Book Review #44: The Mahabharata Secret By Christopher C. Doyle

King Magadha had a power, a gift from the Kauravas which could have changed the course of the epic battle of Kurukshetra. Anything could've happened if this secret gone to an evil hand.

After 2300 years, the great king, Ashoka discovered this secret buried deep within the laps of earth, a secret of Mahabharata’s time, the weapon of mass destruction. This particular technology has never been made public, though, the Mahabharata has all “PARVA’S”. This particular secret has been documented in the VIMANA PARVA. So, Asoka decides to keep this guarded forever even after his time. He appoints a group of people and makes them to take an oath. A secret oath of not disclosing this secret, whatever the situation may come. He called this group of people as “Nine”.

On present day, a nuclear scientist Vikram Singh is murdered in mysterious way. Before he was murdered, he leaves set of emails as a clue to his nephew Vijay Singh, who was staying abroad. The events unfold once Vijay Singh returns back to India.

This is the overall summary of this book. It is a very well written book. Author Christopher C. Doyle, had made exhaustive research before penning this novel. But, what I understood from this book is, this book is a complete collection of Dan Brown series. Entire novel keep reminds us of reading The Davinci Code, Angels and Demons, The Last Symbol and Digital Fortress.

As I said in the beginning, King Asoka created a secret group of “Nine”, which can be easily juxtaposed against Da Vinci Code’s “Secret Society”. These groups of nine were guarding the “Secret Weapon” which is similar to Da Vinci Code’s “Holy Grail” safekeeping. The group of nine was continued year after year passing the baton to the next generation for the safekeeping of the secret. In this novel, it was Vikram Singh, who was still part of the NINE, which is same as “Secret Society” in Da Vinci Code where Sofia’s grandfather was still an active member.

The journey of Vijay Singh and his companions to discover the mystery by following the clues left by his uncle is same as Da Vinci’s Code. In the Da Vinci code, the secret codes, messages, clues are all part of different churches. In this novel, the clues and hints were depicted in the Edicts, Stupas, and Chaitya’s of King Asoka, who installed these monuments across the country.

The novel also has few double agents. King Bheem Singh, the descendent of Rajvirgarh dynasty has cunning motives to discover this secret and thereby wanted to control the world through his men. He has partnered with some of the world’s notorious criminals and terrorist organizations such as LeT and Al-Qaeda. At the same time, he befriends Vijay Singh and pretends to help Vijay in his search for the discovery of secret of weapon. Like Dan Brown’s Angels & Demons and Last Symbol.

The secret weapon is known to be developed from the technologies described in the VIMANA PARVA of Mahabharata that was never made public. Only the group of nine knew what this technology is all about. The later part of the novel reveals that, this technology is particularly based on the optical physics and illusions that can make anything invisible. Therefore, the planes manufactured using this technology can not only miss the radar, but also capable of going invisible, which cannot be recognized with bare eyes. As we speak of Optical Physics and Nuclear technology in this novel, this is again the same style of narration that followed in Digital Fortress of Dan Brown.

Overall, I cannot out rightly say it as a Dan Brown’s carbon copy. This novel has got its own flavor and thrilling moments. It’s a good book to read and not an epic though. If you haven’t read Dan Brown, then, you are going to get surprised.

There are few chapters which could've been easily avoided. Vijay’s love story is totally irrelevant to the novel which could've been avoided. The Al-Qaeda commander character Farooq is depicted too weak, who leaves clues deliberately. The IB chief officer Imran’s character is kind of superhero, but he fails to make an impression.

At last, the realization that dawn upon Vijay is same as Robert Langdon revealing Sofia that she is indeed the “Holy Grail”!! You might have guessed it already; Vikram Singh has passed the baton to Vijay Singh as the next person in the group of "Nine" to safeguard “THE MAHABHARATA SECRET”. :D


My Rating:
4.5/5