Vishnu. Lord Narsimha is a man with the head of a lion. Shiva believes that if

the lord were alive in their times, he would have been declared a Naga. The Vasudev

Pandit of the temple informs Shiva that a Vasudev is selected through a competitive

examination. When he is selected, he has to forsake all other identities. He briefs

Shiva on the masculine and the feminine ways of life. The masculine way of life is a

life under strict unchangeable laws and the feminine ways of life is life by
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probabilities with malleable laws. Societies with the masculine way of life become

rigid to the point of fanaticism and begin to collapse. Societies with feminist ways of

life do not face such threats but due to their excessive demand of freedom, they often

become corrupt and decadent. The Suryavanshis follow the masculine and the

Chandravanshi follow the feminine way of life. One of the tasks of Neelkanth is to

maintain a balance between both the ways.

In Magadh, bull-racing is a craze among the royals. The speed of the beast

depends on the weight of the rider and shouts of the crowds. Poor tribal children are

kidnapped to act as jockeys in the race. Prince Ugrasen tries to kidnap such a tribal

child in the forest. The child’s mother doesn’t let go of the child even after her hand

is severed by a soldier. The Naga is passing by with his men. He sees the scuffle and

helps the woman when the Prince’s men are about to kill her. The Naga orders his

men to kill everyone but himself gets injured. The Naga Queen once again visits her

nephew and takes him away.

Prince Surapadman visits Shiva and pays obeisance. Though he has found

out the real reason of his brother’s death through his personal spy network yet he

concocts a story that his brother Ugrasen died valiantly while repulsing a Naga

attack. He does so to please his father and save his brother’s reputation among his

people. Prince Surapadman has found a coin near his brother’s body. His spies

inform him that Shiva had also found coins on the Naga in Ayodhaya. He requests

Shiva to verify if they are alike. The two tally. He tells Shiva to call on him

whenever the fight against the Naga begins. Shiva consents and his convoy leaves

for Kashi.
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Athithigva, the King of Kashi, welcomes Shiva and his entourage at the port

of Kashi. Kashi is a city without any fortification because the last Mahadev, Lord

Rudra, had forbidden any kind of warfare there. Shiva wants to meet the Branga

Chief, Divodas, but he has gone back to his country. The next day, two hundred

thousand citizens, almost the entire population of Kashi, gathers to have a glimpse of

Shiva. Shiva visits the Viswanath Temple dedicated to Lord Rudra and Lady

Mohini. Panditji, the priest of the temple, does not come out to talk to Shiva and

informs him through telepathy that there are too many people around to talk.

Meanwhile, a riot occurs in the Branga quarters as they have once again

killed peacocks, Lord Rudra’s favourite bird. Though the Kashi people are peace-

loving yet Branga’s repeated acts of killing the birds have enraged them. The

Brangas are sure to be butchered in the riots. Parvateshwar takes charge. He, along

with Drapaku, Bhagirath, the Kashi Captain, Kavas, and soldiers, leaves for the

Branga quarters. He convinces the crowd that his soldiers will kill the Brangas but

secretly orders his men only to injure them. Thus, Branga lives are to be saved.

When they charge, the Brangas start stone pelting but the soldiers control the

situation. Parvateshwar reaches an inner chamber from where the sound of howling

of the children is coming. He finds that the blood of peacocks is being poured into

the mouths of the howling babies. Those who have drunk the blood are silent while

others are still writhing and wailing in pain. Parvateshwar is stunned. Before he can

understand anything, he is clubbed and he faints. He suffers from internal

hemorrhage.

Divodas, the Branga Chief in Kashi, arrives. He calls Bhagirath and gives

him a reddish-brown paste like medicine and instructs it to be put on the temples of

Parvateshwar to save him. Bhagirath gives the medicine to Ayurvati and

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Parvateshwar revives. Anandmayi sits beside the sleeping Parvateshwar and touches

him. Even in the half-conscious state, he withdraws his hand and babbles that he will

not break his vow of celibacy.

Ayurvati informs Shiva that the medicine is found only in the Naga territory.

They summon Divodas who informs Shiva that his country suffers from terrible

plagues every year during summer and the Naga medicine saves them. Their King

pays the Nagas in gold and men in exchange for the medicines. He is not allowed to

share the medicine with anyone but since their whole tribe owes their lives to

Parvateshwar, he has given him the medicine. The Branga people feel that the Nagas

have put a curse on them and the plague is the result of the curse. They believe that

the Nagas have done it for the gold. He says that now as Neelkanth has appeared, the

problem will be resolved soon. Shiva decides to leave for Branga. Divodas and his

men start constructing special ships.

King Athithigva wants Shiva to become the King of Kashi as he believes that

the kingdom belongs to Lord Rudra, the previous Mahadev and Shiva as Mahadev’s

successor has the right to the throne. He declares his family to be only the regents of

the kingdom of Kashi. In the absence of the heir apparent, his family has ruled the

kingdom but as Shiva has appeared now as Mahadev’s successor, he offers to pass

the kingdom to him. Shiva humbly refuses the offer. He asks only for the King’s

hospitality in Kashi until his and Sati’s child is delivered.

Shiva visits the Viswanath Temple once again. He finds that all Vasudev

Pandits from different temples talk to one another through telepathy. They have

undergone rigorous practice to train their brains to catch the radio waves. They are

amazed that Shiva can use telepathy with them without any formal training. Vasudev
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Pandit explains to him the functioning of telepathy. Shiva is given a medicine with

the instruction that it should be applied on Sati’s belly for the delivery of a healthy

child. King Dilipa and King Daksha, along with his wife Veerini, also arrive. Sati

delivers a healthy baby boy. Shiva and Sati name the child Kartik after Krittika.

Daksha is extremely happy but strangely, he checks the baby’s limbs to ascertain if

he is normal.

Prince Bhagirath is attacked once again. Shiva has already taken precautions

as the Ayodhaya royals are in Kashi and has instructed Nandi to be on guard. Nandi

saves the Prince. They catch one of the assassins alive but he takes poison before

divulging anything. The Prince informs Shiva that as his father does not favour him,

half of the Ayodhayan royals want to lay their claim to the throne and will do

anything to keep him out of the way. Shiva tells him to accompany him to Branga.

On the seventh day of Kartik’s birth, a celebration is organised. Shiva starts

the ceremony with his own dance. Anandmayi performs a complex dance based on

the legendary story of the enticement of the great saint Vishwamitra by the celestial

nymph Menaka. The Prince dances with Uttanka, a formerly famous Magadhan

brigadier whose career as a warrior was cut short due to an injury that created a

hump on his right shoulder. The sensation of intense sensuality created by the dance

of Anandmayi also affects Parvateshwar.

Daksha has brought a large quantity of Somras for Kartik. Shiva objects as

the site of the manufacturing, Mount Mander, has been blasted away and so now

everyone has a right to Somras. He tells Sati to talk about it to Daksha. Daksha

informs Sati that another secret manufacturing location of Somras still exists.
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In three months, the fleet is ready to leave for Branga. Anandmayi wants

Uttanka to be included in the army. To check his skills, Parvateshwar duels with

him. After initial failure, Uttanka proves his valour and Parvateshwar takes him in

his army. Lady Ayurvati informs Shiva that the life of the child was saved by the

medicine Vasudev Pandit gave for Sati and it was the same Naga medicine that

Divodas had given him earlier. Enraged, Shiva goes to the temple to confront

Vasudev Pandit with the question how they had acquired the Naga medicine but

finds no one there. Shiva’s convoy leaves for Branga. Kartik is a rare child who can

walk in six months.

Actually, the Naga has given the medicine to Vasudev Pandit to give it to

Sati. The Naga Queen scolds her nephew for the act. In the annual parliament, it is

debated whether they should send the medicine to Branga. Many are against it but

the Queen’s nephew, who is revered as the Lord of the People, convinces them to

dispatch it.

Maharishi Bhrigu reaches Devagiri. He reminds Daksha that he had

supported him to be elected as king on purpose, to protect the great secret of the age.

He scolds Daksha for letting a fraudulent be declared as a Neelkanth as the council

of the Vayuputras has not elected Shiva. He also upbraids him for giving Sati to him

in marriage. He points out that only Daksha is not clever enough to use Neelkanth

but others like the Vasudevs can also use him. This indicates that Daksha had

deliberately obscured the prophecy to prompt Neelkanth to raid Swadeep, an act that

has made Daksha an overlord.

The eastern bank of the River Ganga in Kashi is said to be cursed and as per

the royal orders, it cannot be used for any kind of establishment. Sati notices that the
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King, along with his family, often goes to the eastern bank. On the day of the Raksha

Bandhan festival, when sisters tie a band on their brother’s hand and brothers in

return swear to protect them, Sati sees that the King is going to the eastern bank with

his family. She leaves Kartik with Krittika and swims across River Ganga to unearth

the secret. She reaches a deserted palace. She finds that the King has a Naga sister, a

woman with two extra hands. At first Sati is shocked and gets angry but when the

King reasons with her that she is his sister and that he had promised his father that he

would protect her, she swears to keep quiet on the matter. Maya, the Naga sister, also

claims that pushing the Nagas across River Narmada is unjust and says that such a

law makes no sense like the obsolete Vikarma Law which was abolished by the

Neelkanth.

Anandmayi learns to wield the long sword and how to throw six knives

together in order to impress Parvateshwar. He invites Anandmayi to a duel to express

comradeship. Anandmayi leaves angrily instead. Later, Parvateshwar clarifies to her

that his intention to call her for the duel was to show fellowship. She asks him about

his vow of celibacy. Parvateshwar informs her that this oath was taken by his

grandfather Satyadhwaj two hundred and fifty years ago to protest against the

inequality of a law. Parvateshwar, who is one hundred and eighty years old, still

respects the oath and follows it. The princess protests that an oath taken against an

injustice years ago is doing injustice to her now.

Shiva’s entourage reaches Branga. The people of Branga believe in the

legend of the Neelkanth. Bappiraj, the Brangan Prime Minister, welcomes the party

and takes them to King Chandraketu. Shiva is again informed about the pathetic

condition of the people of Branga due to the annual plague. He demands information

about the route to Panchwati, the capital of the Nagas but the Naga Queen has
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already sent a threatening letter, warning them not to disclose their location lest their

supply of medicine be stopped. A bandit named Parsuram, who lives in the forest

beyond the river Madhumati, also has the knowledge of the Naga medicine. Shiva

decides to capture him and leaves for the forest with his contingent. In the ensuing

fight, the bandit is captured alive. When he finds out that Shiva is Neelkanth, he

punishes himself by severing his own left hand. He and his friends are released and

they join Shiva’s army. He readily consents to give the medicine and leads Shiva to

Panchwati. Parsuram tells his own miserable story as to how the angelic Nagas, the

helpers of the downtrodden, helped him to survive. Parsuram speaks with conviction

that Shiva wants to meet the Nagas because he has recognised them as good people

and wants to have alliance with them for his fight against evil. It puzzles Shiva but

he remains quiet.

Anandmayi drops a hint again to Parvateshwar with an indirect proposal.

Parvateshwar too has fallen in love with her but he cannot respond owing to his oath

of celibacy. Shiva convinces Parvateshwar to let go of his oath as the cause of the

oath is obsolete now. Parvateshwar proposes to Anandmayi. Their nuptial knot is

solemnised hurriedly as Anandmayi is scared that Parvateshwar may change his

mind. They reach Branga and from there, they go to Kashi.

Maharishi Bhrigu goes to Ayodhaya. King Dilipa is ill and the doctors have

declared that he will live only a few months. Somras is of no use to the King now.

Bhrigu offers him a medicine that would save him, in return for his loyalty and

future support.

Icchawar, a village of Kashi, is menaced by man-eating tigers. Sati goes there

to tackle the situation. The Naga Queen gets the information that Sati is going alone
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and believes that they can easily kidnap her so she, along with her nephew and

soldiers, leaves for the village. On the first day, Sati is able to force the tigers back

but they have marked the territory and are sure to return. Sati requests the villagers to

vacate the village but they don’t listen. The superstitious headman of the village has

convinced them that only human sacrifice will appease the spirits and the beasts will

leave them then. The village cleaner is ready to sacrifice himself with his wife and

two children. Next day, the whole pride, consisting nearly of thirty tiger and

tigresses, led by a liger, arrives. Before Sati can do anything, she sees the village

cleaner and his family walking towards the tigers. She rushes to help. Her soldiers

also follow reluctantly. They are about to be killed when the Nagas come and kill all

the beasts except three. The liger and the remaining two tigresses flee.

The Queen of the Nagas looks exactly like Sati but she has two extra hands.

Her skin is jet black and her entire torso has an exoskeleton covering, as hard as

bone. Her name is Kali and she is Sati’s twin sister. The Naga has a human body

with an elephant’s head. His name is Ganesh. He is Sati’s first child whom King

Daksha had declared to be still-born. King Daksha has abandoned Kali. Ganesh

accuses Sati of abandoning him and an enraged Kali tells Ganesh to kill Sati for her

treachery. However, she readily and happily accepts them as they are. Ganesh is

happy to get his mother’s love. After a week, Ganesh informs Sati that they will

leave for Panchwati and come to meet her secretly as her connection with the Nagas

may embarrass Sati in public. He also doubts Shiva’s reaction. Sati confirms that

Shiva will most happily accept them. She declares that either society will admit them

or she will leave for Panchwati with them. She takes them all to Kashi.

While returning from Branga, Shiva’s convoy stops at Vaishali, a city on

River Ganga. He visits the Matasya Temple. Lord Matasya is one of the incarnations
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of Lord Vishnu. Gopal, the head of Vasudevs, talks with Shiva. From the discussion

and his earlier experience, Shiva is convinced that the Naga are not evil but sufferers

at the hands of evil.

Shiva’s entourage reaches Kashi. It has been two years since he left Kashi.

Kartik has developed a strong relationship with his brother Ganesh. Upon arrival,

Sati tells Shiva about her Naga relatives. He is happy to have another son. At the

gate of King Athithigva’s palace, he is welcomed by Kali. Upon meeting Ganesh,

Shiva recognises him from his eyes as a person who is responsible for the death of

Brahaspati and refuses to accept him. He tells Sati to select either one of them. When

Sati declares that she is not going to desert Ganesh, he takes Kartik and shifts to the

Branga quarters.

The marriage of Parvateshwar and Anandmayi is solemnised once again with

royal customs and pomp. Kartik and Krittika go to the Sankat Mochan Temple and

play in the garden. Ganesh is also in the temple. The liger and the two tigresses have

tailed them from the village of Icchawar and they attack Kartik and Krittika. Ganesh

come to save them but he cannot fight the three beasts single-handedly. He pushes

Kartik in the hollow of a banyan tree. He sends a soldier to bring help but by the

time it arrives, he is badly injured.

Ganesh remains unconscious for two months. Shiva also attends on him.

After two months, when he goes for a stroll in the garden, he finds Kartik practicing

with two real swords. He doesn’t use a shield. Kartik is three years old but appears

like seven.

While smoking chillum, Veerbhadra informs Shiva about the good deeds of

Ganesh. He also informs him that the Naga medicine at the time of Kartik’s birth
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was also sent by Ganesh. Thus, he has saved his life twice. Parsuram was also helped

by Ganesh. Shiva suspects that Chandandhwaj, Sati’s first husband, was killed by

Daksha.

Ganesh decides to leave for Panchwati as he thinks that he is responsible for

the rift between his parents. King Daksha pays a surprise visit to Kashi. He has come

to meet his daughter and grandchild. Shiva asks King Athithigiva to receive the King

in the empty court. Shiva plans a surprise confrontation. When King Daksha and

Veerini arrive, he sends Nandi to bring Ganesh and Kali to the court. Sati too arrives.

Daksha’s reaction makes his guilt obvious. He puts the blame of having a Naga child

on his wife. He is also found responsible for Chandandhwaj’s death. Daksha hurls a

knife at Shiva. He threatens Shiva that he has made him and that he will destroy him.

Everyone takes out their weapons. Sati shouts to Daksha to leave and he goes away

reluctantly.

Veerini reminisces the past events. Brahmanayak, Daksha’s father, had

forced Daksha to give up his Naga daughter. Veerini had convinced him to leave

secretly for Panchwati where they could live with both their daughters. Meanwhile

his father had promised Daksha that he would be elected king if he would reject

Veerini’s plan. She pictures Daksha as a miserable son who has striven his whole life

to come up to the expectations of his father.

Kali, the Naga Queen, decides to reveal the secret of the Nagas to Shiva. She

decides to take them by the longest route that would take them one year to reach

Panchwati. Before they reach Panchwati, they are attacked by the ships containing a

Daivi Astra, deadly missile. Early warnings save them and all the five ships that had
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come to attack them are destroyed. It is found that the ships were made and used

jointly by Swadeep and Meluha.

Shiva reaches panchawati. He and Sati are taken by Kali and Ganesh to show

them a secret. The secret is Brahaspati, the Meluhan scientist who was considered

dead by Shiva. Why he is alive is a mystery that remains a secret in this novel of the

series.

5:2: Mythic Archetypes Extended in The Secret of the Nagas

The Shiva Trilogy uses mythic archetypes extensively from the myths

around Lord Shiva. In the first volume, Amish creates a set of archetypal human

characters from the Shiva myth and in the second volume, he continues to add new

archetypal characters from the same mythology. In addition to the living archetypal

characters, Amish also produces an archetypal pattern emerging from non-living

things. Such ideas and places of mythic importance, when blended with a new

mythic tale, add to the reliability of the tale. In the previous volume, The Immortal of

Meluha, too, Amish uses the topography of the time of the Indus Valley Civilization

and blends it with the current one to create credibility. In this volume, Amish also

picks places that are of mythic importance, like famous temples and the city of

Kashi. The people of Hindu faith believe that the origin of Kashi is as old as the

creation of the earth and mankind. The antiquity and the ever-presentability of the

place not only primes it to be located in any time period of a narrative but also

creates an archetypal pattern of the features for it to be used by Amish. He has also

mentioned temples in his narrative that are present in the current times and the

descriptions of which are found in mythic tales and folk lore. The prominent mythic

archetypes in the volume are examined in the section that follows.

