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Book Review: AAVARANA

June 14, 2007


By Sandeep

avarana is a book Indian secular intellectuals love to hate but cannot ignore. The average

reader (which increasingly means someone endowed with commonsense, a healthy sense of balance, and has not mortgaged brains at the ideological altar) chose to respond differently. In the miniscule market for Kannada fiction, Aavarna has seen nine reprints in just four months since it was first published in February this year. This however, is not a significant measure of its success.

Aavarana owes its success by justifying what its title signifies.


In the preface to the book, S L Bhyrappa, the author of Aavarana expounds the meaning ofAavarana. To this end, he draws from such diverse primary sources as Nagarjuna, Vedanta, and Advaita. He captures the essence of Aavarana as Maya and Avidya. Aavarana is an illusion, a veila suppression of the real nature of things.

Aavarana is perhaps the first novel in recent times that deals with an explosive theme in a world
dangerously supercharged with political correctness. It is notable for another substantial reason. Of all his works, Aavarana contains marked political undertones like in no other Bhyrappa worknot even the epic Tanthu (Strand). Aavarana marks a complete departure from all of Bhyrappas works in terms of theme, form and content. In just about 300 pages, Aavarna uncovers the flimsy lid on top of the abyss of Islams encounters with India. It is simultaneously historical and contemporary because it exposes the contemporary manipulation of history justified in the garb of preserving secularism.

Aavarana opens with Razia, a middle-aged feminist filmmaker mulling over the ruins at Hampi.
Shes there with her husband, Ameer to make a government-sponsored documentary on Hampi. The goal of the documentary ostensibly, is to project Hampi as a symbol of Hindu-Muslim brotherhood. Her research slowly leads her to doubt the history she has learned to believe, and takes her back in time to examine her own life so far. News of her fathers sudden death takes her back in space to her native village near Hassan. As she examines his personal effects, she is

astonished to find his library stocked with volumes of scholarly literature about Islams encounters with India. She reads his detailed notes on almost every page of each book and suddenly recalls what he had told her when she had announced her decision to marry Ameer: Lakshmi, some day

in future, your own descendants will destroy temples . (Ed: liberal paraphrased translation)
Lakshmis past provokes her again. As a bright graduate blazing her way towards success as a feminist filmmaker, she decides to marry her classmate, Ameer. Both are products of the 60s secular/progressive school of thought that shuns artificial barriers of caste and religion. However, when she marries Ameer, it never occurs to her why she should convert to Islam, and change her name despite Ameers disbelief in said artificial obstacles to True Love. Her first tryst with beefeating poses similar problems. She self-justifies them all but isnt fully convinced till her fateful visit to Hampi. Her son, a PG from a US university has found a job in Saudi Arabia. He is a product of the modern world unable to reconcile its ways with his newfound zeal for the pure Islamic way of life. Living in Saudi Arabia, he firmly veers towards Islam. Lakshmi/Razia stays back at her village and begins reading the copious literature her father has left behind. What she learns horrifies her. She decides to write a novel on it. From here on, Aavarna alternates between Lakshmi/Razia and her novel. S. L Bhyrappa uses the play-within-a-play technique. Lakshmi/Razias novel starts with the conquest of a tiny Hindu kingdom by Mughal hordes. Everybody except the teenaged-crown prince dies in the encounter. The kingdoms family diety is smashed, trampled upon, and desecrated and the prince taken prisoner, converted and renamed to Khwaja Jahan. Khwaja Jahan wonders why they spared him. It takes him exactly one painful encounter to realize that his innocent, boyish face has caught the commanders fancy. He is given special attention for a few weeks. Some days later, he is treated to a nice drink, which makes him drowsy, and then hes semi-conscious. Two powerfully-built men hold his legs while a third uses wooden tongs to castrate him. The commander pleasures himself with the boy and later, sells him as a slave. Khwaja Jahan realizes that hes just one among tens of thousands of such castrated males. He is made in charge of guarding the quarters of a commanders mansion of concubines. The rest of Lakshmis novel chronicles Khwaja Jahans experiences in this role.

Aavarana bares the excesses of the Mughal slave system in horrid detail. Equally, it describes how
Islamic rule destroyed centuries of lofty civilization and wounded an entire way of life. It shows the painful struggles of people fighting to preserve it. Khwaja Jahans dialogue with a Sadhu on the

banks of the Ganga in Benares is heart-rending to read. At one level, Aavarana is difficult to read without squirming at the atrocities an entire civilization has gone through.

