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Indica Books Live with Satyarth Nayak, author of Mahagatha: 100 Tales from the Puranas
Indica Books presents Author Q&A with Satyarth Nayak
Book Discussion – “Mahagatha: 100 Tales from the Puranas“
About the Book:
Do you know the story where Brahma and Vishnu race against each other or where Shiva battles Krishna? Where Indra attempts foeticide or where Rama punishes a Shudra? Do you know about Maya Sita or Narada’s monkey face? Or why Surya falls from the sky or why Chandra commits adultery?
The Puranas of Hinduism are a universe of wisdom, embodying a fundamental quest for answers that makes them forever relevant. Now, for the first time, 100 of the greatest mythological tales from these ancient texts have been handpicked and compiled into an epic illustrated edition. Besides popular legends of devas, asuras, sages and kings, Satyarth Nayak has dug up lesser-known stories, like the one where Vishnu is beheaded or where Saraswati curses Lakshmi or where Harishchandra tricks Varuna. Nayak also recounts these 100 tales in a unique chronological format, beginning with Creation in Satya Yuga and ending with the advent of Kali Yuga. Using Puranic markers, he constructs a narrative that travels through the four yugas, offering continuous and organic action. In such a reading, it is revealed that these stories are not isolated events but linked to each other in the grand scheme of things. That every occurrence has a past and a future. A cause and effect. An interconnected cycle of karma and karma-phal.
Delving into the minds of gods, demons and humans alike, Mahagatha seeks a deeper understanding of their motivations. The timelessness of their impulses speaks across the aeons to readers of today. Written in lively prose with charming illustrations, these 100 tales will entertain and enlighten, and make you connect the dots of Hindu mythology like never before.
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Speakers
Satyarth Nayak
Author
Satyarth Nayak is an author and screenwriter based in Mumbai. A former SAARC Award winning Correspondent with CNN-IBN, Delhi, he holds a Masters in English Literature from St. Stephen’s. Satyarth’s best-selling biography, Sridevi – The Eternal Screen Goddess, published by Penguin in 2019 and charting the journey of the screen legend from child star to becoming India’s First Female Superstar, met with high acclaim. His debut novel, The Emperor’s Riddles, that released in 2014, became a bestselling thriller, earning comparisons with Dan Brown for being a ‘history meets mystery.’ His new book, the magnum-opus Mahagatha, published by HarperCollins, is an epic collection of 100 greatest mythological tales from the Puranas of Hinduism. Containing stories of gods, demons, sages and kings along with charming illustrations, Mahagatha has been described by Anand Neelakantan as ‘a must-have in your home library.’ Satyarth has also scripted Sony’s epic historical TV show, Porus, touted as India’s most expensive series that aired from 2017 to 2019. His short stories have won the British Council award and appeared in Sudha Murty’s Penguin anthology, Something Happened On The Way To Heaven. Named one of the Top 50 Authors to follow on social media and a regular speaker at national and international literature festivals, Satyarth is currently scripting a high-profile web-series and writing his next book based on the Mahabharat.
Abhinav Agarwal
Host
Abhinav is a technology professional with over twenty years in the software industry, the technical editor of a book published by McGraw-Hill, a prolific writer on areas on technology and Indology. He is a computer engineer and holds a post graduate diploma from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
Arun Krishnan
Host
Arun Krishnan has studied and lived in different cities across India, USA, Singapore and Japan, before putting down roots in Bangalore. He started off with a degree in engineering and a doctorate, and went on to work in IT, high performance computing, bioinformatics, computational biology and HR analytics. He has worked at various corporations, research institutes and also in academia as an Assistant Professor of Computational Biology. And then, just to shake things up, Arun went for an MBA and turned entrepreneur. He is a polyglot and is conversant in Tamil, English, Hindi, Bengali, Japanese and Kannada. He loves to sing and plays the guitar, keyboard and percussion instruments. He is also an amateur historian and enjoys visiting historical places. While he has over fifty articles in journals, conferences and book chapters, this is his first work of fiction.