Aavarana: The Veil

Author: S.L. Bhyrappa, Rupa Publications Pages: 317, Cost: 275/-

Aavarana is a 2007 Kannada novel. The novel is divided into two parts-the first part is based on the story of Lakshmi as she struggled to uncover the truth about the past and second part deals with the era of 16th century which deals with the historical period in Indian history when the Mughal Emperor ruled most parts of India and emphasized the story of the Mughal Emperor and his campaign to destroy the Hindu Temples and culture in India.

Aavarana by S.L. Bhyrappa, though may appear to be anachronistic to the GEN Z’s but still shakes the very roots of the society when the author vividly jotted down the tale of personalities coming from the two opposite poles of the Indian society chiefly Hindus and Muslims and how they fell in love and still managed to carve out there way through the clutches of the cohort of complex Indian mentalities which we call as “Samaj”, and the awakening of one them in the course.

Santeshivara Lingannaiah Bhyrappa (born on 20 August 1931) is an Indian novelist, philosopher and screenwriter who writes mainly in Kannada, was born and brought up by the traditional Brahmin family of Santeshivara. He is part of the best-selling Indian Author’s club due to his craft as his witty mind goes on and on exploring the dark facets of the Indian system whether it be religious animosities, or caste-based biasedness to name a few. It is quite apparent that he is inclined towards adventuring the past and presenting the problems of that time and connecting it with today as he has done here.Been a kind of wanderer since inception has caused him to observe the pan indo culture from voluntarily quitting school for a year to staying with the sadhus for a few months has kept his creative wells filled up to the brim and it’s apparent that he is exploiting them to there very limits in Aavarana, though being fictional yet appears actual to us, why is it so? Is it because it was normal to hear stories like this from our grandparents and see the very reflection of their stereotypical mentality when it came to marriages the lucky ones might have an example at their homes listening to the plight of their ancestors over such step. Propaganda, by nature, is seductive; it feeds into half-baked concepts and beliefs to give them shape and brooks little opposition or questioning. It takes no prisoners and offers no room for dissent or doubt. Making it a provocative read.

At the very inception, the author describes the meaning of “Aavarana” by quoting down examples from Advaitha, and Vedanta. He tries to paint Aavarana as maya, illusions, or cover and did it well in unveiling it throughout the book. In the 300-odd pages of the fictional saga, he goes on to write about some of the hidden accounts of the annihilation of the Hindus by Islamic forces.The story opens up with Raziya (formerly Laxmi), a middle-aged filmmaker, feminist by heart and soul who has been married to Amir, the couple has been assigned to shot a documentary at Hampi by the secular government to portray it as a symbol of Hindu – Muslim unity. When Raziya learns the actual cause of the destruction she begins diving into some of her own experiences early on in life.

Here the shift takes place, now the author starts moving backwards in time when our protagonist heard of her father’s death and decided to pay a visit to her home in Hassan District which she left due to the conflict with his family over her will to marry Amir, now her father’s resenting remark,”Lakshmi, one day, you will realise in future, that, your descendants will destroy our temples”. This is where she encounters a small library of her father’s comprising of all the books of history such as several translations of the Holy Koran in Kannada and English, four volumes on the life of the Prophet Mohammad (sallallahu alaiyhi wassallam) written by Margoulith, Sir William Muir, Martin Lings and one in Kannada. Alongside Nama, Badshah Nama, Tughlaq Nama, Tuzhuk-e Babri, volumes of Ijaz-eKhusravi, Masir-e-Alamgiri and similar works that told the history of Islam’s triumphs on the Indian soil, all written by contemporary Muslim historians. And then there were several volumes on Indian history written by various scholars and historians. he had read over time leaving a little note of the summary on books he completely gulped up and guess what, these were regarding the Hindu and Islamic conflicts over time.

