Hinduism is an open-source religion

CHENNAI: If you are a fan of Amish Tripathi’s Immortals of Meluha and more recently, The Secret of the Nagas, which are both a part of his Shiva Trilogy, you must have definitely wondered about the absence of his last name on the book covers. “One of the core philosophies of the book for me is the concept of karma. A man or  woman should be judged only by what they do and not by what their surname is, or what their parents or grandparents did,” explains the Mumbai-based author. Amish, who was in the city recently, launching his second book, The Secret of the Nagas, at Landmark, Nungambakkam, led the life of a typical banker before his books happened. When he was watching TV with his family, they discovered something, which triggered off his idea for a book. “Indian gods are called Devas, and demons are called Asuras. But what many of us don’t know is that ancient Persians called their gods Ahuras and demons Devas, the exact opposite of what ancient Indians believed,” he explains. These discoveries led to a debate within the members of his family and they realised that if ancient Indians and Persians had met, they would consider each other evil. The family went on to wonder who could be evil, considering the fact that both clans could not be pinpointed as wrong, but were rather just different from each other. Picking up from this discussion, Amish decided to put down his philosophy as a book, but considering his earlier and futile attempts at poetry, he decided against it and weaved fiction into the concept. According to him, Hinduism in an open-source religion, which is why he chose to add his perception and fiction to the life of Shiva.After his first book was finally ready to be published, it did take a while for it to get noticed. Did this period of turbulence deter him from going ahead with his book? “The book came to me to change my life, which is what I believe. I was clear that I was going to do anything in my power to get the book out,” he says, explaining that Immortals of Meluha was almost self-published. A voracious reader of history, Amish had no qualms in researching for his books. The fact that he grew up in a household that allowed him to understand religion in a liberal manner also provided him leverage in getting the complete plot for all three books set in his head, much before he even started writing the first book. He also believes that the story chooses the author and not the other way around. “When I started writing the book, I did try to control the story, but it didn’t work,” he says. With the help of his wife, who, he remembers advised, “Don’t approach the story with the arrogance of a creator, approach it with the humility of a witness,” he was finally able to let go of his control over the story. “When I started writing, the story just flowed.” An interesting fact about Amish is that he used to be an atheist before writing his books. “As I wrote more and more, I understood more about Shiva, and the transformation happened slowly,” he says.Amish, who will be touring the country to promote his new book till mid-October, has promised to reveal the release date of his third book, The Oath of the Vayaputras, by December. More good news for his fans. “I might even come up with my own versions of the Ramayana, Mahabharata and Manu, as well,” he says.