Aavaranas singular merit is just one shocking symbolism. Khwaja Jahans violent castration shows
exactly where Islamic imperialism aimed at. To an extent it is also a measure of its success. It is also interesting that the success rate of a person staying alive after this kind of violent castration was very low. But Khwaja Jahan stays alive, another symbol of the plight of Hindu civilization under Islamic rule. For instance, Hindus suffered on a massive scale during the more bloodier part of Mughal rule under Shah Jahan and Aurangzeb. Unarguably, Aurangzeb inflicted the most damage on Hindu ethos and populace than any other Islamic ruler. Lakshmi/Razia finds it tragic that todays Delhi has a road named after Aurangzeb, a monument to remember a barbarian. In a way, Khwaja Jahan symbolizes an emaciated India that was never prepared for, and reeled under repeated waves of invasions, which had their roots in religious ideology.

Aavarana has understandably outraged intellectuals/progressives/secularists/writers in Karnataka.


Ive written about Professor Shastri in my earlier post so I dont need to cover that again. S.L Bhyrappa contends that it is dishonest to conceal historical facts on the (flimsy) excuse of promoting communal harmony/secularism. Aavarna raises the important question of Hinduism vis-

a-vis Islam and Christianity. Hindus have admitted to several social evils and set themselves on
corrective actionMahatma Gandhis emancipation of Harijans, etc. The West rejected Christianity as a guide/means to rule the state, embraced democracy, etc. Why dont we see a similar introspection among the Muslims? A few critics also raise the why-Aavarana-now question. The answer is buried in the question. How long do we want to ignore the obvious threat of Islamic fundamentalism? Not much has changed in Islam from Aurangzebs time to now. Bin Laden is merely Aurangzebs cousin in time. The same ideological compulsions motivated them both. Aavarana explores precisely these compulsions laid down in Islamic literature starting with the Quran. Besides, much of what passes as Indias medieval history is mere interpretation. In other words, a veil, concealment of facts, Aavarana. More fundamentally, has concealing/falsifying history really ensured communal harmony? Finally, the reactions to Aavaranawhile they were expectedalso reveal the tragic depths weve plumbed. Kannada has a rich repository of historical novels that includes Mastis Chikaveera

Rajendra, Koratis Paramesha Pulikeshi, and Ta Ra Sus Durgastamana (Durgas Sunset). Durgastamana describes the fall and destruction of Chitradurga under the Nayakaswhen Hyder
Ali attacked Chitradurga. Durgastamana is still hailed as a classic in Kannada literature. I wonder how our progressives would react if hed written Durgastamana now.

Postscript: It is only available in Kannada now but it is worth more than the 200 Rupees (approx) it costs. DECEMBER 16, 2007 India's Da Vinci Code : Aavarana -- BOOK REVIEW

Daily Pioneer

Bibliophile: NS Rajaram

Aavarana, SL Bhyrappa, Sahitya Bhandara, Rs 175

SL Bhyrappa's latest Kannada novel, Aavarana, is making waves beyond the usual literary circles. In less than a month four print runs have been sold out and the book is now in its fifth printing. What is interesting is that though a historical novel, its impact seems to be no less socio-political than literary. In this regard, it is a literary phenomenon like Salman Rushdie's Satanic Verses and Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code.

In reading Aavarana, Dan Brown's novel, Da Vinci Code, springs to mind. Both have as their subject the suppression of true history and the propagation of a myth by powerful interests. In Da Vinci Code, the villain is the Catholic Church and its modern secret and sinister arm the Opus Dei.

In Bhyrappa's novel, the villain is the collective of politically correct historians and 'intellectuals' who out of a combination of greed and fear have suppressed the truth about Islam and its record in India. While these intellectuals -- called dhimmis by the Egypt-born scholar Bat Ye'or -- can boast of no Vatican or Opus Dei, they do form a powerful clique enjoying the support of successive Governments. They find it politically expedient to appease Islam and conceal the truth about its record and teachings.

The word aavarana is the antonym of anaavarana, which means to reveal or to open. Aavarana, thus, means to conceal and suppress the truth by covering it with a layer of false myths.

In his preface, Bhyrappa states: "This is my second historical novel. My earlier work, Saartha, was an attempt to portray in novel form the transitional period (from the old to the medieval) that took place in the eighth century AD. In Aavarna, I have made a similar attempt for the long period after Saartha to the present. This period of Indian history, though rich in records, is in the grip of aavarana (concealment and suppression) forces... As things stand today, forces of aavarana hold both the historian and history in their grip. How can historical truth flourish when the historian stands as the main barrier to its discovery?"

Bhyrappa is a serious thinker who has studied the subject, often going to the primary sources and major research works. His bibliography is quite extensive for a novel and artfully introduced as part of the narrative. A surprising omission, however, is the eight-volume magnum opus, History of India as Told by Its Own Historians, which was compiled by Eliot and Dowson.

