The Telegraph: Winning words - India’s book publishing business is moving into a new orbit as sales graphs climb, says Paran Balakrishnan

As sales climb the publishing companies and authors are getting more adventurous and stepping into new and relatively untested territory. For Hachette, Madhulika Liddle has come up with a detective story set during the Mughal times. And Westland has had a hit with Ashwin Sanghi’s The Rozabal Line, a modern-day Dan Brown-style thriller that revolves around Christ and whether he lived in Kashmir. Sanghi’s a Mumbai-based businessman.

Deccan Herald: Craving for a Good Conspiracy Thriller... The Lost Symbol comes two years late... The Rozabal Line offered us so much meat...

If The Lost Symbol had appeared two years after the DVC blitz, it would have intensified the excitement Brown’s thriller had provoked in readers worldwide for conspiracy stories that unmasked the true and hidden histories of our sacred institutions. Now, however, I suspect readers will simply nod or just raise an eyebrow when “all is revealed” in The Lost Symbol. They won’t be shocked or provoked. Unless Brown is going to reveal something earth shaking, readers are just going to get to the end of the book and go: ‘Yeah, of course, this is what I expect from a new Dan Brown thriller’.

This is a pity. Because Brown’s thriller deserves more than this. I don’t know how good it is (though the legendary editor of Knopf-Doubleday, Sonny Mehta, reassures us that the wait has been worth it) but it is this sequel that will be the true successor of The Da Vinci Code; that is, only The Lost Symbol can really fulfill the high bar set by its predecessor, provide that conspiracy frisson we were yearning for, not the spins-offs and the follow ups. (Even Brown’s own Angels and Demons pretended to be a sequel and not the prequel it really is).

And so The Lost Symbol comes two years too late. Conspiracy thrillers swamped the market, reaching even Indian shores with The Rozabal Line, and offered us so much meat, that we couldn’t relish chewing anymore.

Tranquebar Times: Interview

Q: What inspired you to write this book?

The notion that Jesus may have indeed spawned a bloodline came to my
attention in late 1999 when I read "Holy Blood Holy Grail" by Michael
Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. A couple of years later, I
read Holger Kersten's "Jesus Lived in India" and was fascinated with
the idea that Jesus could have been inspired by Buddhism and that he
may have drawn much of his spiritual learning from India. Kersten’s
research was meticulous, and I was soon hooked… I simply knew that I
just had to spin a story around this subject.

Q: In the modern geo-political scenario, what message does a book like
yours hold for readers?

As we speak, the strife in Kashmir has peaked once again. Why is it
that some of the most beautiful lands in the world need blood to
quench the land’s thirst? Rozabal has the potential of making the
world press the pause button – a reflective, thoughtful, contemplative
pause to ponder: What exactly are we all fighting for and is it worth
it?

Q: In a world that is questioning the significance of religion, and
the value of religion, what does your book say to readers?

For me, personally, Rozabal represents an "alternative story". It is
representative of the possibility that the story contained in the four
canonical gospels may not be the entire truth. It is also symbolic of
many facets of the Christian faith that have been obliterated down the
ages. The fact that the lost tribes of Israel certainly had a
connection with India, the fact that early Christianity drew
inspiration from other faiths such as Buddhism, the fact that Jesus
may have been one the greatest men that walked on earth, but a man
nonetheless. My aim, however, has remained one: to illustrate that in
a world full of religious and political strife, deep down there is
much more in common between world religions than we can ever imagine.
If we can emphasize these commonalities, it could be a way to heal
divisions.

Q: Are you a believer of conspiracy theories?

I love conspiracy theories! Let’s face it, so do most people. Who was
behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy? Was the first walk on the
moon just a scam? Did Hitler really commit suicide in his bunker? Were
Jesus and Mary Magdalene really married? What happened to Netaji
Subhashchandra Bose? Anything that allows us to question conventional
wisdom and allows us to explore a more mysterious (and obviously much
more delicious) explanation is a fiction writer’s delight. My own view
is that the intercourse between fact and fiction is what makes for
truly interesting fiction (and interesting fact). Personally, I prefer
reading fiction that sounds like fact and fact that sounds like
fiction. The publication of The Rozabal Line has strengthened my view
that those who like my variety of fiction are those who wish to read
fiction that sounds very much like The History Channel, CNN and 60
Minutes blended together.

Q: Finally, following the great success of your last book, what is
your next book about?

Well, without giving away too much, it revolves around four central
characters, evolves around a historical perspective, involves juicy
secrets around an archaeological find, and dissolves with the
satisfactory resolution of a murder!

A Matter of Faith (The Hindu, Chennai, Divya Kumar)

Did Jesus live in India at any point in his life? Is Rozabal, the tomb of Yuz Asaf in Srinagar, in fact, the final resting place of Jesus Christ?

Ashwin Sanghi doesn’t pretend to know the answers to these questions — in fact, he goes out of his way to remind you that he’s a) not an academic researcher and b) just a storyteller, a spinner of yarns.

But, with The Rozabal Line, what the Mumbai-based businessman and first-time novelist does is ask that really fun question — what if? What if it was and his blood line survives in the region to this day? And, what if that line was somehow entangled with the current-day religious politics and terrorism?

Sanghi was in Chennai recently for a reading and discussion at Landmark on the book published last year by Westland. The mystery/thriller novel, built very much along the lines of The Da Vinci Code (complete with ruthless assassins and references to the Illuminati), seems to have caught the fancy of readers since, making its way onto India Today’s bestseller list.

But it didn’t exactly have the easiest road to publication. “I sent out the manuscript to 100-odd publishing houses and 99 said no or didn’t bother to reply,” Sanghi says. “So I decided to self-publish on lulu.com (under the name of Shawn Haigins) and I’m glad I did, because it created a buzz online and soon blog posts started popping up.”

That’s how Westland found the book, and approached Sanghi about an Indian print edition. “They said: ‘What plans do you have for India?’ And I said none, because no one wants me!” he laughs ruefully.

Mixed reactions
Three months of editing later, The Rozabal Line hit the bookshelves for real, and not surprisingly, it’s provoked some pretty varied reactions. “I’ve been called crazy on the one hand and been told that it’s thought-provoking on the other,” he comments.

“Mostly, I think the notion that Jesus spent his missing years in India and that he might have seen it as a spiritual home is incredibly romantic.”

That it is. Whatever its faults — and this book, bursting with conspiracy theories and plenty of sensationalist mumbo-jumbo from tantric sex and ancient astrological predictions to instant hypnotic regression to past lives, has its share — The Rozabal Line is anchored by the author’s obvious fascination with how the world’s religions are all linked.

That same fascination shone through during his talk at Landmark, that travelled, like the novel itself, from Mesopotamia to Magadha, Jerusalem to ancient Rome, tracing the way religions have learnt and borrowed from each other down the ages — how Jesus’ teachings may have, for instance, been drawn from Buddhism.

At times, the audience actually chuckled in disbelief at some of his more audacious theories (was Mary Magdalene really Mary Magadha-lene?) and at others, was obviously drawn in despite of itself.

“We assume the different faiths are distinctly different, but once you start tracing back the roots of their beliefs, you find their origins are much closer that you might imagine,” says Sanghi earnestly. “I’m not saying all of this is fact; I’m just putting the question out there — ‘Is it possible?’”

DIVYA KUMAR

Indian Express Chennai: Fiction on Jesus (Saranya Chakrapani)

After his book, The Rozabal Line saw great critical success and continues to induce curiosity, amazement and a host of mixed feelings among readers, he just has one realisation to share, “This book is not fine dining; it’s Pizza Hut, Domino’s, Mc Donalds, all thrown in together. I’ve put together all these elements to make it interesting. It is something that will appeal to Indians.”

The Rozabal Line, which was first orginally published under Sanghi’s pseudonym Shawn Haigins, which hypothesises that Jesus survived the crucifixion and traveled to India. It was again published in 2008 by Westland Ltd. & Tranquebar Press, under his name. It probes into the controversy that Jesus was buried in Kashmir, India. It is said to have reflected on the themes talked about in books like Jesus Lived in India: Life Before and After the Crucifixion by Holger Kersten and Jesus Died In Kashmir: Jesus, Moses, The Ten Lost Tribes Of Israel by Andreas Kaiser and The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.

“I’m not an author, I’m a writer yes. Writing is a very personal activity. I’m not an author so please excuse my communication skills, an author is expected to have. Unfortunately when I initially wrote the book and started sending out a hundred manuscripts, no one wanted to publish the book. People thought that I was crazy, insane, evil, or all of the above,” admits Ashwin.

At the book discussion at the Apparao Galleries, he took forward an enlightening discussion on a variety of topics both from and outside of the book, with his vast knowledge on faiths and history. On being asked about the name Shawn Haigins, he said, “The name Shawn Haigins is a perfect anagram of the Ashwin Sanghi, if you jumble up the letters.”

