5th Semester DU SOL NCWEB
English: Bestsellers and
Genre Fiction
Unit - 2 The Immortals of Meluha: Amish Tripathi
About The Author:
Amish Tripathi was born on 18 October 1974 in
Mumbai and spent his early years in Odisha. He did his Graduation from St.
Xavier’s College Mumbai and his management studies from the Indian Institute of
Management Calcutta. He worked in the financial services industry for fourteen
years. Now he lives as a writer, diplomat, and columnist and describes himself
as a “boring banker turned happy writer” in his books. he wrote about the Hindu
God Shiva in his first book- The Immortal of Meluha. He was interested in
spiritual concepts and started reading books on religious philosophies and
Indian Mythology.
So far he has written seven books- The Immortals
of Meluha (2010), The Secret of the
Nagas (2011), and The Oath of the Vayuputras (2013), which collectively comprise
the Shiva Trilogy, and Ram – Scion of Ikshvaku (Book 1 of the Ram Chandra
Series) (2015), Sita – Warrior of Mithila (Book 2 of the Ram Chandra Series)
(2017), Raavan – Enemy of Aryavarta (Book 3 of the Ram Chandra Series) (2019),
Legend of Suheldev – The King Who Saved India (2020) and Immortal India – Young
Country, Timeless Civilisation (Amish’s first non-fiction book) (2017) — have
5.5 million copies in print.
The Immortals of Meluha Explanation:
The novel is set in the fictional universe,
known as Amishverse, in 1900 BC. Many centuries ago, the most perfect empire of
Meluha was created by Lord Ram and he
was one of the greatest monarchs who had ever lived in their world. In 1900 BC,
Meluha ns were ruled by Suryavanshi rulers near the river Saraswati which was
perishing due to unknown reasons. Meluha ns were enemies with Chandravanshis
who were aligning themselves with the Nagas, a race of sinister martial artists
with bodily deformities.
Lesson 1-5
The story begins at Mansarovar lake in 2900 BC. Shiva leader of
the group tribe from the Himalayan mountains. Nandi a captain of the Meluha army finds the end invites Shiva and the Tribe
comes to their Kingdom Meluha . He and his tribe move to the ancient
campsite of the Meluha army which was
located near dar lake in Kashmir valley.
Upon arrival in Srinagar, the capital city of Kashmir valley,
Shiva and his tribe were amazed by the perfection of the city’s infrastructure
as well as culture.
Ayurvati the chief medical officer gave them a medical drink after
dinner. Afterward, all tribe members feel sick except Shiva whose throat turned
blue. And his body becomes magically healthy. He is also cured of all his past
illnesses.
She was bluethroat made him a hero overnight and its news was
delivered to king Daksha, king immediately invite Shiva two capital of Meluha devagiri.
Shiva decides to cover his throat with the cloth so that people
don’t think he is different. He met sati and her friend krittika in the temple
of Lord brahma. unexpectedly sati was attacked by not a warriors and Shiva jump
into the fight and save city from now the kidnappers. Shiva was just a saviour
in her eyes.
Finally, Shiva reached devagiri and met king and his Prime
Minister and other people. The king believed in “Neelkanth” who will destroy
the evil.
These chapters introduce the almost perfect society of Meluha
where everything is well organised. Be it architecture, social order, health
and hygiene or religious ideas, Meluha is an ideal society. However, it is
still a mystery why this perfect society is looking for a saviour to come and
save them.
Chapter 6-10
After meeting with king Daksha Shiva decided to stay in Meluha and learn more about this situation. Randy
took him to visit Meluha market and this
city. He disliked that some people are treated as outcast only because they
have got some disease or some women have given birth to a stillborn child.
Nandi explained this concept as people who “have been punished in this birth
for the sins of their previous birth.
Daksha,Parvateshwara and Kankhala explained to Shiva the meaning
of the ancient sayings, the situation of Meluha , their animosity towards the
Chandravanshis and the Nagas, and ‘Somras’.
Meluha n society ensures that each child remains anonymous after
their birth and receives equal education. All pregnant women go to ‘maika’, a
place where specialists ensure safe childbirth and then women return to their
homes leaving their infants behind.
After all of this shiva again met sati in Devagiri and gets to
know that she is the daughter of Daksa and the princes of Meluha .
Thereafter, Shiva goes to Mount Mandar, where ‘Somras’ is
mass-produced by scientists under the leadership of Brahaspati. Brahaspati does
not a believe in the legend but hits it off with Shiva immediately. Both become
good friends and Shiva has a heart to heart talk with him.
Sati who was unaware of Shiva’s identity as ‘Neelkantha’ meets him
again at the breakfast table. Given the evident sparks of love between Shiva
and Sati, Daksha was instantly happy and he arranged a new opportunity for the
love to blossom. Daksha asks Shiva to go back to Devagiri with Sati and her
mother Veerini first.
In these chapters shiva’s role is developed as a central protagonist who is trying his best to understand the situation and circumstances. He deserved to be called a hero because when he got lucky and become a Neil can’t then instead of depending on his luck and getting benefits from his position he choose to work for it.
