Book Review
God of the sullied by Gaurav Sharma
A definite page-turner – Must read for Suspense Seekers
Characters were greatly introduced. The protagonist’s (Ekalavya) journey mirrors every other hero’s Journeys that start with Separation from all who are close to him, followed by a sense of relief from Fate which the author calls as kismat and finally followed by the unification of all people for the greater good. Though the character names are similar to names in Hindu mythology, they were very different from stories that I’ve heard in my childhood from my grandmother. This sure jogged some of my profound childhood memories for me. I definitely recommend this duology for nonfiction readers as well as fiction readers.QUOTE: Decisions taken to calm your mind will not deliver in the long run. Instead, decisions made with a calm mind will benefit you for sure
Book Summary
God of the sullied by Gaurav Sharma starts with the Evolution of kali (The evil – According to this book ), Laws of Nature and karma turned upside down and Greed takes over the mind of people. This tipped the delicate balance of peace and harmony among people of the earth Amongst this, our protagonist Ekalavya was born to a Noble couple Vyas & Sumati residents of a small village of Rudraputra who belong to ikshvaku Dynasty. Vyas was Noble and a wise man, who received a lot of respect & love from his villagers. Just before the birth of Ekalavya, maha purohit ( chief priest of the village) makes a prophecy saying that Ekalavya will be one to fulfill god’s will and protect the righteous, he will rise to power. His birth may not be unique but his death will create History. Soon after, Vyas had to leave Sumati to get supplies from the village on the other side of Ganga. After he shored on the other side of Ganga, the river flooded and blocked his return. Fate struck Vyas, Sumati was about to deliver his child that day. The next day when the river calmed and Vyas Returned, and was shocked to find his wife Sumati had passed away during the child birth. Vyas cried his eyes out that day,Ekalavya was raised by amma (an older woman) up until the age where he could go to gurukul. There he learnt the art of archery, learnt vedas and was spiritually enlightened. Upon graduating gurukul, students are allowed to leave for some time to spend with their family. Ekalavya was happy but this was short lived as amma had passed away and vyas(his father) is nowhere to be found at their home. He soon finds out that vyas turned crazy as no one in his village took care of him when amma left this earth. Then Ekalavya tried to talk to villages but they were hesitant to even look at him, he then found Maha Purohit and went to talk to him. Though hesitant, Maha purohit talks to Eklavya and reveals that all that has happened, happened because of him. This broke eklavya, he swiftly left the village to kill himself in ganga.
There on the shore of ganga, a mysterious person stops him from commiting suiside and guides him to an old man living in a shamshan (Cremation ground). Old man listens to the eklavya story, and agrees to let him work in the shamshan. Years have passed and when everything seems fine he finds some people bringing a body to shamshan. Those people were just some passers by who happened to find a body. Ekalavya tells them that he wasn’t allowed to cremate/bury a body without being paid first. No one in the group was ready to pay for his unknown dead body and while this was going on.
Ekalavya got to see the face of the body and collapsed after learning that the body was none other than his father. Soon after he convinced the old man that he would work other things and pay him to let the old man cremate his father.
Months passed and Ekalavya heard a knock on the door and was surprised to find out that maha purohit was at the door. Maha purohit came for ekalavya’s forgiveness as he reveals that he was the one who turned all the villagers against his father due to respect & praise, his father was receiving from villagers and this made his jealous of vyas. He also admitted that he is also responsible for amma death. This angered ekalavya but he did nothing and asked maha purohit to leave and asked him to do good deeds to people around him to redeem himself. Mahapurohit acknowledges and leaves.
This encounter with maha purohit raised some unpleasant thoughts in ekalavyas mind. The next day he decided to leave the shashan and go on a journey to the unknown. He then explains his wishes to the old man and leaves. On his journey he came across a thick forest. He decides to grow through the forest to the other side. Later he found out that there were some natives who live among the forest and kidnaps him. He was taken to the chief of the forest people who for some mysterious region speaks the same language as eklavya.
The chief suspects ekalavya to be a spy from the nearby kingdom Rudraputra & hence ekalavya was sentenced to death by chopping of his head.
Soon after ekalavya was rescued by one of the forest people who also speaks his tongue and knows that ekalavya is innocent. So she let the animals charge towards the execution grounds and saved him.
Ekalavya and a forest girl named Tara, get out of the forest into a nearby village in an exhausted state after fighting with a wild bear.
Next morning Ekalavya was awakened by a woman of the village. The villagers treated ekalavya and Tara, fed and nurtured them to health. Ekalavya was thankful for the help he received and wanted to thank villagers in one form or other. He soon finds out that the village is being tormented by bandits. So he set to liberate villagers from these bandits by teaching them to fight and stand against the bandits, he taught men,children and elderly whereas Tara taught women.
One fateful day, while he was in the village he received some news from a mysterious man who came out of the jungle about the condition of an old man back at shanshan. He leaves immediately to shashan informing Tara who is still in the village.
After a few days of journey he finally reached shashan and found that the old man had passed. There he saw the man who was so close to him and helped him grow into a man lying on the floor. He buried the old man in the same grave that the old man had dug himself off beside his wife’s grave.
He then appoints someone to take care of shashan and do the deeds for the dead and get on his way to the village. when he reached the village. He stood still,It’s like one disaster after another. The village was lifeless and purely devoid of life. He later finds a survivor who tells him that bandits attacked the village when villagers tried to defend their village.
He also finds Tara in a well nearby. This brought him the greatest sorrow as the love of his life,lying in a well. He was in love with Tara and planned to start a life with her. Later they were picked by royal guards from the kingdom who imprisoned ekalavya and presented him before the king of Rudraputra.
Ekalavya was questioned for the massacre by the king and was imprisoned, With some strange interference from fate he was vouched by the minister of the king and was spared as such. He was soon appointed as Royal Army Commander by the king upon the minister’s advice.
Not long after the situation, Ekalavya found the minister and other dignitaries,plotting to dethrone the king. To which he was willing a participant as before reaching the kingdom, he found the king to be not worthy of the throne as he spends most of his time enjoying the pleasures of being a king rather than helping people overcome their problems in his kingdom.
Their plot works and Ekalavya becomes the king. No one cared about the mysterious disappearance of the king as no one cares about him that much. The kingdom of Rudraputra sees a good future ahead with ekalavya on the throne. This concludes the ending of God of the sullied and our story of ekalavya continues on the sequel book titled Long Live the sullied.
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