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5:2:1: Kashi

Kashi is the old name of the city Varanasi. It is situated on the bank of River

Ganga in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Kashi has a character of its own owing to

its utmost religious, spiritual, historical, mystical, and cultural significance. It is the

philosophical and spiritual hub for the Hindus who regard it as the holiest, oldest and

most sacred city. Amish has used Kashi’s character to add a mystic ambience in the

novel by retelling the existing mythology, creating mythic and historical parallelism

and inventing mythopoeia. The name “Kashi” has its root in the Sanskrit verb kash

which means “to shine.” Pranav khullar in his article, “The Eternal City of Light,”

published in the Economics Times, writes, “Etymologically speaking, Kashi is

derived from the Sanskrit ‘kash’ — to shine — and this city of light is

metaphorically alluded to by tradition, as that of enlightenment.” 1 Amish describes

Kashi as “the city where the supreme light shines.”2

Amish has created a flourishing Kashi city in the backdrop of 1900 BC.

Hindus believe Kashi to be the oldest city in the world. In mythology and popular

belief, “the first ray of light after the creation of this Universe fell upon Varanasi,

sanctifying it for eternity.”3

In 2014, the Archeological Survey of India excavated the remains in

Ramnagar and Akatha around Varanasi that date back to 1800 BC. Ajay Srivastava,

Deputy Superintending Archaeologist of Archaeological Museum, states that

“Earlier excavations which had been carried out unearthed artefacts dating back to

the 8th century BC”4 but excavations in Ramnagar and Akatha suggest that

“Varanasi has a living history from 800 BC and that the city was inhabited around

the 9th century BC.”5 Further excavations are in progress.

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According to Puranic mythology, the city was established by Lord Shiva and

gods reside here. Lord Shiva has blessed everyone who dies in this holy city with

salvation.6 In the novel, as soon as Shiva reaches the port of Kashi, he declares to

Sati, “For some reason, it feels like home.”7

There are many famous Ghats in Varanasi. For example, Assi Ghat,

Dashashwamedh Ghat, Manikarnika Ghat, Harishchandra Ghat, Raj Ghat, Scindia

Ghat, Maan-Mandir Ghat, Tulsi Ghat, Nishad Ghat, Lalita Ghat, etc. Each ghat has

its own story which is a complex assortment of history, myth, legend, and folklore.

In the novel, Shiva’s ship berths at Assi Ghat. Assi Ghat has got its name because

River Assi meets River Ganga here. River Assi is believed to have emerged when

the sword of Goddess Durga struck the ground while she was fighting the demons

Shumbha-Nishumbha.8

Amish has invented mythopoeia for Assi Ghat. In Hindi Assi means eighty.

The novel creates the myth that Lord Rudra, an earlier Mahadev, executed eighty

Asura royals at the ghat in just one day in the Asura-Deva (Demon-God) battle and

thereafter it got the name Assi Ghat.

In Sanskrit, “Rudra” means “one with extreme anger.” The nature of the

anger when associated with Rudra is not derogative, but a righteous sentiment

against evil. Lord Rudra represents the fierce side of Lord Shiva or Mahadev. The

first reference of Rudra is found in the Rig Veda and other Vedas viz. the Yajur Veda

and the Atharva Veda where his wife is Parvati, so he is identified with Lord Shiva. 9

The perpetual war between Devas (gods) and Asuras (demons) is well-known and

has numerous myths around it. Amish uses the traditional mythic background to

raise a new myth. In the novel, different names or manifestations of Lord Shiva are
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presented as those of a single individual that appeared at different times. It is a

human rather than a god who raises himself to the level of god. The functioning of

such an entity is supposed to be supported through an institution. Their function is to

fight the prevailing evil of the times. In the case of Shiva, it was supposed to be

regulated by the institution of the Vayuputras. Such an entity that appeared in the

past is Rudra. The novel presents the Asura as a race who are not always bad. Rudra

is deluded into believing that Asuras are completely evil and so he annihilates nearly

the whole race. When he realises his mistake, he feels guilty and takes the remains of

the Asuras to his homeland Pariha that lies beyond the western border of India,

beyond the Himalayas. His past mistake is a kind of parallel with Shiva’s present one

when he is deluded into believing that the Chandravanshis are evil. Shiva finds that

they are different, maybe with certain bad habits but not evil. With such parallels,

Amish has tried to suggest that the other is not always evil but only different.

Rudra, upon realising his mistake, declares the city to be holy where there

must not be any further killing ever and forbids any kind of violence. He declares

that “the spirits at Assi Ghat and Kashi would forgive the sins of even the most

sinful and guide them to salvation if their dead body wa[i]s cremated there.” 10 The

novel mentions that after Rudra’s declaration, Kashi was begun to be considered “the

gateway to a soul’s deliverance”11 and people come here to spend their last days. In

reality, many Hindus from all around the world come to Kashi to spend the last days

of their lives and die here in order to get salvation. 12 It is because Kashi is revered as

the city of Lord Shiva. It is believed that Lord Shiva is ever present in the city. Such

beliefs have their root in the oral tradition as well as in Shiva Purana and Skanda

Purana. River Ganga is the holiest river for the people of Hindu faith. It magnifies

the importance of Kashi. To endorse the belief, the novel creates a myth.13
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Kashi is called the city of temples. Wikipedia mentions that there are 23000

temples in Kashi.14 The novel mentions that, “all the popular gods had a temple

dedicated to them on the holy pathway.”15 The heart of Kashi is the Viswanath

temple, one of the twelve Jyotirlings, dedicated to Lord Shiva. The novel too has this

temple. In the novel, the temple is dedicated to Lord Rudra and his companion Lady

Mohini. In the novel, they fight side by side against the Asuras. According to the

legend in the Adi Parva of the Mahabharata, Goddess Mohini is one of the

incarnations of Lord Vishnu during the Churning of the Ocean. Due to the unruly

and unrestrained nature of the Asuras, gods were scared that the Asuras could gain

immortality if they laid their hands on the ‘amrit.’ So Lord Vishnu takes the form of

Mohini, the most beautiful woman, and offers to distribute it. Once she gets the

possession of the nectar, she distributes it among the Devas. 16 In no existing myth

does she fight shoulder to shoulder with Lord Shiva against the Asuras. Mohini is

described as femme fatale, as “the most gorgeous woman of all time,”17 who is “ever

capricious and deadly.”18 To make the story credible in the novel, she has been

described as a form of Vishnu.

The iconography of Rudra is not different from Shiva’s as both names are

synonymous and mean the same entity. However, in the novel, they are different. An

idol of Rudra has been described in the novel as befitting the etymological essence of

Rudra. The idol presents Rudra as “an imposing and impossibly muscled man” 19

whose body has battle scares with a “hirsute chest,”20 sporting “a tiger claw”21

pendant. A shield and a sword are laid by the throne, signifying that he has

abandoned violence. The closeness of the weapons to the throne signifies that he can

once again pick them up if required. The idol has a moustache and a long beard, the

strands of which are braided with beads.

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Renuka Narayanan, in her article “Kashi: In Step with History,” published in

The Hindu, enumerates the episodes of great historical significance associated with

Kashi:

Varanasi is the birthplace of four Jain Tirthankaras. The Buddha came here in

the Sixth Century BCE and preached his first sermon to ‘the Five’ at Sarnath

nearby. Adi Sankara came to Varanasi arguably in the Eighth Century CE

and, it is famously believed, was taught a lesson in spiritual humility by Lord

Shiva. Varanasi was ‘Hindu-Muslim’ Sant Kabir’s hometown in the 15th

century and, in the 16th century, Goswami Tulsi Das composed the

Ramcharitmanas and the Hanuman Chalisa here, thereby changing Hinduism

forever across north India. Carnatic eminence Muthuswami Dikshitar (1775-

1835) came here in his teens with his guru, learnt Hindustani ragas, met the

world, and went home to become a pillar of Indian musical excellence. 22

Kashi’s historical significance of hosting religious, philosophical and

spiritual masters adds to people’s belief of its mysticism. Kashi attracts people

searching for spirituality and peace. In the novel, after Rudra’s declaration, the city

flourishes and becomes the hub of all sort of knowledge and peace-seekers.

5:2:2: Telepathy

In the novel, the technique of telepathy is used for magic realism. Telepathy

is the “communication with another person by thinking rather than by using words or

other signals” or “the ability to know what is in someone else’s mind, or to

communicate with someone mentally, without using words or other physical

signals,”23 as defined in Cambridge Dictionary.

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In the novel, Vasudev Pandits of the temple communicate with one another

through telepathy. The knowledge of telepathy in 1900 BC, the time in which the

novel is set, creates an ambience of mysticism. Telepathy has not been established as

science even in the present. Though experiments are being undertaken to develop

telepathy, it is still regarded a pseudoscience. In 2004, a successful experiment was

claimed to have been made in this field when a successfully exchanged

communication through telepathy was recorded between two people; one from India

and the other from France.24

There are several such attempts at the scientific level but there has hardly

been any success. For example, Dr. Ganesan Venkatasubramanian and his team that

includes Peruvumba N. Jayakumar, Hongasandra R. Nagendra, Dindagur Nagaraja,

Deeptha R., and N. Gangadhar, conducted an experiment in telepathy using

functional MRI. They examined a famous mentalist while he was performing a

telepathic task in a 1.5 T scanner. The demonstrated result of the study suggests “a

limbic basis for telepathy and warrant[s] further systematic research.” 25

Telepathy is still regarded as a paranormal or supernatural activity that may

or may not exist in reality. References of telepathy are abundant in Indian mythology

and it is the popular belief that not only the ancient rishis, saints and monks but also

the modern ones possess such knowledge, those who can communicate without

words and read one’s thoughts. The references of the telepathy are also found in non-

fiction books. For example, in his work, Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa

Yogananda writes that his guru Sri Yukteshwar Giri was a perfect human radio:

Thoughts are no more than very subtle vibrations moving in the ether. Just as

a correctly tuned radio picks up a desired musical number out of thousands of

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other programmes from every direction, so Sri Yukteshwar had been

sensitively receptive to a certain pertinent thought, out of the countless

thoughts of broadcasting human minds in the world. 26

Paramahansa Yogananada is monk, spiritual master and yogi. He is the

founder of Self-Realization Fellowship (SRF) and Yogoda Satsanga Society (YSS)

of India. SRF is a worldwide spiritual institution founded in 1920 that teaches Kriya

Yoga. His autobiography is an international bestseller and has sold more than four

million copies. In his autobiography, he has mentioned how telegraphy works:

The will, projected from the point between the eyebrows, is the broadcasting

apparatus of thought. Man’s feeling or emotional power, calmly concentrated

on the heart, enables it to act as a mental radio that receives the messages of

other persons, far or near. In telepathy the fine vibrations of thoughts in one

man’s mind are transmitted through the subtle vibrations of astral ether and

then through the grosser earthly ether, creating electrical waves that, in turn,

transform themselves into thought waves in the mind of the other person. 27

According to the book, the practice of Kriya Yoga can train the human brain

for telepathy. In the novel too, Vasudev Pandits of the temples have a theory for it.

The Pandit at the Kashi Viswanath Temple informs Shiva about it. He refers to it as

“The Science of Radio Waves.”28 He explains that humans use the properties of light

to see and sound waves to hear but don’t know how to use radio waves that travel as

fast and far as light for mental perception and communication. The works on the

discovery of radio waves started in “1888, when Heinrich Hertz verified Maxwell’s

theory that the waves propagated with the velocity of light.”29 Later developments

have made possible the present day communication devices. Using the idea that the
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knowledge of the function of radio waves was present even during the Indus Valley

Civilization adds to the element of urban fantasy in the novel.

The pandits claim that they have yet not succeeded in creating a device to

convert radio waves into sound waves but they have succeeded in training their

minds with rigorous practice. For telepathy, they have to remain within the range of

powerful transmitters. The steeple of the temple works as a transmitting tower and

for this reason, all their temples are at least fifty meters high. In the novel, all the

pandits of the different temples across the country communicate with one another

using telepathy. How they train their brain is not explained. They are surprised that

Shiva also can use telepathy to communicate with them even without any formal

training. They declare that it is because Shiva is special. It adds to his aura of

mysticism and raises him to the stature of godhood.

5:2:3: Bal-Atibal Kund

In the Ramayana, Bala and Atibala are a set of mantras taught by the great

sage Viswamitra to Lord Ram and his brother Lakshman on the southern bank of

River Sarayu when they venture out to kill the demoness Tadaka. In verse 16, Sarga

22, of the chapter Bala Kand of the Ramayana, the sage describes this mantra as

“loZKkuL; ekrjkS (sarvajyanaanasya maatarau)” i.e. “mother of all knowledge.”

In verse 12 he says that the chanting of this mantra provides great self-control as the

chanter feels “neither tiredness nor fever, nor disfiguring of personality” 30 (u Jeks

u Tojks ok rs u :iL; foi;Z;%: na shramah na jvarah vaa te na ruupasya

viparyayah). The chanter gains dexterity and fame. Suren Naicker, in his article, “An

Analysis of the Gayatri Mantra as a Mega-compression: A Cognitive Linguistic

Perspective in Light of Conceptual Blending Theory,” discusses how on a more

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esoteric and arcane note, mantras unleash dormant spiritual enlightening. He uses the

Fauconnier and Turner’s (2002) theory that is commonly known as BT. 31 The article

is a part of his research on the Gayatri Mantra.

In the novel, Amish uses a fictional place with the name Bal-Atibal Kund.

When Shiva’s convoy leaves for Kashi, they cross River Sarayu. Princess

Anandmayi tells Parvateshwar to make arrangements for their journey to Bal-Atibal

as she intends to pray there. The princess says that there is a spot to the south of

River Sarayu where Guru Viswamitra taught “the art of Bal and Atibal, the fabled

route to eternal good health and freedom from hunger and thirst.”32 Amish changes

the Bal and Atibal mantra to the Bal and Atibal art and creates a topography for it. In

the Ramayana, the chanter of the mantra is said to have various benefits.

5:2:4: Temples

In the novel, temples are interesting constructs, a fusion of fact, history, myth

and mythopoeia. It mentions many temples. These are the Ramjanmabhoomi Temple

at Ayodhaya, Narsimha Temple at Magadh, Vishwanath Temple and Sankat Mochan

Temple at Kashi, and Matasya Temple at Vaishali. The patron deities of these

temples are manifestations of the different gods. Many of these temples exist today.

The stories of the manifestation of the deities are part of the popular culture. The

presence of temples during the Indus Valley Civilization furbishes the myth that

deity worship existed even at that time.

According to the Hindu mythology, Lord Ram, Lord Narsimha and Lord

Matasya are three incarnations out of the ten incarnations or Dashavtar of Lord

Vishnu. The other seven are Kurma Avatar (incarnation as turtle), Varaha Avatar

(incarnation as boar), Vamana Avatar (incarnation as dwarf), Parsuram Avatar

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(incarnation as scholar warrior), Krishna Avatar (incarnation as ruler and strategy

maker), Buddha Avatar (incarnation as ascetic), and Kalki Avatar (not yet incarnated

but prophesied to appear in the future). According to the myth, Lord Vishnu appears

in every age to solve its pressing problems. In verse 7 of Chapter 4 from the Srimad

Bhagwat Gita Lord Krishna states that whenever evil rises, he appears in a human

form on the earth to eradicate it:

;nk;nkfg/keZL;XykfuHkZofrHkkjrA

vH;qRFkkue/keZL;rnkRekual`tkE;gE॥

(yada yada hi dharmasya glanir bhavati bharata

abhyutthanam adharmasyatadatmanam srjamy aham)33

It translates thus: “Whenever and wherever there is a decline in religious

practice, O descendant of Bharata, and a predominant rise of irreligion—at that time

I (Lord Krishna) descend Myself.”34

Lord Ram is regarded as the seventh avatar of Lord Vishnu. The story of

Lord Ram is the subject of the epic poem the Ramayana which means “Journey of

Ram” {Ram+Ayana (Journey)}. He is the son of Dashrath, King of Ayodhaya and

his queen, Kausalya. The word Ramjanmabhoomi is made of three words:

Ram+Janm (birth)+Bhoomi (place). Thus, Ramjanmabhoomi Temple means a

temple at the birthplace of Lord Ram. It is important to note that throughout the

Ramayana and the Mahabharata, and in the Vedas and the Upnishads, there is no

mention of temples. There are gods and there are rituals, platforms to perform rituals,

prayers, hymns, and mantras to worship the gods but there is no temple structure. It

may be because gods are shown to have active participation in the lives of humans.
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Even the excavation of the Indus Valley Civilisation does not suggest any structure

for community worshipping. They appeared only after a few centuries. The antiquity

of this culture is unknown and debatable. However, the novel mentions the places

where the community gathers to worship.

The avatar of Lord Narsimha is the fourth in the chronology of Dashavatar.

Wikipedia mentions the different sources that refer to Lord Narsimha. The sources

are:

The Valmiki Ramayana (7.24), Harivaṃśa (41 & 3.41-47), Viṣṇu Purāṇa

(1.16-20), Bhagavata Purāṇa (Canto 7), Agni Purāṇa (4.2-3), Brahmāṇḍa

Purāṇa(2.5.3-29), Vayu Purāṇa (67.61-66), Brahma-Purāṇa (213.44-79),

Viṣṇudharmottara Purāṇa(1.54), Kūrma Purāṇa (1.15.18-72), Matsya

Purāṇa(161-163), Padma Purāṇa(Uttara-khaṇḍa 5.42), Śiva Purāṇa (2.5.43 &

3.10-12), Linga Purana (1.95-96), and Skanda Purāṇa (2.18.60-130).34

Nar means human and Simha means lion. Lord Narsimha is depicted as

having the head of a lion and the body of a human. According to the myth, a demon

or Asura king named HiranyaKasyapa wanted to become immortal so he prayed to

Lord Brahma. He asked for the boon that he might not be killed by a human or a

beast with any weapon, neither in daylight nor at night, neither on the ground nor in

the sky, and neither within the residence nor outside. Lord Brahma granted the boon

upon which he declared himself an immortal and a god. He forbade the worshipping

of any other god and tortured and compelled everyone to worship him. His own son

Prahlad turned out to be an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu. Enraged,

HiranyaKasyapa made many attempts to kill his own son. Once he asked Prahlad

furiously where Vishu existed. Prahlad replied that Lord Vishnu was everywhere.
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HiranyaKasyapa knocked down a pillar and asked if he was there. Lord Vishnu

emerged out of the pillar in the form of Narsimha. The timing was dusk that is

neither day nor night. Narsimha too is neither human nor beast. He pulled

HiranyaKasyapa on his lap and sitting in the middle of the door, tore his belly out

with his nails.35

Many temples around India are dedicated to Lord Narsimha. The novel

presents him with the traditional iconography. In the novel, his existence is placed

many thousand years before the time of Lord Rudra. His idol shows him as a man

with the head of a lion who is “unnaturally tall, at least eight feet, with a musculature

that would terrify even the demons”36 with hands “unnaturally brawny with long

nails.”37 His icon matches the picture of the Nagas. The image of Lord Narsimha is

used in the novel to make Shiva question the idea whether the Nagas are evil or not.

