Hello everyone. I am Sharda, I love to read but my busy life
leaves little time for any of my hobbies. When I do get a chance to indulge, I
love to talk about it. Here I am today to talk about this book I read. If you
also happen to have read this one, I would love to hear your thoughts about
this book. Now, without holding you up for too long, let me dive into the topic.
Title of the book I read is: The Immortals of Meluha (Book 1
of the Shiva Trilogy). The author of the book is Amish Tripathi. It was first
published in New Delhi, India in the year 2010 and has 424 pages in all.
The time setting for this fictional story is 1900 BC. In
this book Amish Tripathi, muses about or, should I say, toys around the idea –
what if Shiva, one of the three main Gods of the Hindu mythology, was in fact a
mortal who lived an exemplary life and eventually became a God due to the
heroic actions done during his life time. This story thus uses many of the
characters from the actual Shiva purana around which Amish has skillfully woven
his own work of fiction. The story in this book has been divided into
twenty-six chapters and there are two more books following after this first
book.
The setting for the story is the empires of Meluha and
Swadweep, which includes: most of Northern India, Pakistan and Egypt were also
mentioned in books two and three. All through the story, one thing that stands
out is the effort the author makes to give details about locations. It reminded
me of the history lessons that I learnt in school. He describes the culture of
the Meluhan and Swadweepan people in great detail and the stark contrast
between the two cultures is more than obvious. The description of the cities is
so detailed that at times I felt that it hindered the smooth narration of the story.
I found myself thinking “Come on now, enough of the description, get back to
the story!” Generally, I don’t skip even a single word while reading a book but
this is the first time I skipped a few paragraphs here and there in order to
avoid the unnecessary description and to get to the actual point. I wonder if
any of you felt the same way.
The main characters in this story are Shiva, his wife –
Princess Sati, emperor Daksha of Meluha, Capt. Nandi, the doctor Ayurvathi,
General Parvateshwar, chief scientist Brishaspathi, Naga the mysterious hooded
figure, Prime Minister Kanakhala, emperor Dilipa of Swadweep, his children
Princess Anandmayi and Prince Bhagirath etc. There are many other secondary
characters that make their appearance at different points in the story and play
a vital role in shaping up the story such as Vidyunmali, Mayasheinik, the
different Pandit ji at the temples etc. The other thing I observed is that
there are too many characters in this book. Even though I am familiar with Hindu
mythology it was hard to keep track of the characters, who is who and who is
doing what. There were times when I had to turn back the pages to cross check
the character. I can only imagine the plight of a person who is not familiar
with the Hindu mythology. Having said that, I must emphasize that each and
every character had a role to play in the story and none of them felt out of
place or unrequired. The character of
each and every person has been developed with clarity and all persons in the
story act according to their character.
Plot of the story involves many intricacies and the author
took his time to gradually unfold the main plot and several subplots. The
revealing of each incident and unveiling of each and every concept drags us
deeper and deeper into the story. His exceptional story telling skill makes us
question what needs to be questioned, form opinions and feel the emotions
relating to the events. Shiva the leader of the Guna tribe comes to Meluha on
Nandi’s invitation. He is fed up with the constant wars and struggle for
survival and wants a peaceful settlement for his tribe. In Meluha he is
suddenly looked upon as Lord Neelkant – the prophesied savior. This is because
the manner of his arrival and the outcome, of events that followed after his arrival,
fit the description perfectly. It takes another 100 to 115 pages to understand
the nature of help that Meluha expects from their Neelkant. During this time
the author includes many subplots such as the love affair that develops between
Sati and Shiva, the concept of Vikarma, the magical somras and its effects, the
mystery of the evil Nagas, the Maika system, the Suryavanshi and Chandravanshis
etc. The author, very skillfully, paints a picture of who is good and who is
bad by the time we reach the halfway mark in the story and then takes the
readers racing to the anti-climax. Emotions are high at this point in the story
and what is expected in the climax is obvious to all. Just as the all expected
actions are executed with full fervor we are in for a rude shock. The last
quarter of the book makes the readers question everything and everyone in the
story just as some of the main characters do. At this point the story comes to
an abrupt halt as Amish cruelly leads us to a situation where the hooded Naga
is advancing towards an unsuspecting Sati while Shiva is frantically racing to
save her.
To sum up I enjoyed reading the story with all its
intricacies. However, I also feel that the elaborate descriptions could have
been a little shorter. The story has used a lot of terminology that relates to
Sanskrit language and Hinduism. For this
reason, the author has even included a glossary at the end of the book. Thus
some sections in the story felt like an educational documentary on the beliefs
and culture of ancient Hindus. Some of these details, I felt, could have been
avoided. Finally, in order to enjoy the story one has to forget all about the
actual story of Lord Shiva and treat this book as just a work of fiction that
consists of similar character names.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Random Musings 