Book Review #20: Chanakya's Chant By Ashwin Sanghi

It is always difficult for any author to go for a historical fiction novel. More than this, if the subject/characters chosen for the book does exist in reality in the past, it becomes even more difficult to give a fictional angle for it. I had sensed the same thing, when I read this book Chanakya's Chant penned by the author Ashwin Sanghi.

Chanakya's Chant is a fantastic attempt by the author to help his readers to learn about the life story of a great master, learned guru and a super strategist Chanakya in a fictional manner. Though this is a fictional novel, but, as far as the Chanakya's character is concerned, it appears so real for the readers.

As far as the plot of the novel goes, the entire novel runs in two tracks. One track was about Chanakya and his master strategies to bring entire Bharat united under the leader and his protege Chandragupta Maurya. Whereas, the other track of the novel, is about a person called Pandit Gangasagar Mishra, who was depicted as a modern political strategist and a devotee of Chanakya, who masterminds several coups to bring his own people to be bethroned at the helm of Indian political system.

The imagination of the author is brilliant as far as the story is concerned. The book itself is arranged in such a manner that, each chapter is an alternate story. In First chapter it was about modern day Gangasagar Mishra, while the Second Chapter is about the Historical Chanakya.

The story of Historical Chanakya reveals that, he was plotting the revenge to kill a king called Dhanananda, who had killed Chanakya's father, Chanak. Here, author introduces us to the younger days of Vishnugupta a.k.a Kautilya alias Chanakya. This King Dhanananda is a bad ruler of his kingdom, and always found with women who accompanied him. This has sent wrong message to the people of that Kingdom. Sensing this, Chanak father of Chanakya advised Dhanananda to stop all this and concentrate on the good governance. Outraged king Dhanananda orders to behead Chanak. This event made Chanakya to take a vow to kill Dhanananda and unite all the Bharat under his protege, the king, the son of senapati Maurya, the Chandragupta Maurya. 

In the other side of the novel, a person called Gangasagar Mishra, a fairly educated man, who found out the secret verse of chants of Chanakya, goes on to become a successful kingmaker in Indian politics. Here, Gangasagar Mishra follows the same strategy and coup of what Chanakya followed 2300 years back. Gangasagar Mishra befriends a local thug and don Ikram Bhai and persuades him to become a local mayor. He helps a local shop owner to send his daughter Chandini Gupta to school. He plays some of his master strategy with Ikram to adopt Chandini Gupta as Ikram's daughter. From here on, Chandini Gupta becomes the political heir apparent of Gangasagar Mishra. He plays his cards tactically in every stage of Chandini's political life and helps her to become chief minister of Uttar Pradesh. Gangasagar Mishra never stops here, he plays his mastery mind games and helps his protege Chandini Gupta to become the Prime Minister of India for 3 times in a row.

How he plays his tricks, strategies and his plans must be read in the book. That's the actual take away from the book. In both of the stories, Chanakya and Gangasagar Mishra constantly chants a special verse before doing anything and constantly chants throughout the novel. So, here is that mantra:

"Adi Shakti; Namo Namaha"
"Sarab Shakti; Namo Namaha"
"Prithum Bhagavati; Namo Namaha"
"Kundalini Mata Shakti; Mata Shakti; Namo Namaha"

As per this novel, chant the above mantra 400 times every day and for next 4000 days to receive the powers of Chanakya. Author had used lot of great quotes of Chanakya along with several yester year's politicians and great thinkers, philosophers and influential people's quotes. These quotes you can read it at the end of the book.

Overall a must read book for everyone. It lets you to bask in the glorious days of Chanakya.!!

My Rating: 5/5

Book Review #19: The Accidental Prime Minister By Dr. Sanjaya Baru

Probably this is one of the first book that gives us the insider picture of a Prime Minister's Office, popularly called as PMO. Sanjaya Baru tells us his journey and his memoir of his tenure as a Prime Minister's Media adviser from the period of 2004 to 2008. Being an elite columnist, journalist, editor and an economic expert, he has shown us a great detail of how the PMO works. Nobody has known how a PMO works for PM, especially media advisers and PM's personal secretariat officers. This books gives us a clear picture of all those things.

