The Mahabharata Secret is the debut novel by Indian author Christopher C. Doyle and was released on 21 October 2013 by Om Books.

The story follows Vijay and his friends, as they try to decipher a series of clues which would lead them to a devastating Secret hidden by a brotherhood known as the Nine Men.

The author was primarily inspired by the Indian epic Mahabharata, believing its events to be based on scientific facts.

Following its release, The Mahabharata Secret was a commercial success, which enabled the author to get signed for further thriller novels based on the subject matter and was also nominated for the 2014 Crossword Book Award.

Before his death he sent four cryptic emails to his nephew Vijay, who with his business partner Colin, childhood friend Radha and her father, linguist Dr. Shukla, start analyzing it.

They are aided by Bheem Singh, current owner of Rajvirgarh fort and Greg White, an archaeologist mentioned in Vikram's emails.

The group deduce that the emails refer to the Nine Men and their secret, which can be revealed by using a metal disc, a key, a ball of rock and a riddle.

Bheem explains that the Vimana Parva of the Mahabharata spoke about ancient arsenal which could be made invisible by covering them with an undisclosed element, thus making them fatal.

There he finds a secret chamber containing the documents belonging to the Nine, as well as important texts, scriptures and ancient artifacts.

Two other books contributed to his inspiration and research, Fingerprints of the Gods by Graham Hancock and Uriel's Machine by Christopher Knight and Robert Lomas.

[3][5] Doyle visited The Asiatic Society in Kolkata to review material on Ashoka and emperor's edicts that are preserved there.

[8] It was nominated for the 2014 Crossword Book Award with Vivek Tejuja of Scroll.in giving a positive feedback, comparing the novel with that of author Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code (2003), and adding "A suspense thriller served with large helpings of history makes for a good in-flight read.

"[9] Seeing the success of the book, Westland Publishers signed Doyle to write a thriller trilogy inspired by the Mahabharata.