Lord Matasya is the first avatar of Lord Vishnu. In this avatar, he is presented

as a fish with the head of a human. This story of Lord Matasya is found in the

Matasya Purana. Lord Vishnu, in the form of a fish, comes to the King, Lord Manu,

and informs him of the imminent flood that would submerge the earth. He orders the

King to build a huge boat and take the seven sages (hermits), seeds of all plants, and

one animal of each type. He promises to row the boat to Mount Himavan. The Lord

appears as a huge fish. The king uses the royal serpent Vasuki to tie the boat with the

fish. They are saved and the new era begins. 38

In the novel, Lord Matasya is described as the first Lord Vishnu who is “a

giant fish, who had helped bring Manu and his band of refugees from Sangamtamil

to safety.”39 Lord Manu is regarded as the founder of the Vedic Civilization. The

novel mentions it but the Vedic Civilization precedes the Indus Valley Civilization
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in it, the background against which the novel is set. The period of the Vedic era is

1500 BC–500 BC while the novel is set in 1900 BC. Placing the Vedic Civilization

before the Indus valley Civilisation convinces the reader to accept and correlate with

the society depicted in the novel, styled after the Vedic culture. For example, the

marriage ceremony, the yajna ceremony and the name-giving of the child ceremony

described in the novel are in the fashion of the Vedic culture. It also makes the

fusion of Indus and Vedic locales appear natural.

The Vishwanath Temple dedicated to Lord Shiva and the Sankat Mochan

Temple dedicated to Lord Hanuman are famous temples in Kashi. According to

popular belief, the temple structure has been rebuilt from time to time but the

sanctum-sanctorum is too old to be surmised. Such belief in the antiquity of the

temples may easily place them in imagination during the period of the Indus Valley

Civilization.

5:2:5: Bhagirath and Dilipa

According to the legends and verse 38 of the Bala Kanda of the Ramayana,

Bhagirath, Dilipa’s son, is from the Ikshavaku dynasty, a Suryavanshi dynasty that

ruled Bharat in the ancient age through their capital Ayodhaya. He succeeded as king

after his father.40 Verse 42 of the Ramayana mentions that he is renowned for

bringing River Ganga from the Himalayas to the Earth through the practice of

ascesis by Lord Shiva.41

In the novel too, Bhagirath is the son of Dilipa and the Prince of Ayodhaya

but they are Chandravanshi. In mythology, Ikshvaku Dilipa and Bhagirath are

ancestors of Lord Ram by sixteen and seventeen generations respectively but in the

novel, Lord Ram is shown as their ancestor and they worship him. In the myth,
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Ganga is brought to the earth by Bhagirath but in the novel River Ganga already

exists and no connection of it with Bhagirath is referred to. Yet, the identical names

of the father and the son, their being the rulers of Ayodhaya and Bhagirath’s being a

follower of Shiva create an archetype.

In the novel, he has an elder sister, Princess Anandmayi. According to him,

she is the only one who truly loves and cares for him. When Shiva’s convoy leaves

for Kashi, he is told by Shiva to accompany him so that he can be saved from any

assassination attempt. Anandmayi too joins him in the expedition and then onwards

they accompany Shiva in all the travels. He supports her sister in her pursuit to court

Parvateshwar. He initially repudiates the godhood of Shiva but later becomes his

staunch devotee.

He is depicted as a great strategist and brave warrior. If Swadeep had used

his war strategies against Meluha, they certainly would have won. Later, he

accompanies Parvateshwar to handle the riots at the Branga’s quarters skillfully. In

the battle with Parsuram too, he fights with commendable valour.

Not much is described about King Dilipa in the myth but one of the major

reasons for Bhagirath’s endeavours to bring River Ganga to the earth is to bring

salvation to his father and forefathers. It implies that they must have had good

relations but in the novel, the relationship between King Dilipa and Prince Bhagirath

is bad. It is so bad that the king allies with Maharishi Bhrigu in the assassination plan

to kill Shiva along with his whole convoy that consists of his own son and daughter.

King Dilipa allies with Maharishi Bhrigu in exchange of the medicines that would

enhance his life expectancy. His demeanour places him as an extremely selfish

person who does not bother even for the life of his own children.
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5:2:6: Anandmayi

Anandmayi is the Princess of Swadeep, elder sister to Prince Bhagirath and

daughter to King Dilipa. She is extremely beautiful with the finest features and

figure. She is an emblem of her country’s motto of ‘Beauty, Freedom, Passion.’ She

is portrayed with her royal arrogance. Even when her kingdom is lost in a battle to

Meluha, she wants fifty litres of milk for her beauty bath. She keeps on nagging

Parvateshwar with her demands.

In the first novel of the Shiva trilogy, there occurs the love story of Shiva and

Sati. The second novel of the series presents the love story of Parvateshwar and

Anandmayi. As Parvateshwar is a celibate, Anandmayi has to court and entice him

into marriage.

Her masseuse Kanini compares her with the celestial nymph Menka. In the

myth, Menka, the celestial nymph, is sent by Indra, God of Heaven, to distract sage

Viswamitra from his ascesis as it was surpassing godly powers. Menka seduces the

celibate sage and turns him into a householder for ten years. 42 As a householder, the

sage deviates from his strict ascetic duties. When he realises his mistake and the

intrigue, he sends Menka back to Heaven. Both Parvateshwar and Viswamitra are

celibates. Parvateshwar is a life-long celibate because of his grandfather’s vow while

the sage is celibate due to his ascetic vows. Anandmayi performs the role of Menka.

As in the myth, Anandmayi has to seduce the celibate Parvateshwar to turn him into

a householder. In the myth, the loss of celibacy results into the loss of ascetic powers

but in the novel, it brings happiness to Parvateshwar and Anandmayi because he was

not a celibate by his own will. She succeeds in changing Parvateshwar’s heart and

finally, they get married.

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5:2:7: Kali

The character of Kali in the novel is based on Goddess Kali. The earliest

reference to Goddess Kali or Mahakali is found in the Ratri Sukta of the Rig Veda.

Various texts like Katha Upnishad, Taittiriya Upanishad, Brihadaranyaka

Upanishad, the Mahabharata, Harivamsa, Matsya Purana, etc. present the goddess

diversely. A chapter entitled “Kali & Associate Goddesses” on Shodhganga presents

an analysis of how these different texts have described the goddess in different

ways.43

Down the ages, through different texts and folk cultures, the origin, essence

and iconography of Goddess Kali have differed immensely. In Vedic and Upanishad

texts, Mahakali personifies the female form of Supreme Time. The male manifest for

it is Mahakal. “Maha” means “supreme” or “beyond” and “Kal” refers to time. Kali

is the feminine gender of the masculine Kal. Thus, Mahakal or Mahakali refers to the

one who represents Supreme Time or the one who is beyond time. The title Mahakal

is attributed to Lord Shiva and so Kali corresponds with Sati. Like Shiva, she too has

different names and each of these names is associated with different Puranic or folk

stories and presents her with an altered iconography. For example, in the chapter

entitled “Uthama Charitha” in the part “Devi-Mahatmya,” a part of Markandeya

Purana, Kali is Goddess Durga’s personified wrath. When the demons Chanda and

Munda approach Goddess Durga, she turns dark with rage and from her forehead

emerges Goddess Kali who kills the demons. 44

The Linga Purana (1.4.12) narrates that Shiva requested his consort to kill a

demon called Daruka so Parvati’s consciousness entered Shiva’s body. Due to the

poison held in Shiva’s throat, she takes a black physical form, is named Kali, and
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kills the demon.45 In characteristic features, she is the female counterpart of Lord

Shiva. The temple of the Mahakal form of Lord Shiva is situated in the city of Ujjain

in the state of Madhya Pradesh, India. It is one of the twelve Jyotirlingams, the most

sacred shrines of Lord Shiva around India.46 She is regarded as mother goddess with

the belief that the womb of time or Kal or Kali gives birth to all.

Her iconography parallels her essence. In the iconography, Kali is presented

with a jet black or midnight blue complexion. She has four hands that wield different

weapons. She puts on a garland of human skulls and a girdle of human hands. She

has a fearsome demeanour. Aishwarya Javalgekar, in her article, “Goddess Worship

in Hinduism: The Ten Wisdom Goddesses of Shaktism,” describes the iconography

of Goddess Kali in the following manner:

The goddess Kali is always described as having a terrifying appearance.

Depicted black in colour, she is usually naked, with long, dishevelled hair.

She is adorned with severed arms as a girdle, serpents as bracelets and

children’s corpses as earrings. She also wears freshly severed heads as a

necklace. She is always depicted laughing, with long and sharp fangs, blood

smeared on the lips and her tongue lolling out. She has claw-like hands with

long nails. She is usually shown in combat with demons on a battlefield or in

a cremation ground, sitting on a corpse surrounded by jackals and goblins. 47

She is described both as compassionate and furious as Lord Shiva. In folklore

and popular cultures, she is known as the War Goddess and is famous for killing

many powerful demons, especially, Chand, Mund, Raktbeej, Shumbh, Nishumbh,

etc. Thus, like Lord Shiva, she too is known as the Dispeller of Evil. 48
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Amish has created the character Kali, the Naga Queen, after Goddess Kali.

The iconography, based on the personified manifestation of the goddess, is merged

with the novel’s character with alternative meanings. In the novel, she is a Naga.

Nagas are people born with deformities. Due to her bodily deformation, Kali has

four hands. The usual icon of Goddess Kali has four perfect hands, wielding four

different weapons but in the novel, Kali has two normal hands and two are “small

extra appendages.”49 Amish has created a similar image of the goddess’s skull

garland in Kali as her entire torso has “an exoskeleton covering it, hard as bone” and

there are small balls of bone from “shoulder down to her stomach, almost like a

garland of skulls.”50 Her skin is jet black, similar to Goddess Kali’s, and her face is a

replica of Sati’s as she is her twin sister.

Kali is abandoned by her parents at birth because she is a Naga. She raises

herself to be a Naga queen. Later, when Sati’s first son Ganesh is abandoned by

King Daksha, Kali adopts and fosters him. Sati has no knowledge of either of them.

Ganesh is angry at being abandoned and wants answers from his mother so he keeps

on trailing her with the view to kidnapping her. In the first book of the series, the

Nagas are portrayed as pure evil but from the second volume onwards, incident after

incident presents the Naga as fair people. At the point when all major characters are

convinced and are ready to accept the Naga, Kali and Ganesh are discovered by Sati.

They save her at Icchavar in the fight against the pride of the liger. They are

accepted wholeheartedly by Sati.

Goddess Kali is renowned for her anger. The Naga Queen Kali is portrayed

as an aggressive person. Her anger is legendary. Her image as a fighter against evil is

portrayed in the next volume.

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5:2:8: Ganesh

The character of Ganesh is based on Lord Ganesh, a god in Hindu religion.

Lord Ganesh is the god of wisdom and the remover of obstacles. He is the son of

Goddess Parvati and Lord Shiva. As in the myth, in the novel too Ganesh is the son

of Parvati or Sati and is adopted by Shiva.

Different mythological stories regarding the origin of Lord Ganesh are found

in different puranas. For example, according to the Linga Purana51 (1.4.11) and

Varaha Purana,52 Ganeshwar or Ganesh is the incarnation of Lord Shiva while

according to Shiv Purana, he has been created by Parvati. The story in popular

culture about the origin of Lord Ganesh is from Shiva Purana. According to the

story, once Parvati created a handsome boy from the lint of her own body and

ordered him to be her door-keeper. When Lord Shiva wanted to enter her chamber,

he refused him entry as he didn’t know him. Ganesh defeats all Ganas, Shiva’s men

and deities sent by Shiva to kill the boy. Shiva is enraged and cuts his head off after

a furious fight. Parvati gets angry and creates one thousand Shaktis or warrior

goddesses who at her command begin to destroy all creation. Parvati is pacified on

the condition that her son be revived and declared a god. Lord Shiva sends the Ganas

to the north with the order to bring the head of the first creature they find. They find

an elephant with a single tusk. The head of the elephant is placed on Lord Ganesh

and life is infused in him.53 Thus, according to the story in the Shiva Purana, Ganesh

can be considered the son of Parvati, adopted by Shiva. In the novel, Ganesh is the

son of Sati or Parvati from her first marriage and Shiva accepts him as his son after

the existence of Ganesh is discovered by Sati. Both in mythology and the novel,

disagreement ensues between Ganesh and Shiva in their first encounter. In

mythology, Lord Shiva’s ire arises from Lord Ganesh’s refusal to let Shiva enter
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Parvati’s chamber as Ganesh does not know him. He is following the orders of his

mother. In the novel, Shiva’s ire rises when he thinks Ganesh is a Naga responsible

for Brahaspati’s death.

As in the myth, Ganesh in the novel too has a human body with an elephant’s

head but for different reasons. His elephant head is the result of bodily deformation

since his birth. He too has only one tusk. In the real idols, Lord Ganesh is pictured as

one with a gigantic physique and an enormous belly. Ganesh in the novel too has a

similar personality. In spite of his bulk he is a skilled warrior.

In the myth, Lord Ganesh is the doorkeeper for her mother. Creating a

parallel image, Amish makes Ganesh stand at Sati’s door at his first meeting with

Shiva. The mythological role of the remover of obstacles is also attributed to

Ganesh. In the first novel of the series, he saves a woman from being eaten by a

crocodile. In the second novel of the series, he saves the life of Kartik twice. First,

when Kartik is born, by providing medicine and second, during the attack of a liger

and a lioness. He saves a child and mother from being killed at Magadh from

soldiers who were forcefully snatching the child away for a bull race. He convinces

the Naga council to send medicines to the Brangans that save their life in the yearly

plague. He rescues Parsuram also.

Lord Ganesh is regarded as the Lord of wisdom. This feature is found in the

character Ganesha also and is demonstrated in the way he handles and convinces the

Naga council to send medicines to Branga. The Naga people nurture an ancient

belief that their bodily deformation results from the curse engendered by bad deeds

in their previous births. So they keep to themselves and do not want any interference

from or in the outer world. The annual plague of Branga can be treated by the
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medicine of the Nagas only. The Nagas believe that sending the medicines may

create more hatred towards them as people may think that they have infected others

too with their curse for which only they have the medicine. Ganesh anticipates such

resistance and so he requests King Chandraketu to send the coins of their own

country to convince the Nagas that they have taken Brangan money and so they can’t

refuse giving the medicine. He manipulates and convinces everyone by quoting the

founder of the Naga kingdom, Bhoomidevi, who is regarded as a goddess by them,

“one of her clear guidelines was that a Naga must repay in turn for everything that he

receives. This is the only way to clear our karma of sins.” 54 In order to create a lordly

identity for Ganesh, Amish has depicted the Nagas as regarding Ganesh as “Lord of

the People.”

5:2:9: Kartik

The character of Kartik is based on the Hindu God of War, Lord Kartikeya.

Among the many names attributed to Lord Kartikeya, Lord Murugan, Lord

Subrahmanya, Lord Skanda, and Lord Kumara are more popular in the present times.

The reference to Lord Kartik is found in Vedic and post-Vedic texts. In the Rig

Veda, he is referred to as Agnibhu, Sadasapati, Skanda, and Subramanya. The

current beliefs associated with Lord Kartikeya are largely based on Shiva Purana55

and Skanda Purana.56

According to Shiva Purana, he is the son of Lord Shiva and Parvati. In the

novel also, Kartik is the son of Shiva and Sati or Parvati. Lord Kartikeya is named

after six Kritikas who fostered and fed Kartik. Shiva Purana defines Kritikas as

“wise women of Yogic practice . . . the digits of Prakrti (nature, Power).”57 In the

novel, Kartik is named after Krittika, Sati’s close companion and aide.
 198

Kartik’s character has been framed in the fashion of a warrior god. When he

is three, he looks six years old and from the age of three, he starts practising sword

play. After he sees his brother Ganesh fighting alone to repel the attack of the liger

and the lionesses, he begins to practise with real swords. At the age of three, he can

wield two swords with both hands. He does not use a shield, an act that only a skilled

warrior can perform. His warrior skills are presented in the manner he hunts the wild

animals on his way through Dandak Forest to Panchwati, the Naga capital.

5:2:10: Parsuram

In Indic mythology, Lord Parsuram is regarded as the sixth incarnation of

Lord Vishnu. He is the son of sage Jamadagni and his wife Renuka. According to the

legends, he is born to bring the Kshatriya, the warrior class, who had become

immoral, back on the path of duty. He is famous for using his legendary battle axe

with which he annihilated the race of immoral Kshatriyas twenty-one times. His

birth name is Rama Jamadagnya. He gets the name Parsuram because he wields the

“Parsu” or axe as his weapon. According to the Ramayana and Padma Purana, the

Parsu was presented to him by Lord Vishnu while the Mahabharata and Brahma

Vaivarta Purana mention that it is the gift of Lord Mahadev or Shiva. 58 Brahma

Vaivarta Purana mentions that the name Parsuram was bestowed on him by Lord

Mahadev who is his guru or teacher.59 He is also known for matricide.

Down the ages, the parts of the legend of Lord Parsuram that have remained

in popular culture are his being the sixth incarnation of Lord Vishnu, defeating

Kshatriyas twenty-one times and committing matricide. All these three traits of Lord

Parsuram have been used by Amish in the creation of the character Parsuram in the

novel. In the novel too, he is the son of sage Jamadagni and his wife Renuka but he
 199

is a terrifying bandit who lives in the forests across River Madhumati with his men.

