The concept and symbolism of Shiva and the imagery it evokes has been the mainstay of many books and movies before. But nothing beats author Amish Tripathi's Shiva Trilogy, which has not only made it to the bestsellers list but also given him the moniker of 'India's first literary pop star' by Director Shekhar Kapur and his first book is being adapted into a Bollywood movie by filmmaker Karan Johar.
Amish's three books in the Shiva Trilogy are The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas, and The Oath of the Vayuputras, which have sold over a million copies in the Indian subcontinent since 2010. Recently, his last book in the Shiva Trilogy - Vayuputras - was launched with much fanfare across India.
The success of his debut book encouraged him to give up his banking career to focus on writing. The books that he plans to write in the future are also in the areas of Hindu mythology and history. As a writer, he has now created history: In one of the biggest book advances paid to an Indian author, Westland publishers gave Amish close to $1 million as an advance for his next series.
Amish believes that the Hindu gods were not mythical beings or a figment of rich imagination but creatures of flesh and blood, and that they achieved godhood through their karma and deeds. He believes that Vishnu and Shiva are not individual names but titles given to men who are the greatest of leaders that become god-like.
Read about the three books that captured the imagination of Hindus of all ages around the world:
good going amit, your idea of making money by selling this remixed stories of mythology to americas is good for you making some money.but if we annoce this as you said that , VISHNU, AND SHIVA ,were great men who did deeds godlike and received the titels you will get it hard from the cutter hindus.
Hinduism is not a religion. It is a way of life. The CUTTER HINDU written in your comment makes no sense. Hindus are free to think & imagine about god. That is why we are more resilient & strong.
I don’t agree that these stories are meant for foreigners. It is a good trend that our younger generation are reading stories and books based on our own mythology and tradition rather than some meaningless pulp fiction.
I believe that Siva and Kali are NOT gods, but superior to gods, Archetypes. Archetypes are like painting stencils. The energy of the abyss shines through them and makes Gods, Devas and the like. They, in turn, make tangible universes and the stuff that populates them. Siva and Kali are not forever absolutes, they are only such until the Kali- Yuga finishes, then others of name will replace them. Currently, both Siva and Kali have incarnate representatives. I think there is more than one for each just on this Earth. Multiples are needed just to be sure the 2 component parts of Nataraja are available when required. (at the end of the Kali Yuga)
Not only cutter Hindus, but all true Hindus dislike the concept of making our God as ordinary men. For those who believe that there is a higher God and a lower God, they are going against the Vedas that says ” God is One, His names are many”. We have a facebook dedicated to providing information on Hindusim, given in our photo albums, with each photo providing a information. On God we have an album “GOD 101″ that’s describes God in Hinduism as well as other religions. Please find us on FB via our email “dailybread@windowslive.com Hariom
TO ALL, YOULL CAN SEE THE COVER OF THE BOOKS ARE COPY FROM THE POSTERS OF THE FILM , APOCLAPYTO. THE STORIES AMISH IS WRITTEN WERE IN HIS DREAMS, AND ALSO YOU CAN SEE THE REDERSHIP IS FALLING DAY BY DAY, I M NOT AGAINTS HIM WRITING STORIES, BUT NOTHING IN THE BOOK COMPARES TO OUR VEDAS, BAGVATH, ITS ALL JUST BOUT CAPITALISING.
MAY BE YOULL LIKED READING THIS BOOK, BUT BE FRANK,
HAVE YOU HEARD THE SAME FROM YOUR GRANDPARENTS,
IF NOT TAKE AN OPINIAN FROM ELDERS,
Went through all the comments and still the fact remains, though it is a fiction, as mentioned in the synopsis itself, but the question is, were our Gods really men and women of flesh and blood? We all worship Lord Ram and Lord Krishna, we call them Avatars of Vishnu, and YES they existed in real,men of flesh and blood, otherwise the remains of our history would have proved it wrong.
I myself am not a staunch believer of GOD. In Hinduism we have 33 crore gods, it is like 1/4 of the total population of India. Somebody commented that GOD is one, lets believe it and even in GITA it is mentioned that GOD N EVIL exists within every human, you just choose a side, so will there be any harm to believe, that some men and women were so close to the GOOD side that they achieved the recognition of GOD, their errors were so minute that could be ignored.
ONE LAST QUESTION…WHO HAS SEEN GOD?? I BELIEVE NOBODY, SO THEIR IS NO POINT ARGUING…BELIEVE WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN.
@Vijay, dear friend … I do not think anyone here has read the vedas to an extent that they can infer how great they are. Even commenting on them requires great amount of wisdom. No one wants to compare Amish’s book to the vedas, but for people like us who are otherwise busy in life or do not have time/effort to go through great scriptures – books like this are really enlightening.
Have you heard from your grandfather?? I agree it is different from the version that we know, but Ramayan for example is very different the way it is written by Valmiki, Kamban and Tulsidas. If we read the Ramayan written by Tulsidas it talks about certain practices by great revered kings of the time which might be considered sacrilege today … Well, I hold nothing against them.
The idea of re-writing myths to be acceptable for a generation is something Indian writers have done time and again, many times …
So, I do believe what Amish is doing is extroardinary.
Cheers!!
Very Sorry. TYPO.
If we read the Ramayan written by VALMIKI.
Its Valmiki instead of Tulsidas in the second paragraph.
I agree that many may not like/agree to the fact the author is equating man to god.
My only point is, this series has in its own way connected to a large section of the youth of the country and even though it may be a fictional story a number of youngsters ( at least I know of) have looked up the net for facts related to places mentioned in the book. So I think Amish has succeeded in bringing interest to a large section of people in Hindu Mythology.
Most people dont have the patience to read serious books and we need these kind of books/stories to pique interest.
As someone mentioned it is like Amar Chitra Katha with a lot of thrill.
Wonder what is wrong in conceptualising Shiva as a living person in an Ancient time? Krishna-Arjuna (a Guru-Chela dyad) too lived on earth and are now immortal as God.
Shiva has taken many forms – as each temple holds its own legend.
As long as one knows that this is a story that mixes mythology with imagination – we must enjoy it.
As per my understanding, there is no god in hinduisam. OR everything in the world is god. You & I can be a God with our principles and practices. There is only ‘parashakthi’ with ‘OM’….! All those godly characters (shiva, Krishna, Rama) are well disciplined and practiced and followed their protocols at that time. They changed the world with their words and revolution. As a hindu, we can be proud that we are free to imagine and have freedom to speak as per our belief.
Just as every particle has positive energy and negative energy, so is the concept of god and evil. Every living and non living thing in this universe has positive side and a negative side. The term god itself creates the myth when we consider the different mythologies around the globe. Every mythology specific to the regional cultures and traditions of the early speaking tribal age. Didnt we name the planets and comets with the name of famous people, example Jupiter, Aryabhatta etc. Every god with a pictorial depiction were definitely humans, who had done great deeds in the past. Consider the evolution of Shirdi Sai Baba, who lived during the time when British had conquered India. He was definitely an ascetic who had done great deeds to humanity, for which both hindus and muslim considered him sacred. None knew his religion, yet Hindus who believed in idol worship considered him as GOD, built temples all around. Similarly, consider the navagrahas, who were all emperors. Later celestial bodies were named after them. God – positive energy, which can do wonders is within every particle on this earth, and energy has no physical form.