The Immortals of Meluha is the first novel of the Shiva trilogy series by Amish Tripathi. The story is set in the land of Meluha and starts with the arrival of the Tibetan tribal Shiva. The Meluhan belief that Shiva is their fabled saviour Neelkanth,
is confirmed when he consumes the Somras, a legendary healing potion,
which turns his throat blue. Shiva decides to help the Meluhans in their
war against the Chandravanshis, who had joined forces with a cursed group called Nagas.
However, in his journey and the resulting fight that ensues, Shiva
learns how his choices actually reflected who he aspires to be and how
it led to dire consequences.
Tripathi had initially decided to write a book on the philosophy of evil, but was dissuaded by his family members, so he decided to write a book on Shiva, one of the Hindu Gods. He decided to base his story on the fundamental concept that all Gods were once human beings; it was their deeds in the human life that made them famous as Gods. After finishing writing The Immortals of Meluha, Tripathi faced rejection from many publication houses. Ultimately when his agent decided to publish the book himself, Tripathi embarked on a promotional campaign. It included posting a live-action video on YouTube, and making the first chapter of the book available as a free digital download, to entice readers.
Ultimately, when the book was published in February 2010, it went on to become a huge commercial success. It had to be reprinted a number of times to keep up with the demand. Tripathi even changed his publisher and hosted a big launch for the book in Delhi. It was critically appreciated by some Indian reviewers, others noted that Tripathi's writing tended to lose focus at some parts of the story. As of January 2013, The Immortals of Meluha, and its sequel, The Secret of the Nagas, have crossed a print run of a million copies. These books have continued to top the bestseller lists of Nielsen BookScan, with the gross retail sales being impressive at
22 crore within two years of publishing. The third installment, titled The Oath of the Vayuputras,
was released on 27 February 2013. 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 40 crores in sales".
Meluha is a near perfect empire, created many centuries earlier by Lord Ram, one of the greatest kings that ever lived. However, the once proud empire and its Suryavanshi rulers face severe crisis as its primary river, the revered Saraswati, is slowly drying to extinction. They also face devastating terrorist attacks from the east, the land of the Chandravanshis who have joined forces with the Nagas, a cursed race with physical deformities. The present king of Meluha, Daksha, sends his emissaries to North India in Tibet, to invite the tribes that live there to Meluha. One of those invited are the Gunas, whose chief Shiva is a brave warrior and protector. Shiva accepts the proposal and moves to Meluha with his tribe. They reach the city of Srinagar and are received there by Ayurvati, the Chief of Medicine of the Meluhans. Shiva and his tribe are impressed with the Meluhan way of life. On their first night of stay at Srinagar, the Gunas wake up amid high fever and sweating. The Meluhans, under Ayurvati's orders, carry on the healing process. However, Ayurvati finds out that Shiva is the only one devoid of these symptoms and that his throat has turned blue. The Meluhans announce Shiva as the Neelkanth, their fabled saviour.
Shiva is then taken to Devagiri, the capital city of Meluha, where he meets King Daksha. While staying there, Shiva and his comrades, Nandi and Veer Bhadra, encounter a beautiful and mysterious woman, who has a look of penance on her face. They later come to know that she is Princess Sati, the daughter of Daksha and is a Vikarma, an untouchable in this life due to sins committed in her previous births. Shiva tries to court her, but she rejects his advances. Ultimately Shiva wins her heart and they decide to get married, even though the Vikarma rule prohibits them from doing so. Enraged by the so-called obsolete law, Shiva declares himself as the Neelkanth and swears to dissolve the Vikarma law. Daksha allows Sati to get married to Shiva, amid much joy and happiness.
During his stay in Devagiri, Shiva comes to know of the treacherous wars that the Chandravanshis are carrying on the Meluhans. He also meets Bŗahaspati, the Chief Inventor of the Meluhans. Brahaspati invites Shiva and the royal family on an expedition to Mount Mandar, where the legendary Somras is manufactured using the waters of the Saraswati river. Shiva learns that the potion which made his throat turn blue was actually undiluted Somras, which can be lethal when taken in its pure form. However, Shiva was unaffected, which was the first sign that he was the Neelkanth. He also learns that Somras was the reason why the Meluhans lived for so many years. Brahaspati and Shiva develop a close friendship and the royal family returns to Devagiri. One morning, the whole of Meluha wakes up to loud noises coming from Mount Mandar. Shiva and his troops reach the hill to find out that a large part of Mandar has been blasted off and many of the inventors killed. There is no sign of Brahaspati, but Shiva finds the insignia of the Nagas, confirming their involvement in the treacherous wars of the Chandravanshis.