It is to Bhyrappa's credit that he has gone beyond superficialities by tracing the horrors of Islamic rule and jihad to the sources themselves -- the Quran and the Hadith. He has consulted several Islamic scholars and lived with Muslim friends to learn how Indian Muslims today practice their faith and relate to their history. As a result, Aavarana is more than a novel about Muslim India; it is also a primer on the beliefs and practices that condition the life and thought of Indian Muslims.

Aavarana narrates the story of a Rajput prince and his wife captured in the siege of Deoghar and

turned into slaves in Muslim courts during the time of Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, who ruled between 1659 and 1707. He later accompanies a Mughal officer and witnesses the destruction of the great Vishwanath Temple in Banares. He also witnesses the horrors inflicted by Mughals on Hindus and leaves a record of it.

To bring out how these horrors are whitewashed and even concealed by modern negationists, Bhyrappa introduces a contemporary character, Lakshmi-Razia -- a Muslim convert who returns to Hinduism after being shocked to learn the truth about India's Islamic past. She receives her first jolt when she visits the famous ruins of Vijayanagar (destroyed in 1565), now a World Heritage Site, as a scriptwriter for a documentary. Soon her father, whom she had not seen since her conversion to Islam, dies and she inherits his papers. She finds that in her absence, her father had made a detailed study of Islam and its record in India. Using his notes, she writes and publishes the novel about the captured Rajput prince in Mughal service noted earlier.

This lands Lakshmi-Razia in trouble, beginning with her former colleagues and friends, especially her mentor, one Prof Shastry. Her novel has blown their cover and they use their influence to have the novel banned and she is forced to go into hiding. In this, Bhyrappa has given a hint of what may befall his own novel for the same crime: He has exposed the horrors to a wide audience and also punctured the scholarly pretensions of jihad apologists masquerading as intellectuals.

With this novel, Bhyrappa has produced a major literary work distinguished by exceptional skill, scholarship and courage. One hopes it will soon be translated into other languages and made available to a wide audience. Of one thing we may be sure: Aavarana will be "cussed and discussed" for a long time to come, to borrow a phrase from Abraham Lincoln.

-- The reviewer, a scientist and historian, has recently written, along with David Frawley, Hidden Horizons: 10,000 Years of Indian Civilisation

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AvaraNa by SL Bhyrappa: an eye-opener?

AvaraNa is a term used in Vedantic and Buddhist literature to denote that aspect of nescience(avidyA) that obscures all things. This word has been used with the same intention by SL Bhyrappaas the title of his latest novel.

AvaraNa - the novel has created history in the Kannada publishing industry. No other recent book has been sold out as soon as this book. Even before this book was formally released, eager readers awaiting Bhyrappa's latest novel bought all copies from book stores leaving people like me without the latest book. However, I was able to procure a copy directly from the publisher SahityaBhandara. Needless to say, I then devoured the book in less than two days, in spite of hectic work. After all, isn't this the latest book written by the knowledgeable philosophernovelist Bhyrappa?

The Kannada publishing industry is much bewailed these days. But Bhyrappa's books buck the trend and most of them have gone on to multiple editions.

This book is probably the most controversial that Bhyrappa has written. It deals with the relationship between Hinduism and Islam which, as everybody knows, can be termed tenuous at best.

Most of Bhyrappa's novels are based in and around a few districts of Karnataka or have characters that are from that region. He feels that this is essential in order for him to get into the mind of the character and maintain realism at the same time. Another feature of his novels is the strong female character. Both of these can be found in AvaraNa as well.

I will try not to give too many spoilers in this post - but AvaraNa is a book that can be read even if one knows its full gist. This is because it is not a regular novel. Anyway, for those who haven't readAvaraNa yet and want to do so, this is the point to decide if you want to continue reading this post or not.

Before I start delving into the book, I will try to explain why I have written this post about a Kannada book in English. I saw some reviews of AvaraNa in English on the Net. One review, especially, has compared AvaraNa to the Da Vinci Code. Let me just say that the effort is like comparing apples to oranges. But, as a result of that review, this book has become famous in non-Kannada circles as

well. I wish to give a different perspective to the interested non-Kannadiga as well and that is why I am typing this post up in English.

The book begins with the protagonist, Razia, contemplating the ruins of Hampi. She, a screenplay writer, and her husband Amir, commissioned by the government, are in Hampi to make a documentary. The ruins of Hampi move Razia, who by birth is a Hindu - Lakshmi, so much that she continues to study more about it. Significantly, Lakshmi's introspection is also prodded by the destruction of the controversial masjid at Ayodhya - which she comes to hear about.

