Shiva Trilogy is a mythic Fiction based on mythology related to Lord Shiva, the prime deity in Hindu Religion. In this regard, Amish Tripathi’s fiction presents certain fascinating aspects. In the 21st century, when women have acquired equal rights in all spheres of life, the subject of women empowerment appears by default in literature. Keywords: breasts stana stanakunda lingam yoni Hinduism tali chantilingam Shakti Pithas Andhra Pradesh Kangra

By taking a contemporary anthropological approach and using visual and archae- ological source material, and references to sacred texts, it will demonstrate their role as potent talismans, symbols of maternity, empowerment and eroticism. Analyzing a selection of case studies including the breast-shaped Telugu tali pendant, the goddess Sati’s breast and the stanakunda tank at Bajreswari Temple in Kangra, as well as the association of breast iconography with Shaivite symbolism at two temples in Andhra Pradesh, the essay will investigate the representation of breasts in the maternal landscape of India. This essay will provide an introduction to the role of breasts as independent symbols in Hindu rituals and religious practices. Nevertheless, breasts and their representation as icons in the Brahmanical imagina- tion have been neglected in art historical scholarship, which has tended to focus on the lingam (phallus) and the yoni (vulva) as the archetypal symbols of fertility in the religious imagery of India. The female breast as a motif has played an important part in Hindu Brahmanical worship and representation since the Indus Valley Civilization. The paper seeks to analyse how the theological arcana of religious mysticism associated with the divine figure of Shiva has been transformed into a humanistic mythography by the author of the trilogy, Amish Tripathi, and seeks to reconsider the conceptual paradigms underpinning the trilogy by critically synthesizing two prominent modes of theistic philosophy in India: Vedanta and Kashmir Shaivism. Such an instance of humanistic mysticism developed through innovative mythologies is Amish Tripathi ’s The Shiva Trilogy, based on the reconstruction of several Indian mythical characters and stories drawn from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and the Shiva Purana. Thus, literary articulations of mysticism render it closer to human imagination and the mythologies which develop out of this articulation bring forth the human elements in the divine. However, even in religious literature, we see a humanistic amalgamation of mystic impulses and the (literary)will-to-communicate.

The traditional attitude towards mysticism centres round its association with religious sentiments, hence it often seems problematic to associate mysticism with secular literature.

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