Once again our protagonist’s nose-dived into her past remembering how bright she used to be amidst her college days and how she held equality at the very helm of everything she took over and starts questioning why was she forced by Amir to change her religion to Islam otherwise their marriage won’t be accepted, in the likes of this why she had to eat beef despite refusing many times, seems to her that her husband has never been as broad-minded as her. Their offspring who graduated from the USA but working in Saudi Arabia was a core Islamist owing to spending most of his time with his grandparents.
Presently, after reading a range of issues from the forceful conversion of infidels into Islam, and robberies by them in Karnataka and Kerela over the years, she encountered a tale of the young prince, newly wedded whose wife commits ‘jouhar’, instead of being raped from Islamist tyrants, held as a prisoner of war and his sufferings from being used as a sex worker to being castrated and then being sold to Mullah and later being renamed as Khwaja Jahan, by this author brings out yet another facade of Islam.

The author also brings out the character of professor Shastri, from the college days of Laxmi who is in wedlock with a Christian, who stays in England by the means of this character he answers to all the people who consider that the folklore regarding Islam is nothing but a myth as the name of our book suggests!

Historical incidents which has been mentioned in the book are “renaming” which has been running as the main theme throughput the story line, be it Razia former laxmi, young prince who was later named as ‘khwaja jahan’ or the Hindu cities to the Islamic ones like Varanasi or kashi became Mohammadabad, Delhi became Shahjahanbad, Agra became Akbarabad, Golconda became Hyderabad and today’s Aligarh was called Kol said as the sample of Tipu’s nationalism and religious, financial humiliation in the Third Mysore War of 1791, and there is a parallel subclause that has been running connecting the thread to the main plot of the story. The author alludes anecdote from the Aurangzeb reign and how he concocted plans to wreak havoc on the Kashi Vishwanath.The book is overall an interesting read and will cater for the needs of all who are interested in exploring the altercations of historians because history is more of a personal narrative account of an individual rather than the hardcore facts which are often neglected in the light of story built up by the society.

It emerges on the tactics “Supressio veri expression false”(mentioned in chapter 7) which means The suppression of truth is the suggestion of falsehood. The criticism it gained serves as the icing on the cake making it more tempting because we are attracted more towards the unresolved mysteries, and controversies than the solved ones!Author: S.L. Bhyrappa, Rupa Publications Pages: 317, Cost: 275/- Aavarana is a 2007 Kannada novel. The novel is divided into two parts-the first part is based on the story of Lakshmi as she struggled to uncover the truth about the past and second part deals with the era of 16th century which deals with the historical period in Indian history when the Mughal Emperor ruled most parts of India and emphasized the story of the Mughal Emperor and his campaign to destroy the Hindu Temples and culture in India.

Aavarana by S.L. Bhyrappa, though may appear to be anachronistic to the GEN Z’s but still shakes the very roots of the society when the author vividly jotted down the tale of personalities coming from the two opposite poles of the Indian society chiefly Hindus and Muslims and how they fell in love and still managed to carve out there way through the clutches of the cohort of complex Indian mentalities which we call as “Samaj”, and the awakening of one them in the course. Santeshivara Lingannaiah Bhyrappa (born on 20 August 1931) is an Indian novelist, philosopher and screenwriter who writes mainly in Kannada, was born and brought up by the traditional Brahmin family of Santeshivara. He is part of the best-selling Indian Author’s club due to his craft as his witty mind goes on and on exploring the dark facets of the Indian system whether it be religious animosities, or caste-based biasedness to name a few. It is quite apparent that he is inclined towards adventuring the past and presenting the problems of that time and connecting it with today as he has done here.

Been a kind of wanderer since inception has caused him to observe the pan indo culture from voluntarily quitting school for a year to staying with the sadhus for a few months has kept his creative wells filled up to the brim and it’s apparent that he is exploiting them to there very limits in Aavarana, though being fictional yet appears actual to us, why is it so? Is it because it was normal to hear stories like this from our grandparents and see the very reflection of their stereotypical mentality when it came to marriages the lucky ones might have an example at their homes listening to the plight of their ancestors over such step. Propaganda, by nature, is seductive; it feeds into half-baked concepts and beliefs to give them shape and brooks little opposition or questioning. It takes no prisoners and offers no room for dissent or doubt.