“What I want to show through this book, is that we have over a period of time, genuinely distorted the relevance of female power. Someone asked me why I have given so much importance to Mary Magdeline. The philosophy that I’m talking about is that you have light, there is an absence of light, which is darkness and if you have heat and an absence of heat, there is cold. I feel energy is that; either there is female energy, or there is absence of female energy, which is male energy. That is the divine feminine in this book.”

The relevance he says is not just the possibility that Jesus came to India. “It lies in the fact that there is so much in common between Hinduism, Christianity, even Islam, Judaism and Zoroastrianism. “All said and done, it is at the end of the day, a good fiction that make for a good read. Take it that way,” he smiles.

saranyachakrapani@epmltd.com

History with Conspiracy sells

Deccan Chronicle
May 9, 2009
By Harish Prakash
Author Ashwin Sanghi was in the city for a discussion on the subject ‘Divine Feminine’

Businessman-turned-author Ashwin Sanghi believes everybody loves conspiracy theories. “Whether it’s John F Kennedy’s assassination by aliens, or Jesus’s last years in India, conspiracy packaged in historical relevance sells like hot cakes,” he says.
The author of the best-selling novel The Rozabal Line was in the city as a part of an Apparao Galleries initiative to participate in a discussion on the Divine Feminine.

His debut novel The Rozabal Line, is a work of fiction woven from historical texts about Jesus.

Apart from this broad similarity with The Da Vinci Code, his novel explores the commonality that exists between religions. “My extensive research in writing this book has led me to believe that all religions are rooted in a single source.

From ancient inscriptions, to all manner of historical evidence, the interlinking is there for anyone who cares to see it,” he reveals.

The economics major from Yale is an entrepreneur by day and a novelist by night. “I started writing novels as a means of escape from reality, into a world of my own.

Writing became a sort of therapy, which kept me relaxed in my daily life,” he says. “I’m happy and relieved that despite my busy schedule, that gives me very little time with mywife and our six-year-old son, they are proud of my achievements.” The deeply religious author has been to Chennai several times.

“Every few years Imake a trip to Tirupati. It’s o these trips thatI visit Chennai. As a guy born and brought up in Mumbai, I enjoy South Indian cuisine.

But all this apart, I am interested in the diversity in the writing script and culture. I might one day use this as a plot, building on the historical relevance of South India as possibly the place from where civilization spread across the country,” reflected the author.

Crossing the Line

Times of India
Chennai Times, May 8, 2009
By Anusha Vincent
Crossing the ‘Line’


The Rozabal Line almost didn’t make it to India. Mumbai-based Ashwin Sanghi took two years to write his gem, but had to independently publish his book abroad before he was noticed ‘by chance’ here. The witty author gets talking to CT.

Rozabal Line in essence

It is a book that revolves around the premise that there could be a bloodline of Jesus living in India. Apart from my own research, there are bits of studies by others, which have till now been discussed only in a non-fiction or scholarly fashion. My book has been compared to the Da Vinci Code (great for publicity!), but the similarity ends with the fact that both books explore the ‘maybes’. Maybe Jesus didn’t die on the cross, maybe he was married...There are also little interesting side trips. For eg, in a little French town called La Saint-Marie, a festival called La Sara Kali is celebrated. It is dedicated to the day Mary Magdalene arrived on boat with her daughter. I have talked about how this could be connected to ‘La’kshmi, ‘Sara’swathi and ‘Kali’.

You write about politics, history and religion. Is there a common inspiration?

Oddity inspires me. The conspiracy theory enthuses me. For example, when you compare the Zoroastrian language-Avesthan and Sanskrit from the Rig Veda, they are 99 percent identical. Hindus have the ‘asuras’ and the ‘devas’. Zoroastrians have the ‘ahuras’ and the ‘devas’. This kind of oddity in commonality inspires me.

The incidents in your book had strange similarities with the Mumbai terror attacks. How did you handle the link-ups?

I was honestly shattered. It was a spooky twist of coincidence. The book got the kind of publicity that I didn’t want. I wish I either hadn’t written those things, got the kind of publicity…or better still, I wish the incident hadn’t happened at all.

Favourite authors

The usual...Archer, Sheldon, Forsyth and Ludlum. Arthur Hailey is my favourite because he worked on a lot of tightly researched facts. There are no Indians on the list because they predominantly write intellectual literature; not thrillers.

Recession and the writer

It is like a double-edged sword. On one hand book sales have gone up, but on the other, publishing houses are cutting down on the books they publish. New talent is at a disadvantage.

About the reading…

It is going to be an arena for exchange of ideas. People who have read my book till date say that it attempts to show that ultimately we are all one. Religion is one.

Ashwin Sanghi will take part in a book reading and discussion today at Landmark at 6 pm and give a talk at Apparao Galleries, at 7:30 pm, presented jointly by the US Consulate General.

anusha.vincent@timesgroup.com

Third Successive Month on India Today's Bestseller List!

1. Slumdog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup
2. The Associate by John Grisham
3. The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga
4. The 3 Mistakes of my Life by Chetan Bhagat
5. The Rozabal Line by Ashwin Sanghi

The Rozabal Line is on Asian Age's Bestseller List, third month in a row

The Rozabal Line stays on India Today's Top-10 Bestseller list second month in a row.

1. Aravind Adiga - The White Tiger – HarperCollins – Rs.395
2. Chetan Bhagat – The 3 Mistakes of My Life – Rupa & Co. – Rs.95
3. Vikas Swarup - Slumdog Millionaire - Black Swan
4. John Grisham - The Associate - Arrow
5. Amitav Ghosh – Sea of Poppies – Penguin/Viking – Rs.599
6. Jhumpa Lahiri – Unaccustomed Earth – Random House – Rs.450
7. Vikas Swarup - Six Suspects - Doubleday
8. Ashwin Sanghi – The Rozabal Line – Westland Books – Rs.250

Mid-Day: Did Jesus Spend his Final Days in Kashmir?

And was Mary Magdalene from Maghada? Ashwin Sanghi's thriller, The Rozabal Line, shocks you at every page. But the author assured us, it's nothing more than a good old yarn.

Jacob was the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Issa, who married Mary Magdala. Issa and Mary had a child by the name of Sara, who was born to them in India, but was later sent to Gaul with her mother. Issa remained in India, where he married a woman from the Sakya clan on the persistence of King Gopadatta, and had a son, Benissa. Benissa had a son, Yoshua...

If you are one of the millions who lapped up every page of The Da Vinci Code, here's a book that's even better. Instead of spinning a yarn about slumdogs and NRI angst, Ashwin Sanghi takes us into a world of intrigue and conspiracy, almost having us believe that all religions in the world are linked. He makes us wonder if Jesus spent his final days in Kashmir, and that may be his bloodline continues till today. Could his descendant be a Muslim terrorist, funded by the cult Illuminati, which includes the president of the United States? "It was hard getting this book published," says the 40 year-old businessman, who first self-published the book in the United States in 2007. Now, a revised edition has hit the stores, and we spoke to Ashwin about the eyebrow-raising content.

The book moves from India to Japan, the US, Middle East, interlinking their religious beliefs and history. How did you conduct all this research?
It all started when I read Jesus Lived In India by Holger Kersten. After that, for almost a year, I just read everything I could get my hands on. The research had already been done for me.

Were you in any way apprehensive about how the world would perceive the explosive content?
Not at all. Unlike the Da Vinci Code, which claimed to be based on facts, I have no such agenda. I am a fiction writer, and this is just a story.

Do you believe that Jesus lived in India? I don't think it's in any way relevant if he came here or not. But do I wish it was true? Yes, completely. Isn't that such a romantic notion?

One of the major themes in your book is reincarnation. Do you believe in it? Yes, because I think it explains a lot of events that occur in our present life. But as a storywriter, I also wanted to tie up loose ends. How could I describe the crucifiction of Jesus and the eventual resurrection, if I didn't have a spectator, who actually saw it happening? That's why my central character, goes through a regression session, and finds out that in a past life, he was a spectator at Jesus's crucifiction.