No one is able to capture him. He has the knowledge of making the medicine that

can treat the patients of Branga who suffer from the annual plague. Shiva decides to

capture him and with his retinue leaves for the forest. A fierce fight occurs and

Parsuram is defeated. He is captured alive. When Parsuram recognises Shiva, he

expiates by severing his own left hand. He and his men are set free by Shiva and they

join Shiva’s army. He narrates his life story to Shiva and Shiva approves of all his

deeds. In the myth too, Lord Parsuram is the devotee of Lord Shiva who approves of

his deeds.

According to the myth, once King Arjuna of Haiyaha dynasty visits sage

Jamadagni with his army during a hunting expedition. He is welcomed and his whole

army is fed by the sage with the help of a wish-fulfilling cow named Kamdhenu. The

King wants to possess the cow. Upon refusal, he snatches the cow. When the sage’s

son Parsuram returns to the ashram, the sage narrates the King’s misdeed. Parsuram

gets angry and follows them. He stops them before they reach their capital

Mahismati. A fight ensues in which Parsuram kills them all. Parsuram is a Brahmin

and it is forbidden for a Brahmin to engage himself in killing so Parsuram leaves for

the mountains for a year long penance. In his absence, the sons of King Arjuna come

and severe the head of the sage who is lost in meditation. They take the head away

with them. Parsuram returns and in a chain of twenty one battles, defeats all

Kshatriyas who confront him.60 The story of matricide by Parsuram is narrated in the

text Kalka Purana. Once Renuka, Parsuram’s mother, watches stealthily the

amorous play of King Chitrarath with celestial nymphs at River Ganga where she

had gone to fetch water for the sage’s religious rites. When the sage finds out, he

orders his sons to kill his mother. All the sons refuse except the youngest, Parsuram.
 200

Following his father’s order, he kills his mother and all his brothers. Pleased, when

the sage tells Parsuram to ask for any five boons, he asks for the following: (1)

Resurrection of his mother and brothers, (2) Expiation of matricidal sin, (3) Mother

should not remember her son’s heinous misdeed, (4) Invincibility in any battle and,

(5) Long life.

In the novel, Parsuram is a qualified candidate to become a Vasudev

Kshatriya. In mythology, Vasudev is another name of Lord Vishnu. In the novel,

Vasudev is an institution that manages the functioning of the society. To become a

Vasudev, one has to pass a competitive test and abandon his previous identity and

connections. The incident of matricide is linked with honour killing in the novel.

Jamadagni is a Brahmin Vasudev Pandit and so he cannot marry. Renuka is from a

conservative Kshatriya clan which does not allow women to go out, work and meet

strange men. Renuka is headstrong and self-willed so she gets the permission from

her father to work in the gurukul, the school of Jamadagni, because she is in love

with Jamadagni and wants to convince him to give up his vows of Vashudev

Brahmin and marry her. She is successful in convincing him. She also convinces her

father to let her marry Jamadagni. They marry and have five sons of which Parsuram

is the youngest. When Renuka’s father dies, her clan people come, tie Renuka to a

tree, and before her eyes, they kill her husband, sons and all the students in the

ashram. They torture Jamadagni the whole day before killing him to let Renuka be

haunted by the spectacle and suffer for the rest of her life. They do this as a warning

to the other women of their tribe against following the path of Renuka. Parsuram is

not present at home. When he returns, he finds his mother tied to a tree and dead

bodies strewn all around. Her mother narrates everything and asks him to kill all the

culprits. She also asks him to kill her to free her from the tortuous existence.
 201

Parsuram kills her and then finishes off all the culprits. Twenty one times armies are

sent out to capture him but he defeats them all. Thus, mythopoeia is created in the

novel on the framework of the already existing myth.

The next chapter deals with the final novel of the trilogy, The Oath of the

Vayuputras.
 202

5:3: Works Cited

1. Khullar, Pranav. “The Eternal City of Light.” Economic Times Blog, 14

Apr. 2019, economictimes.indiatimes.com/blogs/the-speaking-tree/the-

eternal-city-of-light/.

2. Tripathi, Amish. The Secret of Nagas. Westland Publications, 2017, p. 59.

3. Holidify. “Famous Ghats in Varanasi - An Abode To Liberate Your Soul.”

Holidify, 11 Jan. 2021, www.holidify.com/collections/ghats-in-varanasi.

4. Sharma, Aabhas. “How Old Is Banaras?” Business Standard, 16 May

2014, www.business-standard.com/article/specials/how-old-is-banaras-

114051501029_1.html.

5. Ibid.

6. “Shiv Puran.” Shiv Puran, pp. 1343-1348,

www.gurujimaharaj.com/shivpuran-en.html.

7. Tripathi, Amish. The Secret of Nagas. Westland Publications, 2017, p. 59.

8. Anand, Published by Neha. “5 Famous Ghats of Varanasi.” City on Pedals,

2 Apr. 2020, cityonpedals.com/blog/5-famous-ghats-of-varanasi.

9. Keith, Arthur Berriedale. “The Religion and Philosophy of the Veda and

Upnishads.” pp. 142-150.

http://www.ahandfulofleaves.org/documents/The%20Religion%20and%20

Philosophy%20of%20the%20Veda%20and%20Upanishads_Vol%201_Kei

th.pdf .

10. Tripathi, Amish. The Secret of Nagas. Westland Publications, 2017, p. 61.
 203

11. Ibid. p. 62.

12. Shafi, Showkat. “‘Hotels of Death’ in Indian Holy City.” India News | Al

Jazeera, 5 Dec. 2013, www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2013/12/5/hotels-of-

death-in-indian-holy-city/.

13. “Shiv Puran.” Shiv Puran (English), pp. 1340-1348,

www.gurujimaharaj.com/shivpuran-en.html. / Skanda Purana or Kartika

Purana, pp.26-27,

spiritualminds.com/easternrelgions/puranas/SkandaPurana/skandapurana.p

df.

14. “Hindu Temples in Varanasi.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 15 Dec.

2020, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_temples_in_Varanasi.

15. Tripathi, Amish. The Secret of Nagas. Westland Publications, 2017, p. 66.

16. “The Mahabharata of Vyasa-Full English Translation”. holybooks-

lichtenbergpress.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/Mahabharata-VOL-

1.pdf.

17. Tripathi, Amish. The Secret of Nagas. Westland Publications, 2017, p. 78.

18. Ibid. p. 79.

19. Ibid. p. 79.

20. Ibid. p 79.

21. Ibid. p 79.

 204

22. Renuka Narayanan. “Kashi: In Step with History” The Hindu.”

www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/kashi-in-step-with

history/article7259581.ece.

23. “TELEPATHY: Meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary.”

Cambridge

Dictionary, dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/telepathy.

24. Prasad, R. “Communicating through Telepathy Achieved.” The Hindu, 8

Sept. 2014, www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/communication-through-

telepathy-demonstrated/article6391358.ece.

25. Venkatasubramanian, Ganeshan & et al. “Investigating paranormal

phenomena: Functional brain imaging of telepathy”. International Journal

of Yoga, July 2008,

www.researchgate.net/publication/51559600_Investigating_paranormal_ph

enomena_Functional_brain_imaging_of_telepathy.

26. Paramahansa Yogananda. Autobiography of a Yogi. Main Street, 2014, p.

151.

27. Ibid, p. 256.

28. Tripathi, Amish. The Secret of Nagas. Westland Publications, 2017, p. 108.

29. Anderson, J. Bach. “A History of Radio Wave Propagation: From Marconi

to Mimo.” History of Communications/Radio Wave Propagation from

Marconi to MIMO - IEEE Journals & Magazine,

ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7841460.
 205

30. “Valmiki’s Ramayana.”

valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga22/bala_22_frame.htm

31. Naicker, Suren. “An analysis of the Gayatri mantra as a mega-

compression: A cognitive linguistic perspective in light of conceptual

blending theory”. November 2019.

www.researchgate.net/publication/337599966_An_analysis_of_the_Gayatr

i_mantra_as_a_megacompression_A_cognitive_linguistic_perspective_in_

light_of_conceptual_blending_theory.

32. Tripathi, Amish. The Secret of Nagas. Westland Publications, 2017, p. 25.

33. Prabhupada, A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami. Bhagavad-Gita as It Is. pp. 273-

274. www.bhagavatgita.ru/files/Bhagavad-gita_As_It_Is.pdf.

34. “Narasimha.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 22 Jan. 2021,

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narasimha.

35. “The Vishnu Purana.” The Vishnu Purana Index,

sacred-texts.com/hin/vp/index.htm.

36. Tripathi, Amish. The Secret of Nagas. Westland Publications, 2017, p. 41.

37. Ibid, p. 41.

38. “The Matasya Purana.” shaivam.org/english/sen-purana-matsya-puranam-

1.pdf

39. Ibid, p. 267.

40. “Baala Khanda.” Valmiki’s Ramayana.

valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga70/bala_70_frame.htm
 206

41. Ibid. valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga42/bala_42_frame.htm

42. Ibid. valmikiramayan.net/utf8/baala/sarga63/bala_63_frame.htm

43. Shodhganga.

shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/72027/10/10_chapter%206.pdf

44. “Chapter 7: Killing of Chanda and Munda.” Devi Mahatmyam Text -

Hindupedia, the Hindu Encyclopedia,

www.hindupedia.com/en/Devi_Mahatmyam_Text.

45. Linga Purana - Hindu Online.

hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/LingaPurana.html.

46. “Mahakaleshwar Jyotirlinga.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 14 Jan.

2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahakaleshwar_Jyotirlinga.

47. Javalgekar, Aishwarya. “Goddess Worship in Hinduism: The Ten

Wisdom”.

www.academia.edu/32388291/Goddess_Worship_in_Hinduism_The_Ten_

Wisdom_Goddesses_of_Shaktism.

48. Ramachander, P R. “Devi Mahatmyam.” Devi Mahatmyam - Hindupedia,

the Hindu Encyclopedia, www.hindupedia.com/en/Devi_Mahatmyam.

49. Tripathi, Amish. The Secret of Nagas. Westland Publications, 2017, p. 233.

50. Ibid.

51. Linga Purana - Hindu Online.

hinduonline.co/Scriptures/Puranas/LingaPurana.html.
 207

52. Varha Purana.

https://www.kamakoti.org/kamakoti/varaha/bookview.php?chapnum=11.

53. Shiv Purana. pp. 766-787.

https://www.gurujimaharaj.com/ShivPuran-en/ShivPuran-Part10-715-

794p.htm.

54. Tripathi, Amish. The Secret of Nagas. Westland Publications, 2017, pp.

184-185.

55. Rajantheran, M., and R. Viknarasah. “Lord Murugan in the Vedas.” UM

Research Repository, 1 Jan. 1970, eprints.um.edu.my/14467/.

56. Shiva Purana. http://www.vcscsd.com/content/balabhavan/18-Puranas.pdf.

page 217. / Skanda Purana.

https://spiritualminds.com/easternrelgions/puranas/SkandaPurana/skandapu

rana.pdf.

57. Shiva Purana. https://www.gurujimaharaj.com/ShivPuran-en/ShivPuran-

Part10-715-794p.htm. P. 732.

58. Parampanthi, Swami Bangovinda. “Bhagwan Parsuram and the Evolution

of Culture in North-East India”. pp. 12-13.

http://www.dspace.nehu.ac.in/bitstream/1/10951/1/Bhagawan%20parashur

am%20(SB%20Parampanthi).pdf

59. Ibid, p. 13.

60. Ibid, pp. 10-12.

208
 209

Chapter V

The Oath of the Vayuputras: Myth Re-stabilized

The Oath of the Vayuputra is the third volume in the book series Shiva

Trilogy. The story of this volume begins at the point where the second volume, The

Secret of the Nagas, ends. The Oath of the Vayuputra is the concluding part which

narrates the story of the preparations for the Great War, the War itself and its

aftermath. The first volume of the series The Immortals of Meluha, narrates the story

of the journey of its protagonist Shiva from a tribal leader to a most awaited blue-

throated god whose function is to find evil in society and eradicate it. Due to the

abstract nature of evil, it is difficult for him to recognize it. In his endeavour to

ascertain the nature of evil, he is exposed to societal pluralism which appears self-

contradictory at first glance but on closer inspection, the components are found to be

rather complementary to one another. In the first volume, Shiva is discovered by the

Suryavanshi kingdom Meluha, who, due to the existing circumstances, believe that

the other races viz. the Chandravanshis and the Nagas are evil and are operating in

collaboration to terrorize them. They convince Shiva also to believe it. The

Suryavanshis, under Shiva’s leadership, launch a war against the Chandravanshi and

defeat them, only to realise that they are not bad and are also not in league with the

Nagas. In the second volume, The Secret of Nagas, Shiva finds that in spite of their

physical deformity, the Nagas too are not really evil. In this third volume, it is

discovered that the evil has risen in the Suryavanshi kingdom of Meluha itself. This

evil is the side-effect of their nectar Somras. The obdurate refusal to stop its
 210

production and use leads to a war and nations split. A series of battles starts which

eventually ends with the destruction of the Meluhan capital Devagiri and Somras.

This chapter will study some of the myths, characters and locations discussed

earlier but in an evolved form. There are also many that have not been scanned in

Chapter III and IV. This chapter has the sub-title “Myth Restablized” because the

mysteries in the earlier novels are resolved skillfully in this final novel and the

narrative is brought to a credible conclusion.

6:1: Synopsis of The Oath of the Vayuputra

In The Secret of the Nagas, the second part of the series, Shiva starts the

journey with his men to Panchwati, the capital of the Nagas, to unearth the secret

that lies with the Nagas. The secret is Brahaspati, Meluha’s chief scientist, who has

been taken for dead by everyone. In the second volume, it was revealed that the

Nagas are not really evil but then it is not realized what this evil actually is. The

reasons behind certain activities of the Nagas - the annihilation of Mount Mandar,

attacks on Meluhan temples and massacre of the temple priests - are not explained in

The Secret of the Nagas. The incident that triggered Shiva’s ire and prompted him to

lead Meluha in the war against Swadeep was the death of his brotherly friend

Brahaspati. He had supposedly lost his life during the destruction of Mount Mandar

by the Nagas and the Chandravanshi. Shiva considers Ganesh responsible for

Brahaspati’s death. For this reason, he can’t forgive him even after he is found to be

Sati’s son and despite the fact that he saves the life of Kartik twice.

The third book of the Shiva Trilogy series, The Oath of the Vayuputras,

begins with nostalgic reminiscences by Shiva. He remembers the murder of his

uncle, Manobhu. He was killed by the Pakratis during a peace conference with them.
 211

Shiva remembers his uncle’s last messages and teachings in which he had told Shiva

that his real enemy is Evil. Earlier, he had not understood the message but now it has

begun to make sense. He had also told Shiva that anger too is his enemy and that he

must control it. In Panchwati, Shiva finds out that the secret that the Nagas were

safeguarding is that Brahaspati, whom everybody believed to be dead, is actually

alive.

Brihaspati enlightens Shiva by telling him that Somras is the reason why he

was compelled to spread the rumour of his death. He reports that Somras has now

turned malevolent due to its fatal side-effects. He informs Shiva that Somras is

responsible for the physical deformities of the Nagas. The intake of Somras speeds

up the multiplication of cells in the body in certain people, leading to deformation.

Many children are born with outgrowths in their bodies. They have to suffer not only

immense pain but also social exclusion. Somras is also the cause behind the

depletion of the Saraswati River. The production of Somras needs a huge amount of

water which is drawn from the river. No other water can be used to produce

Somras. In addition, Somras causes yearly plagues among the Brangas. The

production of Somras also creates toxic waste. The scientists in the novel have

conducted researches and discovered that fresh, cold water reduces the poisonous

impact to a great extent. The toxic effluents of Somras are disposed in Tibet in the

Tsangpo River, which enters India as River Brahamputra. In summer, when snow

melts in the Himalayas, the poison flows along with the river water in large

quantities back to India. The toxicant that remains inactive and dormant in frigid

water gets reactivated in the hot atmosphere. It is the reason of the plague in Branga

every summer.
 212

Brahaspati informs Shiva about the institution of the Vayuputras, a tribe left

behind by the previous Mahadev, Lord Rudra. The tribe has two missions - first, help

the next Vishnu and second, train a candidate to become the next Mahadev at the

appropriate time. They live beyond the western borders of Meluha. Their land is

called Pariha, the Land of Fairies. The Vayuputras are ruled by a council of six wise

people collectively called the Amratya Shpand. The head of the council is called

Mithra and is revered like a god.

One of the Amratya Shpands discovered a few centuries ago that the Naga

babies were born deformed due to the toxic effluents of Somras so they began to

compensate the Naga king Vasuki with hoards of gold annually. They believed that

the suffering of the Nagas is collateral damage which has to be tolerated for larger

good. They also believed that being born as a Naga is the punishment for the bad

karmas of previous births. As the consumption of Somras has increased with the

passage of time, the number of deformed Naga Children has also risen.

Shiva cannot bring himself to believe Brihaspati entirely as he is hurt by the

fact that Brahaspati had hidden the truth of his being alive from him. Shiva asks

Brahaspati why he did not make any attempt to stop the production of Somras

instead of spreading the false rumour of his death and remaining in hiding for five

years. Brahaspati informs him that he had taken the matter to Emperor Daksha who

sent him to the venerable Raj Guru i.e. the royal priest, Maharishi Bhrigu, who

seemed genuinely interested in the matter. Maharishi Bhrigu took him to the

Vayuputra’s council so that Brahaspati could present his case before them but they

were not convinced. According to them, the new ruler of the Nagas, Queen Kali, is

an extremist harridan who is frustrated with her own karma and is targeting all the

others. As for the plague in Branga, they believe that the Brangas are rich but an
 213

uncivilised lot with weird eating habits and disgusting customs, inviting the annual

plague. The Vayuputras are sure that the plague is the consequence of their bad

karmas. The Vayuputra council refuses to believe that Somras has turned evil.