Making it a provocative read. At the very inception, the author describes the meaning of “Aavarana” by quoting down examples from Advaitha, and Vedanta. He tries to paint Aavarana as maya, illusions, or cover and did it well in unveiling it throughout the book. In the 300-odd pages of the fictional saga, he goes on to write about some of the hidden accounts of the annihilation of the Hindus by Islamic forces. The story opens up with Raziya (formerly Laxmi), a middle-aged filmmaker, feminist by heart and soul who has been married to Amir, the couple has been assigned to shot a documentary at Hampi by the secular government to portray it as a symbol of Hindu – Muslim unity. When Raziya learns the actual cause of the destruction she begins diving into some of her own experiences early on in life.Here the shift takes place, now the author starts moving backwards in time when our protagonist heard of her father’s death and decided to pay a visit to her home in Hassan District which she left due to the conflict with his family over her will to marry Amir, now her father’s resenting remark, “Lakshmi, one day, you will realise in future, that, your descendants will destroy our temples”.This is where she encounters a small library of her father’s comprising of all the books of history such as several translations of the Holy Koran in Kannada and English, four volumes on the life of the Prophet Mohammad (sallallahu alaiyhi wassallam) written by Margoulith, Sir William Muir, Martin Lings and one in Kannada. Alongside Nama, Badshah Nama, Tughlaq Nama, Tuzhuk-e Babri, volumes of Ijaz-eKhusravi, Masir-e-Alamgiri and similar works that told the history of Islam’s triumphs on the Indian soil, all written by contemporary Muslim historians. And then there were several volumes on Indian history written by various scholars and historians.

he had read over time leaving a little note of the summary on books he completely gulped up and guess what, these were regarding the Hindu and Islamic conflicts over time. Once again our protagonist’s nose-dived into her past remembering how bright she used to be amidst her college
days and how she held equality at the very helm of everything she took over and starts questioning why was she forced by Amir to change her religion to Islam otherwise their marriage won’t be accepted, in the likes of this why she had to eat beef despite refusing many times, seems to her that her husband has never been as broad-minded as her. Their offspring who graduated from the USA but working in Saudi Arabia was a core Islamist owing to spending most of his time with his grandparents.Presently, after reading a range of issues from the forceful conversion of infidels into Islam, and robberies by them in Karnataka and Kerela over the years, she encountered a tale of the young prince, newly wedded whose wife commits ‘jouhar’, instead of being raped from Islamist tyrants,held as a prisoner of war and his sufferings from being used as a sex worker to being castrated and then being sold to Mullah and later being renamed as Khwaja Jahan, by this author brings out yet another facade of Islam.

The author also brings out the character of professor Shastri, from the college days of Laxmi who is in wedlock with a Christian, who stays in England by the means of this character he answers to all the people who consider that the folklore regarding Islam is nothing but a myth as the name of our book suggests! Historical incidents which has been mentioned in the book are “renaming” which has been
running as the main theme throughput the story line, be it Razia former laxmi, young prince who was later named as ‘khwaja jahan’ or the Hindu cities to the Islamic ones like Varanasi or kashi became Mohammadabad, Delhi became Shahjahanbad, Agra became Akbarabad, Golconda became Hyderabad and today’s Aligarh was called Kol said as the sample of Tipu’s nationalism and religious, financial humiliation in the Third Mysore War of 1791, and there is a parallel subclause that has been running connecting the thread to the main plot of the story. The author alludes anecdote from the Aurangzeb reign and how he concocted plans to wreak havoc on the Kashi Vishwanath.

The book is overall an interesting read and will cater for the needs of all who are interested in exploring the altercations of historians because history is more of a personal narrative account of an individual rather than the hardcore facts which are often neglected in the light of story built up by the society. It emerges on the tactics “Supressio veri expression false”(mentioned in chapter 7) which means The suppression of truth is the suggestion of falsehood. The criticism it gained serves as the icing on the cake making it more tempting because we are attracted more towards the unresolved mysteries, and controversies than the solved ones!