The story moves through a recollection by Razia on the circumstances of her marriage and simultaneous conversion to Islam. Lakshmi, clouded by love and a heady socialist euphoria that prevailed in that age, does not pay much importance to her symbolic conversion to Islam. Her inter-religious marriage makes her an icon in society for feminism as well as freedom from religious dogma. Her father, a staunch Gandhian, does not like his daughter getting married to a Muslim and disowns her and several years pass. Her father passes away and she visits her village in a long time.Razia/Lakshmi sees a library full of books on history that were read by her father and digs deep into them.

The matter that she discovers in the books causes an epiphany in her. She begins to read those even more and realizes that there has been a systematic pulling the wool over the eyes of society. She writes a very interesting novel - which forms the parallel track of AvaraNa also - to express her understanding. She opposes the system that is creating an AvaraNa to prevent society's understanding of the truth.

The story-within-a-story technique is not new to Indian literature. The Panchatantra is full of these, for example. But a parallel track is interesting and it is probably Bhyrappa's first attempt at this. It comes off very well, I should say. The story that Lakshmi writes in AvaraNa is simultaneously metaphorical and historical. Set in the mid-Mughal period, several historical aspects like the destruction of the Vishvanatha temple at Kashi by Aurangzeb are described in the parallel track. The characters in the parallel story mirror Lakshmi's story to a certain extent and also current Indian/Hindu society. This story is the best part of AvaraNa and I won't add any spoilers to that here.

This parallel track seems to be a continuation in the voice of "sArtha" - Bhyrappa's earlier historical novel. The only change is that the voice, in the case of "AvaraNa", has been emasculated literally. That voice can be taken to be the voice of Hindu Dharma declining because of the assaults it endured. The description of several events in the parallel track is chilling.

Razia/Lakshmi faces lot of opposition from her in-laws who are staunch Muslims when she does not follow several Islamic customs - Hijab, for instance. Her son, who is raised by her in-laws, has a complete Islamic upbringing. She finds out that the religion of her in-laws does not confer freedom and peace upon its adherents. There are several parts of the novel that describe Islamic customs in detail and in that aspect, this book is more of a documentary than a novel.

An interesting aspect is that whenever the Prophet (PBUH) is mentioned in the book, it is suffixed by a ("sa") (which is the original Arabic for the PBUH acronym that is seen whenever that name is mentioned - such as earlier in this sentence).

The "AvaraNa" that Lakshmi/Razia faces is brought out well. For instance, she attends a conference on text book writing that is quite reminiscent of the "detoxification" effort of our honorable government. None of the professors in that meeting is able to answer Lakshmi in argument and yet, her points never go well with the establishment. It is as if they are unable to see the evident truth that is in front of their eyes - which is what AvaraNa really is.

A piece about AvaraNa can never be complete without mention of Prof. Shastri's character. This is a character that has tasted the wonderful benefits of being a celebrity Socialist in India. This smooth talking educationist has shades of several real well-known personalities in him. I won't mention who it is - but it will be pretty evident for anyone who reads the book. Shastri is the one who persuades Lakshmi to take up Islam as an act of rebellion against "oppressive Hinduism". Prof.Shastri has the wonderful ability of reinterpreting any event of history in that communistic light - in terms of oppressors and the oppressed, much similar to that of several of our comrades. For instance, he interprets Hampi's ruins as due to Shaiva-VaishNava clashes instead of Islamic Iconoclasm. He epitomizes the class of left leaning intellectuals that have sold their conscience to the establishment in return for the favors it bestows upon them. Of course, he is not an honest man as well.

The novel ends with Lakshmi/Razia trying to publish her novel, to find it banned by the government. A consoling part of the novel is that Amir, Razia's husband realizes what his wife has been fighting for and gets ready to help her. A list of books read by Razia/Lakshmi can be found at the end of the book and it also serves as a bibliography - something that is unheard of for a novel.Bhyrappa has resorted to this to defend the book from possible bans. His logic is the same as his character's. If his book is banned, then each and every book in the list at the end of the book might also need to be banned.

The book is wonderfully informative and is cause for deep introspection. Bhyrappa has forever argued for relationships between communities to be based on a strong foundation of truth rather than systemic misinformation. It is no different in this book. Though Islam has come in for rough treatment, to put it mildly, there are some parts that cause a person to pause and think for a while. For instance, a Hindu character is told that his gods are not as powerful as Allah for they could not protect their own abodes from destruction at the hands of Allah's men. Having seen temples atSomnath, Varanasi and Mathura destroyed, won't any Hindu feel demoralized? That argument about the relative power of gods, though childish, can provoke some serious thought.