The_Accidental_Prime_Minister is a popular bestseller of 2014 in India under Non-Fiction category. This book came at the right time when India was preparing herself for the epic general elections. This book was an oasis for opposition parties especially BJP, that was always blaming the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a non-functional, spineless and a yes madam type PM. I pity them, because those people wouldn't even have read a single page of this book.

This book doesn't in any manner, I repeat, doesn't in any manner degrade former Prime Minister ManMohan Singh. This book has given a complete detail of how MMS (short form for ManMohan Singh) rose to be the successful Prime Minister of UPA-1 tenure between 2004 to 2009. The successful nuclear deal with the US, which is surely a feather on the cap for MMS and his many popular schemes that was launched to uplift the poor classes of India.

This book is a narration of the Author Sanjaya Baru, from the time of his appointment as Prime Minister's Media Adviser till he resigned from his post. He just recalled his memory and presented before us a memoir. Author has begun this book, by introducing us to the phase where he gets a phone call from none other than MMS to come and work for him as his media adviser. Here, the author emphasizes a phrase that MMS has asked him when he joined his office. "You have to be my eyes and ears"!!

Then he goes on describing his tenure and his ups and down as his advisor. How he got along with PM and how he was admonished on several occasions and on the same time, how he was congratulated by PM for his excellent works and so on. The minute details of how a PMO works for PM is an excellent read from this book. Several committees, groups, elite panel and other intellectuals that was in the team of PMO has made sure that, PM's job was kept in super vigilant and they ensured that PM was functioning in right spirits.

The entire focus of the author has been on PM MMS and his relationship with him. At times, you may feel that, this book is just about self boasting of Sanjaya Baru. Of course, he deserves his due credit, he prepared MMS from what we known as a silent, not so talkative, reserved PM to one of the best PM's that India has produced over the years. He was the only PM that ran his office for a complete 2 terms.

Author had not forgotten to explain us, the soaring success of MMS and his downfall at the beginning of 2009 by his own partymen. Author tells us that, PM MMS was infact sidelined at the beginning of 2009 and most of his ministers were not even reporting to PM. They were actually reporting Sonia Gandhi, the party president and leader of UPA. This has made MMS dull and low on several occasions.

Author introduces several persons in front of us, that were very close to Sonia Gandhi. Especially Pulok Chaterjee, Ahmed Patel, Pruthviraj Chavan, P. Chidambaram and Pranab Mukharjee, who were reluctant to listen to PM MMS and they thought they are never answerable to MMS. They were only listening to Sonia Gandhi. At the beginning of 2009, PM MMS was not even in a position to select his own ministers for his cabinet, which is usually the job of PM to select his ministerial team. This was done and finalised at the Sonia Gandhi's office. This was the incident where, the tainted minister of 2G scandal, A. Raja was appointed as a minister in MMS cabinet. MMS has strongly opposed to the induction of A. Raja, but, he failed to do so.

This book just goes on in this tone of sad story of MMS's downfall. The interesting section was, when MMS about to take some credits for his good work in UPA-1 tenure. His own partymen from congress tried to snub MMS, by elevating a dimwit Rahul Gandhi as the person behind expansion of NREGA, RTI and other popular schemes which happened because of MMS's hard work. This was the point when Congress was ready to take his resignation and promote Rahul Gandhi as the Prime Minister. Later, when Congress came to know that, Rahul was not prepared for this huge role, they let MMS continue for his full term. MMS on several occasions told Baru that, "She has let me down".

At the end of the book, Author reiterates the phrases told by MMS. "You see, You must understand one thing. I have come to terms with this. There cannot be two centres of Power." This phrase rightly pointed to the person who has the actual power of government.

