The third installment of Amish’s Shiva trilogy is “The oath of Vayuputras”. The book is thicker than the previous installments. It is full of drama, wars and packed with emotions. The story takes turn once Bruhaspati has a chat with Shiva on why he went underground for 5 years and Shiva discovers Somras is the evil. Though it allows Meluhans to live longer, the remains or the waste of Somras is very harmful to mankind and overall environment. As Shiva is perceived as the Neelkanth who is a destroyer of evil takes on a mission to eradicate Somras. Most of the pages are full of wars and its over the top descriptions, though a sequence of Sati’s last battle is explained nicely . Though the name of the book is “The oath of Vayuputras”, the Vayuputras come into picture at the last 25% part of the book and no great revelation is made after Shiva discovers Vayuputras. The clunky language which was also used in previous two books continues in this book as well. But the credit must be given to Amish for his vast scope of imagination and linking the mythology, Hindu beliefs to his plot. Amish has given due credit to his female characters, we can easily sense the sheer joy of telling the story. In one of the conversation with Ayurvati where Sati denies the plastic surgery on her face to remind her of loss in battle, the conversation deviates to how Shiva feels about her scar. This conversation takes away the credibility from otherwise strong and independent portrayed Sati. Also Amish challenges the system of hereditary caste in Hindu religion but he does not challenge the entire caste system, the justification provided is, the caste was given to a person by their parents (King Daksha is given the lower caste by his father). Still if the caste is decided by parents and not by the qualities of individual. One of the villain Vidyunmali is captured by Shiva’s army which also includes Nagas and after couple of chapters he has escaped from them and has captured the good man. No explanation is given on how this happens.
Some of the half baked scientific justifications by Amish can’t convince reader to believe the plot. For example, the Bramhastra becomes Nuclear Fusion and Pashupati astra becomes Nuclear fission, these explanations are incompatible with what the science actually says, or what feasible engineering allows. Had Tripathi taken the easy way out, and resorted to actual magical explanations, or, to Processes too Complicated to Explain, it would have been easier for me to maintain my suspension of disbelief. The pseudo scientific explanations, though, ruined the book.
After reading “The immortals of Meluha” and “The secrete of Nagas”, I was expecting little better than this from Amish.
If you have to say something....I am listening:)
