released later this year. Another book that isselling well is Govinda by KrishnaUdayasankar, part of a series of four books.Udayasankar says, “I prefer to call The

Aryavarta Chronicles a work of mytho-historyrather than pure myth or fantasy. I want toexplore the epics as tales of humanity, notdivinity, as something that could have beenhistory and not some improbable fantasythat defied all logic and science. My idea wasto portray the central characters as humanand stress this human element over allaspects of magic and fantasy. ” Her fourbooks are set in the epic age of Aryavarta anda central character in the book is Govinda,cowherd-turned-prince and commander ofthe armies of Dwarka. This book is a re-telling of the Mahabharata but written with-out any magic and poetry.

The current stars of this genre come frombackgrounds and careers with little connec-tion to fiction writing but were all brought upon tales of Indian mythology. Tripathi shiftedto Mumbai after realising that his royaltiesexceeded his salary as a banker. He worked for14 years in the financial services sector and hislast job was with the IDBI group. He did hisMBA at the Indian Institute of Management(Calcutta) after spending his earlier years inOrissa where his father, an engineer, workedwith Larsen and Toubro. Says Tripathi, “I am avoracious reader and also a devotee of LordShiva.” Neelakatan is based in Belgaum, Kar-nataka and works with the Indian Oil Corpora-tion as a manager. He is an engineer by trainingand did his BTech from the government engi-neering college at Trissur, in Kerala. He has set-tled in Belgaum with his wife and their twochildren. He comes from what he calls “a curi-ous little village” called Tripunithura, on theoutskirts of Cochin. However, the village ismore famous for its hundred-odd temples, the

many artists it produced and a music school.“Ironically, I was drawn to the anti-hero of theepic, Ravana, and to his people the asuras. Iwondered about their magical years, but myfascination remained dormant for manyyears. But the asura emperor would not leaveme alone,” he says.

Krishna Udayasankar has also had a var-ied life, travelling to many places before shemoved to Singapore where she now teachesinternational business at the Nanyang Busi-ness School. Her father, an Indian railwaysemployee, and her mother, an artist fromMysore, instilled in her a love for books. Theywere a very conservative family butUdayasankar had an eclectic life, graduatingfrom the National Law School of India Univer-sity (NLSIU), Bangalore, she went on to workfor an NGO for a while then completed herPhD in strategic management from theNanyang Business School.

One reason for the immense success ofthese books is that Indian mythology is inevery Indian’s DNA, and occupies a permanentplace in the collective consciousness. Fromchildhood onwards, a majority of children arebrought up on mythological epics with theinfinite gods and goddesses, and the good ver-sus evil theme.

Tripathi’s books have been translated intoHindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu and Assamese.Jo Fletcher Books bought the English languagerights outside of the Indian sub-continent andpublished the first book, The Immortals of

Meluha, in the UK in January 2013. The bookwill be released in the US in 2014 and soonafter in Indonesia. Clearly, Indian mythologyoffers a very rich source of stories and charac-ters, and its now making a lot of authors veryrich, as well. ■

Charu Singh is a freelance writer

MARCH 24-30, 2013 eye 15

‘ I grew up in a conservative family where mythology was and is apart of everyday life. Asuras looked to be a more modern clan and[their story] deserved to be told’, says Anand Neelakantan