Overall, a must read book for every Indians. After reading this book, My opinion on MMS have changed a bit. He was used as a mere pawn by Congress and its allies in UPA. From a popular economist who held very responsible positions in his entire lifetime, became Prime Minister by virtue and not by accident has let down by his own people. that's the sad part. From "Singh is King" to "Singh is Nothing".

My Rating: 5/5

Book Review #18: Mandra By Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa

As the monsoon picks up in Southern India. Having a good enthralling book along with a cup of coffee for the evenings would be a perfect match!!. Good heavens, It was just a straight jackpot for me. I started to read this novel "Mandra (novel)" and went into a trance. Just read few pages per day to savour the writing flavor of my favourite writer Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa. 

The title of the novel "Mandra" can be literally translated to english as "Lower Octave". You guessed it right, this novel is fictional story of a famous Hindustani Classical singer Pandit Mohanlal. This book is all about his experiments with Classical Musics, Raga's and his beloved students or rather I can say disciples and close intimate encounters with all of them.

If it is just for a normal musical fiction novel, it wouldn't have been awarded with India's one of the Prestigious Award Saraswati Samman in the year 2010. This book is beyond the music that touches everyone's soul. It is a spiritual journey, as well as profound. The readers would be certainly spellbound after reading this, just like me!!. Detractors always finds one or other reasons to malign SLB sir for his works. This book was not spared after all. They went ahead and called this novel as an erotic novel!!

The plot of the book is very simple. Mohanlal, a boy from Haridwar, studying music in his Guru's Omkarashram. Having a thought to achieve more in music, he runs away from his Ashram and finds his place in Mumbai. Initial struggle, disappointment, anger, dissatisfaction, etc... that made Mohanlal as a budding classical singer of the town. He earns lots of money, name, fame that he has never seen before over the years, at the same time, he started to teach classical music to students. However, Mohanlal has one weakness, he can't control his desires for women. He often indulges in sexual activities with his many female students. He used to call his favorite students with the names of the Raga's that best matches with them.

As the story introduces us to the younger days of Mohanlal, Author introduces us to a king, a master in classical music that never taught any students in his lifetime. Surprisingly, agrees to teach Mohanlal by observing Mohanlal's interest. Here also, despite learning every minute details of music, his hunt for female has never stopped. He indulges in sex with one of the workers in the King's court called Chunni.

As the novel progresses further, Mohanlal marries a village woman Ramakumari, and soon enough he loses interests in her and starts to find a new partner. Then comes Champabai, a well learned female, who agrees to marry Mohanlal, from there on, his music journey takes a different height. He always wanted to achieve more and more in music, at the same time, he wanted to taste more and more woman. This is the dark side of the Mohanlal in this novel.

If I start giving more details of the novel, the book loses its grip. It's better I stop with this much and mention only the important sketch of the novel. The story takes us to a point, where, Mohanlal loses interest in his 2nd wife as well and runs behind a Classical Dancer, Manoharidas, to Delhi. Here also he gets cheated by Manoharidas or rather, He cheated himself for many occasions. He heads back to Mumbai. He involves with the same sexual activity with one of his brightest student Madhumita Sha, which led her to divorce her husband.

This is the journey of this entire novel. Mohanlal, despite going to unimaginable heights through his music, he was always found himself in more trouble than merry. This is mainly due to his weaknesses for women, women and more women. He often convinces himself that this is expected for an artist. As the story takes its leap towards climax, Mohanlal, now, Pandit Mohanlal Ji, loses interests in all his music once and for all. He decides to visit every place and person, to confess his mistakes and heads back to Haridwar to find solace. This calls the curtain of the novel.

The plot of the novel that author has chosen requires lot of knowledge on Hindustani Classical Music. As the author claims in the preface itself, he knows most of the Hindustani Classical Music and its intricate details. Though the story is about common city dwellers. The details of Hindustani Music, the Raga's, the detailed notes of particular swara's like Kalyani, Bhairava, Ahir Bhairava, Mohana, Kaafi, etc, etc... is a great take away from the book and its a treat to read.

