Book review: Immortals of Meluha - Amish Tripathi

This book was plain brilliance. A beautiful combination of fact and fiction. A low bow for Amish. The way the book is written is just too good. We all loved Dan Brown just because he was able to mix truth and fiction in the right proportions. Amish has the same talent. His imagination of what could have happened is so vivid and drawing. I was hooked to the book.


The story starts where Shiva is a tribal leader in Tibet. His tribe is constantly in war with neighboring tribe. The kingdom of Meluha sends a proposition to Shiva. They are ready to accept Shiva and his tribe into their well planned dynasty. This seemed as a good deal for Shiva. So he along with his people went to Meluha. Meluhans were Suryavanshis and there opponents were Chandravanshis. The Nagas were group of people who were deformed yet strong. They have evil intentions.


They were astounded by the planning and perfection of the city. Even the bricks were made to size. There was uniformity in way of construction. They had everything from plumbing to underground sewage. Shiva and his tribe were taken care of. They were retained in separate building meant for immigrants. This was to ensure that they were decontaminated before entering the city. Due to the medicine administered Shiva got a blue throat. Thus he became Neelakanth.


Legend in Meluha says "when evil reaches epic proportions, when all seems lost, when it appears that your enemies have triumphed, a hero will emerge". The whole kingdom worshiped Shiva. The neelakanth will complete the work left incomplete by Lord Ram. He meets Sati the princess of Meluha and falls for her. He finds out that she is a Virkama(people who have committed sin in the previous birth) hence he cannot marry her.


But laws are flexible for Neelakanth. He makes the law for vikramas as invalid. The people in Meluha are immortals as they take the Somras(divine drink) which is prepared in mount Mandar. Shiva is given a tour of the whole kingdom. There are few terrorist attacks and he faces all of them with wit and bravery. Sati is a strong warrior herself. 


There are some characters worth mentioning. Sati the princess of Meluha is a strong and respectable woman. She falls for Shiva but  did not approach him because she was a vikrama. She was amazed by his dancing skill. She wed Shiva in a week long ceremony. The chief scientist in Mount Mandar. He is responsible for making the Somras. He looses his life in a terrorist attack by the Nagas. 


He was like a brother for Shiva. This makes him declare war against the Chandravanshis as they thought that the Nagas and Chandravanshis were into it together. They waged war unde Shiva and general Parvateshva. Parvateshva was the godfather for Sati and he was a true Suryavanshi and a follower of Lord Ram. Suryavanshis won war with the help of Vikramas. 


But it is not the end. Shiva sees the emperor of the Chandravashis and the people, hey didn't seem evil at all. There was bad management and poor living conditions but nothing to call them as pure evil. The gets guidance from a priest as he feel that he has committed a sin. He understands that he is not the destroyer of evil but they  
person who is to define what is evil. 


The book ends abruptly as Shiva leaves the temple and sees Sati outside waiting for him. They see a Naga waiting there. There ends the book. 


All in all it was a nice book. Waiting to read the 2 sequels:


Book 2: "The Secret of the Nagas"Book 3: "The Oath of the Vayuputras"