INTRODUCTION:

Tripathi’s all books are on religious topics. He believes that religiosity and liberalism go hand in hand in India. Amish quotes from Rigveda 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.

‘The Immortals of Meluha,’ Tripathi’s first novel was published in Feb 2010. It is the first book in Shiva Trilogy. The second book in the series ‘The Secret of Nagas was released on 12 Aug. 2011. The Third titled ‘The Oath of Vayuputras was released on 27 Feb 2013’. The trilogy is a fantasy re-imagining of Indian deity, Shiva’s Life and adventure.

Tripathi believes that myths are nothing but jumbled memories of true past, a past buried under mounds of earth and ignores. Immortals of Meluha is a gripping mythological story written in modern style, reading this beautifully written creation is like plunging into the icy and venerable waters of Manasarovar, one can actually sense the beats of Shiva’s Damru and fumes of intoxicating chillum.

Age old thoughts and philosophies were delivered in a very modern context. The story is concerned with Shiva’s winning the Meluhan princess, Sati who suffers segregation on account of early widowhood and fighting the guerrilla terrorist from eastern plains.

The story is based on Meluha, the probable ancient name for the Indus valley civilization according to the modern historians.

Amish Tripathi’s Shiva Trilogy beginning with ‘The Immortals of Meluha’ chronicles the life of Lord Shiva, from tribal warrior to’ the chosen one for the eradication of evil ’ The first book looks closely at the relationship between Shiva and his partner Sati. It succeeds by painting Shiva as the every man. Tripathi takes us on the same journey which Shiva does. Shiva’s realization of having powers is new to him and he reacts as much in the same way as the reader. Readers suspend their understanding of Shiva as Hindu god as they have come to see him in the theology, but more as human being facing extraordinary circumstances.

Literary Review:-

The Immortals of Meluha is the first novel by Amish Tripathi, published in Feb 2010. It is the first book in Shiva Trilogy. The second book in the series The secret of Nagas was published on 12^th Aug 2011. The third titledThe Oath of Vayuputras was came out on 27^th Feb 2013. The trilogy is fantasy, imaging of Indian deity, Shiva’s life and adventure.

Amish’s books have been sold a million copies in a span of two years with gross retail sale of 22 crores. The Shiva Trilogy has been referred as one of the most successful books series in the history of Indian publishing.

The Immortals of Meluha is the first novel by Amish Tripathi. The story is set in the land of Meluha and starts with the arrival of Tibetan tribal Shiva. The Meluhans believe that Shiva is their legendary savior, Neelkanth. It is confirmed,when he consumes Somras a legendary healing poison, turns his throat blue,Shiva decides to help to Meluhans in their war against Chandrvanshi’s who had joined forces with cursed groups called Nagas. However his journey and the resulting fight laid to dire consequences.

The Immortals of Meluha has also been released byJo Fletcher books an imprint of Quercus books UK. The first book is among the short listed books for Vodaphone cross world Award 2010.

The secret of Nagas narrates how the inhabitants of that land are saved from their wars by Shiva. It begins where the first novel Immortals of Meluha ends with Shiva trying to save Sati from invading Naga. Later Shiva takes his troops and travel far east to the land of Braga, where he finds the clue to reach Naga people. Shiva also learns that Sati’s first child is alive as well as her twin sister. His journey ultimately leads him to the Naga capital of Panchavati, where he finds a surprise waiting for him.

One of the remarkable qualities of the book is that it is a very visual tale and less like a literary exercise. Instead of simply talking, people bellow, scream, whisper and fall silent. He has disappointed in weak dialogue. The book is impressive in its conception but it is executed poorly.

The Oath of Vayuputras is the final book of Shiva Trilogy. In the earlier books of trilogy, Shiva finds out that the Nagas are not his enemies and join hands with them to reach root of all evil. The book answers to Neelkanth’s question about fate, the choice he made previously and Karma.

In the concluding book Shiva reaches Panchavati, the capital of Nagas where he comes face to face with his greatest enemy.The Oath of Vayuputras also reveals the reason of Shiva’s close friend Brahaspati’s disappearance and reappearance. At the end of the second book, Shiva seeks help from the Vayuputras.In the earlier two books of the trilogy he focuses on philosophy, religion and the never ending battle between good and evil.

Anachronisms in Shiva Trilogy:

The story of Shiva Trilogy is filled with many recurring anachronisms. Experimentation with mythology is something new in popular Indian English writing.

Shiva asks Nandi if they would eat in a „Brahmin restaurant‟ A restaurant!. The author used a modern colloquial term to describe something that could be more appropriately referred to as an inn perhaps a tavern.