Readers should not have any prejudice or any orthodox thoughts while reading this book. You may feel at times, like, you are reading an adult, erotic novel. Leave those thoughts aside, just bask in the glory of Hindustani Classical music and its specialities. I recommend this novel to everyone. I am sure, those who have already read this novel, knows the real deep meaning of this novel that the author tried to portray here.

My Rating: 5/5

Book Review #17: A Suitable Boy By Vikram Seth

This book is a complete challenge for the readers. Massive in its appearance and thousands of pages makes this book as the longest novel ever written by an Indian author in the 20th century in a single volume. Story ranging from activities of political parties from the post-independence time in India, the Zamindari abolition bill in the parliament, the shoe manufacturing process, cricket, poetry, triangular love stories, family sentiments, etc., etc, etc,.. you name it, you will have it in this book.

Vikram Seth, the author of this book A Suitable Boy, made his readers spellbound with this amazing book. Spread across 1500+ pages, it is difficult for any readers to keep track of the story. Personally, I felt, this is challenging for me to read. I often felt like stopping reading this book because I was getting bored at times. Nevertheless, It kept me going page after page and it took me almost 3 weeks to complete this book.

As the title of the book says, the story of the book is about finding A Suitable Boy (or groom) for the heroine of our novel Lata Mehra. This is one side of the novel, which never loses track of the readers. Apart from this, there are stories about the political activities of all political parties especially congress after the Indian Independence. There is also stories of Poetry, Spirituality, Cricket, Shoe manufacturing process, University proceedings, Court drama, Parliament meetings, Hindu-Muslim riots, love, revenge, sex, songs etc..

It is a lifetime experience to read such books. It is a tedious job to write a review even. It is always good if you read the physical copy of this book rather than going for a digital copy. The joy in reading this book by holding it in your hands is priceless. Going page after page will give you immense pleasure and a sense of satisfaction that you are bound to achieve something.

Before setting the plot for the novel, Author had given an introduction of the all the characters and the family tree of the characters. Since, the novel involves around 40 characters and almost 5 families which intertwined in the novel deeply. It is certainly expected of the readers to forget some of the family connection at the beginning of the novel. Readers can always go back and refer to the family tree to keep track of the persons and their relationship with another person in the novel.

The plot opens when Mrs. Rupa Mehra is conducting the marriage ceremony of her elder daughter Savita Mehra with Pran Kapoor, the son of Mr. Mahesh Kapoor, the then revenue minister of Purva Pradesh.

As the story further reveals in further sections, various characters unfolds in front of us. It is best not to mention those characters in this review, otherwise the review itself will go to many number of pages.

As the novel progresses, Mrs. Rupa Mehra is in a search of a suitable boy for her younger daughter Lata Mehra. But, Lata was already in love with a Muslim boy called Kabir Durrani, the university cricket player, the son of Dr. Durrani, the mathematician. Reluctantly, Lata agrees to see all the boys that her mother proposes in front of her. Among these, Amit Chaterjee from the Chaterjee family, a successful poet, but always moody. Another person, is Haresh Khanna, a confident young man, who is a foreman in a shoe manufacturing company. The story revolves around these 3 people and the book keeps the surprising part of who will Lata agree to marry.

As we go deep into the novel, Author introduces us to a lot various sub stories, which includes politics, riots, Hindu-Muslim fights, Abolition of Zamindari Bill, Friendship, Murder, love interests, prostitutes, shoe manufacturing process, cricket match, parliament sessions, animal hunting, general elections, Nehru's resignation from Congress and rejoining phase, Poetry, deaths, pilgrimage, spirituality and what not. One must not skip even a single page from this novel. Sometimes, readers may feel like, this is a never ending book, but, you will cherish every minute you spend on reading this book.

Whatever can be written about this book is still very less according to me. This is simply the magnum-opus of Indian fiction literature in English. Recommended for everyone who is keen to read such novels.

