Fantastic Beasts: Amish Tripathi explains to JK Rowling that Naga mythology is of Indian origin

By Vandana Srivastawa

on September 29, 2018

The final trailer of Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald was released a couple of days ago and the latest film set in the Harry Potter universe revealed some startling revelations that blew the minds of Potterheads across the world. In the trailer, we get to learn that Lord Voldemort’s beloved pet Nagini was originally a human being. Played by Korean actor Claudia Kim the character received much attention and some flak for JK Rowling as well.

An angry Twitter user lashed out at author JK Rowling and wrote, “listen, Joanne, we get it, you didn't include enough representation when you wrote the books. But suddenly making Nagini into a Korean woman is garbage. Representation as an afterthought for more woke points is not good representation.” Rowling gave her the explanation and told her that it was a well-thought-out fact that came into the picture much before the Fantastic Beasts films came into being. However, Indian author Amish Tripathi, author of The Secret of the Nagas from his Shiva trilogy corrected Rowling about the origins of the Naga mythology.

https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/1044907311058358273

https://twitter.com/authoramish/status/1044947100830773249

https://twitter.com/BeastsMovieUK/status/1044576971101921282

In another tweet, he also defended Rowling’s take on the Indonesian culture.

https://twitter.com/authoramish/status/1045179964578967552

For the uninitiated, Nagini whom we saw multiple times in the Harry Potter films and is a Horcrux made by Voldemort is a ‘maledictus’, which means that she is a carrier of a blood curse that is passed on from mother to daughter and ultimately transforms her permanently into a beast. Interestingly, she is seen in a close relationship with Ezra Miller’s character Credence, who is an obscurial. In the first film, Gellert Grindelwald (played by Johnny Depp, and Colin Farell when he takes the identity of Percival Graves) tries to convince him to join forces with him. Grindelwald and Lord Voldemort also have another connection of the Elder wand between them as both sought to claim it as their own and possess it for a short time in the Harry Potter universe.

With this revelation, Rowling and Amish have created ripples amongst the Potterheads. However, we would like to agree with Amish that Naga mythology does originate in India after all we have numerous stories on Ichchadhari Naagin, no?