Denied of Divinity

The third and the last book of the Shiva trilogy– The Oath of the Vayuputras , Shiva along with Vasudevs and Nagas, are in their quest for the evil that is affecting the nation. Shiva is shocked to find Brahaspati in the Naga capital of Panchavati .He cautiously reunites with this long-lost friend, who had faked his death and orchestrated the destruction of the Somras production facility at Mount Mandar.

At Panchavati, Brahaspati introduces Shiva to the real enemy, the ‘evil’, which separated the races and caused hostility among people from the same land and had always been present amongst them unrecognised. The ‘evil’, as Shiva discovers, is the ‘Somras, the elixir of longevity that had served the people of Meluha for centuries. But due to over- production it began to poison the rivers and caused deformities in the Nagas, and was in turn responsible for the drying up of the river Saraswati,. Hence, Shiva banishes the use of Somras and declares war against the supporters of ‘evil’ and starts building an army consisting of Brahaspati, Sati, Kali, Ganesh, Kartik and gathers forces to destroy the Somras manufacturing facility.

Since the kings of Meluha and Ayodhya have allied to protect Somras. Shiva expands his alliance around the neighbouring regions to eradicate the Somras with the help of Nagas,Vasudevs and Vayuputras. As the plot unfolded, I realised the Vayuputras are just a council of people who make a guest appearance once in a while and there is nothing that seems to be pertaining to any oath. According to my knowledge, Hanuman is referred to as Vayupurta, perhaps he was busy burning down Lanka when the oath was being taken.

Eventually the war takes place; Shiva seeks the help of Vayuputras by borrowing a weapon of mass destruction to intimidate his enemies and coerce them into submission. They agree to hand over the weapon, with a clause, that Shiva will not use it. But due to Satis brutal murder by Egyptian assassins, the grief-stricken Shiva unleashes this weapon and destroys the entire kingdom in spite of being warned of its consequences. The book has a tragic end with destruction of Lord Ram’s kingdom of Meluha and death of many important characters including Shiva’s beloved wife Sati.

While the concept, that good and evil are just different sides of the same coin. One eventually turns into another as it gets abused, is something that made sense, but the explanation as to why Somras turns evil was a little unconvincing. A couple of unsettling phrases and jargons are used just like the previous two books of the trilogy. Shiva using a word like ‘crap’ definitely did not go down well with me, and I am glad that just because he is divine he didn’t say “holy crap or holy shit ”. There are contemporary scientific terms scattered throughout the book that sticks out like a sore thumb. Even if they are overlooked, I wonder why kingdoms consisting of scientists capable of discussing amongst themselves through telepathic radio signals, well versed in nuclear sciences are still depending on the courier pigeons for communications. References to nuclear fission and fusion, cell division, cosmetic surgery, an ice manufacturing facility and a reference to terms like “commando”, feels out of place in a 4,000year old setting.

Throughout the book, Team Shiva uses ships to travel through rivers. Perhaps a 40-footer boat was below the Gods dignity and hence used 500 to 800 feet ships to transport hundreds and thousands of soldiers through rivers. I wonder how the Gods manoeuvred the ships through the narrow bends of a river or dealt with the rocks along the riverbeds, I can’t imagine how they managed to row over waterfalls. The concept of using ships to sail through rivers didn’t hold any water.

After reading the entire trilogy, I was as confused as Shiva himself. There were many things, which did not make any sense. According to Indian mythology Ganesh is depicted as a cheerful and fun-loving God, but here Ganesh is a gloomy young man with a facial deformity and dealing with a shaky hold on his temper, while his younger brother Kartik, is portrayed as a seven-year-old bloodthirsty furious warrior.

Shiva, according to mythology is seen as a God with immense power and commands respect, but this book failed to capitalize that image and reduces Shiva to that of a henpecked husband. Shiva’s  Tandava is legendary, but again this dance of destruction is said to be spontaneous and impulsive.  But here, the author describes a grief-stricken man assembling a nuke for two days and blowing up the kingdom on the third day. Such cold-blooded genocidal ambitions and calculated massacre of an entire city, to avenge the brutal killing of his wife are not what our Gods are made of.

The author just added to the pages in the book without moving the plot forward. Perhaps the book lacked a powerful opposing figure. Lord Bhrigu as the man behind the evil did not really cause an impact. It’s commendable that the women in the book are treated as equals and are given a lot of respect. The author uses the backdrop of ancient era and weaves a fanciful story around a few names from our mythology by throwing in a few philosophical statements related to Dharma, Morality and Karma. The quotes from Gita, Vedas, and Upanishads have also perhaps been used along with some names from the Arabian folklore.

In this book, the Hindu Mythology that we see as divine has been given a half-baked scientific outline and the legacy of Lord Shiva, has been reduced to that of a romantic Bollywood action thriller. The entire trilogy though generated a lot of curiosity within me, but now with my last review on the series, all I can say is that the author is inspired excessively with thriller, action, and romance. The books had enormous potential if they were executed in a more mature manner. In summary, it is good in certain parts, and may be enjoyed by those Indian readers who are not very picky about facts and details of mythology.

Legion of the Lesser God

The second book of the Shiva trilogy, The Secret of the Nagas, begins in Ayodhya with a clash between Shiva, Sati, and a sinister Naga who is suspected to be responsible for the death of Shiva’s friend, Brihaspati. Subsequently there is a death threat on Shiva’s beloved wife Sati too. So, Shiva is obsessed to hunt down the dangerous Naga.