Amir, though born and brought up a Muslim, sees his wife's plight and sides with her at the end of the book. In my mind, this also shows that Bhyrappa is still an optimist. People may derideBhyrappa for being an anti-Islamic person after they read this book. But they can never say that he is anti-human. Bhyrappa seems to believe that this fundamental human quality will triumph over any religious dogma.

Bhyrappa, in my opinion, has been a bit simplistic in several parts in the novel. For instance,Shastri's wife is a staunch British Catholic and wants her daughter to grow up as one. But, just think of it. A British woman who can marry an Indian against her parent's wishes doesn't look like she can be as rigid as portrayed in the book. Certain situations in the novel look artificially set up, as if they were there just for a theological discussion waiting to happen. And finally, I don't know if any writer can escape this - but a few characters and situations in AvaraNa seemed like callbacks to older works of Bhyrappa.

Though most of the facts related in the book were already known by me and some of the books in the bibliography had already been read by me, this book's worth, IMO, is in the literary

presentation. The parallel track, the imagery - for instance, that of a cow whose calf has been tied up elsewhere (there are several other examples if one cares to read deeply) , the language, the situations and the character development are all outstanding.

However, superficial readers of the book might feel a strong feeling against Islam, which is certainly NOT Bhyrappa's intent. But he definitely wants to discuss "minority-ism" in India. This is similar to the spirit in which he wrote against Girish Karnad's glorification of Tipu Sultan as a national hero. But because of all this, it may not go down too well with the government.

My only hope is that this does not lead to some more mindless violence and yet another idiotic book ban.

If you haven't read it yet, please do. Sahitya Bhandara's Bangalore number is 2287-7618. Posted by nIlagrIva at 9:15 AM Labels: Book review, Current events, Kannada, Literature

Aavarana
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Aavarana
Author(s) S L Bhyrappa

Country

India

Language

Kannada

Genre(s)

Fiction

Publisher

Sahitya Bhandara, Balepet, Bangalore.

Publication date

2007

Media type

Print (Hardcover &Paperback)

Preceded by

Mandra

Followed by

Kavalu

The Kannada novel,"", Feb 2007 print

Aavarana (Kannada: ) is a 2007 Kannada novel by novelist S.L. Bhyrappa. Aavarana means enveloping or covering something. This novel deals with the historical character like Mogul Emperor Aurangazeb. Aavarana was sold out even before its release in February 2007.[citation needed] The novel went on to create a record in the Indian literary world by witnessing 10 reprints within five months of its release.[1][citation needed]

S.L. Bhyrappa has reiterated that something was written in his novel. Aavarana is the result of his search for truth about history. He stated: "I have referred to hundreds of history books before writing the novel. However, if anyone has doubts about the facts can refer to the books I have listed in my book. Out of my interest, I have studied history and my findings have resulted in a creative piece of work. I am fed up with debates and discussions on Aavarana. Allow me to think on something else".[2]
Contents
[hide]

1 Aavarana in other languages 2 Characters 3 Reprints 4 footnotes 5 References

[edit]Aavarana

in other languages
ISBN Translator Publisher

Language

Title

Hindi

Aavaran

9380146775 Pradhan Gurudatta Kitabghar Prakashan

Sanskrit

Aavaranam -

Dr. H. R. Vishwas

Sanskrit Bharati

Marathi

Avaran

8184980558 -

Mehta Publishing House

[edit]Characters Lakshmi alias Razia Aameer (Lakshmi's Husband) Narase Gowdru/ Nasrasimhe Gowdru (Lakshmi's father) Prof. LN Shastri Elizabeth ( L N Shastri's wife)

Digantha ( L N Shastri's son) Aruna ( L N Shastri's daughter)

[edit]Reprints This material comes from a book [3]

First print: 2007

Eighth print : 2007 Ninth print : 2007 Tenth print : 2007 Eleventh print : 2007 Twelfth print: 2007

Fifteenth print: 2008 Sixteenth print: 2008

Twenty-second print: 2009 Twenty-third print : 2010 Twenty-fourth print: 2010 Twenty-fifth print : 2010 Twenty-sixth print : 2010 Twenty-seventh print:2010 Twenty-eight print : 2011 Twenty-ninth print : 2011

Second print: 2007 Third print: 2007 Fourth print: 2007 Fifth print: 2007 Sixth print: 2007

Seventeenth print:2008 Eighteenth print: 2008

Nineteenth print : 2009 Twentieth print : 2009 Twenty-first print:2009

Thirteenth print: 2007 Fourteenth print:2007

Seventh print: 2007

[edit]footnotes

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