The Rozabal Line is available at all leading book stores, Rs 250

FPJ: Holy Fiction

Kashmiri Da Vinci Code

Four Stars (****)
Ashwin Sanghi’s book is a pot-boiler, despite the some what incredible claims. Characters like Ghalib are comparable to Dan Brown’s Silas as they are in mad obsession with their organisation, in this case, the Lashkar-e-Talatshar. A thrilling read for all fans of the genre.
Title: The Rozabal Line
Author: Ashwin Sanghi
Publisher: Westland
Price: Rs 250

"The Rozabal Line" is on India Today's Top-10 list of Bestsellers

1. Aravind Adiga - The White Tiger – HarperCollins – Rs.395
2. Chetan Bhagat – The Three Mistakes of My Life – Rupa & Co. – Rs.95
3. J. K. Rowling – The Tales of Beedle the Bard – Bloomsbury – Rs.599
4. Stephanie Meyer – Twilight Film Tie In – Atom/Hachette Book – Rs.350/299
5. Ashwin Sanghi – The Rozabal Line – Westland Books – Rs.250
6. Amitav Ghosh – Sea of Poppies – Penguin/Viking – Rs.599
7. Aravind Adiga – Between The Assassinations – Picador – Rs.295
8. Jhumpa Lahiri – Unaccustomed Earth – Random House – Rs.450
9. Durjoy Datta / Maanvi Ahuja – Of Course I Love You Till I Find Someone Better – Srishti – Rs.100
10. Khaled Hosseini – The Kite Runner – Bloomsbury / Penguin India / Harper Collins India – Rs.275 / 975 / 599

The Hindu, Literary Review: Theological Thriller - A well-researched work of fiction that explores Jesus’ life in Kerala and Kashmir.

The legend that Jesus did not die on the cross but travelled to India and died in Kashmir was buried as myth decades ago by theologians. But as fiction it acquires new life, new possibilities, taps into the rich vein of religious conspiracy thrillers. And after The Da Vinci Code this old legend feels less like myth and more like hidden history. Ashwin Sanghi’s The Rozabal Line, set in Kerala and Kashmir, is closely researched. The crisp, efficient mechanics of its thriller-plot (international conspiracy with a large cast of intriguing characters) did not interest me as much as the tantalising scholarship it unfolds: Christianity’s debt to Buddhism and the life of Jesus in Kerala.

The Da Vinci Code kicked up a storm of controversy among conservative Christians, and while the dust has settled on that, I have to wonder now how conservative Christians in India are going to view the book. They have always scoffed with amusement at this “Jesus in India” theory, not considering it worthwhile to even argue against it. But now The Rozabal Line brings the controversy right into their turf. Their friends, neighbours, colleagues, pastors, parishioner, and possibly their children are going to be reading it — do they (they being Christian fundamentalists, not liberals) have a scholarly rebuttal or are they going to wish it away by dismissing it?

The Rozabal tomb in Srinagar, Kashmir, is said to be the final resting place of Yuz Asaf — or Jesus. For those coming late to this legend, The Rozabal Line will amply fill you on it — how Jesus could have travelled to India between 12 and 30, those missing years, and studied Buddhism, how Jesus possibly returned to India later, and spent some years in Kerala and so when Thomas his apostle arrived on its shores, he was greeted by the Master himself! But the book goes further to consider the possibility that Jesus and Mary Magdalene saw India as their true spiritual home because of its deep roots in the sacred feminine. A provocative, clever and radiant line of theology Sanghi suggests is that the cult of Mary Magdalene has its true inspiration in the trinity of the Indian sacred feminine — thereby outthinking and out-conspiring Dan Brown.

Several questions remain, some of them being: Why did Thomas continue to preach Christ crucified and risen to those first Brahmin converts on the Malabar coast when his master himself was alive and living in Kerala? If Jesus didn’t really travel to India, why does the legend of Yuz Asaf resemble him so closely? If Jesus and the hermetic Essene sect (that John the Baptist also belonged to) were not influenced by Buddhism, what are we to make of what is now known as “The Jesus Scrolls” at the Hemis Monastery in Tibet — scrolls that tell of an Essene scholar who studied at the monastery? Where — and who — are Jesus’ Indian descendants now?

The author makes it clear (unlike Brown who tried to pass it off as secret history) that the work is fiction. Two factors drove Sanghi to write it, and in a note to readers, he says: “I am saddened to see that the tomb remains in a state of disrepair with scant international attention. The Rozabal Line is my personal tribute to this tomb and to the person who lies buried within it. If I do earn anything from this book, I hope that I will be able to contribute it to the cause of preserving a global treasure — Rozabal.” And the second and more important factor: “…to make ordinary people understand that the world’s religions are more interconnected than we have ever imagined and that this understanding is absolutely vital in today’s age of religious conflict.”

A blurb from the book jacket sums up how ambitious its scope is: “From Jesus to Muhammad; from the Crusades to 9/11; from the Vatican to the White House; from Skull & Bones to the Illuminati; from Buddhist meditation to past-life regression; from the Virgin birth to nuclear destruction; and from Mary Magdalene to Osama-bin-Laden; The Rozabal Line has it all, and more.” The book zips through several centuries back and forth, cramming in enough for several thrillers. Does it work? That depends really on how you like your thriller — complex and dense or functional and racy. I didn’t mind that Rozabal was racy, but traversing so much ground does not add to its excitement or suspense. What it does offer instead are quick, fascinating religious — or pseudo religious — history lessons. It’s nice to have an Indian religious conspiracy thriller. As a conspiracy buff, I enjoy the genre, and wish for more to flood our publishing houses.

-Pradeep Sebastian

Deccan Herald, Book Review: Unravelling the Truth

It’s a dangerous world out there. Many wars are being fought in the name of religion. Is religion greater than human life? Well, we suppose so, after Ashwin Sanghi’s The Rozabal Line, the book that attempts to highlight an alternative theory that Jesus survived the cross and travelled to India where he died.

Woven around the life of Father Vincent Morgan, an ordinary diocesan priest, the story races ahead with Vincent experiencing flashes of his previous lives quite often. Helping him decipher the truth behind these flashes is his aunt Martha, a trained yoga teacher and a spiritual consultant of renown. During one such past life regression sessions, Vincent learns that one of his previous lives was entwined with that of Jesus Christ. To add to his dismay is the document handed over to him by Professor Terry Acton which drives him to believe that Jesus Christ did not die on the cross at all, but travelled to India in search of one of the ten lost tribes of Israel and breathed his last in Kashmir. To Vincent’s horror, Prof Terry is murdered immediately after handing over the documents containing this holy truth.

Another mystery he has to crack is that of the Rozabal Tomb in Srinagar, believed to be that of Yuz Asaf. But, who exactly was Yuz Asaf? Was he Jesus Christ himself? And, how did Jesus Christ’s bloodline flow? Are his descendants still in Kashmir as Islam converts? Is it they who are fighting a bloody jihad for the liberation of Kashmir?

Ghalib-bin-Isar, the leader of a band of twelve elite warriors known as the Lashkar-e-Talatashar, that operates under the umbrella of Lashkar-e-Taiba, plans to unleash terror across the world, culminating in a major nuclear explosion on December 21, 2012, the day marked in the Mayan calendar as the ‘end of the world’. Is he one of Christ’s descendants?

Determined to unravel the truth and find answers to queries that kept gnawing at him, Vincent lands in India. At this point in time, little does Vincent know that he is the target of none less than the secretive Crux Decussata Permuta, a fundamentalist Catholic organization, the Illuminati and the al-Qaeda, each for their own reasons.
Close at his heels is Swakilki, a beautiful but deadly Japanese female assassin who carries out orders for Cardinal Alberto Valerio, a member of the Crux Decussata Permuta. Vincent’s attempts to get to the bottom of the truth and the subsequent currency of this truth threaten to shake the balance of power across the globe.

Does Vincent succeed in his mission? Do the fundamentalist forces allow the truth to emerge at all? Well, The Rozabal Line proceeds thus.

A suspenseful novel that can be termed a religious conspiracy thriller, The Rozabal Line makes for a gripping read right from the word ‘go’. The various games of assassination, terrorist plots, religious mysteries and the rich details outlined in the book leave the reader asking for more. Another appealing characteristic of the book is the extensive use of past life regression to explain the theory of karma. The simplicity of language and captivating characterization add to the allure of the book. As for the rest of it, one might say that it’s certainly quite a change to read a novelist who ‘elucidates the unsaid’. It is also quite refreshing to note the many references to Buddhism and Hinduism. The wealth of historical and religious information contained in the book only speaks for the intense research that must have gone into its writing.

One word of caution though — at times, The Rozabal Line overwhelms with information overload. Navigating from the ancient world to the near future, set in 2012, the various elements in the book are confusing to the reader. To add to the complication are innumerable references and copious notes given at the end of the novel. Also are many significant historical milestones that are touched upon once every few pages.

However, despite these shortcomings, it is a must-read for all those who enjoyed Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. A fine combination of history, religion, spirituality and mystery, the book is thought provoking and definitely not for the faint-hearted.

To put it mildly, the novel is stunning… absolutely stunning.