The second is Tripathi‟s attempt to give scientific explanations to the supernatural elements of the Shiva mythos. The Brahmastra, for example becomes a fission weapon and Pashupatiastra becomes a fusion weapon. At other point characters talk about cell division in the human body. The science is so half baked that these explanations are incompatible with what the science actually asks or what feasible engineering allows.

In Immortals of Meluha Amish uses rehashed versions of modern place names Mohen-jo-daro which he justifies as house of Mohan, is in fact mound of the dead in Sindhi and Karachapa for Karachi. He alludes to the legend of ancient submerged land of the coast of southern India as the place where all Indians come from and he calls this land as Sangamtamil. Historically Sangam tamil refers to the age of Tamil civilization as well as the form of language spoken during this era and certainly not submerged land.

Anachronism in the novels of Amish Tripathi:

Iron Metal:

In the words of Amish “The city gates were made of a metal that Shiva had never seen before, Nandi clarified that they were made up of iron a new metal that had just been discovered. It was the strongest of all the metals but very expensive. The ore required to make it was not easily available”^[1]

Amish Tripathi used anachronism in the reference of iron metal, as the age described in ‘The Immortals Of Meluha’, The Harappan culture belongs to bronze age, the people of Harappa were very well acquainted with the manufacture and use of Bronze. It was made by smiths by mixing tin with copper, the bronze tools and weapons recovered from Harappan sites contain a smaller percentage of tin. The bronze smiths produced not only images and utensils but also various tools and weapons such as axes, saws, knives and spears’^[2]

‘A large number of metals were used by the Harappans for a variety of uses, copper in its unalloyed form was the most extensively used metal by the Harappans. The main tools made of copper are chisel, knives, arrows heads, hooks, saws. Bronze sculptures are represented by the dancing girls from Mohen-jo-daro and also by animal figurines of dog, bull, birds etc. ^[3]

Soap :-

“He used the strange cake-like substance that the Meluhans said was a soap to rub the body clean” ^[4]

Ancient Indians used soap nuts of shikakai and ritha for washing and bathing. Different kinds of clothes were washed with fruits like sarsapa and shrifala. In tha late 16^th century ‘Guru Nanak’s prayer contains the earliest reference to soap. In 2^nd and 3^rd century in the tercet like ‘Yajnavalka smriti and Manusmriti there were reference to soap like substance called phenaka. Seeds of plant mahua oil of eranda and impure calcium carbonate were used by them in Gujrat for washing clothes. Gradually soft soaps were made for bathing. ^[5]

From above reference it is clear that Amish has used anachronism in use of soap by Meluhans.

Dal Lake :-

There is the reference of Dal lake in Shiva trilogy as below,

“Shiva was sitting in the royal garden on the banks of the Dal Lake while his friend sat by his side” ^[6]

It is interesting to see whether Dal Lake was known by the same name as it is used now.

Dal Lake is mentioned as Mansarit in ancient texts. Ancient history records mention that the village named Isubar to east of Dal Lake was the residence of Goddess Durga. During the Mughal period, the Mughal rulers of India designated Kashmir, Shrinagar in particular as their summer resort. They developed the precincts of the Dal Lake in Shrinagar with sprawling Mughals type gardens and pavilions as pleasure resorts to enjoy the cool climate ^[7]

Minute :-

Amish has used the word ‘five minutes’ as “Mastrak please go up and start the secondary medicines, I will be there in five minutes” ^[8]

The word began to use in late 14 C. from old French minut (13 C.) or directly from medieval Latin minuta. In medieval Latin. ‘Pars minuta prima’, ‘The first small part’ was used by mathe matician Ptolemy for one sixteenth part of circle, later of an hour ,Jerman, Dutch also used vaguely for ‘short time from late 14 C. ^[9]

Liger :-

We can find reference of Liger in ‘The Secret of The Nagas’ in following ways.

‘Then a troubling thought struck sati. She stared at the lead animal skin, it had the stripes of a tiger. It was not an adolescent at all. She gasped in shock, liger’ a rare animal, the off spring of a lion and a tigress. It grows almost twice as big as its parents and has many times their ferocity. The Liger is recent leader ^[10]

It had been a week since the battle with a liger, The few survive ring lioness and the liger had not come back. ^[11]

The liger is a hybrid tiger, cross between a male lion and female tiger, a tigress. The liger is the largest of all known extant felines. Liger exists only in captivity because the habitats of parental species do not overlap in the wild. The history of lion, tiger hybrid dates to at least early 19^th century in India in 1798 Etienne Geoffrey saint Hillarie made a colour plate of the offspring of a lion and tiger. The term ‘Liger” was coined in 1930’s. Ligers are more commonly found than tigons in ‘At Home in the 200 C (1961) Gerald Iles wrote “for the record I must say that I have never seen a Liger, a hybrid obtained by crossing a lion with a tigress. They to be even rarer than tigons. Liger is often believed to represent the largest known cat in the world. They are larger than large Siberian tiger males.” Thus there is anachronism about existence of liger in the period when Amish wrote about liger. ^[12]

Rajdharma :-

In Shiva trilogy Amish used the concept of Rajdharma through the mouth of Sati as well as Daksha in following ways. In the words of Sati “Kartik is my son, he will not like to benefit at the cost of others, Because I will teach him what ‘Rajdharma is.’

