A shift in mithya: An implication of euhemerism in amish tripathi's shiva trilogy

Abstract

Mithya is living myth. Myth is an absence of mithya. The difference between the modern individual who expressly chooses to believe in or look for myth and aboriginal cultures still living in myth is the difference between myth and mithya. Hindu mythology is mithya and therefore remaking myth in Indian fiction is often conforming and seldom deviant. But lately Indian popular fiction has produced mythopoeic versions of its mithya. Amish Tripathi's Shiva Trilogy is an example of this trend. Tripathi in his series demythologizes and remythologizes Lord Shiva into a revolutionary tribal chief of the Indus Valley Civilization who was elevated to divinity over time. Such a euhemeristic deliverance transcribes a polytheistic deity as apotheosis. This mythopoeic version, although unorthodox, is produced and consumed in popular fiction. Such popular production and consumption of an alternate mythopoeia in spite of an extant mithya predicates a shift in mithya. © 2019 University of Toronto Press Inc.. All rights reserved.