Book Review: The Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi

The recent band of Indian writers in English was joined by Amish Tripathi, an IIM-C graduate who works with the IDBI Bank in 2010 with his smashing hit debut novel “The Immortals of Meluha”. The book is a historical fiction and is part of a 3 volume “Shiva Trilogy”, the second of which was released a few months ago “The Secret of the Nagas”. The book “The Immortals of Meluha” is
based on the imaginary land of Meluha, an Indus valley civilization. It traces the heroic rise of a nomad, Shiva into an almost impossible Godlike stature.

The plot of the book revoles around Shiva, who as a refugee entered the land of Meluha and attained the stuff of legends there. Meluha was ruled by the King Daksha, the king of the Suryavanshis (or the people of the sun). They were tormented a lot by the Chandravanshis (the people of the moon), who it seemed had joined their hands with the evil Nagas. Daksha and his people were in serach of their prophesized “Neelkanth”, the saviour. So arrives Shiva in the scene, and then the plot of the book revoles around how Shiva prepares his war plan with the Chandravanshis and how ultimately he is victorious. In the meanwhile, he falls in love with the beautiful daugher of Daksha, the princess Sati and how against all odds he marries her. This romance is just an welcome respite in the otherwise deadly adventurous escapade of Shiva and his road to become Mahadev, the God of the Gods.

The book written with the view that all Gods were once human beings with exceptional calibre, is a true bestseller. The book focuses on Shiva and tells in a very smooth way how he attains the title that he has today. Although at times, the plot may seem montonous or even boring with the extra details of the characters and events, but it is nonetheless an exciting and truly inspiring read. The book explains in lucid detail what stuff of legends are made of. This book is an attempt to bridge the gap between the ancient and the modern worlds, and I feel that the author Amish has done a tremendous job with his debut novel. However, for the purists the book may seem at times too candid with the use of language, but sometimes this gives an uncanny charm to the book which can only be called entertaining. Written in plain language, it is quite an enjoyable vacation read.

The book is a must read for anyone who enjoys Indian mythology. Even if you do not like mythology still you can give this book a try just for the thrill of reading a wonderfully written book.

Title: The Immortals of Meluha
 

Author: Amish
 

Cost: Rs. 195
 

Publisher: Westland Books
 

Rating: 4/5

[This review was published here.]