The Mahabharata Secret by Christopher Doyle
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A stunning book of mythological fiction based on extensive research on the great Hindu epic Mahabharata, by the author; another Management Graduate, who joins the league of recent young Indian authors, in bringing forth, the great secrets of the Indian mythological epics to the readers.

Storyline: Vikram Singh, an Indian nuclear scientist, and the last remaining member of a secret brotherhood of the Nine, sends a coded mail to his nephew, Vijay working in USA, passing on the great two thousand year old secret of Mahabharata and requesting him to maintain, it after his death. This great secret is passed on over centuries through a secret brotherhood scattered across the world. Vikram Singh is murdered just after sending this mail by Farooq Siddique, another nuclear scientist from Pakistan, who is also an active member of Al Qaeda and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), the two dreaded terrorist organizations of the world. Farooq learns from Vikram about the secret brotherhood of the Nine (nine members chosen by King Ashoka, the great emperor of India, who ruled the country in about 300 BC) to protect the deadly secret of his unexpected discovery, in a hidden cavern of a hill in a dense forest that contains the secrets of the missing book in Mahabharata called the ‘Vimana Parva’. This missing book is said to have information and blue prints about deadly flying objects designed to destroy the opponents, using a kind of technology which is unknown to the modern world even today. LeT is all set to get access to this technology to build their own weaponry system and control the entire world, aided by a powerful consortium, across the world, forever. Vijay, with the help of his friend Collins, Prof Shukla (an expert in ancient history of India) and his daughter Radha (nuclear physicist) together solve the various exciting riddles and puzzles created by the brotherhood of “Nine” to reach the actual physical site, where the great unbelievable secret of the Mahabharata has been concealed for over 2300 years. Farooq, with his men, trail Vijay and his friends, down to the secret location and try to get the same smuggled out of the country. But, their attempt is foiled by the Indian Intelligence Bureau with the help of Indian Army. In this battle, the secret location, with all its valuable possessions are destroyed forever. Vijay, later, discovers that the secret coded ancient knowledge about Vimana Parva and other valuable ancient science, gathered by his uncle Vikram Singh, is already deciphered/documented by the later into English and stored in a secret place in his residence, followed by Vikram’s request to Vijay to take up the position of the Nine, after him. I prefer not revealing the secret here, to maintain the interest of the reader, in the book.

Positives: The book has the ability to be finished in a single sitting as it arouses wonderful page turning experience filled with suspense and mind boggling riddles to be solved in order to reach the great secret. The author’s extensive research into the Indian history excites the reader with awe and keeps him wondered as to how advanced the science of the ancients was, compared to the present, particularly the flying objects and Sudarshan Chakra, said to be the celestial weapons of Gods, used in the Great War of Mahabharata between Pandavas and Kauravas. Will be a massive blockbuster if converted into a movie.

Negatives: A doubt as to why King Ashoka did not destroy the dangerous Mahabharata secret, knowing that it is detrimental to the world peace, in case it falls into wrong hands, exist, instead of taking such great pains in protecting the same, for generations. The good characters in the story, always seemed to get everything right every time, which seemed to be a little exaggerative. The suspected characters are too easy to be identified right from the beginning.

My rating is 4.5/5.


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