Brahaspati tells Shiva that he had begun to lose credibility among the senior

scientists of other realms. Tara, whom he intended to marry, has also disappeared all

of a sudden. This made him believe that he would lose his ability to do anything at

all if he makes any further attempt. He adds that Shiva’s discovery as Neelkanth,

even without the acknowledgement of the Vayuputras, strengthened his belief that

Somras had definitely turned evil. So he, along with Ganesh, hatched the plan to

destroy Mount Mandar following which he disappeared. These five years he has

been conducting experiments secretly to find a solution to control the production of

Somras by adding bacteria in the Saraswati River. However, he has failed in his

efforts.

Shiva is skeptical but Sati confirms Brihaspati’s story. She informs Shiva of

Lord Bhrigu’s presence in Devagiri for many months which is unusual as he

never interferes in mundane matters. She also confirms Tara’s sudden disappearance

and tells Shiva that the Somras is still being produced secretly.

In order to confirm whether Somras has actually turned evil or not, Shiva

decides to travel to the hidden city of Ujjain to meet the Vasudev Chief, Gopal.

Meanwhile, Bhagirath and Parvateshwar are told by Shiva to find out if the ship

containing the Daivi Astras that had attacked him and his men, belonged to their

country. To their utter shock and shame, the wreckage confirms that it was jointly

owned by Meluha and Ayodhya. It is also revealed that the master-mind behind the

attack and the use of Daivi Astra was Maharishi Bhrigu, Saptrishi’s heir, who refuses

to be convinced that Somras has turned evil. As the Vayuputras don’t acknowledge
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Shiva as Neelkanth, he believes Shiva to be a fraud. As the narrative progresses, it is

also revealed that the alarm, when Shiva’s entourage was attacked by the fleet

containing Daivi Astras on the outskirts of Panchwati, was sounded by King Daksha

because he could not bear to lose his beloved daughter Sati and grandchild Kartik.

At Ujiain, Gopal, the Vasudev Chief, acquaints Shiva with the functioning of

the Vasudev and the Vayuputras institution. He says that there are certain key

questions for Mahadev and Vishnu. The key issue for Mahadev is to identify Evil.

For the Vishnu, there are two key questions. The first is to realise what the next

Great Good is and the second is to ascertain when the Good becomes Evil. He says

that a good becomes evil when human beings start overexploiting it. The duty of

Mahadev is to lead people away from the good that has turned evil.

The Vayuputras control the institution of the Neelkanth. They train possible

candidates for the role of the Neelkanth. For this they administer a certain medicine

to the probable candidate when he enters adolescence. If the candidate who can

really become Neelkanth drinks Somras, his throat turns blue. The blind faith of

people in Neelkanth ensures that they would follow him and that evil will be

eradicated. However, Shiva is different. Though the Vayuputras have not trained yet

his emergence at the right time and his finding the right answer to the key question

certifies his authenticity. This is why the Vasudevas have come forward to support

him. Shiva remembers that his uncle Manobhu had administered a medicine to him

in his childhood when he used to experience a severe burning sensation between his

brows. It is revealed that his uncle was a Vayuputra Lord, one of the Amratya

Shapands who had tried to convince the Vayuputras that Somras had turned vile but

he had received no support. Then he vanished with a promise to Gopal that he would

ensure the appearance of Neelkanth. Lord Manobhu made Gopal take an oath that
 215

whenever Neelkanth appears, he, along with all Vasudevs, will support him

wholeheartedly. The occurrence of events at opportune moments is regarded as the

will of God by Gopal. Shiva has felt a throbbing between his brows since childhood.

Gopal tells him that it is the sign of his third eye and the evidence that his sixth

vortex is active. He is amazed that a child is born with an active third eye as it

usually happens only after years of yogic practice. Gopal believes that this must have

been the reason why Lord Manobhu selected Shiva and trained him for the role of

Neelkanth by instructing him in ethics, warfare, psychology and arts.

When it is ascertained that Somras has now turned evil, Shiva intends to stop

its use. He wants to do it without any conflict so he makes a proclamation outside the

temples in all cities on the same day to stop using Somras. It is also announced that

the defaulters will face the wrath of the Neelkanth. However, King Daksha craftily

replaces the proclamation with a royal notice stating that it was fake.

On Shiva’s return from Ujjain to Kashi, Ganesh, Bhagirath, Kartik, etc. go to

Branga and the adjacent Vaishali for alliance to thwart the impending war. When

Chandraketu, King of Branga, gets to know of the reason behind the plague in his

country, he is livid and says that not only his army but every single citizen too will

participate in the war. Maatali, King of Vaishali, who is also a blind follower of

Neelkanth, accepts his alliance. Thus, it is decided that in the war, the armies of the

Nagas, the Vasudevs, Branga, Vaishali, and Kashi will fight on the side of Shiva.

Parvateshwar, although an ardent follower of Neelkanth, knows that his

country is on the side of the evil yet he places his duty towards his motherland above

all other considerations. Consequently, he is arrested and imprisoned. When Shiva

returns, he orders to free Parvateshwar instantly and allows him to go back to

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Meluha. Anandmayi also joins him. Ayodhaya also supports Meluha. The Ayodhyan

battleships have to pass through Magadh in order to reach Meluha. If they are

blockaded here, the Ayodhyan army will have to take the forest path which will take

them at least six months to reach Meluha and by that time the war would be over.

Hence, Shiva goes to Magadh for an alliance. Prince Surapadman, who looks after

the kingdom, meets Shiva. Prince Ugrasen, Prince Surapadman’s elder brother, had

been slain by Ganesh when he was going to kill a mother and snatch her child to use

him as a jockey in bull-racing. Now King Mahendra wants revenge for the act.

Though Surapadman knows the real reason behind the death of his brother yet he

doesn’t want to tell the heart-breaking truth to his grieving father. He requests Shiva

to sacrifice any unimportant Naga so that he can execute him publically for the

satisfaction of his father. This would enable him to fight on Shiva’s side. As it is

unethical, Shiva refuses and asks him to consider things objectively.

Shiva leads an army of one hundred thousand soldiers of Nagas, Brangas,

and Vasudevas with their well-trained war elephants to attack Meluha while Kartik,

Bhagirath, Chandraketu and Ganesh march to Ayodhaya with one hundred and fifty

thousand men. They have to pass through Magadh. They encounter no obstacles but

Ganesh learns that the Magadhan army is on full alert. Ganesh sends Kartik with a

hundred thousand men. The battle is fought at Bal-Atibal Kund and turns out to be a

massacre as Kartik’s army slaughters seventy thousand Magadhan soldiers out of

seventy-five thousand. Kartik’s valour and ferocity earn him the title of the Lord of

war. The siege of Ayodhaya proves to be surprisingly easy because they don’t fight

back and Ganesh gets a stronghold on the city without much difficulty.

Shiva’s army reaches a port in Maika, Lothal, whose Governor,

Chenardhwaj, is well acquainted with the problems of the Nagas. He is loyal to the
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institution of the Neelkanth so he actively supports Shiva. Moreover, Lothal boasts

of an exceptionally well-designed, impregnable fortress. Shiva’s army then marches

to Mrittikavati where they rout the Meluhan Brigadier Vidyunmali’s soldiers with

the help of Vasudevas’ elephant corps. Vidyunmali is captured. Instead of seizing the

city, Shiva addresses its people and makes them aware of the current situation.

Mrittikavati citizens profess loyalty to Neelkanth. The Meluhan soldiers are held

prisoner. The Meluhan naval fleet is also captured. Later, Vidyunmali manages to

escape with the help of traitors.

Another great threat for Shiva’s army is the Meluhan Daivi Astra. Panini, a

core scientist, friend and Brahaspati’s ex-associate, confirms however, that they do

not have it because they don’t have enough raw material left. As the use of the Daivi

Astras is banned, the Vayuputras council has already excommunicated Lord Bhrigu

for its use earlier. Panini also informs him that Devagiri is the location where Somras

is being produced. It is discovered by the knowledge that loads of Sanjivni trees are

being brought into the city on the pretext of trade but they are never taken outside the

city. It is clear now that the production of Somras can be stopped only by targeting

Devagiri. Accordingly, they make further plans and the army is divided into two

task-forces. Shiva’s posse will move up the Saraswati and then north, up the

Yamuna, with a small fleet of twenty five ships where he will meet Ganesh and

Kartik as they march down to the Yamuna road and then together they will take on

the Meluhan capital. After three weeks, Sati’s one hundred thousand soldiers and

Vasudevas’ elephants will move from Mrittikavati upstream the Saraswati to

Devagiri. With two hundred and fifty thousand soldiers against seventy thousand

Meluhan soldiers, they will defeat Meluha easily. However, Sati’s army reaches

earlier than planned. Due to the Yamuna floods, the road connecting Swadeep and
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Meluha is submerged and Ganesh’s army fails to join Shiva’s army in time.

Parvateshwar cleverly dispatches a number of bullock carts containing burning dung

cake mixed with chilly to send the enemy elephants into a stampede. Sati sees

through his strategy and orders the elephant regiment to retreat but a few agitated

Vasudeva Kshatriyas disobey Sati’s instruction and it results in heavy causalities.

One side of Sati’s face is badly burnt. Shiva’s approaching army meets Sati’s

retreating soldiers and they all return to Lothal. Shiva leaves secretly for Pariha with

the Vasudeva Chief, Gopal, to seek the help of the Vayuputras.

Pavateshwar sends ships containing a small army of five thousand to falsely

create the impression that they will attack Panchwati. His plan it to separate the Naga

army from the others at Lothal. He knows that Queen Kali will definitely leave for

Panchwati if she thinks it to be under attack. Kali, Ganesh, Kartik and their soldiers

rush to save her motherland. However, Jadav Rana, the King of Umbergaon, a

kingdom near Panchwati, acquaints Kali with the fact that the Meluhan ships contain

a very small number of soldiers.

Meanwhile, Daksha executes his dreadful plan. As soon as Lord Bhrigu and

Parvateshwar go to Karachaapa, he orders Vidyunmali to fetch assassins from Egypt

and then makes a false offer of peace. He sends Kanakhala’s signed document to

Lothal, believing that Shiva will lead the negotiations but he doesn’t know about

Shiva’s absence. He has made plans for Shiva’s assassination. Sati attends the

conference with Nandi and a troupe of soldiers. As per the accepted rules of the

peace conference, no one can carry their weapons. When Kanakhala finds out about

Daksha’s treacherous plan, she sends the intelligence through a bird courier to

Parvateshwar and herself commits suicide. According to the plan, Daksha will call

Sati to dinner and in the meanwhile, assassins in Naga clothes will kill the others. It
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will turn the needle of suspicion towards the Nagas, holding them responsible for

Shiva’s death and thus, Daksha would get his daughter back. During the banquet,

Sati suspects something foul and rushes out to see her entourage where she finds

them under attack by assassins. She fights till her last breath but saves her men.

When Lord Bhrigu gets the news, he accepts that Somras has really become vile

because all these misfortunes have occurred due to Somras.

At Pariha, Shiva meets Mithra who turns out to be his maternal uncle. He

strategically procures the Pashupati Astra for Shiva, a weapon of limited range, with

the promise that it will be used only as a threat. Brahaspati’s beloved Tara is also

discovered at Pariha and she comes to Devagiri with Shiva.

When Shiva reaches Devagiri, he is outraged when he hears of the death of

his beloved wife and decides to use the Pashupati Astra on the city. Sati’s apparition

materialises before Kartik and Ganesh and advises them not to yield to anger but to

follow the Dharma. She instructs Ganesh to avenge her death personally.

Shiva orders the citizens to evacuate Devagiri but most of them refuse. They

believe that their nation has sinned and that they must undergo penance with death.

Kartik secretly rescues Lord Bhrigu and the scientists so that their knowledge does

not die with Meluha. Veerini, Daksha’s wife, comes out to meet them for the last

time and reveals the identity of the real assassins but they have already fled. Shiva

unleashes the astra and Devagiri is annihilated, along with the Somras production

plant.

ln the epilogue, Shiva retires to Mount Kailash where he spends the rest of

his life with his family and followers. He misses Sati every day. Ganesh, Kali and

Kartik become renowned as gods in lndia for their prowess. A few years after the
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destruction of Devagiri, Kali, Ganesh, Kartik, Parsuram, and Veerbhadra go to Egypt

secretly and eliminate the clan of the assassins. Vidyumali is found and given brutal

death. The ashes of Sati are spread in fifty-one Shakti temples across the length and

breadth of the country and she is now known as Goddess Shakti. Bhrigu continues

teaching and puts together his knowledge in Bhrigu Samhita. In order to ensure that

Somras is not manufactured again, the course of the Yamuna is turned towards east,

sounding a death-knell to the Saraswati without the waters of which Somras cannot

be produced.

6:2: Mythic Archetype Concluded

The characters in the three novels of the Shiva Trilogy are largely modelled

after mythic archetypes that were introduced and formed in the first and the second

volume of the series. Apart from the extension of archetypal characters and

philosophies in the previous volumes, there is also the addition of certain minor

characters and philosophies like pluralism, dualism, the concept of Karma, etc. in the

last novel in the series. It also focuses on the final war and internecine politics.

The extended mythic archetypes are discussed below.

6:2:1: Shiva

The inexperienced Shiva of the first volume grows into the most mature one

in this volume - approaching godhood with godly authority in a world of mortals.

His task of finding evil concludes in the beginning of the novel and when he is

convinced, he proceeds to eradicate it. At the end of the second volume, The Secret

of the Nagas, Shiva reaches Panchwati, where his friend Brahaspati tells him that the

life expanding elixir has turned vile. Shiva takes decisive action eventually. His
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behaviour and decisions during this phase bring a sort of apotheosis to him. Sati

points out that “A man becomes God when his vision moves beyond the bounds of

victors and losers.”1

The first volume, The Immortals of Meluha, outlines the emergence of Shiva

with his blue throat, a resemblance with the mythological Lord Shiva. This volume

rationalises the occurrences and converts the mystical into the rational. A scientific

approach is employed to explain the events. The supposedly divine and magical blue

throat of Shiva is found to be the result of measured human action taken by his uncle

Lord Manubhu. Yet, the course of events that leads to it depends purely on fate. It is

to the credit of Amish that he makes everything appear quite plausible. It balances

the mysticism of Lord Shiva’s myth and the events as explained in Amish’s fictional

work. The character Shiva in the novel sticks with the rationale that he is not a

miracle but the result of his uncle’s secret efforts. It reveals his upright and scientific

attitude.

In the novel, during the negotiations with Magadh, Shiva could easily choose

to comply with Prince Surapadman’s demands of delivering any insignificant Naga

to be executed publically to prove that the Nagas are hideous monsters but he rejects

the nefarious proposal which sets Shiva’s image as a man of ethics. Later, when

Parvateshwar wants to leave the side of Shiva and join Meluha, everyone is against it

but Shiva lets him go as he understands Parvateshwar’s obligation and sense of duty

towards his motherland.

Shiva’s reactions to Sati’s death in the novel compares well with the

traditional mythic stories. According to the myth, once King Daksha holds a yajna

and invites everyone except Shiva and Sati. Sati goes there despite Shiva’s efforts to
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dissuade her. Eventually, after being insulted by her father, she immolates herself in

the fire of the yajna-altar. In vengeance, Shiva destroys the whole kingdom of

Daksha.2 In the novel, the peace conference organized by Daksha, which Sati visits

and where she dies, replaces the yajna ceremony of the mythology. Shiva burns

down Devagiri, the capital and the Meluhan kingdom with the missile. This

maintains Shiva’s intensity in the novel.

Shiva’s affection for Sati in Hindu mythology is an ideal love story. In this

novel too, Shiva is completely committed to sati. In mythology, Sati is reborn as

Parvati and marries Shiva again but in the novel, Parvati is an alias of Sati and after

she passes away, he returns to his homeland Kailash and spends the rest of his life

remembering her.

In mythology, Shiva’s third eye symbolises both his ire and enlightenment. In

the novel too, his third eye represents both. According to Gopal, the Vasudev chief,

Shiva’s active third eye must have been the reason why his uncle selected and

trained him for the role of Mahadev. Shiva is born with an active sixth vortex. It

makes him special. In mythology, Shiva opens his third eye when he is extremely

angry and wants to destroy something. In the novel, Shiva has “an angry blackish-

red blotch”3 that beings to look “like the tattoo of an eye; an eye with the lids shut.” 4

Kali calls it “Shiva’s third eye, which stood vertical on his forehead, between his

natural eyes.”5 Thus, the motif of the third eye is retained in the novel.

In the iconography of Lord Shiva, River Ganga is shown flowing from

Shiva’s locks. Mythopoeia is undertaken by Amish when he blends the mythic

stories with the unexplained historical event of the extinction of River Saraswati.

The first mention of River Saraswati is found in the Rig Veda. The date of the
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composition of the Rig Veda is still debatable. S. R. N. Murthy, in his article “The

Vedic River Saraswati: A Myth or Fact - A Geological Approach,” refers to M. N.

Krishnan’s report entitled “Geology of India and Burma” to prove that the

composition of the Rig Veda may date back to 5000 BC.6 Thus, River Saraswati must

date back to the period of the Indus Valley Civilization. For a long time, the

existence of the river was considered a myth. Recent researches have ascertained the

authenticity of its existence. Shubashree Desikan’s report titled “Evidence of River

Saraswati’s Existence Found?” in the newspaper The Hindu is based on the research

conducted by Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad, and Indian Institute

of Technology, Bombay. The findings of the researchers assert that “the revived

perennial condition of the Ghaggar, between 9,000 and 4,500 years ago can be

correlated with the Rig vedic Saraswati … likely facilitated development of the early

Harappan settlements along its banks.”7 Though the existence of the river has been

ascertained yet the cause of its extinction has not been discovered yet. Amish

exploits this space for his mythopoeia. In the novel, the water of River Saraswati is

described as an integral ingredient to manufacture Somras. The Somras has turned

vile and one of the measures to stop its production is to stop the flow of River

Saraswati. Amish makes Saraswati emerge from the confluence of River Satlej and

River Yamuna. Diverting the flow of the two tributaries can kill River Saraswati.

Bhagirath, with the help of skilled Meluhan engineers, constructs giant sluice gates

that change the course of River Yamuna, to unite with the Ganga at Prayag. The

sluice gates that control the flow of the water are named “Locks of Shiva.” In this

manner, Amish uses the blank spaces of the myth to compose his gripping novel. At

the same time, he retains the glory of Lord Shiva in his character, Shiva, in the last

novel of the series too.

