Trilogy Of Shiva

        

Author Amish Tripathi or Amish as he prefers to be called is now the stuff of Indian publishing legend. The latest in Shiva Trilogy “The Oath of the Vayuputras” sold five lakh copies within a week of publication and cumulative sales of the Trilogy have clocked Rs 40 crore.

  Amish Tripathi

 About the author of Famous Shiva Trilogy

Amish Tripathi (born on 18 October 1974) is an Indian author. He is known for his novels The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas and The Oath of the Vayuputras. The three books collectively comprise the Shiva Trilogy. Tripathi's debut work The Immortals of Meluha was a surprise bestseller, breaking into the top seller charts within a week of its launch. The Shiva Trilogy has become the fastest selling book series in the history of Indian publishing, with 1.7 million copies in print and over Rs 40 crores in sales. 

ForbesIndia has ranked him #85 in the 2012 Celebrity 100 list. Amish Tripathi is an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. Although he originally wanted to be a historian, Tripathi initially chose a career in finance because he couldn't afford the former. He worked for 14 years in the financial services industry, in companies such as Standard Chartered, DBS Bank and IDBI Federal Life Insurance, before starting his writing career. Tripathi says that he’s learnt most of his knowledge of Hindu theology and religion from his grandfather and his very religious parents. Amish quotes from the ancient Hindu scripture Rig Veda to say that ‘Truth is one, but the wise men know it as many; God is one, but we can approach Him in many ways’. He says that he lives this philosophy; in his puja room at home, besides the idols of Lord Shiva and other Hindu Gods, he also regularly worships pictures of the MuslimKaaba, Mother Mary, Jesus Christ, Prophet Zarathustra, Gautam Buddha besides symbols of many other religions. All of Tripathi's books (released and planned) are on religious topics since he is a devoted worshiper of Shiva.

 

About The Books-:

Title: Shiva Trilogy (The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas, The Oath of the Vayuputras)

Publisher: Westland (April 1st 2010, August 12th 2011, February 27th 2013)

Summary: 

1900 BC. In what modern Indians mistakenly call the Indus Valley Civilisation. The inhabitants of that period called it the land of Meluha a near perfect empire created many centuries earlier by Lord Ram, one of the greatest monarchs that ever lived. This once proud empire and its Suryavanshi rulers face severe perils.

The only hope for the Suryavanshis is an ancient legend: When evil reaches epic proportions, when all seems lost, when it appears that your enemies have triumphed, a hero will emerge.

Is the rough-hewn Tibetan immigrant Shiva, really that hero? And does he want to be that hero at all? Drawn suddenly to his destiny, by duty as well as by love, will Shiva lead the Suryavanshi vengeance and destroy evil?

Today, He is a God.

4000 years ago, He was just a man.

In a journey that will take him across the length and breadth of ancient India, Shiva searches for the truth in a land of deadly mysteries only to find that nothing is what it seems.

Only A God Can Stop It.

Shiva is gathering his forces. He reaches the Naga capital, Panchavati, and Evil is finally revealed. The Neelkanth prepares for a holy war against his true enemy, a man whose name instils dread in the fiercest of warriors.

Will he succeed? And what will be the real cost of battling Evil? To India? And to Shiva’s soul?

In “The Immortals of Meluha” Shiva meets the Meluhans who have found immortality. They are Suryavanshis who follow the path set out by Ram. They have order and discipline in their lives and believe in the betterment of the community rather than that of the individual. He fights the Chandravanshis who are the descendants of Ram too and have different beliefs and lifestyles to the Suryavanshis only to realize they aren’t evil.

This realisation leads him to the Nagas in “The Secret of the Nagas”. It’s in meeting them that he learns of Kali, the other half of his wife Sati and has to make peace with Ganesh, the other son of Sati. It is in this book that Karthik makes his appearance growing up faster than a normal boy. The Nagas take him to their city – Panchvati where Shiva again has to confront and revise his idea and understanding of evil.

“The Oath of the Vayuputras” is about Shiva’s confrontation with evil and his fighting the righteous fight. He teams up with the Vasudevs who are the guides of the Rudra avatar to take on evil and meets and understands the previous Mahadev Rudra through his tribe the Vayuputras who are sworn to support the Neelkanth in his war against evil. The book isn’t about whether Shiva will win, that’s a given but rather about how a man becomes so loveable that we still love, fear and worship him to this day.

My Review-:

All three covers have been beautifully designed with vibrant colours and textures. 

The font was fine but print quality kept varying through the books. I’ve been hearing a lot about the series and with my interest in mythology, there’s no way I’d have missed this series. Evil is not a person, it is an idea or belief. This is something Shiva has to learn on his journey through the three books.

The characters of the books are the ones we all grew up hearing about in our grandma’s stories – Shiva, Sati, Kali, Ganesh, Karthik…, they are all there in human believable form. Not gods but human beings like you and me who are flawed and yet loved. And there were some I’d never heard of before like Badhra, Shiva’s best friend, Krittika, Sati best friend, Parvateshwar the amy general after whom Sati is also called Parvati, among others. The characters are well sketched and memorable; each one of them. 

One of the best parts of the book for me was the scientific reasoning behind all that magical technology of those times. This trilogy is great if you like Indian mythology; well written it is an enjoyable read but be warned it does get dreggy as you progress through the books.

Something new to know…..

The authors of our country have great potential and the directors have even more potential to convert their novels into good flicks. Karan Johar was quick enough to grab this opportunity and is all set to make this novel into a big movie. As the grapevines say,Karan Johar is willing to cast ...

Vidya Balan and Hrithik Roshan in the film. The producer and his camp Dharma Production have passionately started looking for a director for their movie who will set down the screenplay.

Ref-http://blog.fatema.in/2013/03/book-review-shiva-trilogy-by-amish-tripathy/

http://www.bolegaindia.com/gossips/Karan_Johar_to_film_The_Immortals_of_Meluha-gid-15971-gc-6.html

With Love

Dipali