Amish Tripathi - Shivas Trilogy 1 : The Immortals of Meluha

Praise for
The Immortals of Meluha

Shiva rocks. Just how much Shiva rocks the imagination is made grandiosely obvious in The Immortals of Meluha ... Shivas journey from cool dude... to Mahadev... is a readers delight... What really engages is the authors crafting of Shiva, with almost boy-worship joy

The Times of India

The story is gripping and well-paced. An essentially mythological story written in a modern style, the novel creates anticipation in the readers mind and compels one to read with great curiosity till the end. The end however is a cliff-hanger and leaves one thirsting for more.

Business World

Amongst the top 5 books recommended by Brunch... the story is fascinating.

The Hindustan Times

...has philosophy as its underlying theme but is racy enough to give its readers the adventure of a lifetime.

The Hindu

Amongst the list of favourite holiday books of 2010. A fast paced story, you are bound to read it cover to cover in one sitting.

The Deccan Chronicle

Much before the box-office verdict on Rajneeti and Raavan became apparent, Indian readers gave a thumbs-up to The Immortals Of Meluha. Its author Amish, an IIM graduate, created a delightful mix of mythology and history by making Lord Shiva the hero of his trilogy. The first part has been on the Indian bestseller charts for quite some time now.

The Indian Express

...to me, The Immortals of Meluha is a political commentary with messages for our world and a hope that since they flow from the Mahadev himself, they will find greater acceptance. Be it the interpretation of Shivas battle cry Har Har Mahadev as Every man a Mahadev or the valour of Sati who fights her own battles every passage is rich in meaning and yet, open to interpretation. Therein lies the strength of this book.

Indiareads.com

...wonderful book, replete with action, love and adventure, and extolling virtues and principles... The author has succeeded in making many mythological figures into simple flesh and blood human beings, and therein lie(s) the beauty and the acceptability of this book.

The Afternoon

The author takes myth and contemporises it, raising questions about all that we hold true and familiar. The book is (a) marvellous attempt to create fiction from folklore, religion and archaeological facts.

People

The Immortals of Meluha... sees Lord Shiva and his intriguing life with a refreshing perspective... beautifully written creation... Simply unputdownable for any lover of Indian history and mythology.

Society

For detailed reviews, please visit www.shivatrilogy.com

westland ltd
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First published by Tara Press 2010

Published by westland ltd 2010

Copyright Amish Tripathi 2008

All rights reserved

Amish Tripathi asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any actual person living or dead, events and locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover Design by Rashmi Pusalkar.
Photo of Lord Shiva by Vikram Bawa.
Photo of Kailash Mansarovar by Silvio Giroud.

Typeset in Garamond by Manju
Printed at Manipal Technologies Ltd., Manipal

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by any way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the authors prior written consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser and without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the copyright owner, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews with appropriate citations.

To Preeti & Neel...
You both are everything to me,
My words & their meaning,
My prayer & my blessing,
My moon & my sun,
My love & my life,
My soul mate & a part of my soul.

Om Namah Shivaiy.

The universe bows to Lord Shiva. I bow to Lord Shiva.

Contents

They say that writing is a lonely profession. They lie. An outstanding group of people have come together to make this book possible. And I would like to thank them.

Preeti, my wife, a rare combination of beauty, brains and spirit who assisted and advised me through all aspects of this book.

My family, a cabal of supremely positive individuals who encouraged, pushed and supported me through the long years of this project.

My first publisher and agent, Anuj Bahri, for his absolute confidence in the Shiva Trilogy.

My present publishers Westland Ltd, led by Gautam Padmanabhan, for sharing a dream with me.

Sharvani Pandit and Gauri Dange, my editors, for making my rather pedestrian English vastiy better and for improving the story flow.

Rashmi Pusalkar, Sagar Pusalkar and Vikram Bawa for the exceptional cover.

Atul Manjrekar, Abhijeet Powdwal, Rohan Dhuri and Amit Chitnis for the innovative trailer film, which has helped market the book at a whole new level. And Taufiq Qureshi, for the music of the trailer film.

Mohan Vijayan for his great work on press publicity.

Alok Kalra, Hrishikesh Sawant and Mandar Bhure for their effective advice on marketing and promotions.

Donetta Ditton & Mukul Mukherjee for the website.

You, the reader, for the leap of faith in picking up the book of a debut author.

And lastly, I believe that this story is a blessing to me from Lord Shiva. Humbled by this experience, I find myself a different man today, less cynical and more accepting of different world views. Hence, most importantly, I would like to bow to Lord Shiva, for blessing me so abundantly, far beyond what I deserve.

Shiva! The Mahadev. The God of Gods. Destroyer of Evil. Passionate lover. Fierce warrior. Consummate dancer. Charismatic leader. All-powerful, yet incorruptible. Quick wit, accompanied by an equally quick and fearsome temper.

Over the centuries, no foreigner who came to our land conqueror, merchant, scholar, ruler, traveller believed that such a great man could possibly exist in reality. They assumed that he must have been a mythical God, whose existence could be possible only in the realms of human imagination. Unfortunately, this belief became our received wisdom.