Enraged by this, Shiva declares war on the Chandravanshis. With consultation from the Devagiri Chief Minister Kanakhla and the Head of Meluhan Army, Parvateshwar, Shiva advances towards Swadweep, the land of the Chandravanshis. A fierce battle is fought between the Meluhans and the Swadweepans in which the Meluhans prevail. The Chandravanshi king is captured but becomes enraged upon seeing the Neelkanth. The Chandravanshi princess Anandmayi explains that they too had a similar legend that the Neelkanth will come forward to save their land by launching an assault against the "evil" Suryavanshis. Hearing this, Shiva is dumbfounded and utterly distressed. With Sati he visits the famous Ram temple of Ayodhya, the capital of Swadweep. There he meets a priest from whom he comes to know about his karma, fate and his choices in life, which would guide him in future. As Shiva comes out of the temple, he notices Sati standing out of the temple waiting for him and a Naga standing near a tree. The book ends with Shiva charging to save Sati.
Author Amish Tripathi is a finance professional educated from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C). While working in the insurance industry, Tripathi felt that his life was devoid of any meaning or self. Ultimately he decided to take the spiritual route. He started reading on the different philosophies and the Indian mythologies. One day, while watching a historical program, Tripathi and his family got into the discussion about consciousness and the evil inside man. In the program they learned that in ancient Persia, demons were known as Daivas (a term reserved for the Gods in Indian mythology), and angels were called Asuras (a term reserved for demons in Indian mythology). Tripathi added, "It set me thinking that this was exact opposite of our Vedic etymology where evil was Asura and gods were Devas. It struck me that if the two civilizations were to confront each other, they would be at stark odds and calling each other evil." But when he decided to write a book about the philosophy of evil, his family discouraged him, saying that the subject itself was not popular and would get a narrow audience. They suggested that Tripathi write a thriller/adventure novel and the philosophy should be a part of the story, hence there would be a mainstream appeal in it. Tripathi felt that no subject was better than Shiva, one of the major Hindu deity and the destroyer of evil; his journey and stories about him would deliver the philosophy that he wanted to convey, to his readers. Once he started to write a book about Shiva, he decided to base it on some fundamental beliefs of his. He noted that the Hindu Gods were probably not "mythical beings or a figment of a rich imagination", but rather they were once human beings like the rest. It was their deeds in the human life that made them famous as Gods.
The story was based on Meluha—the probable ancient name for the Indus Valley Civilisation, according to modern historians. Tripathi also included the Indian Royal lineage of the Sun and the Moon Dynasties, calling them Suryavanshis and Chandravanshi. Tripathi had been an avid reader of history from a long time, and his other inspirations for The Immortals of Meluha ranged from writers like Graham Hancock and Gregory Possehl to the Amar Chitra Katha series of Indian comics. For the mythological parts in the novel, Tripathi relied on the stories and fables that he had heard in his childhood from his family. Tripathi's grandfather was a pundit and his parents are avid readers of Indian mythology, hence he found it easy to trust what he had heard from his parents and grandparents, and relied on them for the stories in the novel. Tripathi utilized Microsoft Excel to divide his writings into different parts, including characters, the plot, sub-plots and deadlines for events. However, it did not work out correctly as he was losing track of events, and he gave up the strategy. Around this time, Tripathi's wife suggested an alternative. She asked him not to control the fate of his characters beforehand, but let the plot develop on its own. Tripathi applied these suggestions and the result was a smoother outflow. "Things came in bits and pieces, not in a sequence but were put into perspective later."
