Rewriting Morality: Myth and Ethical Reconstruction in Amish Tripathi’s The Secret of the Nagas

Abstract

Amish Tripathi’s The Secret of the Nagas (2011), the second book in the Shiva Trilogy, reinterprets Indian mythology into a modern narrative structure characterized by a combination of mythology, history, philosophy, adventure and criticism of society. Tripathi complicates the usual opposition between good and immoral by examining morality through the prism of karma, look, bias in society, disabilities, gender, religion and personal responsibility. While the Nagas are first represented as mysterious and dangerous, they finally become victims of social exclusion and misinterpretation. Shiva’s journey from revenge to understanding makes one rethink the validity of the conventional definitions of good and bad. The novel transforms the idea of Shiva into that of a person whose divinity is not simply a result of miracles. The paper will analyze the representation of myth in the novel, karma ethics and politics of othering, social discrimination, gender, truth, and transformation of the protagonist.