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6:2:2: Sati

In Hindu culture and mythology, Sati embodies “adishakti” i.e. the Primeval

Supreme Power or energy. “Adi” means “beginning” and “Shakti” refers to cosmic

power. In Hindu mythology, different goddesses, those who manifest, embody and

wield diverse powers are considered the different forms of Sati or Parvati or

‘adishakti’ in the Shaivite tradition. Thus, Sati relates to power. Amish has retained

the motif of power attached with Sati in all the three volumes. In this novel, Sati is

an embodiment of strength of character and compassion. She is a brave warrior,

strong decisions maker, an aide, advisor, and companion to Shiva. As in mythology,

Sati is not only a subordinate to Shiva but also an individual entity, complementing

him. The image of Sati created in the novel is as powerful as in mythology, where

she is invoked in her different forms to destroy powerful demons threatening

humanity.

In The Oath of the Vayuputras also, Sati’s death follows the pattern narrated

in the myth. Both in the myth and the novel, she dies because of her father, King

Daksha. In the novel, Sati fights with Swuth, an Egyptian assassin, in the deceptive

peace conference. It reinforces the idea of the “adishakti” in the myth. Swuth

belongs to a culture where women are regarded as “stupid baby-producing

machines”8 and “a sex . . . far beneath men, only a little better than animals.” 9 Later,

when Sati challenges him and fights bravely and fearlessly, he begins to respect her.

Amish creates the myth that Swuth belongs to the cult of Aten, the Sun God of

Egypt. In their culture when someone challenges a person for a duel on the name of

Aten, it cannot be refused. Sati challenges Swuth in the name of Sun God. Amish

creates another myth, of the final kill in the cult of Aten:

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…every assassin would one day meet a victim so magnificent, so

worthy, that it would be impossible for the man to kill ever again. His

duty would then be to give his victim an honourable death and give

up his profession to spend the rest of his life worshipping that last

victim.10

Swuth finds Sati to be his magnificent final kill but before he can do it,

others arrive and he has to flee. The myth of the final kill also asserts that it is the

greatest sin for the follower of Aten to not be able to kill the victim. There are still

cultures and societies that do not regard women as equal but as secondary or

subordinate. The warrior image of Sati challenges such subversive beliefs. In

creating such an image of Sati, Amish has toed the line of the strong role

traditionally attributed to women in Hindu religious texts.

In the novel, when Sati dies, her body bears fifty one wounds. So, her family

founds fifty one Shakti temples across the length and breadth of the country. In

mythology, when Sati immolates herself, Shiva carries her charred body on his

shoulder and begins to move around the universe in rage. Since he does not let go of

the dead body, Lord Vishnu slices Sati’s corpse into fifty-one pieces. At the

locations the parts of her body fell, there exist present day temples – from Pakistan to

India to Sri Lanka to Bangladesh. These temples are called “Shakti Peeth” i.e. seat of

power.11

6:2:3: Ganesh

The character Ganesh in the novel is an archetype of Lord Ganesh. In the

novel, apart from his physical features, his uprightness of character also is modelled

on the mythic Lord Ganesha. Even at the end of the novel, it is mentioned that
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Ganesh has acquired the status of a living god. In mythology, major stories of Lord

Ganesha are related to how he respects his parents, his marriage and his role as a

destroyer of evil. In this novel, however, as the central string moves around Shiva,

the story of Ganesh is not given much space. He is presented as a man of honour. He

suffers the anger of Shiva as he is believed to be the killer of Brahaspati yet he does

not let go of the secret that Brihaspati is alive and is secretly working on an

experiment. When Sati dies, her apparition assigns to him, rather than the wrathful

Kartik, the task of avenging her death which he does by wiping out the clan of Aten,

the race of Egyptian assassins.

In mythology and folk culture, Lord Ganesh is regarded as the most

auspicious god who is worshipped at the beginning of any ritual or ceremony. There

is a mythic story after it. Parvati creates Lord Ganesh out of her own scurf and

infuses life into him. He is assigned the task of the doorkeeper while she is bathing.

Lord Shiva arrives and wants to enter his wife Parvati’s chamber but Lord Ganesh

stands in his way. In anger, Shiva beheads him. Parvati is infuriated and orders Shiva

to bring life back into her son. The head of an elephant is placed on the trunk of Lord

Ganesh and Shiva blesses him with the boon that he would be worshipped first in

any ceremony as the God of Auspiciousness and Dispeller of Evil. 12

He is also regarded as the Lord of Scribes. In the novel too, it is described

that due to Ganesh’s role in the Somras crisis, his intellect, and the development

work he has done for the nation, he begins to be regarded as a living god - “. . . the

God of Auspicious Beginning. His profound intellect also led him gradually

becoming the God of writers.”13 With such matching descriptions, the boundary

between mythic Lord Ganesha and the Ganesh of the novel overlaps.
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6:2:4: Kartik

In Hindu mythology, Lord Kartik is the God of War. In this volume of the

novel, Kartik is made to emerge as a formidable warrior whose warring skills make

him revered as the God of War. His martial skills are apparent in his hunting

expeditions and the battle he fights against Magadh. Lord Kartik, also famous as

Murugan or Kumarswamy, is one of the most revered gods in South India. The novel

thus creates a fresh myth about Kartik.

6:2:5: Kali

In mythology, Goddess Kali is the female counterpart of Kalbhairav.

“Kalbhairav” represents the male version of Supreme Time and “Kali” represents the

female version. Lord Shiva is regarded as “Kalbhairav,” the Master of Supreme

Time. Shiva is also presented in his ardhnarishwar form i.e. half male and half

female. “Ardh” means “half,” “nari” means “woman” and “ishwar” means “god.”

Thus, ardhnarishwar means “a god who is half woman.” Such a manifestation

symbolises that feminine and masculine powers are complementary. As the better

half of Lord Shiva is Sati or Parvati, Goddess Kali is regarded as the manifestation

of Parvati or Lord Shiva. In Hinduism, all godly entities are regarded as the different

manifestation of the same power but in myth and folk culture, they stand out as

individual entities.

Kali of the novel is an archetype of Goddess Kali and her character carries

the pattern of the goddess’ iconography and the abstract of numerous mythic tales.

The character of Kali and others are raised in the novel from the level of humans to

the level of gods by creating likenesses between them and the mythic gods. In India,

the famous Kamakhya Temple is dedicated to Goddess Kali. In the novel, Kamakhya
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Temple already exists and it is narrated that Queen Kali has chosen to settle down

near the Kamakhya Temple in north-eastern Branga and devote her life to prayer. By

connecting the Kamakhya Temple dedicated to Goddess Kali with Queen Kali in the

novel, Amish constructs a parallel between them.

6:2:6: Daksha and Veerini

In mythology, Prajapati Daksha is not a weak or muddled character but in the

novel, he has been portrayed as a helpless person, who lives his whole life striving to

impress first his father and then his favourite daughter Sati. Sati admires her

grandfather Brahmanayak more than Daksha. Only in order to win the approval of

his daughter, he consents to become King.

In the beginning of the first volume of the series, The Immortals of Meluha,

he appears to be a perfect ruler but as the story progresses, his vulnerability is

exposed gradually. In spite of belonging to the warrior class, he is not a fighter. He

puffs up his ego by believing that it is he who has made Shiva and that he can also

destroy him. His initial action of abiding by Shiva is only to serve his selfish motive

of becoming the sovereign of Swadeep. He knows that the blind faith of the people

in the institution of the Mahadev is the only means to convince his people to attack

and vanquish Swadeep and that they would also accept his sovereignty if Mahadev

approves it. Later, he is furious with Shiva when he finds out that Shiva acts on his

own accord and cannot be manipulated. His anger seethes when Sati adores and

respects Shiva more than him. His hatred of Shiva touches highpoint when Shiva

exposes his crime of killing Sati’s first husband.

He blames his wife Veerini’s bad karma in a past life for the birth of one of

their physically deformed children, Kali, Sati’s twin. He easily becomes a puppet in
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the hands of Maharishi Bhrigu. Though he is scared of the Maharishi yet it is due to

his love of Sati that he stealthily acts against him and foils his plan to attack Shiva’s

convoy and massacre them. He gets the first husband of Sati killed so that Sati will

live with him. He also plans to get Sati’s second husband Shiva killed but his

intrigue ends up with her death.

In this novel, Veerini is shown as a dutiful wife who has more strength of

character than Daksha but she remains helpless before him. She almost convinces

Daksha to leave the kingdom and shift to Panchwati surreptitiously so that they can

live with both their daughters but as soon as Daksha receives the proposal of being

the next king, he rejects the plan of his wife.

6:2:7: Maharishi Bhrigu

Maharishi Bhrigu has been presented as an enigmatic character in the novel.

His character is modelled on the mythic Maharishi Bhrigu. “Rishi” means “scholar

saint” and “maha” means “great” in Sanskrit language. Thus, “Maharishi” means a

great scholar saint. It is a title reserved for the greatest intellectuals. In Hindu

religious philosophy, there is the concept of “Saptrishi” i.e. “seven great saints” that

finds mention in Vedas, Samhitas, Brahmanas, Upanisads and Puranas. The names

of the saints differ in different texts. The seven saints are also equated with Ursa

Major or the Big Dipper in Hinduism. Dr. Bhawaan Tatavarthy writes in this

reference in his article “Article 23: Ancient Saints of Hinduism – Saptarishi”:

Saptarishi, meaning “seven sages” are who are extolled at many places in the

Vedas and Hindu literature. The Vedic Samhitas never enumerate these rishis

by name, though later Vedic texts such as the Brahmanas and Upanisads do

so. There are seven stars of the Big Dipper named Kratu, Pulaha, Pulastya,
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Atri, Angirasa, Vasista, and Bhrigu. There is another star slightly visible

within it, known as “Arundhati,” wife of Vasista. 14

Maharishi Bhrigu is famous as the author of the surviving book

Bhrigusamhita. It is a treatise on Sanskrit astrology. Mahrishi Bhrigu may be a myth

but the book authored by one Maharishi Bhrigu is a fact. It is hard to ascertain that

the Bhrigu of Hindu mythology and the author of Bhrigusamhita are the same. He is

supposed to be a great scholar but is arrogant. He is more feared than revered. He

lives mostly a reclusive life. Puranic tales associate him with Daksha and present

him as a person who not only supports but also instigates him to insult Lord Shiva by

rejecting his godhood which ultimately leads to the demise of Goddess Sati. Thus, he

is an inevitable part of the Shiva myth. All these points in popular belief have been

used by Amish to create the character of Mahahrishi Bhrigu in his series.

In the novel, he is presented as the greatest scholar whom everyone reveres as

well as fears. In the novel, he acts as an unvillainic antagonist who is the greatest

force working against the protagonist Shiva but his antagonism arises purely out of

the firm belief in his own righteousness. Maharishi Bhrigu is certain that Somras has

not turned evil. Though he is aware of many of the side-effects of Somras yet he

supports its use. He does not believe in the legitimacy of Shiva for his assigned role

of Mahadev as he has not been selected, trained and identified by the institution of

the Vayuputras. As he supports the continuation of the use of Somras, he regards

anyone, who is a threat to his convictions, as an enemy.

He is authoritative and is obeyed by all unquestionably. Both the great

sovereigns of Meluha and Swadeep, King Daksha and King Dilipa, are submissive

before him. In the past, he played the central role in the selection of Daksha as King
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in spite of the fact that he was a weak candidate. He did it precisely for the reason

that Daksha would obey him in all matters and support him specifically in the use of

Somras. King Dilipa also pledges allegiance to him as Mahrishi provides him with

the mysterious medicine that not only saves him from imminent death but also heals

him and makes him look younger.

He does not hinder the early identification of Shiva as Mahadev by Daksha as

he thinks that his being an impostor would ultimately be uncovered. Besides, he

knew that King Daksha is using Shiva for his own personal ends of becoming the

sovereign of Sapt Sindhu i.e. the joint territory of Meluha and Swadeep.

Apart from his interference in the matter of the manufacturing of Somras, he

is a solitary figure residing in the Himalayas and does not associate himself with

worldly affairs. He is so committed to the cause of Somras that he breaks even the

laws regarding the use of the nuclear weapon. In the novel, the use of nuclear

weapons has been forbidden by the previous Mahadev, Lord Rudra. In spite of it, he

gets a nuclear weapon of low intensity assembled by his personal team with the raw

materials he has collected personally and sends it to attack Shiva’s unaware army.

Bhrigu is debarred by the Vayuputra council for this violation. His plan is to put all

the blame on the Nagas. This would further worsen the image of the Nagas as evil.

Moreover, Maharishi will not face any resistance from the people that may arise

when open confrontation with Shiva starts. This presents him as an astute strategist.

One of the examples of his vast knowledge is his use of telepathy and mind

reading. He can read anyone’s thoughts by looking into his eyes. On his meeting

with Bhagirath, he reads his mind and finds out that the ships that he had sent to

destroy Shiva’s contingent are wiped out. He also finds out that General
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Parvateshwar is still loyal to Meluha and rushes to Kashi to bring him on his side.

His conviction in Somras remains firm until Daksha’s unscrupulous action ends into

the suicide of Prime Minister Kanakhala and the assassination of Princess Sati. He

accepts at last that something that can cause such lawlessness, dishonesty and

immorality can’t be worth preserving and must have turned evil. His rigidity to stick

only to his own opinion and refusal to accept any other viewpoint leads Devagiri, the

capital of Meluha, to its catastrophe. In spite of being the progenitor of the

devastation, he is rescued from Devagiri before its final destruction because his

death would mean the end of an immense storage of knowledge. Maharishi Bhrigu

compiles his knowledge in a book called Bhrigusamhita. The authorship of the book,

his characteristics traits and his role in the Shiva-Daksha story create a parallel

between the mythic Bhrigu and the Bhrigu of the novel.

6:2:8: Somras

The life expanding mythic nectar Somras is crucial to the novel as it is the

basis of all conflicts and plot developments. Amish has turned the mythic potion into

a scientific invention. A quasi-scientific explanation is elucidated to describe its

production and function. It is made to look scientific through the explanation in

scientific terms. Amish explains in the easiest terms the common knowledge of cell-

division in the body and also how oxidants and anti-oxidants are responsible for

aging and cancer. In volume one of the series, The Immortals of Meluha, Brihaspati,

the Chief Scientist of Meluha, describes how Somras functions to increase longevity.

In the third volume, The Oath of the Vayuputras, he explains how it causes cancer.

The explanations also aim to maintain the central philosophy of the novel that good

and bad are part of the same coin. So long as they remain in balance, they cause no

harm but once the balance is disrupted, they create problems. Brihaspati elucidates
 233

that without oxygen, we can’t live, but it is the same factor that causes us to age and

die. In order to produce energy, oxygen reacts with food but it also releases free

radicals called oxidants which are toxic elements responsible for ageing. Domenico

Fusco, Giuseppe Colloca, Maria Rita Lo Monaco, and Matteo Cesari, in their article

“Effects of Antioxidant Supplementation on the Aging Process” mention that there

are more than three hundred proposed theories to explain the process of ageing. It

also states that the free radical theory of aging by Denham Harman has gained

widespread acceptance:

The free radical theory of aging hypothesizes a single common process,

modifiable by genetic and environmental factors, in which oxygen-derived

free radicals are responsible (due to their high reactivity) for the age-

associated damage at the cellular and tissue levels. In fact, the accumulation

of endogenous oxygen radicals generated in cells and the consequent

oxidative modification of biological molecules (lipids, proteins and nucleic

acid) have been indicated as responsible for the aging and death of all living

beings.15

Anti-oxidants reduce the effect of oxidants. “Antioxidants are substances,

which inhibit or delay oxidation of a substrate while present in minute amounts.” 16

Endogenous antioxidant defences accounts for only 1 % of daily oxidants leak, rest

is defended by Nutritional antioxidants that act as free radical scavengers.

Antioxidants 1) directly neutralise free radicals, 2) reduce the peroxide

concentrations and repair oxidised membranes, 3) quench iron to decrease reactive

oxygen species production, 4) via lipid metabolism, short-chain free fatty acids and

cholesteryl esters neutralise reactive oxygen species. 17

 234

In the novel, Somars has been described as nutritional antioxidants that

“react[s] with oxidants, absorbs them and then expels them from body as sweat or

urine.”18 In the novel, Somras supposedly extracts all the oxidants from the body but

the way it functions is not described. To make it look more authentic, mythical as

well as scientific ingredients are mentioned to be the part of its manufacturing. Two

central ingredients are the bark of the Sanjeevani tree and the water of River

Saraswati. The bark of the Sanjeevani tree bears both mythological and scientific

significance and the water of River Saraswati adds mythological and historical

significance to it.

Sanjeevani is a kind of herb described in the Ramayana. During the war with

Ravan, Lakshman is wounded by a deadly fire-arrow called Brahma missile, shot by

Indrajeet, Ravan’s son. Lakshman falls into a coma and is resurrected by Sanjeevani

herbs. The epic mentions four kinds of sanjeevani: “Mrita Sanjivani (capable of

restoring the dead to life), Vishalyakarani (capable of extracting weapons and

healing all wounds inflicted by weapons), Suvarnakarani (restoring the body to its

original complexion) and Sandhani, the great herb (capable of joining severed limbs

or fractured bone).”19 The botanical name of Sanjeevani is Selaginella bryopteris. It

“is a lithophyte with remarkable resurrection capabilities. It is full of medicinal

properties, hence also known as ‘Sanjeevani’ (one that infuses life).” 20 Sanjeevani is

a herb that is both real and mythical and this helps in its quasi-scientific

representation in the novel.

6:3: Somras and the Mythopoeia of the Extinction of River Saraswati

River Saraswati is described as a great, sacred, living river in the ancient

texts like the Rig Veda and it is described as a dried up river in post Vedic texts.
 235

Now the river is extinct and a number of myths are attached to its extinction. At

present, River Saraswati is regarded as a sleeping river that flows beneath the Ganga

and the Yamuna at their confluence in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. The location of the

confluence of the three rivers is considered sacred by the people of Hindu faith and

bathing at the confluence is considered so holy that a person is said to get absolved

of all his sins. This sacredness owes its essence to the myths and significance

attached to the rivers as they are regarded as goddesses. As the Vedic period and the

period of the Indus Valley Civilization are identical in the novel, the Saraswati is

considered the mother river of civilizations in it and hence, the civilization is also

alternatively called the Saraswati Civilization.