The Indian Writing in English subgenre of English literature is well known and well respected across the world. Authors like Salman Rushdie, Arundhati Roy and Vikram Seth have won accolades worldwide and international fame. But popular fiction writing (read as mysteries and thrillers) in English by Indian authors still finds little recognition across the globe, and for that matter even within India. As a connoisseur of mysteries and thrillers, I had recently researched into the origin and development of this rather unknown subgenre within Indian Writing in English. Though contributions in this subgenre have been sporadic and far between, there have occasionally been some gems, some diamonds which warrant mention, attention and recognition across the globe.

The book under review, “The Rozabal Line,” is one such novel. Self-published through Lulu by Ashwin Sanghi under the pseudonym (and anagram) Shawn Haigins in 2007, the novel was later picked up by Westland, and the book republished in the author’s own name in 2008. To put it mildly, the novel is stunning… absolutely stunning.

There is a little known tomb in Kashmir by name Rozabal. History proclaims that the tomb contains the mortal remains of a saint by name Yuz Asaf. But who exactly was Yuz Asaf, who supposedly died in 112 AD? Father Vincent Sinclair had heard about the absurd myth of Lord Jesus Christ coming to India. But he, as like majority of the Vatican had dismissed the theory as hogwash. But something is disturbing Father Sinclair. He is unwittingly sucked into the vortex of Rozabal in the form of dreams...in the form of haunts from his previous life. Slowly the good father begins to suspect that there is more to this myth of Lord Christ’s life in Kashmir than what is accepted by the Vatican. Was Saint Yuz Asaf Jesus himself? Did Jesus Christ visit India during the so-called missing years of his life (between age 12 and 30)? Did he study Buddhism in India, and finally, did Jesus Christ die in India? With a cast of colorful characters and settings, including the Vatican, Opus Dei, Karma, reincarnation and racing across Rome to United States and from Kerala to Kashmir (within India), the novel is a fast paced nail-biting read.

The life of Christ in India has been the subject matter of many a non-fiction book, but fiction books on the subject are few. Save for the 70’s novel “The Thomas Document” by Hugh Gantzer, I don’t think there has been any other novel that has exploited this theme. Of course, comparison with DaVinci Code is inevitable, and of course we have to thank Dan Brown for putting the theological thriller up the map, but unlike Dan Brown, the author doesn’t restrict himself into creating merely a conspiracy thriller. The author proudly proclaims this as intriguing historical fiction, no more, no less.

A well researched historical novel, I for one hopes that this will revolutionize Mystery and Thriller Writing in English in India.

Reviewed by Narayan Radhakrishnan for RebeccasReads (1/09)

Asian Age Bestseller List, March 1, 2009

MV Kamath: "Provocative, but commanding attention..."

The two central tenets of Christianity are: virgin birth and resurrection. For Christians these are fundamental issues of faith, beyond challenge. Christ died on the cross, but briefly arose from his tomb to the utter surprise of his disciples. Did he really die? In the first place, why did the Jews—Christ was one—have to appeal to the Roman Governor, Pontius Pilato, for punishing him? The question has been raise why the vested interests of the Jewish priesthood did not take recourse to kill Christ by stoning the, an act for which no permission, apparently, of the Governor was necessary. The second question that has bothered some scholars is why the Roman Governor decided to ignore Roman Law which denies burial of a crucified men and allow Jesus’ body to be handed over for burial to Joseph of Arimathea?

These and many such questions are sought to be answered by the author, Ashwin Sanghi, an Indian, whose work The Rozabal Line was originally published in the United States under the name of Shawn Haigins, a perfect anagram of Ashwin Sanghi. The author makes it clear that this is a work of fiction, thought incorporating religion, history and established facts, in a heady mix. For the reader it is perplexity confounded. What part of the text is factual and what part pure fictions?

To his credit, Sanghi admits to being guided by earlier works like The Da Vinci Code. Rolger Kersten’s Jesus Lived in India: His Unknown Life Before and After Crucifixion,Michael Baigent’s The Jesus Paper (Harpen, 2006), Suzanne Olsson’s Jesus in Kashmir, The Lost Tomb and several other works. But what guarantee is there about their scholarship or credibility? The fact that somebody has made certain allegations does not automatically bequeath authenticity on his work. Having said that, one can read this speculative work with some curiosity.

For one thing, we know so little about the life of Jesus. The claim is made that a boy called Issa, born in Judea, left his home when he was barely fourteen, and made his way to India to study the teachings of the Buddha. He apparently travelled through Sind, the Punjab and on to Magadh, where he studied the Vedas, took refuge is Buddhist monasteries and learnt Buddhist doctrine originally written in Pali. There is not the slightest reference to this anywhere in the New Testament. Max Mueller reportedly has strongly protested against any notion that Buddhism had influenced Christianity. Then on, what evidence is there that after he was renunciated with medicinal herbs, Jesus decided to make his way to Kashmir and Tibet, as is claimed? An even more unconfirmed claim is made that Jesus may have come to India along with St Thomas.

Surely, if it was true, there would have been some record available in south India? Even more ridiculous a suggestion is made that ‘Issa’ (Yesu, Jesus) married Mary and had a child by the name Sara who was born in India but was later sent to Gaul with her mother. Issa, it is claimed, remained in India and in due course, married a woman of the Sakya Clan on the persistence of King Gopadatta, and sired a son, Benissa. This is letting imagination run riot.

The author quotes from a book Ikmal-ud-Din (what is its authenticity?) that said that “Yuz Asaf’ (Jesus) after roaming about in many cities, reached that country known as Kashmir (and) stayed there till the end of his life. Did Jesus really get married? The author quotes from another book entitled The Women With The Alabaster Jar by Margaret Starbird and published in 1993, according to which the anointing of Jesus by Mary Magdalene was carried out as part of a sacred marriage ritual. Starbird writes: “Jesus had a secret dynastic marriage with Mary of Bethany. She was a daughter of the tribe of Benjamin, whose ancestor heritage was the land surrounding the Holy City of David, the city of Jerusalem. A dynastic marriage between Jesus and a royal daughter of the Benjaminites would have been perceived as a source of healing to the people of Israel”. The reference to Mary Magdalene as a member of royalty is impotant, as is the reference to Jesus as belonging to the royal family of David, considering that their marriage would have been powerful dynastic alliance. Sanghi himself writes: “It now becomes clear why Jesus was called “the King of Jews’. His title had not been merely a spiritual one, but also one that was temporal and political”.

Later on, he adds: “The political implication of such a union was undeniable, since it meant the very real potential threat of political upheaval, if ever an attempt was made to restore the lineage of Jewish kings”. Further again he avers: “This political element was seen as a threat by the Romans, and hence the need to crucify Jesus. The Romans had been quite happy to allow the Jews to manage their own religions affairs. There was no need to interfere. The intervention happened. Because of political reasons, not religious ones”. But now to go back to the title of the book: The Rozabal Line. The word Rozabal is supposedly derived from the Kashmir term Rauza-Bal, meaning ‘tomb of the Prophet’. The tomb reportedly has been in existence since AD 112 onwards and is situated in the Kanyar district of old Srinagar. But what is so special about it? Sanghi writes: “According to Muslim custom, the gravestone had been placed along the north-south axis… (but) the sarcophagus of Yuz Asaf lay along the east-west axis as per Jewish custom. Nothing else was out of the ordinary here—except for the carved imprint of a pair of feet near the sarcophagus. The feet were normal human feet--normal, barring the fact that they bore marks on them, marks that coincided with the punctured wounds inflicted in crucifixion. Crucifixion had never been practiced in Asia. So it was quite obvious that the resident of the tomb had undergone this ordeal in some other, distant land”.

So, that’s the story. One is free to believe it. Believe that Jesus did not die on the cross but was brought down unconscious, taken to the site of his tomb and restored to life, after which he left for distant shores, namely India. One can also dismiss it as speculation unworthy of attention. One must remember that this is a work of fiction. Provocative, but commanding attention. What is truth, Jesting Pilate is quoted as having asked Jesus. One might as well ask the same question of the author, in jest or in all seriousness. From what he has written it is clear that he will not pause for an answer.

Turn the Key, Find God

Closer home is Ashwin Sanghi's The Rozabal Line, about a tomb in Kashmir which could be that of a man named Yusuf, or Jesus...

The Rozabal Line is No.3 on Asian Age's Bestseller List

The Asian Age, New Delhi, 25 January 2009
Bestsellers

Fiction

1. The White Tiger
By Arvind Adiga
HarperCollins
Rs.395

2. Married But Available
By Abhijit Bhaduri
Harper Collins
Rs.195

3. The Rozabal Line
By Ashwin Sanghi
Westland
Rs.250

4. You Are Here
By Meenakshi Reddy Madhavan
Penguin Books
Rs.199

Sakaal: Locked in the code

Unlike their Indian language counterparts, Indian thrillers in English are few. The small list includes senior television journalist and NDTV’s CEO Vikram A Chandra’s much-appreciated racy thriller The Srinagar Conspiracy. It dealt with the realities of militancy in Kashmir Valley and grievances of the people there — something that Chandra has seen first hand as a journalist — with a love story. Added to that list is a well-researched theological thriller The Rozabal Line by Ashwin Sanghi that fictionalises the myth that Jesus travelled to Kashmir, and military thrillers by Mukul Deva among others.