His own daughter accusing him of not following the royal duties ? Daksha explodes “I have taken care of my Rajdharma” ^[13]

The conversation between Daksha and Sati reminds us an advice given by Vajpayee to Modi, when asked ‘what advice he had for the CM (Narendra Modi, at the time of Gujrat riots) Vajpayee says that the CM should follow ‘Rajdharma’ which means looking after the people he is governing irrespective of caste creed, religion etc. without any discrimination using the word ‘Rajdharma’ in the conversation between sati and Daksha, Amish had perhaps in his mind on advice of Vajpayee to Modi ^[14]

Anachronism used in theory about light and colour :-

Amish Tripathi in his Shiva Trilogy used anachronism about the light theory and colour. In the conversation between Shiva and Brahaspati the chief scientist of Meluha. Amish referred this theory as follows.

‘Let’s talk about the leaf them.’

‘All right laughed the Pandit, tell me, what is the colour of the leaf ?’

‘The colour’ it’s green,

“No that was not what I was trying to ask you had a conversation with one of Brahaspati scientists, about how the eyes see, did’t you ? ‘Oh, that is right, said Shiva slapping his forehead, ‘Light falls on the object to your eyes, you see that object.’

“White light is made up of seven different colors that is why the rainbow is made up of seven colours.”

“When rainbow disperse sunlight, correct ! now answer my question why does that leaf appear green to you” ?

“White sunlight falls on the leaf, the leaf’s physical properties are such, it absorbs the colour violet, indigo, blue, yellow, orange and red. It doesn’t absorb the green colour, which is then reflected back to my eyes. Hence I see the leaf as green. ^[15]

Amish used anachronism about theory of light. Because the concept of reflection is recent and the people, in the time Amish is speaking about were not aware about this theory of light. Mr. Issac Newton, professor of the Mathematics in university of Cambridge wrote a letter in 1966 to the publisher from Cambridge where he spoke about the theory of light. According to him “Whiteness is the usual colour of light, for light is a confused aggregate of rays endued with all sorts of colour as they are promiscuously darted from the various parts of luminous bodies. There are two sort of colours, the one original and simple, the other compounded of these. The original or primary colours are red, yellow, green, blue and violet, purple, together with orange. Indigo and an indefinite variety of intermediate graduations.” He added “I might add more instances of this nature, but I shall conclude with the general one that the colour of all natural bodies have no other origin than this that they are variously qualified to reflect one sort of light in greater plenty than another. And this I have experimented in dark room by illuminating those bodies with uncompounded light of diverse colours for by that means anybody may be made to appear of any colour. They have there no appropriate colour, but ever appear of the colour of light castes upon them but yet with this difference, that they are most brisk and vivid in the light of their own day colour” ^[16]

‘When light falls on an object. Some of it bounces off the objects surface and enters our eyes, thus we can see the object. This phenomenon of light bouncing of a surface is called reflection. Most objects reflect some amount of light. That is why we can see them. Smooth, shiny surfaces such as mirrors and polished metals reflect light better than dull surfaces’ ^[17]

REFERENCES:

1. Tripathi Amish The Immortals of Meluha P-62

2. Sharma Ram Sharan NCERT P-39 Ancient Indian Histroy, New Delhi.

3. Agnihotri V.K. Indian Histroy A-20 Allied Publication, New Delhi 1996

4. Tripathi Amish The Immortals of Meluha P-22

5. www.indianscriptures.com/vedic.......to......./rasayan

6. Tripathi Amish The Immortals of Meluha P – 27

7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wikidallake

8. Tripathi Amish The Immortals of Meluha P-21

9. www.etymoline.com/index.php/termminute

10. Tripathi Amish The Secret of the Nagas P-214

11. Tripathi Amish The Secret of the Nagas P-255

12. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/liger

13. Tripathi Amish The Secret of the Nagas P – 133

14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v

15. Tripathi Amish ‘The Immortals of Meluha P-295

16. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/New-theory-about-light-colour

17. Excel in Science Sangam book (India) Pvt. Ltd. 2015, 160 Anna Salai Chennai P-172

Received on 05.06.2017 Modified on 18.06.2017

Int. J. Ad. Social Sciences. 2017; 5(2):61-64.

DOI: 10.5958/2454-2679.2017.00005.6