Immortals of Meluha by Amish Tripathi

The other day my nephew Rohan told me to check out this book which is the first of a trilogy. It is a work of fiction where the author proposes that there could have been a great human being who lived an extraordinary life and was passed into the realms of legends and myths and down into history as a God.

The story in this first book begins with a small tribe in the Himalayas on Mount Kailash and the leader of this tribe Shiva. There is a lot of unrest and constant battling with neighbouring tribes and when a foreign delegation came bearing invitation to live in their kingdom it seems a good opportunity to escape. The new life in the kingdom of Meluha, the home of Suryavanshis, should surely be much better. The descriptions of the places and the culture of the people are well written. The people live long lives and are honest and productive. All very constrained and behaviour restrained as per the years old traditions and principle of life handed down from Lord Ram who was a principled king and set up this ideal society. They were waiting for a saviour who was supposed to come from a foreign land who would help them to overcome the evil people, the Chandravanshis, of the neighbouring kingdom.

Is Shiva the man they are looking for? If he accepts this challenge, is he going to be able to fulfil the prophecy? What can he do about his attraction to the princess? He can see how the culture and society it helps create is near perfect. However, the flaws he can see are things he feels should change to improve the lives of the people. The king and his ministers persuade Shiva to accept his destiny and help to destroy the evil that is the neighbouring kingdom. During this time there are a few terrorist attacks made in Meluha which are attributed to the enemies who it appears have been allying themselves with yet another clan of evil beings, the Nagas.

There is also a love story woven in here as eventually Shiva manages to win the princess and marry her. The final straw that decides Shiva to follow his destiny is the battle with a small group of terrorists who destroy a temple and kill all the priests there. Then we get a look at the modest Shiva’s intellect as he plans the battle strategy in detail. So will this planning help in winning the battle with the Chandravanshis? What will the people and their culture be like as they are thought to be evil? How will Shiva handle this huge challenge and will he be able to fulfil the prophecy?

It is a good piece of fiction and written in a fairly fluid manner. There are hooks in the story that keep you gripped. It is fascinating to see the use of today’s language in a story set in many thousands of years ago. Is it too fantastic? If so why? Just because we think that those times were backward? It also compels you to think about the fundamental issues of good, evil, freedom, interdependence in society, honest, trust and so on. I am eager to read the continuation in the next part of the trilogy.