After the book was written, Tripathi felt that it would be difficult for him to get a big publication house to publish his novel. The manuscript for The Immortals of Meluha got rejected by 35 to 40 publication houses. Hence, he decided to apply his management skills and promote his book. The Immortals of Meluha—originally titled Shiva: The Man, The Legend—was finally released by Tripathi’s literary agent Anuj Bahri, the owner of the landmark BahriSons Booksellers in Khan Market, New Delhi. Tripathi explained with Daily News and Analysis, "I would be lying if I said that I was sure I would get a big publisher for my first novel. I was a finance guy and a staunch believer in digital marketing that has a better reach in the books market. It actually puts up a conversation rather than a two-minute wire on the same." Together with his friends, Tripathi launched his promotion of the book on the internet. He put up the entire first chapter of The Immortals of Meluha as a digital download from his website, so that the readers would get interested. With the help of his musician friend Taufiq Qureshi, he launched a live-action trailer film on YouTube and built an online community in Facebook and Twitter, surrounding the video, to further hold the reader's interest. Another friend of Tripathi, Rashmi Pusalkar, designed the book cover according to his specifications, which were to keep a balance between reality and fantasy. Hence Pusalkar chose to just portray the back profile of Shiva, standing in front of a huge lake. Since Pusalkar had never designed any book covers before, she felt that the task was more daunting for her, and explained "Shiva is a human of flesh and blood, he is not a God. The challenge was to show him as vulnerable. I portrayed him from the back, because Indian Gods are never seen from the back. He has battle scars and a sculpted physique." Tripathi wanted the cover to have a symbolic meaning. The scenery behind Shiva's image is taken from Mount Kailash and Mansarovar Lake. He also created a clay model of the broken Pashupati seal, which was later photographed and used in the book inlay. The increasing brightness of the book covers, from the dull colors of The Immortals of Meluha to the bright hue of The Oath of the Vayuputras, signified the triumph of good over evil, according to Tripathi.
Other promotional campaigns included introducing bound versions of the first chapter of the novel, across city bookstores. Tripathi felt that a celebrity name associated with the book would do wonders for its promotion. Hence he sent the book to various known faces in the publishing world like Anil Dharker and Prahlad Kakkar. Ultimately, when Tripathi's agent Tiwari decided to publish around 5,000 copies of the book himself, they already had the celebrity preview attached to it, and it helped in promotion. The UK publication rights of the Shiva trilogy, including The Immortals of Meluha was purchased by Jo Fletcher Books, with the deal being made by Claire Roberts at Trident Media Group, acting on behalf of the author and Bahri from Red Ink Literary Agency. The book would be released in the United States in summer 2013. In 2013, a music album called Vayuputras, an original soundtrack based on the Shiva Trilogy books, was released. The album is an extension of The Immortals of Meluha and The Secret of the Nagas with special tracks inspired by important junctures like Shiva's dance and the war speech in the books. Artists like Sonu Nigam, Taufiq Qureshi, Palash Sen, Bickram Ghosh worked on the album. This was the first time ever that an original soundtrack was made for a book series.
Click here to Download
Please share if you liked it
Tripathi had initially decided to write a book on the philosophy of evil, but was dissuaded by his family members, so he decided to write a book on Shiva, one of the Hindu Gods. He decided to base his story on the fundamental concept that all Gods were once human beings; it was their deeds in the human life that made them famous as Gods. After finishing writing The Immortals of Meluha, Tripathi faced rejection from many publication houses. Ultimately when his agent decided to publish the book himself, Tripathi embarked on a promotional campaign. It included posting a live-action video on YouTube, and making the first chapter of the book available as a free digital download, to entice readers.
Ultimately, when the book was published in February 2010, it went on to become a huge commercial success. It had to be reprinted a number of times to keep up with the demand. Tripathi even changed his publisher and hosted a big launch for the book in Delhi. It was critically appreciated by some Indian reviewers, others noted that Tripathi's writing tended to lose focus at some parts of the story. As of January 2013, The Immortals of Meluha, and its sequel, The Secret of the Nagas, have crossed a print run of a million copies. These books have continued to top the bestseller lists of Nielsen BookScan, with the gross retail sales being impressive at
22 crore within two years of publishing. The third installment, titled The Oath of the Vayuputras,
was released on 27 February 2013. 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 40 crores in sales".Meluha is a near perfect empire, created many centuries earlier by Lord Ram, one of the greatest kings that ever lived. However, the once proud empire and its Suryavanshi rulers face severe crisis as its primary river, the revered Saraswati, is slowly drying to extinction. They also face devastating terrorist attacks from the east, the land of the Chandravanshis who have joined forces with the Nagas, a cursed race with physical deformities. The present king of Meluha, Daksha, sends his emissaries to North India in Tibet, to invite the tribes that live there to Meluha. One of those invited are the Gunas, whose chief Shiva is a brave warrior and protector. Shiva accepts the proposal and moves to Meluha with his tribe. They reach the city of Srinagar and are received there by Ayurvati, the Chief of Medicine of the Meluhans. Shiva and his tribe are impressed with the Meluhan way of life. On their first night of stay at Srinagar, the Gunas wake up amid high fever and sweating. The Meluhans, under Ayurvati's orders, carry on the healing process. However, Ayurvati finds out that Shiva is the only one devoid of these symptoms and that his throat has turned blue. The Meluhans announce Shiva as the Neelkanth, their fabled saviour.