My Rating: 5/5

Book Review #16: Mookajjiya Kanasugalu By Dr. K. Shivaram Karanth

Every Indian who grew up watching some of the notable authors getting conferred with Jnanpith_Award sometime or the other. Usually, this award will be given to the authors for their notable literary works. The regular held notion of any of the Indian readers that, to win a prestigious award like Jnanpith, the author has to write a voluminous book that lasts hundreds and hundreds of pages. Well, I can't completely agree or disagree with that. The reason being, the book which I am reviewing in this post.

Dr. K. Shivaram Karanth, Kannada's renowned author was awarded with the Jnanpith for this book Mookajjiya_Kanasugalu in the year 1977. This book is just about 270+ pages, but, the quality of the writing and the plot of the novel is epic. Novel is very profound and thought provoking which actually makes the reader to question themselves about various basic questions of everyday life, like God, Culture, Belief, Sacred texts, Bhagawad Geeta, Death, Rebirth, Evolution etc, etc..

The title of the novel can be translated to english as "Grand Nanny's Dreams". The heroine of the novel is an 80 year old grandma named Mookambike who is the grandmother of Subraaya, the 2nd protagonist of the novel. Story which is set in a village called Mudur which is near to Shimoga district of Karnataka.

This book narrates the interaction of the grandma Mookajji and her grandson Subraaya about various subjects and situations. Subraaya poses various questions to his grandmother and through her response author tries to convey his ideas about the various topics in an easy and understandable way. Author's thought about the various subjects like God, Culture and other aspects is very elegant.

The journey takes the reader like a smooth wave of wind in every page and makes the reader to longe for more questions that Subraaya must ask his grandma. Readers will be so engrossed and wish even they must have such a grandma after all.!!. Though there are multiple characters in the book, the book mainly focuses on Subraaya and his questions for his grandmother and of course her answers. Subraaya is an educated man, but decides to stay in the village by looking after his land and farms. But his college degree in history makes him to learn more about history and he always believed that, his village Mudur has a long lasting history of more than 1000 years. He often tries to go into forests and caves around his village and collect some of the old artifacts and show it to his grandmother to know the details of those items. He always beleived that, his grandmother had special magical powers that, with just a touch of things, she can able to recall most of the history behind those artifacts. This special quality of Mookajji what attracted Subraaya, that made him to pose hundreds of questions everyday. At the same time, Mookajji is happy to answer all of his question in her own way which is the lucid part of the novel.

The best takeaway from the book is when Subraaya poses questions on God's existence and the answers given by granny Mookajji in her own way makes the reader to chuckle. Mookajji had her own belief and stories about Idol worship, Tantric experts, Jainism and Buddhism. According to the book, Mookajji was able to visualise many of the things as if it is happening in front of her eyes. These events made Subraaya to ask many questions and he enjoyed the various stories told by his granny.

Overall, going by the content and quality of the book and the simple way it was presented, I recommend every reader who is really eager to read yester year's kannada books, must read this awesome book. It has lots of comic incidents and more than that, it has food for thought for the readers. I will assure you that, the time you spent on reading this book will not go wasted. It increases your perception and gives you a new ray of light for looking the things that you have seen all these years, in a different way. The Jnanpith award for this book is greatly justified. Author had shown us the way, in which, even the most complex thoughts and ideas can be presented in a simple, understandable way.

My Rating: 5/5

Book Review #15: Chomana Dudi By Dr. K. Shivaram Karanth

There are few books which completely takes the readers into a trance and leaves them for several days. "Chomana Dudi (Choma's Drum)" is one of such books. With full of emotions and tragic sequences in the entire novel leaves the reader spellbound. This is one of the short stories written by Kannada's ace novelist, Jnanapith award winner Dr. K. Shivaram Karanth in 1933. This book entirely focuses on the untouchability practices that was rampant in India during that time. The main protagonist of the novel "Choma" is an untouchable or what we popularly call as "Dalit". 