Chapter 11-15
Coming back to devagiri Shiva decide to take a tour of empire and understand how he can help Meluha with their problem. Daksha decide to send sati with shiva on Tour.After some adventure on their way the caravan reached its first stop at kotdwar. Daksha asks Shiva to go back to Devagiri with Sati and her mother Veerini first. Guards were trying to stop people from coming close to Shiva when he sees a blind man struggling to come through the guards. Shiva asks the guards to let him come. The blind man was a 'vikarma', who came with his son to take blessings from 'Neelkantha'.
When shiva refuse to follow some of rule so and some problem
Created so sati goes away in anger from there.
Shiva wants to resolve these problems so he meets with a panditji,
after reaching their next stop at Mohan Jo Daro. Panditji discussed the need
for the vikarma system in society with Shiva and Shiva comes to the conclusion
that instead of being her saviour, he should support her decisions and let her
feel respected for her choices. He also got to know about the death of Sati’s
first husband and her stillborn child for which she became a vikarma even
though she was the princess.
At the next stop, sati accepts the challenge by Taraka to duel in
the fire ring with her. Shive decides to support sati for his decision and he
gives her some of the tips for the challenge, and End of the duel sati defeats
taraka but did not kill him.
These chapters have shown in detail the governance and social
order of different states of Meluha . Tripathi has also woven the tales like
the creation of Meluha , the story of Sangamtamil land, Manu’s Manusmriti and
the story of Mohan Jo Daro civilization, etc with each other to create a fictional
world of present 19th Century Meluha where it is possible to imagine a God-like
character Shiva as a heroic human being working to fulfil his destiny.
Along with this, Shiva’s character as a lover is also evolving
from an ignorant person who likes somebody to an understanding and supportive
lover who respects the choices of his lover. Tripathi has also tried to show
the differently-abled people in a new sympathetic and respectful light with the
blind an incident. Tripathi is not rejecting the idea of karma because Shiva as
a protagonist is not dependent on his destiny.
Chapter 16-20
Three weeks after Sati’s agnipariksha, the convoy sets off from
Karachapa. On their way, they hear news of a terrorist attack on Koonj village.
Chandravanshis and Nagas had taken Brahmins as hostage in the village temple
and had asked the others to leave the village.
Meluha ns, under the leadership of Shiva, fight bravely against
the enemy. During this intense fight Shiva is attacked by a Naga with the ‘Agni
baan’, a poisonous arrow. Sati jumps in front of Shiva and takes the hit. Shiva
gets into a fury and kills that last Naga. Consequently the others are, without
any leader, scattered and those who lay injured took their own life. Everyone
was worried about sati’s life. Shiva asks Ayurvati to give ‘Somras’ to Sati.
‘Somras’ had healed Shiva in Srinagar but its healing properties were not yet
understood by doctors. Finally, a miracle happened and Sati’s fever broke. She
wakes up and in this near-death incident she confesses her love to Shiva.
After getting the news of Sati’s unfortunate incident, Daksha
arrives at Koonj with his wife. They find Sati recovering from the injury and
when they realise that she and are in love with each other, Daksha asks Shiva
to become his son-in-law. Shiva immediately agrees and they decide to conduct a
royal wedding at Devagiri.
While wedding a massive attack on mount mandar happened, everyone
was in shock.
Chapter 21-26
Shiva, Parvateshwar, Sati, Nandi and Veerbhadra, accompanied by a
brigade of one thousand five hundred cavalry, reach Mount Mandar. They found it
devastateded and no one was alive to tell the tale.
Shiva is deeply hurt by Brahaspati’s death. He finds a piece of a
Naga bracelet and is filled with rage. He decides to take revenge for this
destruction.
Daksha, Pravteshwara and others were already waiting to fight the
final battle with Chandravanshis when Kankhala suggests a last try at
convincing Chandravanshi king Dilipa to hand over the terrorists who had
attacked Mount Mandar. The request is made and refused. So, finally, Shiva
declares war on the Chandravanshis, who were considered evil.
The war was not easy because all the routes to Swadeepa, the
Chandravanshi capital, were destroyed over the years. However, Shiva and
Parvateshwar’s combine to devise new strategies and train their army to
surmount problems they were likely to face in the war.
Meluha ns win the battle in a day and it comes as a surprise to
everyone including Shiva. Shiva was restless and doubtful about his victory. He
was not sure that he had fought against evil because none of the Nagas was
there in the war. When Daksha produced the defeated King Dilipa infront of
Shiva, Dilipa was shocked to find that Shiva was a ‘Neelkantha’. Apparently,
Chandrvanshis had the same ancient legend that ‘Neelkantha’ will rise to
destroy evil and he will not be from the land of Sapta-Sindhu.
It seems that Shiva and other Meluha ns were wrong about the
Chandravanshis. Shiva is broken and he desperately tries to find a
justification for his decision to declare war on Chandravanshis. Shiva goes to
Ayodhya with others and there they find a very different system. There is no
heirarchichal social orderor rules and regulations. Everyone was free to do
what they wanted and the overall situation was like a very poor country.
Shiva finally gets that good and bad make balance in society.
There is no way to destroy evil in society.
The novel ends when Shiva finds answers to his questions and he is
ready to take responsibility for his choices. Instead of regretting and
deciding what is right and what is wrong, he decides to follow his head and
heart to take decisions. He comes out of the temple and finds Sati waiting for
him.
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