The Secret of the Nagas by Amish
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The author is a management graduate from IIM Calcutta. This is his second book, of the Shiva Trilogy, in continuation of “The Immortals of Meluha”. He is a great believer of Lord Shiva and his power.

Storyline: After having captured Swadweep, Shiva camps at Ayodhya with Sati (his wife) and his army. Shiva gets enlightened by the Vasudev Pandit in Ramjanmabhoomi temple about the purpose of Neelkanth. But, he develops sheer hatred against the Nagas, whom he thinks have murdered his best friend, Brihaspati, while destroying Mount Mandar. On his quest to find out the secret behind the powerful Nagas, he visits Kashi, where Sati delivers a baby boy, Karthik. The Nagas are found to be the suppliers of secret medicine to the rich kingdom of Branga (a deltaic land formed by the confluence of the two mighty rivers Brahmaputra and Ganga). This medicine heals and cures diseases, beyond the imagination of the Meluhan medical knowledge. The curiosity makes Shiva visit Brangadesh and finds that the kingdom is stuck with a mysterious plague which kills and deforms their children. The medicine from the Nagas cures them. This is when Sati is rescued by her abandoned first son (Ganesh) and her sister (Kali), during a lion attack. Ganesh and Kali were abandoned by Daksh due their birth deformities, and christened as Nagas. This fact is hidden from Sati, who later confronts her father Daksh for keeping her in dark regarding this and accompanies Shiva to the land of Nagas, only to discover that the Nagas are well organized harmless people put to lot of hardships by the arrogant Suryavanshis. The book ends with Shiva discovering the secret of the Nagas, who is none other than a man whom he assumed to be lost forever, found teaching about good and evil to Naga children. To be continued in the next book, “The Oath of the Vayuputras”.

Positives: New facts like the origin of the Lord Ganesh and his genetic link to Goddess Kali/Sati came as a surprise. The origin and importance of Kashi, Prayag, Vaishali etc are worth reading. The beauty of the forests of Sundarbans and Dandakaranya well elicited. A new land Branga (present Bengal) and its taunted riches are quite impressive. The all India voyage of Lord Shiva and his enlightenment about Good and Evil as the two sides of one coin in different territories of the country is worth memorizing.

Negatives: This book is a little boring compared to the first. The original version of the birth of Lord Ganesh is in total disobedience with this version. Reader might get confused. My personal doubt is that is Lord Shiva much younger than his wife Sati, who is estimated to be over one hundred years, due to the influence of Somras, when she married Shiva?

My rating is 3.5 out of 5


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