Scientific evidence in the form of Palaeo channels found in 1993 prove that

River Saraswati died around 1900 BCE and more Indus sites existed on the dry bed

of River Saraswati than on River Indus. No longer were the sites restricted to the

Indus Valley, but extended to Baluchistan with 129 sites (belonging to mature

phase), 108 in Sindh, 310 in Gujarat, 60 in Pakistan Panjab, 360 sites on river

Saraswati.21

The setting of the Shiva Trilogy is in 1900 BC i.e. the latter phase of the

Indus Valley Civilization. The novel mentions the river as the heart of its

civilization. In the novel, the water of River Saraswati is a central ingredient in the

manufacturing of Somras. The popular myth of River Saraswati as redeemer of sins

and its historical importance make it a convincing idea that its water is one of the key

ingredients and with the extinction of the river, manufacturing of Somras also

stopped.
 236

In the novel, The Oath of the Vayuputras, Brihaspati explains how Somras

causes cancer and is responsible for the deformities in Nagas. He explains in simple

terms how our body starts its journey as a tiny cell in the womb of the mother and

how the division of cells finally results into the formation of a full body. This

division stops at a certain period of our life and then onwards, the body begins to

age. According to the novel, Somars ensures the continuation of cell-division,

keeping the body young and healthy. It has also its side-effects. In certain cases, the

cell-division becomes uncontrolled and results in cancer or bodily deformity,

accompanied with immense pain. Thus, the nectar may work as a poison for many.

At the end of the novel, its production centre, Devagiri, is annihilated by a nuclear

missile and the flow of River Saraswati is stopped. Thus, the novel also creates a

myth about the death of River Saraswati.

6:4: Mythical Weapons

The ancient Hindu mythological and religious texts like the Ramayana, the

Mahabharata, Puranas, etc. bear descriptions of numerous missiles that appear like a

great destructive arsenal. It is hard to ascertain their authenticity but their description

adds to the popular belief that the ancestors must have been quite developed and

technologically advanced. It also leads to the pride of cultural superiority. In Hindu

mythological texts, the missiles are usually associated with particular deities and are

named after them too. This is why they are called Daiviastra i.e. the weapons of

gods. For example, the missile related to Lord Brahma is called Brahmastra, the

missile related to Lord Shiva is called Pashupatiastra as one of the names of Lord

Shiva is also Pashupati i.e. Lord of the Animals; the missile related to Lord Vishnu

or Narayan is Narayanastra, the missile related to Lord Indra, God of Thunder, is

Vajra, etc. Each missile has special features. In mythology, such missiles are usually
 237

granted by the concerned god to the receiver after years of penance and hard work.

Amish has exploited the myths of such missiles in 1900 BC to create credible

mythopoeia. He elevates the pride associated with the past cultural superiority of the

people of the Indus Valley Civilization and the idea of military prowess in the

ancient times. Amish also uses it to explain fictionally the reason behind the hitherto

undiscovered historical facts related to the decline and death of the civilization.

In the novel, the state of Meluha represents the Indus Valley Civilization.

There are other principalities like Swadeep and Panchwati. All the Meluhan cities

have identical infrastructure, law, rule, customs, culture under a single sovereign.

Thus, the sense of unity is imparted by Amish to his re-creation of Meluha. The state

of Swadeep is created to represent unity in diversity. There are numerous

independent states within it. All states have their own kings and they are free to

follow their own culture, customs, laws, and rules. Swadeep is the controlling

sovereign, and in return of the annual taxes, is responsible for the defence and

security of its vassal states.

Unlike the nuclear missile of ancient Hindu mythology, the nuclear missiles

in the novel are products of science, created by the efforts of great scientists and

managed by an institution. In the modern times, every country has its own

organization responsible for their defence technology. There is an international

organization, the United Nations, to oversee the laws of its uses. In the novel, the

institution of the Vayuputras administers its uses. The novel suggests that nuclear

weapons were in use for a long time in the past and had resulted in great destruction.

This is why their use had been banned by the previous Mahadev, a divine avatar. The

novel also mentions missiles with mythical names such as Vajra, Brahmastra and

Pashupatiastra. The description of the Brahmastra in the novel suggests that it is a

 238

nuclear weapon. The novel describes it to be irrepressible as it destroys everything,

the shockwaves spreading in circles:

The Brahmastra is the weapon of absolute destruction…a destroyer of cities

and a mass-killer of men. When fired on some terrain, a giant mushroom

cloud will rise, high enough to touch the heavens. Everyone and everything

in the targeted place would be instantly vaporized. Beyond this inner circle of

destruction will be those who are unfortunate enough to survive, for they will

suffer for generations. The water in the land will be poisoned for decades.

The land will be unusable for centuries; no crops will grow on it this weapon

doesn’t kill once; it kills again and again….22

In human history, nuclear weapons have been used only twice during World

War II on two Japanese cities - Hiroshima and Nagasaki - on August 6 and 9, 1945,

respectively. The destruction it caused shocked the entire world. The aftereffects of

its radiation caused diseases and death in Japan generation after generation. The

immediate death tally in Hiroshima and Nagasaki was 80,000 and 40,000

respectively but the radiation has caused a large number of deaths and health

impairments between 1945 and 2019. Masao Tomonaga, in his article “The Atomic

Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: A Summary of the Human Consequences,

1945-2018, and Lessons for Homo sapiens to End the Nuclear Weapon Age” writes

in this reference:

Seventy-four years have passed since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and

Nagasaki. Approximately 210,000 victims died, and another 210,000 people

survived. The damage to their health has continued, consisting of three

phases of late effects: the appearance of leukemia, the first malignant disease,
 239

in 1949; an intermediate phase entailing the development of many types of

cancer; and a final phase of lifelong cancers for hibakusha who experienced

the bombing as a child, as well as a second wave of leukemia for elderly

hibakusha and psychological damage such as depression and post-traumatic

stress disorder. Thus, the human consequences of the atomic bombings have

not ceased; many people are still dying of radiation-induced malignant

diseases.23

There is a similarity between the description of the impact of the real nuclear

weapon and the mythical Brahmastra. It easily connects and creates an archetype.

There is the description of another missile, Pashupatiastra, that Shiva, in the novel,

finally uses for the destruction of Devagiri. Unlike Brahmastra, its destructive impact

is described to be limited to the inner circle with less radioactive fallout. So far, such

weapons have not been invented. If such technology develops in the distant future,

this book may serve as an example exhibiting probabilities for the future generation

that their ancestors i. e. the present generation, possessed the knowledge of such

advanced technology. This is how a myth blurs the boundary of fact and fiction.

6:5: Sanskrit

The script of the Indus Valley Civilization has not been deciphered yet. One

of the oldest languages of the world, Sanskrit, is an Indian language and by the

people of Dharmic faith it is traditionally regarded as the origin of all languages and

therefore, it is called Devbhasa, the Language of Gods. It is the language of Vedic

literature. As the novel presents the existence of Vedic literature during the Indus

Valley Civilization, its people must have had the knowledge of Sanskrit. The Shiva

Trilogy is an English series of novels yet Amish uses Sanskrit terms and phrases
 240

profusely with their English translations. It infuses a sense of antiquity in the setting.

Moreover, Sanskrit was the language of the elite. Amish puts popular phrases from

the ancient texts in the mouth of his important characters. It is common practise

around the world that people use the language of the elite class to show off their

superiority. The use of such phrases makes the reader believe that they are part of the

same tradition, coming from the distant past.

Shiva’s mien is described as that of a person who has attained the wisdom of

Sat-Chit-Anand. It literally translates thus: truth-consciousness-bliss. The term is

popular and has remained one of the central subjects of philosophical debates. It has

been perceived and described differently by different philosophical schools and

philosophers. According to the common understanding of the term, it represents a

brain or person who has achieved bliss through the knowledge of ultimate reality.

The novel refers to the religious philosophical text, the Bhagwat Geeta, a part

of the the Mahabharata. The scripture is commonly dated between 2nd and 5th

century BC. People usually believe that the story of the Mahabharata is history and

was transmitted orally from generation to generation before it was written in a

textual form. According to the Hindu Panchang or calendar, Krishna Janmashtmi or

the birthday of Lord Krishna, celebrated on August 11, 2020, is his 5247 th

birthday.24According to it, the text of the Bhagwat Geeta must have existed in 1900

BC, the year in which the novel is set and so, Amish refers to the text and has used

phrases from it. One of the most popular phrases is Ati Sarvatra Varjayet which

means that excess of everything is bad. It appears to be the central theme of the

series.
 241

When Parvateshwar decides to leave Shiva and join his motherland Meluha

in the fight, he quotes a verse from the Bhagwat Geeta: “sreyansvadharmovigunah

paradharmat svanusthitat.”25 The verse is from the chapter “Karma Yoga” of the

Bhagwat Geeta that teaches the fundamentals of one’s duties. It translates thus: “It is

far better to discharge one’s prescribed duties, even though they may be faulty, than

another’s duties.”26 Parvateshwar is the army general of the armed forces of Meluha

and so his prescribed duty is to protect his country. He knows that his country is in

the wrong and in performing his duty, he has to oppose Shiva who is right yet he is

bound to perform his duty. In order to make his point clear in a discussion with

Ayurvati, he uses the verse from the text.

In the discussion between Queen Kali and the Vasudev Chief, Gopal, both

use Sanskrit phrases to explain their points of view as to how to present the truth.

Gopal believes that the truth must be told in all conditions and so he uses the phrase

Satyam Vada, Asatyam Na vada which means “Always speak the truth and never

speak the untruth.” Kali, on the other hand, is in favour of the presentation of truth in

a pleasing manner so she uses the phrase Satyam priyam bruyat, na bruyat satyam

apriyam which means that truth should be spoken in a pleasing manner and

unpleasant truths should not be spoken.

During the conversation with Bhagirath, Maharishi Bhrigu uses verse 47

from Chapter 2 of the Bhagwat Geeta that says Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma

Phaleshu Kadachana. It translates thus: “You have a right to perform your

prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions.” 27 When

Bhagirath uses the title of Mahadev for Shiva, Bhrigu uses the verse to criticise

Shiva, implying that Shiva is wrong to carry the title for himself. Bhagirath clarifies
 242

that it is the will of the people and not the instruction of Shiva that he is regarded as

Mahadev.

There is a verse from Isha Vasya Upnishad to explain the Hindu ritual of

funeral by burning the dead body. It mentions the Hindu belief that the body is a

vehicle given by Mother Earth to carry our karma or work and at the end of our

journey i.e. at the time of our death, it should be returned to her by getting it purified

by the fire. Fire is mentioned in the novel as the greatest purifier. To emphasise this

philosophy, Amish uses an extract from an upnishad that says vāyuranilamamṛtam

athedaṁbhasmāntaṁśarīram. It translates thus: “Let this temporary body be burned

to ashes. But the breath of life belongs elsewhere. May it find its way back to the

immortal breath.”28

Owing to the sacredness and a sense of mysticism attached with Sanskrit

language, the use of these verses from the ancient text creates an aura of mysticism

in the novel. At the same time, Amish demonstrates the strength of pluralism of

Indian languages as he brings together Indic myths, Sanskrit and English.

 243

6:6: Works Cited

1. Tripathi, Amish. The Oath of the Vayuputras. Westland Publications, p.

207.

2. Menon, Ramesh. Siva, the Siva Purana Retold. Rupa Publications, 2006,

pp.51-69.

3. Tripathi, Amish. The Oath of the Vayuputras. Westland Publications, p.

490.

4. Ibid, p. 551.

5. Ibid, p. 552.

6. Murthy, S. R. N. “The Vedic River Saraswati, A Myth or Fact- A

Geological Approach”.

https://insa.nic.in/writereaddata/UpLoadedFiles/IJHS/Vol15_2_2_SRNMur

thy.pdf .

7. Desikan, Shubashree. “Evidence of river Saraswati’s existence found?”

The Hindu, 15 Dec. 2019,

https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/evidence-of-river-saraswatis-

existence-found/article30306789.ece.

8. Tripathi, Amish. The Oath of the Vayuputras. Westland Publications, p.

469.

9. Ibid, p. 469.

10. Ibid, p. 476.

 244

11. 51 Shakti Peethas – A Compilation-VedRahasya.Net,

http://www.vedarahasya.net/docs/Shakti.pdf.

12. Chaturvedi, B. K. Shiv Purana. Diamond Pocket Books, 2014.

13. Tripathi, Amish. The Oath of the Vayuputras. Westland Publications, p.

564.

14. Tatavarthy, Dr. Bhawaan. “Article 23: Ancient Saints of Hinduism –

Saptarishi”.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335929735_Article_23_Ancient_

Saints_of_Hinduism_-Saptarishi.

15. Domenico, Fusco, et al. “Effects of antioxidant supplementation on

theaging process”. p.377.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/5804074_Effects_of_antioxidant

_supplementation_on_the_aging_process.

16. Ibid, p. 379.

17. Ibid, p. 379.

18. Tripathi, Amish. The Immortals of Meluha. Westland Publications, 2010, p.

135.

19. Valmiki Ramayana,

https://www.valmikiramayan.net/utf8/yuddha/sarga74/yuddha_74_frame.ht

20. Nand K Sah, et al. “Indian herb ‘Sanjeevani’ (Selaginella bryopteris) can

promote growth and protect against heat shock and apoptotic activities of
 245

ultra violet and oxidative stress” P. 499.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/7580332_Indian_herb_’Sanjeeva

ni’_Selaginella_bryopteris_can_promote_growth_and_protect_against_hea

t_shock_and_apoptotic_activities_of_ultra_violet_and_oxidative_stress.

21. Rao, Nalini. Sindhu Saraswati Civiliazation-New Perspective-A Volume in

the memory of Dr. Shikaripur Ranganatha Rao. Nalanda International,

2014, p. 4.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335277623_2014_Sindhu-

Sarasvati_Civilization_New_Perspectives_1-13_74-88.

22. Tripathi, Amish. The Oath of the Vayuputras. Westland Publications, p.

343.

23. Tomonaga, Masao. “The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki: A

Summary of the Human Consequences, 1945-2018, and Lessons for Homo

sapiens to End the Nuclear Weapon Age”. Journal for Peace and Nuclear

Disarmament, November 2019,

www.researchgate.net/publication/337256581_The_Atomic_Bombings_of

_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki_A_Summary_of_the_Human_Consequences_1

945-

2018_and_Lessons_for_Homo_sapiens_to_End_the_Nuclear_Weapon_Ag

e.

24. TOI Astrology | Aug 11, 2020. “Krishna Janmashtami 2020 Date, Time &

Significance - Times of India.” The Times of India,

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/religion/rituals-puja/krishna-janmashtami-

2020-date-time-significance/articleshow/77429559.cms.
 246

25. Tripathi, Amish. The Oath of the Vayuputras. Westland Publications, p.

126.

26. Prabhupad, Swami. Bhagavad Gita As It Is. https://asitis.com/3/35.htmln.

27. The Bhagwat Geeta,

https://www.holy-bhagavad-gita.org/chapter/2/verse/47.

28. Tripathi, Amish. The Oath of the Vayuputras. Westland Publications, p.

554.
 247

Conclusion

The Shiva Trilogy can be regarded as a landmark in the history of Indian

mythic fiction and mythopoeia in general. It is also part of the Popular Indian

English Fiction that has grown considerably in the 20th Century. Although popular

fiction is looked down upon yet its merit lies in the very fact that it addresses the

issues related to the masses. The major part of a society consists of semi-

intellectuals or commoners rather than a class of intellect. It is because the

attainment of intellectualism is not a passive task. It is an achievement realised

through incessant active commitment to learning. The common masses have

generally neither leisure nor a leaning for such efforts. Therefore, they prefer a

literature that entertains more than preaches. Myths carry this dual value. Since the

masses generally overlook the allegorical undercurrents of the myth, it becomes

simply an entertaining tale involving also the elements of fantasy, magical realism,

conflicts, the supernatural, et al. Hence, myths are excellent raw material for popular

fiction.

Every literature mirrors a society. Even in the most brazen portrayal of

realism, a writer usually contrives poetic justice, a pattern which creates ideal codes

of conduct. Popular literature serves as a bridge between the latent wisdom preached

in the myths and the masses. Popular literature partially achieves this task of

conveying intellect to the masses in simple language and style. Writers like Amish

Tripathi have used the probable spaces associated with myths to create not only

mythopoeia but also a popular Indian English fiction that has touched the core of

many an Indian. In the present times, it can also be associated with the resurgence of
 248

pride in being Indian with a great heritage of Indian culture. The analysis of the

Shiva Trilogy in the previous chapters of this thesis is an attempt to locate the bonds

and nature of mythopoeia in Tripathi’s extremely popular works and to prove that he

is an astute and accomplished author.

In the “Introduction,” the writer of the thesis has tried to present an outline of

the life and works of Amish Tripathi – it reveals how Tripathi realised that a

fictional remoulding of Hindu mythology was amenable to the vast Indian market,

targeting the youth of the Millenial generation, a generation that needed a cultural

fillip of conceiving their nation as a truly great entity. This generation and the

succeeding ones also possess good knowledge of English. It was made possible due

to the emergent share of India in MNC related jobs, entrepreneurship and the digital

revolution, especially in the past two decades. At the same time, there was also

substantial growth in the prosperous middle class in the country and a corresponding

spike in technical, particularly the engineering institutes, after India’s opening up in

the 1980s for globalization. Such interconnections demanded the knowledge of

English as a primary skill. Writers of Popular Fiction like Amish have happily been

performing in this conducive ecology of the factors favouring the growth of popular

fiction in India. Amish was one of the first writers of Popular Indian English fiction

to adopt adroit marketing strategies to carve out an indelible niche for himself. He is

a phenomenally successful author commercially.