Shiva is then taken to Devagiri, the capital city of Meluha, where he meets King Daksha. While staying there, Shiva and his comrades, Nandi and Veer Bhadra, encounter a beautiful and mysterious woman, who has a look of penance on her face. They later come to know that she is Princess Sati, the daughter of Daksha and is a Vikarma, an untouchable in this life due to sins committed in her previous births. Shiva tries to court her, but she rejects his advances. Ultimately Shiva wins her heart and they decide to get married, even though the Vikarma rule prohibits them from doing so. Enraged by the so-called obsolete law, Shiva declares himself as the Neelkanth and swears to dissolve the Vikarma law. Daksha allows Sati to get married to Shiva, amid much joy and happiness.
During his stay in Devagiri, Shiva comes to know of the treacherous wars that the Chandravanshis are carrying on the Meluhans. He also meets Bŗahaspati, the Chief Inventor of the Meluhans. Brahaspati invites Shiva and the royal family on an expedition to Mount Mandar, where the legendary Somras is manufactured using the waters of the Saraswati river. Shiva learns that the potion which made his throat turn blue was actually undiluted Somras, which can be lethal when taken in its pure form. However, Shiva was unaffected, which was the first sign that he was the Neelkanth. He also learns that Somras was the reason why the Meluhans lived for so many years. Brahaspati and Shiva develop a close friendship and the royal family returns to Devagiri. One morning, the whole of Meluha wakes up to loud noises coming from Mount Mandar. Shiva and his troops reach the hill to find out that a large part of Mandar has been blasted off and many of the inventors killed. There is no sign of Brahaspati, but Shiva finds the insignia of the Nagas, confirming their involvement in the treacherous wars of the Chandravanshis.
Enraged by this, Shiva declares war on the Chandravanshis. With consultation from the Devagiri Chief Minister Kanakhla and the Head of Meluhan Army, Parvateshwar, Shiva advances towards Swadweep, the land of the Chandravanshis. A fierce battle is fought between the Meluhans and the Swadweepans in which the Meluhans prevail. The Chandravanshi king is captured but becomes enraged upon seeing the Neelkanth. The Chandravanshi princess Anandmayi explains that they too had a similar legend that the Neelkanth will come forward to save their land by launching an assault against the "evil" Suryavanshis. Hearing this, Shiva is dumbfounded and utterly distressed. With Sati he visits the famous Ram temple of Ayodhya, the capital of Swadweep. There he meets a priest from whom he comes to know about his karma, fate and his choices in life, which would guide him in future. As Shiva comes out of the temple, he notices Sati standing out of the temple waiting for him and a Naga standing near a tree. The book ends with Shiva charging to save Sati.
Author Amish Tripathi is a finance professional educated from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C). While working in the insurance industry, Tripathi felt that his life was devoid of any meaning or self. Ultimately he decided to take the spiritual route. He started reading on the different philosophies and the Indian mythologies. One day, while watching a historical program, Tripathi and his family got into the discussion about consciousness and the evil inside man. In the program they learned that in ancient Persia, demons were known as Daivas (a term reserved for the Gods in Indian mythology), and angels were called Asuras (a term reserved for demons in Indian mythology). Tripathi added, "It set me thinking that this was exact opposite of our Vedic etymology where evil was Asura and gods were Devas. It struck me that if the two civilizations were to confront each other, they would be at stark odds and calling each other evil." But when he decided to write a book about the philosophy of evil, his family discouraged him, saying that the subject itself was not popular and would get a narrow audience. They suggested that Tripathi write a thriller/adventure novel and the philosophy should be a part of the story, hence there would be a mainstream appeal in it. Tripathi felt that no subject was better than Shiva, one of the major Hindu deity and the destroyer of evil; his journey and stories about him would deliver the philosophy that he wanted to convey, to his readers. Once he started to write a book about Shiva, he decided to base it on some fundamental beliefs of his. He noted that the Hindu Gods were probably not "mythical beings or a figment of a rich imagination", but rather they were once human beings like the rest. It was their deeds in the human life that made them famous as Gods.
