THE SECRET OF THE NAGAS

Overview:

The second book of the Shiva Trilogy narrates how the people of Meluha are saved from their wars by their Neelkanth, Shiva. It begins with the continuation of part 1, where Shiva is trying to save Sati from the Naga attack. Shiva and Sati follow the Naga who is responsible for Brahaspati’s death. During the fight Sati runs and attacks the Naga (the hooded figure – as described in the book), the Naga realizes that Sati is pregnant and without attacking he runs away. He takes a horse from the owner and throws a bag full of gold coins. While helping the poor man with the coin Shiva and Sati notice that the coins look different with the moon and some lines engraved on it. One can’t possibly brief all the contents of this part as there is a lot happening in this book.

Brief Review:

In an attempt to find more details about the coin and its strange engravings, Shiva and Sati find out that the coin belonged to a Branga King named Chandraketu. To gain more information about the Naga; Shiva and Sati travel to Kashi where a Branga community lives. The Branga community does a strange ritual by using the blood of peacock. Without knowing completely what happens, the Meluhan General attacks their people and as a result, he gets injured badly. Their leader Divodas gives an herb to Parvateshwar to heal his injuries and it worked. Ayurvati is startled by seeing the herb, as it is available only in Panchavati, capital of the Nagas. Divodas explains that he gets this herb from the Nagas to treat a plaque that is affecting the entire Branga community. Shiva decides to travel to Branga to find out more details about the Branga – Naga alliance.

Sati stays at Kashi, as she gives birth to Kartik while Shiva travels to Branga. At a nearby village, a pride of lions is attacking the people and Sati decides to help them by having the Kashi soldiers with her. The Naga protects Sati from a lioness attack and he gets injured. Confused by the Nagas action who once tried to attack her, she sees the Naga queen with two pairs of hands and a face exactly like Sati. She then comes to know that Ganesh is the Naga, son of Sati, and Kali her twin sister. Emperor Daksha has kept this secret from her and she gets really upset and angry about this. She takes care of Ganesh and kali with love.

Shiva meets Parashuram, a Vasudev after defeating him, Parashuram is surprised to see the Neelkanth. He joins Shiva after giving the receipt of the medicine to the people of Branga. Shiva is introduced to Ganesh and Kali, Shiva recognizes Ganesh as the man who tried to attack Sati and a man who would have killed his scientist friend Brahaspati. Shiva is not so pleased with them and stays alone. Meanwhile, Kartik is getting attacked by the pride of lions and Ganesh saves his younger brother. Shiva and Sati are enraged because of what Sati’s father Daksha did and confronts him for killing her husband and for giving up Kali and Ganesh.

Kali and Ganesh ask Shiva to travel to Panchavati with them to know more about their people and to unravel a secret. Although Shiva denies at first and commands them to tell everything here, and they don’t agree with this, he decides to travel with them. Their ship is attacked by Daivi Astras (weapon of mass destruction which is banned by Lord Rudra, the previous Mahadev) There he finds out many strange things and one incident is leaving Shiva in shock and the book ends there.

Recommendations:

A lot is happening in this book which is more gripping and entertaining. The love between Anandmayi and Parvateshwar is cute. The character development is amazing; we get to know about Sati’s unconditional love for her sister and sons. There is a mastermind working from Meluha and planning to kill the Neelkanth and Daksha helps him, which Shiva is unaware of. Shiva’s past is more intriguing and makes the reader wants to know what happened to him to have those dreams continuously. The book ends with a cliffhanger which makes the reader grab the next book and read. Overall it’s a very good read and as always loves the way how Amish has written this entire book. I would give it a 4.8/5. I would recommend this book to everyone, even the beginners as the language used in this book is simple and to get a taste of Amish’s writing.

Author: Amish Tripathi

Book Name: THE SECRET OF THE NAGAS (SHIVA TRILOGY – 2 )

ISBN: 978-93-8065-879-7