Chapter I entitled “An Overview of Mythic Fiction” has examined the

current state of Indian English Mythic Fiction. It examines the reasons behind the

mythic revival in India. The chapter discusses the nature of myth, mythology,

legend, folklore, and mythopoeia. Modern writers have opted for different trends in

presenting a traditional mythic tale. Prominent among these trends is a retelling with
 249

an alternative perspective. A traditional mythic narrative usually has a third person

or objective point of view. Writers of modern retellings make the tale quite

subjective by assigning the role of narrator to a mythical character. This gives scope

to bold innovations in the narrative. It is not a novel phenomenon but the modern

narrative meticulously reshapes it to touch contemporary concerns. A large amount

of Indian English Mythic Fiction has been published during the last two decades and

most of it has sold well. In these works, writers have altered and changed the

traditional myth to suit the contemporary climates of literature. As the youth form

the major readership, the retellings appeal to them and connect them with the values

hinted at in mythology. It is one of the major reasons for the popularity of Indian

English Mythic Fiction.

Chapter II of the thesis, titled “Indian English Popular Fiction,” analyses the

growth of the publication of Indian English Popular Fiction. The chapter recounts

popular trends and scrutinises how Amish has touched a sensitive chord in the heart

of the Indian youth. Addressing taboos, generality of theme, youth-oriented issues as

a central concern, and the element of escapism are some of the primary factors

behind the popularity of popular fiction. At the same time, they employ easy diction,

simple syntax, simple narrative, and an uncomplicated style. The rise in publishing

houses has led to the rise of commercial fiction in India. The growth in the number

of English reading public and the light everyday subjects of popular fiction dealing

with common things of life are the prominent reasons behind the rise of Indian

English Popular Fiction. A host of young Indian writers have emerged in the last

two decades and they have been experimenting with almost all the genres and sub-

genres of popular fiction. Chetan Bhagat can be regarded as the pioneer in this field

as his novel Five Point Someone: What Not to Do at IIT, published in 2004, created
 250

a milestone in Indian English literature. He can be regarded as the Father of Indian

English Popular fiction.

On the other hand, Devdutt Pattnaik can be regarded as the Father of Indian

English Mythic Fiction. Other writers to experiment with mythic fiction are Amish

Tripathi, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, Anand Neelakantan, etc. Chitra Banerjee

Divakaruni, Preety Shenoy, and Anuja Chauhan present feminist voices and

concerns in the contemporary context. Prominent thriller writers in Indian English

literature are Ashwin Sanghi, Satyarth Nayak, and Christopher C. Doyle. Indu

Sundaresan experimented with historical romance. Some of the writers have taken

up pure commercial romantic fiction, usually love stories with fairy tale elements

and eroticism. A few bestselling writers in this sub-genre are Durjoy Datta, Arpit

Vageria and Savi Sharma.

Chapter III, entitled “The Immortals of Meluha: Myth Redefined” discusses

the archetypes employed by Amish in the novel. Amish Tripathi has picked the most

famous god of the Hindu religious cosmology, Lord Shiva. Puranas are the basic

source of the stories related to Lord Shiva and the pantheon of other Hindu gods and

goddesses. Puranic literature also expounds a theory of cosmology in the light of the

preceding Hindu religious concepts. Along with the Mahabharata and the

Ramayana, they are a treasure trove of myths, legends and folklores, singing of

heroes, sages, and gods like the Bible, the Iliad, the Odyssey, etc. in the western

canon. However, in many of the western legends the codes of morality and values

are not as binding as in the Indian canon. A major difference between European and

Indian canons is also their variable adherence to theology and philosophy. Indian

myths and legends have oneness in the sense that they blend religion, theology and

philosophy. The myths serve the purpose of establishing moral codes in society,
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particularly in Hindu faith. One may or may not believe in their reality yet one can

barely reject their vitality owing to their capacity to suggest codes of morality. Indic

mythology over the ages has supplied society with moral codes and values,

interpreted variously to fit the contemporary social exigencies. Amish’s Shiva

Trilogy is a success because it meets this requirement of fusing mythology and

contemporary values.

Puranic stories were authored centuries ago. In the present times, many have

either lost their currency or have turned obscure. The motion pictures portrayal of

the puranic stories has kept them alive but their instructive authority is waning. In

his novels, Amish has striven to introduce a rational approach to the myths,

something that appeals to the educated Indian youth. For example, he has

reinterpreted the concept of caste hierarchy in the trilogy. The birth-based caste

system is one of the major drawbacks in Hindu society. Amish, in his novel,

provides an alternative theory of birth-based caste system in the ancient times - a

completely new, rational and fair institution to carry and maintain the caste system.

He maintains that initially it was not birth-based but merit-based. In the novel, all

women have to give up their new-borns to the state authority. The government looks

after all children equally, so irrespective of the circumstances of their birth, all of

them get an equal opportunity. Later, they are allowed to choose their profession

according to their merit. Their merit decides their caste. No parents except a few

members of the royalty know the real identity of the children. At a certain age, the

parents may adopt a child of their caste. Thus, the caste system is maintained

without being unfair to anyone. It sounds convincing and rational and appeals to the

modern youth. However, there is a flaw in this theory also as it brings down human

relations to a mechanical level. In another example, he presents an alternative theory

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of untouchability. People with incurable disease are regarded as untouchables in the

Meluhan society. They are told that their impairment is due to the sinful Karma in

their past lives. Such a system has been conceived so that the people frustrated by

their incapability would blame themselves rather than directing their ire at society.

Pseudo-scientific theories, an interesting and time-tested device used by many

fiction writers like H. G. Wells, are also forged for the inventions mentioned in the

novel.

A few of the Puranic stories are quite popular e.g. that of Lord Shiva. A rebel

hero always draws the youth. In the present times, there is a great clash between old

and new global institutions and philosophies. The image of Lord Shiva as a rebel

hero fits perfectly in it. Lord Shiva is a god who is described as a friendly, easy-

going, devoted lover, full of strength, rebellious, maintaining a balance between

fierce and calm, a friend of friends, and enemy of enemies. So the character of Lord

Shiva appeals to the youth. The character Shiva, Amish’s hero in the Shiva

Trilogy, is a rebellious protagonist with his non-conformist attitude, challenging

social taboos. His character appeals to both sorts of readers, those who are

acquainted with Lord Shiva and also those who are not.

The mythopoeia created in the novel The Immortals of Meluha is based on

the archetypes crafted after the mythic characters of the Shiva Purana. These

archetypes are Shiva, Sati, Daksha, Veerini, Kanakhala, Parvateshwar, Veerbhadra,

Nandi, Ayurvati, and Brahaspati. Chapter III has analysed the genealogy of these

archetypes. A mythic story usually has a symbolic value. The chapter has looked

into the symbolic value of the archetypes and has shown how a change in myth

alters its symbolic connotation. Archetypes may have a symbolic value but they are
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not exactly symbols. The transformation of an archetype into a symbol makes it

static and turns it into a stereotype:

Archetypes are easily confused with symbols. When archetypes are reduced

to symbols, they become stereotypes. Symbols have a concrete message in

that they stand for something specific …. Stereotypes are locked into a single

view of an image or concept, acting as a stricture that limits interpretation. 1

The chapter has considered why mythopoeia and its archetype can appease

the audience. It is because they are created according to the demands of a

contemporary society. For many years, feminists have been striving to achieve the

goal of the equality of the sexes. Many societies have still to realise this goal. A

society offering equal status to men and women is a dream and demand of the

modern generation. Amish creates such a society in his fiction. It is appealing as its

residents are god-like characters. When a narrative obscures the borders between

god-like and god, the reader can consider human characters too god-like. Amish’s

works image strong women, for example, Kanakhala as an efficient statesman, Sati

as a skilled warrior, Ayurvati as an accomplished doctor, etc. In Amish’s fictional

world, women are usually not dictated by their gender roles. As Indian society is

built on a patriarchal setup, power posts are still considered men’s prerogative. In

the last few decades, women have rejected their boundaries but true equality is still

elusive. Amish’s portrayal of the ideal model of equality is realised in his work that

has a temporal setting in 1900 BC. His women are leaders and mostly strong

characters, melding easily in power roles. For example, Sati’s challenge to Tarak for

a duel, her refusal to accept a proxy male to fight on her behalf, her courage and

victory, create an image of a self-sufficient woman. The novel redefines the existing

myth according to the demands of the modern times.

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“Agnipariksha” is a test in the Ramcharit Manas in which Sita has to pass

through fire to prove her chastity. In the epic, Lord Ram explains that he forced Sita

to face the fire-test because he wanted to bring the matter to a close. Whatever the

intention of Lord Ram may have been but this episode has remained an archetype

for the male code of conduct in India. It indicates a woman’s subversive state.

Amish, however, has changed the term “agnipariksha” as a test vindicating woman’s

dignity. The novel shows that in the Meluhan society, a society striving after the

model of Ram-Rajya, if a woman is treated unjustly, she may challenge the afflicter

for a duel. It is fought within a ring of fire and so it is called “agnipariksha.” It is the

nature of fire to consume everything it comes in contact with. Amish’s version does

appeal to the youth. Moreover, it stands for a woman asserting her rights and dignity

rather than submission.

Chapter IV titled “The Secret of the Nagas: Myth Extended” examines the

second book in the series. This chapter too traces the archetypal patterns and

presents their literary analysis. Mythic archetypes extended in this novel are places,

people, and mythical science. These are Kashi, telepathy, Bal-Atibal Kund, temples,

Bhagirath, Dilipa, Anandmayi, Kali, Ganesh, Kartik, and Parsuram. In traditional

mythology, these characters belong to a certain time and zone but Amish combines

their existence in his setting. By doing so he has created an ambiance of awe and

mysticism. Concepts of cultural pluralism and multiculturalism have been

introduced in the second book of the series. Through the scrutiny of alternative

versions of truth, fact, and reality, the concepts of cultural pluralism and

multiculturalism have been explored in the chapter. At the beginning of the novel,

two enemy races, the Suryavanshi and the Chandravanshis, are presented in binary

opposition with their contrasting principles, each considering the other as evil and
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corrupt. By the end of the first book of the series, it is established that although they

are different yet are equally good with certain positives and negatives. The law-

abiding society of the Suryavanshis creates an impression of a uniform and stable

life yet it lacks the Chandravanshis’ joy of personal space and freedom. The

comparison also leads the novel to the concept of evil and reveals how prejudice

operates as Amish involves the marginalised group of physically deformed people

called the Nagas in the narrative. Their racial segregation questions the concepts of

racism too. They are considered sinners, uncouth, and evil until their subaltern

voices are heard and understood by Shiva. It is found that they are not evil but

different and suppressed – the “other.” The Chandravanshi race of Branga,

Parsuram’s band of dacoits, Vayuputras, etc. are shown in different lights and

perspectives. Amish tries to establish that each of them is correct in his individual

perception; it is the idea of exclusion that propagates the canards of an evil race.

The traditional iconography of the gods and goddesses on which the

archetypal characters of the novel have been created is also altered and redefined in

the novel. The iconography of Goddess Kali and Lord Ganesh has a symbolic

import. With time, people may discount the original symbolic value of a

manifestation and append new ones. It often happens with interpretations and

reinterpretations. For example, when the antagonist in the Ramayana, Ravana, is

said to be a person with ten heads, it is a metaphorical expression. It means that he

was a person with the combined intelligence of ten heads or ten scholars together.

But in popular imagination and iconography, he is presented with ten physical

heads. It has appealed to the popular imagination so strongly that the common man

has forgotten the original symbolic value and has imagined him as a multi-headed

demon. In the popular stories also Ravana’s heads are severed one by one by Lord
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Ram. One of the works of popular fiction, Ravanaleela, by Radha Viswanath,

retains the iconography literally. He describes Ravana as having “an odd demeanour

because of his ten heads.”2 Amish, too, uses the iconography of the mythical

characters in their literal form but he fits them in the rationale of his mythopoeia.

Goddess Kali’s dark complexion, her four hands, the skull-garland - all have

symbolic values but Amish has presented their appearance as bodily deformities,

consequent to cancerous outgrowths. It appeases the rational faculty of the modern

reader. The chapter also traces the archetypes in their nascent form and explains

their symbolic value. The perceptions in popular folk culture and their retellings

strengthen Amish’s stature as a writer of popular fiction.

Chapter V entitled “The Oath of the Vayuputras: Myth Concluded” shifts the

scrutiny to the final novel in the Shiva Trilogy. Mythic archetypes introduced in the

first two books of the Shiva Trilogy are extended and concluded in the third book. It

creates parallels between the prototypes in mythology and their archetypes in the

series. This chapter analyses the process of shift from the prototypes to the

archetypes. Human characters with godly attributes justify their godhood in this

book by dint of their deeds and by fogging the boundary between humans and gods.

Shiva who doubts and questions his divinity in the first book, accepts his

authoritative divine role by the third book. Although it is maintained that he is a

mortal operating within his corporeal limitations and that he does not perform any

magical or supernatural act like gods yet his behaviour and deeds, owing to their

moral righteousness, project him almost in a divine light. The archetypes in the

novel perform central tasks and behave in a manner matching the traditional myths

and popular folk tales. It helps the reader to identify them with the mythological

characters easily. For example, the ire of Goddess Kali is retained in the character
 257

Kali and Lord Kartik’s image as a ferocious warrior finds its place in the character

Kartik. Lord Bhagirath’s deed of bringing River Ganga from heaven to earth is

replaced by Bhagirath’s attempt to divert the route of River Ganga etc. The narrative

of this book mainly consists of wars and their strategies. The descriptions are

engaging.

In a close analysis of the works, the role of mythopoeia becomes apparent.

Mythopoeia is not only updation or upgradation of the existing mythic archetypes

that serve as entertainment but it is also a tool to regulate the collective

consciousness of the readers and listeners. It has remained a topic of debate for long

whether the human mind is a tabula rasa or it has innate ideas at its inception.

Different philosophical schools and theories exhibit diverse stances. Philosophical

schools influenced by Dharmic religions that believe in multiple births advocate that

the soul does not die with the body. It gets another body based on its past Karma.

This belief is also the backbone of the Vedanta philosophy. It asserts that people are

bound with the blessings and burdens of the Karma of their past lives. Thus, a

newly-born may also have innate ideas. As Amish’s fiction has a Dharmic setup, he

fictionalises the Vedantic philosophy by accepting or rejecting stipulations to fit his

narrative framework. He rejects the notion that the past karma influences the present

life yet he lets the events be projected as predicated by destiny, a by-product of pre-

destined events. The novel’s hero Shiva is recognised as a potential saviour at his

birth by his uncle Manobhu because he was stillborn like the previous saviour Lord

Rudra. It is also deemed as predestined.

Whether or not a mind is born with innate ideas, it is certain that it develops

through the ideas inherited from family, ethnicity, study and experience. Religion

also influences the family and ethnicity i.e. a common set of ancestry, culture,
 258

history, nation, religion, society and tradition. A religion illustrates its precepts

through religious stories i.e. mythology. A change in the treatment of mythology

alters the motivational direction. The retelling of a myth is a dynamic happening.

The mythology that flexes with the dynamics of interpretations survives in multiple

forms.

Myths are sourced out from religions. They enrich popular imagination and

literature. One may only surmise and expect it to happen in the future mythic fiction

also. A pantheon of Indian mythic fiction, retellings, and mythopoeia sourced from

Hindu mythology, has appeared robustly with the advent of the 21st century. Some

are rational and some are utterly absurd as they present only an author’s narrative

dexterity. Amish, on the other hand, has done it with true ability and competence.

The thesis has also shown that in Amish’s works, the fight for individual

identity is not an autonomous act. Its binary is a selection between what is and what

is not. Moreover, the boundaries of the binary are not always the same but differ

from society to society, region to region and country to country. As mythologies are

usually traditional touchstones, they lend notions of identity in varying

circumstances. For example, the concept of the omnipotent and omniscient God is

exclusively a male one. In Indian religions, this divine identity is often attributed a

feminine aspect too, unlike the Abrahamic religions. So while challenging attitudes,

a Hindu woman is better placed through the binary. Amish’s remodelling of

religious archetypes, thus, serves a purpose in characters like Kali or Sati.

The Shiva Trilogy retempers the old archetypes, whether it is that of a god or

a woman or a race. Amish has created the Meluhan society, a society where men and

women enjoy equal rights in all spheres of life. The way Shiva respects Sati, the way
 259

he treats and respects her, creates a model for the male-female and spousal

relationship. The love and devotion between the brothers Ganesh and Kartikeya

create a model of brotherly relationship. Different kings ruling their kingdoms on

different models provide a glimpse of the contemporary governments throughout the

world. No government has been presented as an ideal one in the combined narrative

of the trilogy. They all have their positive and negative aspects. At first it appears

that the totalitarian governance of Meluha is perfect in comparison with the

democratic model of Swadeep but by and by the dark corners in both the systems are

revealed. There are ideal images to follow too - righteousness and steadfastness of

General Parvateshwar, the professional efficiency of doctor Ayurvati, Nandi’s

sagacity, etc.

Though Amish has tried to bring the series to a level where everything looks

rational yet his fiction falters sometimes. The annihilation of Devagiri, the capital of

Meluha, along with its innocent citizens, appears unjust. Maybe Amish intends to

suggest an alternative theory for the destruction of the Indus Valley Civilization. It

defies the notion of poetic justice.

The Shiva Trilogy is an immensely popular novel series. It fuses the

elements of epic, history and romance. Like an epic, it starts in medias res. The story

of past events and circumstances is narrated in continual flashbacks. It has larger-

than-life heroes e.g. godlike Shiva, goddess like Sati, indefatigable warrior heroes

like Parvateshwar, Bhagirath, Kartik, Ganesh, Nandi, Veerbhadra, Kali, etc. They

embody the values of Indian culture and civilizations. The active participation of

immortals has been replaced in the sequence by the participation of different

fictional institutions like the Vasudevs and the Vayuputras. Hoary miened Vasudev

Pandits are the replacement of gods. Great fictional battles are fought throughout the
 260

series with wholesome strategies. It presents a fusion of people, places, and objects

ranging from the time of the Indus Valley Civilization to the present. The element of

magic has been replaced by magic realism. As the Shiva Trilogy generates

mythopoeia, it employs mythic archetypes in abundance. In the thesis, the genesis of

the archetypes has been identified by describing the original myths.

Thus, it is established that Amish Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy is a path-breaker

for the re-tellers of myth in popular Indian English fiction through its perspicacious

devices of continuity, mythopoeia and inventive narrative approaches.

 261

6:1: Works Cited

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2. Viswanath, Radha. Ravanaleela. Rupa publications, 2017.

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