The story was based on Meluha—the probable ancient name for the Indus Valley Civilisation, according to modern historians. Tripathi also included the Indian Royal lineage of the Sun and the Moon Dynasties, calling them Suryavanshis and Chandravanshi. Tripathi had been an avid reader of history from a long time, and his other inspirations for The Immortals of Meluha ranged from writers like Graham Hancock and Gregory Possehl to the Amar Chitra Katha series of Indian comics. For the mythological parts in the novel, Tripathi relied on the stories and fables that he had heard in his childhood from his family. Tripathi's grandfather was a pundit and his parents are avid readers of Indian mythology, hence he found it easy to trust what he had heard from his parents and grandparents, and relied on them for the stories in the novel. Tripathi utilized Microsoft Excel to divide his writings into different parts, including characters, the plot, sub-plots and deadlines for events. However, it did not work out correctly as he was losing track of events, and he gave up the strategy. Around this time, Tripathi's wife suggested an alternative. She asked him not to control the fate of his characters beforehand, but let the plot develop on its own. Tripathi applied these suggestions and the result was a smoother outflow. "Things came in bits and pieces, not in a sequence but were put into perspective later."
After the book was written, Tripathi felt that it would be difficult for him to get a big publication house to publish his novel. The manuscript for The Immortals of Meluha got rejected by 35 to 40 publication houses. Hence, he decided to apply his management skills and promote his book. The Immortals of Meluha—originally titled Shiva: The Man, The Legend—was finally released by Tripathi’s literary agent Anuj Bahri, the owner of the landmark BahriSons Booksellers in Khan Market, New Delhi. Tripathi explained with Daily News and Analysis, "I would be lying if I said that I was sure I would get a big publisher for my first novel. I was a finance guy and a staunch believer in digital marketing that has a better reach in the books market. It actually puts up a conversation rather than a two-minute wire on the same." Together with his friends, Tripathi launched his promotion of the book on the internet. He put up the entire first chapter of The Immortals of Meluha as a digital download from his website, so that the readers would get interested. With the help of his musician friend Taufiq Qureshi, he launched a live-action trailer film on YouTube and built an online community in Facebook and Twitter, surrounding the video, to further hold the reader's interest. Another friend of Tripathi, Rashmi Pusalkar, designed the book cover according to his specifications, which were to keep a balance between reality and fantasy. Hence Pusalkar chose to just portray the back profile of Shiva, standing in front of a huge lake. Since Pusalkar had never designed any book covers before, she felt that the task was more daunting for her, and explained "Shiva is a human of flesh and blood, he is not a God. The challenge was to show him as vulnerable. I portrayed him from the back, because Indian Gods are never seen from the back. He has battle scars and a sculpted physique." Tripathi wanted the cover to have a symbolic meaning. The scenery behind Shiva's image is taken from Mount Kailash and Mansarovar Lake. He also created a clay model of the broken Pashupati seal, which was later photographed and used in the book inlay. The increasing brightness of the book covers, from the dull colors of The Immortals of Meluha to the bright hue of The Oath of the Vayuputras, signified the triumph of good over evil, according to Tripathi.
Other promotional campaigns included introducing bound versions of the first chapter of the novel, across city bookstores. Tripathi felt that a celebrity name associated with the book would do wonders for its promotion. Hence he sent the book to various known faces in the publishing world like Anil Dharker and Prahlad Kakkar. Ultimately, when Tripathi's agent Tiwari decided to publish around 5,000 copies of the book himself, they already had the celebrity preview attached to it, and it helped in promotion. The UK publication rights of the Shiva trilogy, including The Immortals of Meluha was purchased by Jo Fletcher Books, with the deal being made by Claire Roberts at Trident Media Group, acting on behalf of the author and Bahri from Red Ink Literary Agency. The book would be released in the United States in summer 2013. In 2013, a music album called Vayuputras, an original soundtrack based on the Shiva Trilogy books, was released. The album is an extension of The Immortals of Meluha and The Secret of the Nagas with special tracks inspired by important junctures like Shiva's dance and the war speech in the books. Artists like Sonu Nigam, Taufiq Qureshi, Palash Sen, Bickram Ghosh worked on the album. This was the first time ever that an original soundtrack was made for a book series.
Click here to Download
Please share if you liked it