Indian Express: A treasure house of surprise

L Suresh reviews The Rozabal Line, a book that makes the conspiracy theory about the man on the moon sound like canteen gossip.

Vatican. Check. Illuminati. Check. United States. Check. Terrorist group. Check. Ruthless assassin. Check. A crypt with a secret. Check. Conspiracy theory . Check. Christ and his Apostles. Check. A chase across continents. Check. Anagrams and coded messages. Check.

For decades, authors have explored the contours of religion, looking for hidden crevices that would hold explosive revelations on everything from the Holy Grail to the inquisitions. But no one has made the genre more popular than Dan Brown, the father of ‘new age conspiracy thrillers involving age-old beliefs’. Ashwin Sanghi follows in this long lineage of writers who not only seek inspiration from Dan Brown’s formula, but also doff their hats to him by alluding to him in the cover blurb, albeit in a competitive manner.

The Rozabal Line is yet another book that takes a look at the life and times of Christ and all the key events that preceded or followed this period — and comes up with a theory that is sure to leave you tottering halfway between disbelief and dissent.

Sanghi sets his story against this elabo rate backdrop, pitching the unholy trinity — Aum Shinrikyo, a Japanese cult, Crux Decussata Permuta, a clandestine society and Lashkar-e-Talatashar, an arm of the Lashkar-e-Taiba — into the thick of action. What follows is a reign of terror, in keeping with the modern times.

However, it is in the coming together of the two — a wafer-thin piece of fiction on terrorism and an incredible theory based on historical facts, observations and deductions — that the book develops cracks. It’s almost as if the storyline were a mere excuse to present a line of thought that borders on the preposterous, but makes for great reading.

Another aspect of the book that needs getting used to is its unusual flow — more like a website with several references, search topics and crosslinks to other pages, except that all of them have been laid out in a linear fashion. So just when you want to move on with the story, you are taken on a guided tour of background information that oscillates across time zones and offers various slices of history that vary in their relevance to the original plot. The book offers an interesting take on the Dan Brown genre by an Indian author — a fact that not only makes us curious to see how he goes about it, but also reveals how a native would pitch his country compared to a visitor. Characters leave their comfort zones to come to India and learn Iyengar yoga, horoscopes predict the future instead of supercomputers spewing out data and mythology makes its presence felt.

The ultimate reward that The Rozabal Line holds for the reader is the treasure house of surprises that lie in store, as history gets presented (or distorted, as the case may be) as delightful, jaw-dropping trivia.

The lines between religions and beliefs blur and re-emerge, and revelations — bordering on the preposterous — indicate the presence of Buddhism in Egypt and of Jesus Christ in India.

At various places in the book, reincarnation makes its presence felt, making the hunter and the hunted trade places across numerous life-cycles. If this genre doesn’t attain moksha soon, the chances are that there are many more incarnations of this book in store for us.

The Rozabal Line on Deccan Herald's Bestseller List of Jan 2009

The Statesman: From Jerusalem to Vaishno Devi - A mixture of comparative religion, dangerous secrets, thrilling plot makes for an esoteric read

“If the vested interests of the temple Jews had wanted to kill Jesus, they had the power to do so by stoning him to death without taking any permission from Rome. Why did this not happen?” The questions surrounding what happened to Jesus after the crucifixion forms the crux of The Rozabal Line by Ashwin Sanghi. Ashwin’s first attempt at fiction offers another point of view to the controversial world myth. A thriller, a la The Da Vinci Code, it is built around the various religions, historical facts and dangerous secrets.

Sanghi’s flair for religion, history and politics is clearly visible as he takes the reader across the world spanning different decades. From Srinagar, Mecca, Saudi Arabia to Waziristan, London, Vatican City and Zurich in 2012; Ladakh in 1887, Srinagar 1975, Gulmarg 1985, Osaka (japan) 1972 or India AD 52, the characters are scattered across centuries and various continents.

The story follows a priest, Father Vincent Morgan, who has had visions of the crucifixion as well as some of his own past lives. Searching for answers to his visions, he stumbles upon the alternative religious theory—that Jesus did not die upon the cross but was instead rescued and taken to India where he lived out the remainder of his life as a prophet, a husband and a father. The Catholic Church’s leaders do not want Father Morgan to find any proof of these theories and send an assassin to stop him.

Creating further complications is the group of 13 terrorists (the leader of which it is indicated may be descended from Christ and the 12 other men, when they are finally killed, are each murdered as each of the Twelve Disciples were killed) who are attempting to bring about Armageddon. This group ultimately works for Osama bin Laden who in turn is being manipulated by Opus Dei and the Illuminati.

The plot is further enriched with the beliefs and practices of various world religions. Hidden links between opposed organizations are revealed quite gradually, and so are the principals’ true goals. Though there are numerous characters and sub-plots in the story which impede the flow, everything falls into place in the end.

Here’s an excerpt from the story: “An interpreter was called for and began translating the scrolls while Dmitry attempted to make copies of them. The scrolls told the story of a boy called Issa, born in Judea. The story went on to explain that sometime during the 14th year of his life, the boy arrived in India to study the teachings of the Buddhists… Dmitry was excited. Then petrified. He knew that there was no going back on this discovery. He now knew that he had in his hands one of the most stunning revelations in two millennia. A revelation about Issa, the Arabic form of the Hebrew name Yeshua, also known as Jesus.

- Aditi Vij

Metro Plus Bangalore

I found The Rozabal Line quite gripping, not so much because it unfurls a possible life of Jesus the Christ in India, and traces this life all the way to twenty-first century descendants, or because it paints a terrifying picture of how all religions fall under the awful sweep of world politics, whose prime tool is terrorism. The really exciting part of this book, for me, was how it invokes an important remembrance that there was once a living trail of Gnostic knowledge all around the world, actively travelled by people in communion with truth. “Rozabal Line” begins well and is quite exciting, with a plot that is as thrilling as the discoveries of the seekers in the book. But towards the end, the plot turns into an overdone kichdi, with far too many incidents and revelations and motives than the story can hold. But that’s only in the last quarter of the book, and even then, the thrill stays.

KALA KRISHNAN RAMESH

The Mumbai Mirror: Titles to Watch out for in 2009

With a religio-historical sweep, it explores the reason to believe that Christ did not die on the cross and went on to live in India and marry and leave a bloodline - something the clergy was uncomfortable dealing with.

One of the best books that I have read in a long long time...

Once upon a time there was a priest. His name was Vincent. Vincent was brought up a good Catholic, his only problem was that he frequently had visions of his past lives. Subjected to past life regression, Vincent realized that he had lived as Simon of Cyrene, the cross-bearer of Jesus, in a previous lifetime. During this previous lifetime, he saw that Jesus did not die and that he was healed by herbs and medicines and sprinted off to safety—to Kashmir. Fast forward to the twenty-first century, a group of Islamic terrorists of the Lashkar-e-Taiba are fighting a Jihad in Kashmir. They strangely resemble Christ and his thirteen apostles. Could this be the bloodline of Christ in India? Vincent and his aunt, Martha, arrive in India to investigate but their investigations are against the aims and objectives of the Opus Dei inspired Crux Decusata Permuta as well as the opposing forces of the Illuminati.

That’s the fictional part of the story. But that’s really not the relevant bit in this book of epic proportions—the real story lies in what’s not part of the fiction thriller plot. The book regularly takes excursions at every turn to explore something that is relevant to the fictional plot. For example, the fiction bit talks about Vincent seeing Jesus being taken down from the cross alive. The relevant factual excursion talks about the healing properties of Myrrh and Aloe Vera, both of which were supposed to have been used to cure Jesus of his crucifixion wounds. The fictional part of the story talks of three wise men coming to meet the infant Jesus, whereas the related side-trip talks about how Buddhist monks travel the entire world to find the reincarnation of a Dalai Lama. The fictional part of the story talks of Jesus fleeing to escape Herod’s wrath to Egypt with his parents, whereas the factual side-excursion tells us how Emperor Ashoka sent Buddhist missionaries to Egypt and how these Buddhists influenced spiritual discourse in the Gnostic schools where Jesus studied.