This short book has been made into movie in the year 1975 under the same title directed by B.V. Karanth. This movie has won the Swarna Kamala award from president of India.

The practice of untouchability is not new to India, it is much worse than racism. Author has elegantly captured all these practices and given the shape of a journey of a man called "Choma" and his beloved "Dudi" or "Drum".

Choma is an untouchable bonded labour in a village. He and his entire family was working for a landlord in a village, as he was not allowed to own a land and till on his own. Due to the tag of a backward class, Choma was not allowed to till any land, which he has desired the most. Though he had acquired a pair of bullocks from a nearby forest, he wish of owning and tilling a land remained a dream after all. This has frustrated him for life long and to forget his sorrows and show his anger on the society he gets drunk every night and starts playing his Dudi or Drum.

Without much success with any of his landlord, Choma was contacted by some Christian missionaries who intimidated him to get converted to christianity by offering him a piece of land to till. Though choma was interested at the beginning, later he rejected that offer and felt proud of his faith and religion.

Choma has 4 sons and a daughter, 2 of his elder sons Guru and Chaniya who were working in a coffee estate far away to pay off the debt. Chaniya dies of Cholera and Guru converted to christianity and marries a christian girl and never visited his father ever again. Here, choma's daughter Belli, goes to the same coffee estate to pay off his debt, who falls prey for Manvela, the writer of coffee estate's owner. She was abused constantly and even the estate owner had raped her often and one day sends her off from the coffee estate saying the debt was cleared.

In Choma's village one bad day, his 2 younger sons were playing near the river and accidently one of his son slips into the river. Since, they were untouchables none of the other villagers couldn't come forward to help him to save his son. All these events had eventually made Choma to lose his senses. He lost his sense and was always staying at house without going to labour work and often playing his Dudi (Drum) in a deafening noise to forget his tragic fate. When he thought everything was over, he and his daughter Belli decides to join Guru, and accept christianity.

Choma decides to go and meet his son Guru, he leaves his village. When he was half-way, he changes his mind and decides whatever happens to him, he is not going to change his faith and religion. By deciding this, he heads back to his house, but, he saw an unexpected scene at his house. His daughter Belli was seen in a compromising position with Manvela, who was that writer of that coffee estate. Full of anger, Choma beats his daughter and throws her out of the house and he chases off his bullocks into the forest and comes home, locks himself inside the house and starts playing his Dudi or Drum non-stop till he breathes his last breath. This marks the end of the book.

Choma's dream of becoming a farmer and tilling his own land remained a dream after all. Throughout all his tragic fate of incidents, only his Dudi or Drum remained as a loyal friend to him. Just because he was an untouchable, his entire village was against him and never allowed him to till his own land.

A must read book, it just opens you to an entire new world. Also, it teaches a great lesson to learn humanity first rather than clinging to one's own religion. The oppression Choma faced in this novel is beyond imagination. I have left with only one question, when this upper-caste, lower-caste altogether the caste system will be thrown out of this world ?

My Rating: 5/5

Book Review #14: Business Sutra: A Very Indian Approach to Management - Devdutt Pattanaik

Business Sutra is a unique and thought provoking book. Probably, this is the first of its kind to have such a book on management. This book is written by one of my favourite author Devdutt Pattanaik. He has given all of us an idea of what we can easily call as "Going Back To Roots". Indeed, we as a modern society dwellers do not have much time to think about all of our ancient scriptures leave alone analyzing and judging them.

As a Chief Belief Officer (CBO) for future group of companies, Author had the great responsibility to uplift the morale of their staff and explain things in such a delicate manner which led him to write this book. I must admit that, Chief Belief Officer is a very innovative designation; Nowhere in India, this kind of designation has been introduced at the corporate level.

Author has put forth before us a strong point by combining Indic thoughts by comparing with business thought process. Thereby providing an Indic thought to the business management.