Team Shiva, consisting of Sati and their associates’ travel to Varanasi, which has a large settlement of Brangas, the only people who know the whereabouts of the Nagas. While in Varanasi, Sati has a baby named Karthik. So, Shiva leaves her behind in the city and travels with the rest of his legion to the land of the Brangas. But the Brangas are reluctant to disclose the whereabouts of the Nagas since they provide a certain medicine to the Brangas.

Meanwhile, in Varanasi, Sati is on a discovery spree. She finds out that she is related to two of the Nagas. The first one is Kali, the queen of the Nagas, who turns out to be Sati’s twin sister born with an extra pair of hands. The second is Ganesh, who turns out to be Sati’s son from a previous marriage. Ganesh was born with facial deformities, which made him look like an elephant. Sati never knew about the twin sister and her father King Daksha had told her that her first child was stillborn. As the story unfolded, I realized that the big Naga secret is nothing serpentine or mystical, but Nagas are just ordinary mortals with a horde of physical deformities.

Shiva returns to Varanasi with the legendary Parashuram; and then rather unhappily, reconciles with Ganesh and Kali. After some twists and turns, the entire entourage travels to the land of the Nagas. The discovery of the Naga kingdom-Panchvati seems to be the whole motive of the book.

The author uses the term ‘India’ throughout his books, which I found a bit out of place. ‘Bharat’ would still have made sense but am sure the modern term ‘India’ was not coined during the era of the novel. Again there are modern jargons scattered throughout the book. Concepts like examinations to segregate Chandravanshis and Suryavanshis, reminded me of IIT competitive exams. Or the temples built at great heights that act, as transmitters for radio waves didn’t ring any bells. I can’t quite digest the fact that people knew of “radio waves” and “accumulator machines” four thousand years ago.

One more thing I found ridiculous was the description of the Prime Minister of Branga. He wears a lot of gold jewellery. Of course, there is nothing wrong with wearing gold jewellery, but the author must have run out of creativity or perhaps he thought no one would notice the similarity when he described the Prime minister and named him Bappiraj after Bappi Lahiri.

Am not sure what Shiva really wants. Everyone follows Shiva on his search for evil; there are a few love stories sprinkled in-between, and a lot of travelling.  The mother and son relationship between Ganesh and Sati is quite Bollywood style.

To sum up the novel, Team Shiva travels to one city, meets some king and fights some villains and discovers some secret, then moves on to another city, meets another king, fights more villains, more secrets, and so on. The story moves on from place to place and suddenly introduces new characters at each city, without much information on what each one wants, its just a trip to Panchavati, and as it enters Naga territory, the book is over. The Secret of the Nagas is deprived of any secrets.

Something Like Shiva

The first book of the Shiva trilogy, The Immortals of Meluha seemed like a mythological Bollywood fantasy novel that takes one of the most powerful Gods of Indian mythology and portrays him as a mortal man. While the concept of portraying that mortals augment to be Godlike through their deeds, is commendable indeed. But the author takes some familiar characters from our mythology and paints a whimsical version of Shiva’s life that I found amateurish in many ways. The attempt to link up the modern way of life into the old era is quite like linking the Old Stone Age man to Project management principles.

The story, set about 4 millennia ago, revolves around a tribal chieftain in his early 20s, who migrates to a region called Meluha, where the Suryavanshi clan are in dire peril. The mighty river, Saraswathi, is slowly drying up. And they are at war with the Chandravanshi clan. To make matters worse, there is a rogue outfit called the Nagas causing terror attacks. The Nagas are described as a race of deformed humanoids with astonishing martial skills. This reminded me of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

There are a few things that I found to be a bit disturbing, like the usage of modern day slang and jargon that was perhaps non-existent those days. Shiva swears quite often and it was quite upsetting to read phrases like “Ditto, Oh Hell, Dammit etc.” I couldn’t imagine the Supreme Lord describing an enemy soldier as a “son-of-a-bitch”.

The author perhaps has been inspired from Hollywood too. During the war, Shiva commands the soldiers to make a tortoise like formation; they work on a Spartan strategy to confront the Chandravanshis, while they pass through a narrow pass. All these things reminded me of the movie 300.The plot and the settings describe many situations and terms, as if they were living in the current era instead of four thousand years ago. I almost expected Shiva to pull out his laptop to chart out the course of war and plan his new strategies. Even if I read the novel independent of the Indian and mythological contexts, I still found the story line and the plot, trying to build a connection between a Tribal nomad and Organizational behavior.

However, the storyline and plot reminded me of a romantic Bollywood movie that is set between alongside the strained relations between India and Pakistan. The author has used the modern term ‘terrorist outfit’ and dated this concept hundreds of centuries ago when terrorism and extremism were unheard of. Similarly, the depiction of the Somras manufacturing facility seemed to me as a portrayal of a nuclear reactor, and its destruction by the Nagas reminded me of the secret nuclear facility in Iraq that was bombed during Operation Desert Storm by the coalition forces. There are many more modern terms scattered through out the book like “foreign office, “immigration executive, immigrants kept in quarantine, doctors with “field-work experience.” At one place, a soldier is addressed as “private” which made it seem like it had American GIs too.

The author should have done more homework on the customs of that era, the existence and timing of the various Indian Gods in the Hindu mythology, so that the readers could connect in a much better way with the story. Sprinkling some Sanskrit and Hindi words throughout the novel does not make it realistic. Just giving the entire plot a real feel is not enough, unless the plot makes sense too. The dots are all there but they don’t seem connected.