The Rozabal Line is a magnificent tale—very complex to read because of the tiny little details tucked away inside it. It is NOT a desi Da Vinci Code… far from it. I doubt whether Da Vinci fans would like Rozabal at all. The historical detours, the theological discussions and the spiritual connections that Sanghi draws in this book make it a masterpiece entirely in its own genre. The idea that the star of David could be related to the Hindu trinity, that there could be a connection between Abraham and Brahma, that there could be a play of opposing forces between Vish and Shiv i.e. Vishnu and Shiva, that Mary Magdalene could have had a connection with King Ashoka’s Maghada, and hundred of tasty morsels of this wonderfully enticing riddle and answer game makes this one of the best books that I have read in a long long time.

Deccan Herald: "A chilling story..."

In a chilling story swirling between continents and centuries, the author traces a pattern that curls backwards to the violent birth of religion itself. The book suggests to us that karma is all.

Though Brown's The Da Vinci Code may still be the uncrowned king in conspiracy theory fiction, he has got an Indian challenger in Ashwin Sanghi.

Though Brown's The Da Vinci Code may still be the uncrowned king in conspiracy theory fiction, he has got an Indian challenger in Ashwin Sanghi. Entrepreneur by day and novelist by night, Sanghi's Rozabal Line is based on the assumption that Christ came to India. He spent the last three years blending the Kashmir situation and plausible ancient 'history' to offer an Indian bloodline to Christ. "The book came out of a wild thought-if Christ came to India, wouldn't it be possible for him to have an Indian bloodline?" asks Sanghi. Already on the stands, Rozabal Line toys with the theory that Christ did not die on the cross; he escaped to Kashmir and is buried in the Roza Bal shrine. "It is the coming of age of my generation that grew up with a paperback by the bedside," says Sanghi. "It is like kids who eat at McDonald's can't digest regular food. I have never been refined in my reading tastes, so my book is like Forsyth in terms of keeping you hooked to each chapter, but my writing style was inspired by Sidney Sheldon."

- Mandira Nayar

MidDay: Uncanny Connections

Religious writer Ashwin Sanghi's debut fictional stint, The Rozabal Line, has startling resemblances to the recent Mumbai massacre. Mentions of the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Taj Mahal Hotel, a suspect cargo ship, and extensive training in Pakistan and Afghanistan are some of the instances common to the recent real life tragedy. Broadly, the terrorists' e-mail had one message: 'We warn the Indian government to stop atrocities on Muslims, stop killing them. Hindus are Baniyas and therefore we are taking revenge with interest (read rate of interest)'. One of the lines in the title says, 'I say to all of you, accept the will of Allah and prevent your destruction. Give Muslims their rights, their lands, their oil, and their political power, otherwise we shall continue to rain fire and chaos upon you.'

The Telegraph: A heady mixture... gripping narrative...

The Rozabal Line (Westland, Rs 250) by Ashwin Sanghi is claimed to be “More complex than The Da Vinci Code and a whole lot more terrifying”. Whether this assertion is true or not is debatable but this book is certainly in line with those works that started appearing on the scene following the success of Dan Brown’s bestseller. Here, Sanghi dishes out a heady mixture of terrorist attacks, secret societies, murdered professors, hallucinating priests and seductive femmes fatales. The lineage of Christ is traced back to India, Hindu, Jewish and Islamic myths are co-mingled to arrive at the conclusion that “Karma is all”. The narrative is gripping, which is perhaps as much as can be expected of fiction of this kind.

Print Pick of The Hindu

The Hindu has included The Rozabal Line in its "Print Picks" of December 11, 2008.

Hindustan Times: Premonition of Evil?

Sample this: The recent terror attack in Mumbai was not by Lashkar-e-Toiba but a front outfit of 8-12 men calling themselves Deccan Mujahideen. The Rozabal Line: "Unknown to most intelligence agencies the Lashkar-e-Toiba had spun off an even more elite group within itself called the Lashkar-e-Talatashar, the army of 13, consisting of 12 elite holy warriors who would deem it an honour and privilege to die for the cause of Allah."
The similarity between the two lines, the first describing a true life nightmare, and the second extracted from a work of fiction, maybe "purely coincidental" as author Ashwin Sanghi says ("I'm totally spooked by it"), but there are certain uncanny resemblances between his book and the war on Mumbai.
The idea of a novel had been bothering Sanghi for at least a decade. Until he decided to put it down in words. Thus was born The Rozabal Line (Westland, Rs.250), a book on the controversial subject of Jesus Christ's link with India, which spans centuries and continents.
Sanghi's research kicked off when he laid hands on The Unknown Life of Jesus by 19th century Russian explorer Nicholas Notovitch, who came across scrolls with the name Issa inscribed on them in Tibet, and conjectured that Issa was none other than Christ. "While most scholars dismissed this as fantasy, it was only in the 1980s when Holger Kersten took up the issue, that there was speculation that Jesus survived crucifixion and came to India," says Sanghi. "If Jesus came to India, logically, he would have entered through Kashmir. So what if his bloodline today belongs to a jihadi?"
Though Sanghi asserts that his book is heavily fictional, it's definitely not "simply a Dan Brown" either. Among his elaborately researched subjects are the Ahmadiyas, a section of Muslims who believe that Jesus didn't die on the cross.
A businessman, Sanghi first self-published the book in 2007 under the pseudonym Shawn Haigins, an anagram of his real name. "I wasn't sure whether this could be a topic for a first book. When I self-published it I used a pseudonym because I didn't want my profession to be affected. But when Westland approached me to publish it, I decided to come clean," he laughs.
Sanghi is sure that he'll receive either brickbats or bouquets for his work. "That's been the response so far. No midway," he wraps up.
- By Satarupa Basu, HT, Kolkata, Dec 7, 2008

Book Ends (The Hindu Go-Nxg): Reading a Hurricane, A Thrilling Novel That Keeps You at the Edge of Your Seat

The most important lines of “The Rozabal Line” by fiction debutante Ashwin Sanghi are perhaps in its opening pages- the part of the Author’s Note that reads: “Religion, history and factual narration have been liberally interspersed with the fictional in order to give context and colour to the plot”. That being the case, one can safely say that the “colour” of this plot is as vivid as the azure blue on a summer morn. The plot revolves around an American priest Father Vincent Sinclair, whose obstinacy to carry out the last promise to a dead friend lands him in a web of international conspiracy of religious and political implications. Among the motley of characters this book throws up are Vincent’s aunt-cum-guardian angel Martha and Swakilki, a lethal assassin of stunning beauty. Throw into the mix the clandestine Illuminati, the super-secret Crux Decussata Permuta, who will risk Armageddon in order to prevent a secret of overwhelming magnitude from being exposed, and an elite thirteen member terrorist force under the Lashkar-e-Toiba called the Lashkar-e-Talatashar, and the end result is a book that will have you biting your nails ever so often…

- Siddharth Srikanth

First Look @ Tehelka

On a lazy day in London, a cardboard box is found on a shelf of London’s SOAS library, where a copy of the Mahabharata should have been. When the mystified librarian opens it, she screams and falls unconscious. So begins Ashwin Sanghi’s The Rozabal Line, a thriller that inquires into the controversial claim that Jesus Christ travelled to India and was buried in Kashmir’s Rozabal Tomb. For Sanghi, “it is irrelevant whether Rozabal is the actual tomb of Jesus or not. Rozabal represents an ‘alternative story’; is symbolic of many facets of the Christian faith that may have been lost”. The Rozabal Line will be released by Westland Ltd & Tranquebar Press in November 2008.

LiveMint: Time Warp

Cut from the same cloth as Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons and the Da Vinci Code, and with shades of Vikram Chandra’s Sacred Games— The Rozabal Line is a thriller. It attempts, like Brown, to unravel giant, global, usually religious, conspiracy theories with a melange of factual information garnished with liberal flights of fiction.

Westland Edition

On a lazy day in London, a cardboard box is found on a shelf of the SOAS library where a copy of Mahabharata should have been. When the mystified librarian opens it, she screams before she falls unconscious to the floor.
An elite group calling itself the Lashkar-e-Talatashar, the army of thirteen, has scattered around the globe.The fate of its members curiously resembles that of Christ and his Apostles in the first century AD. Their leader is not evena BLIP on a radar of intelligence agencies, yet their agenda is Armageddon.
Somewhere in the labyrinthine recesses of the Vatican, a beautiful assassin swears she will eliminate all who do not believe in her twisted credo. She loves to kill-again and again. A Hindu Astrologer spots an approaching conjunction of the stars and nods to himself in grim agreement. It will happen on the very date he had seen as the end of the world. And its not far off.
In Tibet, a group of Buddhist monk search for a reincarnation, much in the way their ancestors searched Judea for the son of God.
In strife-torn Kashmir, a tomb called Rozabal hold the key to the riddle that arises in Jerusalem and gets answered at Vaishno Devi.
An American priest, Father Vincent Sinclair, has disturbing visions of himself and of people familiar to him, except that they seem located in other worlds:other ages.Induced into past -life regression, he goes to India to piece together the violent images burnt onto his mind.
Shadowing his every move is the Crux Decussata Permuta, a clandestine society which would rather wipe out creation than allow an ancient secret to be disclosed.
In The Rozabal Line, a thriller swirling between continents and centuries, Ashwin Sanghi traces a pattern that curls backward to the violent birth of religion itself.