This book is neatly arranged in a chronological order having an introduction alone for almost 35 pages. In intro, he talks about the differences between Indic religion and other monotheistic religions and how this has been interpreted over many centuries. He strongly argues about why we as Indians, are in need of such books. He tries to set the stage for the book and tells us how he connected Mythology with Management and how this works for someone and may not work for some other.

This is certainly a readable book. At some point you may feel as if the author is trying to preach us and trying to impose something on us. Nevertheless, you got to skim through the book and you will definitely find it quite appealing. I will only highlight what I liked about the book. You can start at any point and any page in the book, still it makes sense.

I loved the section of the intro and first few pages where his analogy of Drishti, Divya-Drishti and Darshan - which is objective truth, subjective truth and subject in that order. He nearly talks about more than 100 sutras in the book which defines only one thing: To change the approach to the management and at the same time talk about its connection to our roots. Thereby connecting the Myths and Legends.

The book also makes a point about personal growth - which is NARA as opposed to NARAYANA, which really should be a mantra of everybody in a job or business. Author have tactically uses gods as a metaphor for conveying practically everything in an organization. This is about organizations have to to be churned (Samudra Manthan) in order to realize Goals (Amrith).

He compares Aarti of a god to the praises showered on employees - which certainly empowers them. The strong fact, that we employees need organizations and organizations do not need us!!. This takes us to the point where self-development and actualization is the only thing that matters for us as a human growth. He constantly warns the readers that, his book is a not a traditional book on management. He takes it a step further with every turn of the page and you will realize only when you read the book. The illustration diagrams enhances the values of the words which will add more quality to the concept. For instance, in one of his sutra "Mental violence is also violence" with an apt diagram. This will surely sink deep into the reader's subconscious which will help them to get connected with the book.

Overall, Business Sutra takes a look at the business (Western Business) from an Indian perspective and reverses the "gaze" and tries to come up with the "Indic Management Principles". This is a great read and one should not finish this in one sitting, rather, read in a slow and steady manner and be savoured by the way it means to be.

At the very end of the book, he also has a section of "How to reject this book?", for the detractors.

My Rating: 5/5

Book Review #13 - Sartha By Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa

There are few books that can easily translocate you into an alternate universe. Sartha penned by Dr. S.L. Bhyrappa is one such book. From among his many gem of novels, Sartha surely finds place in top 5 without a doubt. This is one of the profound works of Dr. SLB sir under historical fiction category.

Sartha first published in 1998 in Kannada have seen numerous reprints in the following years. Later, this book got translated into all the major languages of India including Sanskrit. The beauty of this book lies in its usage of the various sanskrit verses which is tactically adopted to the novel. This book translated to English under the title "Sartha - The Caravan".

Sartha which literally means trading caravan of ancient India. This book is a physical as well as a metaphysical journey that takes the protagonist of the novel; a vedic scholar Nagabhattta.

The entire story takes place somewhere around the 8th century CE. This era mainly depicts the historical, political, economic and religious conditions of India. This is also the period where Buddhism was at its peak in India, followed by other monotheistic religions.

The protagonist Nagabhatta is a well educated vedic scholar trained in famous Mimamsa under an ace guru Mandana Mishra. Nagabhatta lived in a kingdom called Taravati. King Amaruka was ruling this Taravati state. This place is a fictitious place created by the author somewhere between the Northern and Southern India. Amaruka is also happened to be a good friend of our novel's protagonist Nagabhatta.

The plot opens when King Amaruka, who insists Nagabhatta on a voyage to understand the various trade secrets of other countries and kingdoms. Nagabhatta, leaving his wife and his mother begins his epic journey along the trade routes of ancient India. Having disguised himself as a student of religious studies, he joins a Sartha group and travels along with them. He informs the Sartha headman that, he is heading to Kashi to study the advanced vedic subjects. But in reality, his intentions was to know the trade secrets and thereby helping his friend and king Amaruka.

