Amish Tripathi is an Indian diplomat, columnist, and author. He is known for his books The Immortals of Meluha, The Secret of the Nagas, The Oath of the Vayuputras, Scion of Ikshvaku, ', ' and . The Shiva Trilogy was the fastest-selling book series in Indian publishing history while the Ram Chandra Series was the second fastest-selling book series in Indian publishing history. In 2017, Tripathi launched his first non-fiction book, Immortal India. Amish's 8 books have sold over 5.5 million copies in the Indian subcontinent since 2010. Forbes India has regularly ranked Tripathi among the top 100 celebrities in India. He was listed among the 50 most powerful Indians by India Today in 2019. He is also the first author in Indian publishing history to have all 6 of his fiction books simultaneously in the top 10 of the HT-Nielsen Bookscan national bestseller list for 4 weeks in a row.
The Immortals of Meluha, Tripathi's first novel and the first in the Shiva Trilogy, was published in February 2010. The second book in the series, The Secret of the Nagas, was released on 12 August 2011, and the third and final installment, titled The Oath of the Vayuputras, was released on 27 February 2013. The Scion of Ikshvaku was released on 22 June 2015. It is the first book in the Ram Chandra Series. It follows the story of Ram and is a prequel to the Shiva Trilogy. The Scion of Ikshvaku won the Crossword Book's "Best Popular Award". , the sequel to The Scion of Ikshvaku, was released on 29 May 2017. It opened at #1 on the national bestseller lists and became the highest-selling book of 2017. ', the third book in The Ram Chandra series, was released on July 1, 2019. ', his first historical fiction book and the first book in Indic Chronicles was released on 20 June 2020. Tripathi released his first non-fiction book, Immortal India, in August 2017. It is a collection of his writings, such as articles published in various newspapers, speeches he wrote, debates he took part in, and select interviews at public forums. In 2019, Tripathi was appointed by the Government of India as the Director of The Nehru Centre, London, as a diplomatic role.
I genuinely believe that five years from today, we will have a situation when other languages will account for higher sales of books than in English. That is the big change happening in publishing where readers are taking pride in their own culture. Another comparative example would be television, where regional language channels garner more TRPs.
Influence
All of Tripathi's books are on religious topics. Being an atheist in his youth, Amish returned to faith while writing his first book. His grandfather was a Sanskrit scholar and a Pandit in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Tripathi says that he gathered most of his knowledge of Hindu theology and religion from his grandfather and his religious parents. He believes that "religiosity and liberalism go hand-in-hand in India". Sandipan Deb, former Executive Editor of Outlook and Editor of Financial Express, writes of the philosophical depth of Amish's books: "Through all Amish’s books flows a current of liberal progressive ideology: about gender, about caste, about discrimination of any kind. And what I believe separates him from the horde of Indian writers who have jumped on to the mythology bandwagon after Shiva’s success, is his historical research."