Interview by TombofJesus.com

1. When did you first come across the theory of Jesus travelling to India?

The notion that Jesus may have indeed spawned a bloodline came to my attention in late 1999 when I read "Holy Blood Holy Grail" by Michael Baigent, Richard Leigh, and Henry Lincoln. A couple of years later, I read Holger Kersten's "Jesus Lived in India" and was fascinated with the idea that Jesus could have been inspired by Buddhism and that he may have drawn much of his spiritual learning from India. Kersten’s research was meticulous, and I was soon hooked!

2. What is your personal belief about the tomb in Kashmir known as Rozabal?

My personal belief is that it is irrelevant whether Rozabal is indeed the actual tomb of Jesus or not. For me, personally, Rozabal represents an "alternative story". It is representative of the possibility that the story contained in the four canonical gospels may not be the entire truth. It is also symbolic of many facets of the Christian faith that have been obliterated down the ages. The fact that the lost tribes of Israel certainly had a connection with India, the fact that early Christianity drew inspiration from other faiths such as Buddhism, the fact that Jesus may have been one the greatest men that walked on earth, but a man nonetheless.

3. What were your main sources of information when researching the book?

I am neither scholar nor researcher, simply a paperback writer! But yes, I found that there was a wealth of information out there. Some of this information was available in excellent books that had covered various issues such as the Jesus in India hypothesis, the historical Jesus, and the interplay of mythologies and religious beliefs in the evolution of the character of Jesus. Books such as “Jesus Lived in India” by Holger Kersten, “Jesus in Kashmir: The Lost Tomb” by Suzanne Olsson, “The Fifth Gospel” by Fida Hassnain, “The Unknown Life of Jesus” by Nicolas Notovich and “The Lost Years of Jesus” by Elizabeth Clare Prophet were very important in building the framework of the story. Other books such as “The Christ Conspiracy: The Greatest Story Ever Sold” by S. Acharya and “The World’s Sixteen Crucified Saviours” by Kersey Graves were important from the angle of building the “alternative hypothesis” around the canonical Jesus. I found that the “Tomb of Jesus” website and several other online communities not only had a wealth of information but also had free-flowing opinions and views of readers and contributors. Many of these unproven comments helped me build the fictional element of The Rozabal Line around the fact.

4. When did you come across Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and his famous book 'Jesus in India'

The first that I heard of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad and his book “Jesus in India” was when I read Kersten’s work. Holger Kersten had used many of Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s opinions and material in his own book “Jesus Lived in India”. When I started working on “The Rozabal Line”, I naturally wanted to read Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s book first hand as it was considered by many to be the definitive work on the subject of Jesus having survived the crucifixion and having traveled to India. Most important- the book established several connections to the Qu’ran and this was fundamental to my story. I tried getting hold of the book on Amazon but it was unavailable at that time. I was finally able to get it from an old book dealer who has a shop on one of the pavements of Mumbai’s business district! It was Hazrat Mirza Ghulam Ahmad’s work that finally made the light bulb flash inside my head. If Jesus did indeed survive the crucifixion and settle down in Kashmir, would it not be logical for his present-day descendants to be Muslim? It was that flash of inspiration that eventually created “The Rozabal Line”.

5. Many associate the Rozabal with Ahmadi Muslims. Were you in contact with Ahmadis during your writing?

No. In fact, I hardly met anyone for research, Ahmadi or not. I only met “real people” for the fictional narrative. For example, I met with an astrologer to discuss planetary positions that would be discussed in the book; I met a regression therapist to discuss how past-life regression works; I met a member of the Indian security services to get an idea of issues surrounding the violence in Kashmir, but I did not meet religious scholars or teachers.

6. Did you have a particular mentor or guide during the writing of the book?

My grandfather would make me read one book each week and then write up a review (just so that he could be sure I’d actually read it). My love for books, while growing up, was inculcated by him and his brother. It was his earnest desire that I should write. My grandafther’s name was Ramprasad and his brother’s name was Ramgopal. You will notice that in “The Rozabal Line” there is the character of a wise old Hindu astrologer whose name is Pandit Ramprasad Ramgopal Sharma. It’s merely my way of acknowledging the two people who got me into the habit of reading and writing in the first place!

7. What are the most convincing pieces of evidence to support 'Jesus in India' from your point of view?

There are many. The carved “crucified feet” at the tomb and the references in the Bhavishya Mahapurana, are two among numerous others. But to my mind, the real reasoning lies in what happened before Jesus Christ was born, not after. It goes back to the possible linkages between Abraham and Brahma, Sara and Saraswati, the close linkages between the Sumerian civilization and the Indus Civilization, and the strong possibilities that the lost tribes returned to their spiritual home in India. All of this leads me to conclude that it would have been plausible as well as possible for Jesus to view India as a land of healing and learning.

8. What was / is the aim of your book?

My aim has remained one: to illustrate that in a world full of religious and political strife, deep down there is much more in common between world religions than we can ever imagine. If we can emphasize these commonalities, it could be a way to heal divisions.

9. Do you think the world will ever recognise Rozabal as the tomb of Jesus?

I think that the problem does not lie with the fact that it is “The Rozabal Tomb” but the fact that it is “a Tomb”. The mere fact that a Tomb of Jesus exists, is a problem because it goes against the very premise of a bodily resurrection. Thus, I think that it does not matter whether a purported tomb of Jesus is in Rozabal or, for that matter, in Talpiot. It is not the specific place where the tomb is located that causes the problem – it’s the fact that the place is a tomb that contains the mortal remains of a mortal man that is disconcerting for some.

10. How do you view Jesus? Was he trying to start a new religion? Was he the Messiah?

No- he certainly was not out to start a new religion. That seems quite definite. But was he the Messiah; was he the son of God? My view is yes, he was, but so are we all! Little streams , brooks and rivulets meet up the great rivers; the great rivers flow into the lakes and eventually meet up the great seas and oceans. Is the ocean greater than the river? In my world, both river and ocean are made up of the same essential ingredient – water. The essential spirit of human beings has the same essence as the divine.

11. How has your book been received?

The first version which was self-published by me under my pseudonym became available on Amazon.com, B&N, WHSmith and other online retailers around October-November last year (2007). Over the last 9 months, around 1000 books have been sold. I am given to understand that this is a significant number in the self-published world. Later this year (2008), by around September-October, the Indian paperback will be published by Tata-Westland Books. This should be available in all bookstores in the Indian sub-continent. Having a mainstream publisher promote the book to Indian audiences will make a substantive difference in reach and, consequently, volume.

12. What is next for the book? Any interest in making a film from it?

I have been approached by a couple of film-makers but I have been much more focused on getting the book into brick-and-mortar bookstores. I think that the overall story of “The Rozabal Line” lends itself to the thriller genre and I hope to see it on the silver screen at some point of time in the near future. For the present, I am working on a second (as yet untitled) novel in which the story revolves around the central tenet of karma.

13. What role do you think the Tomb in Kashmir has to play in world today?

As we speak, the strife in Kashmir has peaked once again. Why is it that some of the most beautiful lands in the world need blood to quench the land’s thirst? Rozabal has the potential of making the world press the pause button – a reflective, thoughtful, contemplative pause to ponder: What exactly are we all fighting for and is it worth it?

14. What was the hardest part of "The Rozabal Line" project?

The marrying of fiction and non-fiction is an extremely difficult task. It becomes even more difficult when religion is involved because one does not wish to offend the sensibilities of any given individual’s faith or personal belief. To walk that particular tight-rope was the most difficult bit in the evolution of “The Rozabal Line”.

15. What has writing the book taught you?

That I can write!

The Rozabal Line to be on bookshelves by Nov 2008

The freshly minted copies of The Rozabal Line should be in Indian bookstores by November 2008 courtesy Westland Books. The second edition has been substantially revised and is almost twenty percent longer than the Amazon edition. Hope you enjoy it.

Ron Chism, Founder of "The Tomb of Jesus Christ" website talks about the Paul Davids movie "Jesus in India"

Hellow, everyone,

Each time that I begin thinking that this issue has lost steam, it is resurrected again [no pun intended], and with a vengence, much larger than before..