It so happened one day during their journey that, the Sartha group leaves Nagabhatta in a town and informs him that they are heading to a different direction. The headman of the Sartha group takes Nagabhatta to a nearby Buddhist temple and arranges a stay for him by talking to a Bhikku. Here, Nagabhatta explore various intricacies of Buddhism and other stories of it. This will gradually makes Nagabhatta to foreget his mission of finding the trade secrets.

This event marks an impact on Nagabhatta's ideas about all religions. Thus, his tryst with various religious subjects, practices, cultures, and philosophies beings. This also led Nagabhatta to realize himself more deep and deeper.

Without going much deep into the novel. I will only highlight the important events of the novel, thereby maintaining the surprising stories of the novel in between. In the course of his stay at Buddhist temple and wandering the places around he encounters Buddhist Bhikku's, Yogi's, Left hand tantric experts (popularly known as Vamachara). He also meets Adi Shankaracharya, and Kumarila Bhatta. Having an emptiness throughout his life and in order to find a purpose for his life, Nagabhatta tries his hands in all of these practices. He starts to learn Yoga, at one point in the novel he becomes an Aghori by joining some Naga Sadhus. He also tries to revive his vedic studies and finally he visit the first university of the world Nalanda.

The vivid description of the Nalanda University is an awesome attempt by the author. He describes the length and breadth of this ancient university. He also emphasizes on various subjects that might have been taught at this university and the number of students that might have studied at one point of time, etc...

As the book progresses further, Nagabhatta loses his interests in finding out the trade secrets. He just wanders many cities, forests and countries. Finally, he settles down in a town where he joins a troupe that enacts the episodes from the chronicles of life of Sri Kirshna and Sri Rama. Here, he befriends Chandrika a fellow artist in the troupe and the female protagonist of the book. She was a lead female character in the troupe. She was a good singer and known to practice yoga as well. Nagabhatta took interest in her and soon their love story takes another track in the novel.

As the novel progresses towards the end, various circumstances leds Nagabhatta to witness an epic debate between his guru Mandana Mishra and Adi Shankaracharya. This debate was presided by Ubhaya Bharati, the wife of Madana Mishra. This debate was mainly based on the vedic related topics. Outlines of this debate, which leads to the defeat of Mandana Mishra at the hands of very young Adi Shankaracharya. This loss made Mandana Mishra to become a disciple of Adi Shankaracharya.

The interesting section arrives when Ubhaya Bharati, wife of Mandana Mishra, tries to save her husband from becoming a follower of Adi Shankaracharya by leaving everything. She poses various questions to Adi Shankaracharya, which leads Adi Shankaracharya to find out the details about Parakaya-Pravesha.

At the very end of this novel, Nagabhatta's troupe was performing in Mulasthana which is present Multan.
This was controlled by Arabs at that time. Arabs have disrupted the fair practice of Sartha. There is an interesting tale of Arabs trying to destroy the Mulasthana temple and Nagabhatta's troupe is trying to garner enough support from the local populace for a coup. But, these plans were failed miserably, which was severely dealt by Arabs. Arabs have detained Nagabhatta and Chandrika. Nagabhatta was severely tortured whereas, Chandrika was brutally raped. Getting released from the clutches of Arabs, Nagabhatta and Chandrika decides to runaway to a far place and finally decides to get married. This marks the end of the book.

The canvas which the author sets for his novel is very panoramic. A transition period in India where there was a lot of turmoil. There were lot of cultural clashes, Buddhists, Purva-Mimamsa, Tantric and Uttara-Mimamsa, etc... And, our protagonist's roller-coaster ride; Advent of monotheistic religions to India. The author presents before us a work of historical fiction where little damages has been done to the historical accuracy yet leaving enough room for him to build his plot very creatively.

Finally, the language used is very simple but so powerful. With many sanskrit verses used in between the story is very apt and justifiable. I find this in all works of Dr. SLB. It is certainly a treat to read him. Only his readers can experience the joy in his works and one is hard-pressed for words to describe the whole reading experience.

My Rating: 5/5