First it was Hazrat Ahmad's 1890 book, Masih Hindustein Mein (The Messiah in India), translated to the English in 1939 under the title, Jesus in India. Around that same time was the work of Nicholas Notovitch, who claims to have been shown what is now known as "The Jesus Scrolls" at the Hemis Monastery in Tibet--scrolls that indicate that Jesus travelled to India during his lifetime. Notovitch's notes are now published under the title, The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ

Then, of course, after Notovitch was branded as a fake, came the visits to the Hemis Monastery by Henrietta Merrick (1921), Swami Trigunatitananda, Nicholas Roerich & son (1925), Mrs. Gasque (1939), E. Caspari (1939), Edward Noack & Wife (1970s), Dr. R. Ravicz (1973) and U. Eichstadt (1974). And they all testified to having seen the same Jesus Scrolls that Notovitch had testifed he saw back in 1887.

Then came the books by John Reban (otherwise known as Kurt Berna), Holger Kersten, Andreas Faber Kaiser, Khawa Nazir Ahmad, Edward Martin, and a host of others. Then the documentaries, Jesus in the Himalayas (2001), Did Jesus Die? (2003, by BBC4), The Hidden Story of Jesus (2007, another BBC production). In December of 1999, The Tomb of Jesus Christ Website made its debut.

In 2007 came the first full-length (and fascinating!!) novel on the Jesus-in-India subject, The Rozabal Line. The author, Shawn Haigins, used the Jesus-in-India/Tomb of Jesus theory to weave an absolutely stunning novel of international intrigue.

And now, though the exact release date has yet to be announced, comes a documentary by the noted producer, Paul Davids, Jesus in India. This time, for the first time, this fascinating subject is due to be released globally.

This is a milestone considering the fact that Holger Kersten, one of the important researchers in this field, had come "that" close to producing a global video, which was to be a joint venture between the BBC and the Discovery Channel. But, at the last minute, the Discovery Channel backed out of the deal due to pressure from the Christian Right (particularly in the south) in the U.S., which feared that certain aspects of the Jesus-in-India theory might "threaten" the Christian faith.

But the people involved with this new Jesus in India full-fledged documentary have taken this all the way, and the documentary, I'm told, will not be stopped this time. We shall see.

The focus in previous studies, whether print or film, has either been on the "missing years" of Jesus that are unaccounted for in the Bible, between the ages 12 and 30, or his alleged life in India after his alleged physical survival of the crucifixion. The upcoming Jesus in India documentary deals mostly with the missing years, but the subject of his possible survival is also covered.

So what? Well, it's simply a fascinating subject that moves well beyond speculation, as there appears to be support, including ancient documentary support (such as the Bhavishya Mahapurana, The Jesus Scrolls, etc), archaeological support (such as the Rauza Bal, in Kashmir, India, which includes carved footprints, in stone, of the occupant of that tomb, those footprints bearing deep wound marks in the feet), and other fascinating bits of circumstantial evidence that, when put together, makes a case for both a possible pre-crucifixion trip to India by Jesus, and a possible post-crucifixion trip to India by Jesus.

The theory reveals that after he left the city of Nasibain, en route to India after the crucifixion, he disguised himself so that he could get beyond the boundaries of the then Roman Empire. He did this, in part (the theory claims) by adopting the name Yuz Asaf.

It's a subject that I've been fascinated with for a long time. Check the Jesus in India movie website occasionally for information on the actual release date.

It ain't religion!! So, no one has to get all bent out of shape about this. It's just a fascinating subject that I would think any curious person would be interested in checking out.

Good weekend!!

Peace

Jet Wings, Jan '08

The Rozabal Line: "Jesus In India" Theory Stirs Up Excitement

More than 100 years after the Russian explorer Nicolas Notovitch released his book "The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ" in which he translated some ancient Tibetan Buddhist scrolls that seemed to indicate that Jesus may have spent his lost years in India, there is a palpable sense of excitement in India once again.

The first reason is that William Sees Keenan has decided to produce a $20m movie entitled "The Aquarian Gospel" to be directed by Drew Heriot. According to the film's makers the Bible devotes just seven words to the most formative years of Jesus Christ's life simply saying "The boy grew in wisdom and stature". The Aquarian Gospel will attempt to fill that gap by following Christ's journey to the east where he encounters other traditions, and discovers the principles that are the bedrock of all the world's great religions.

The second reason for excitement in Mumbai and Delhi is that a new "Da Vinci Code" genre novel entitled "The Rozabal Line" by Shawn Haigins has taken the Jesus in India story and has supposed not only that Jesus spent his lost years in India but also that he survived the crucifixion and returned to India which was also home to one of the lost tribes of Israel. The novel has a controversial theme because it assumes that a Jesus and Mary Magdalene bloodline may exist in troubled Kashmir, along the Indo-Pakistan border, and that this bloodline could possibly be a present-day Islamic holy warrior.

Keenan's film will only be ready for release in 2009; Haigins' novel is available in the U.S. but will only be available in Indian bookstores in early 2008; but both have already created a discernible buzz in India. It will be recalled that India was one of the few places where the screening of "The Da Vinci Code" had to be temporarily suspended because of public protests and demonstrations.

The "Jesus in India" theory is not new. The German scholar, Holger Kersten, published "Jesus Lived in India" in 1994. He claimed that the tomb of a local Kashmiri saint, Yuz Asaf, located in Rozabal (Srinagar, Kashmir) was actually the tomb of Jesus. The researcher Suzanne Olsson also attempted to establish DNA evidence to link the two tomb sites at Rozabal and Murree where Jesus and Mary are supposed to have been buried.

Dr. Fida Hassnain, former director of archaeology at the University of Srinagar has also written several books indicating the Yuz Asaf, Yeshua, Issa and Jesus were one and the same. The BBC has reported that the Bnei Menashe from North-Eastern India may actually be one of the lost tribes that reached India via Persia and Afghanistan.

Review by Shannon Frost, TCM Reviews

Since the publication of Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code, several religious fictions have followed; some in support of the theories put forth, some in opposition, some entirely unique unto their own. The Rozabal Line balances between the first and latter as it follows in the same vein as The Da Vinci Code in purporting that Jesus and Mary Magdalene had a family together, but continues on to say that during the “missing years” of Jesus’ life between the ages of 12 to 30, that Jesus studied the religions of Buddhism and Hinduism in India, and pushes the line of controversy further in claiming he survived the crucifixion and returned to India where he lived out a mortal life. This discovery comes to the knowledge of young Catholic priest, Father Vincent Morgan, who soon finds the foundations of his faith shaken and his life in grave danger from those who seek the knowledge for themselves to either keep it silent, or spread it to the world.

Readers of The Da Vinci Code will recognize several similar themes at work in The Rozabal Line; where it differs is in the coherency of the plot. In The Rozabal Line, every few paragraphs change course to a different place, time and character. The time period the protagonist, Father Vincent Morgan, resides in is 2012, but the novel jumps from there to times before Christ and everything in between, along with zipping around the globe. It’s nothing to go from Medina, Saudi Arabia 632 A.D to Lyons, France, 185 A.D. to North India 115 A.D to Qadian, India 1835 to Israel 2005, and so on in a single chapter, while visiting with several different characters therein. While often these jumps are connected in some way, it makes the fiction half of the plot difficult to follow. When it does stay with one character for a chapter, just as you begin to get interested in their personal story, the chapter ends and the next one starts in another time period at another place with another character, and the leaps and bounds continue.

Even though the novel is loaded with characters who have the underlying potential to be truly fascinating, from the beautiful Japanese woman, Swakilki, who is an assassin for a Vatican Cardinal to Islamic extremist leader Ghalib-bin-Isar, because only flashes at a time are spent with any of them, even Father Vincent, it’s hard to relate to or understand any of them. The same is true for the time and place settings of the book. You never feel fully immersed in a time period or place because you’re not there for long before being whisked away elsewhere. At times, it reads like a professor’s lecture notes on religion and history, though this isn’t necessarily bad as it’s these theories and facts that keep the novel interesting, and you find yourself reading it more for this information than the fictional plot. Author Haigins makes some thought provoking connections between religions, historical incidents and other topics, but here again, the reader is presented with so much so quickly, it’s hard to retain any of it. Basically, the novel suffers from a case of trying to say too much in too limited a space.

While The Rozabal Line could be considered a controversial book in the claims it makes, the theory of Jesus in India isn’t new, it’s just being retold in a new way and being applied to our modern day circumstances of religious tensions and terrorism. But with any theory, there’s more than one side, and the novel represents only one side. For those looking for a riveting religious thriller, this may not be the book for you. For those looking to explore more of the connections between Jesus and other religions, it may be a good place to start, and the author’s footnotes in the back can guide you to other works.

Review by Steve Oldner at J. Kaye's Blog

The Rozabal Line by Shawn Haigins is a historical conspiracy thriller in the same sub-genre as Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. Haigins writes about his story, ”From Jesus to Muhammad; from the Crusades to 9/11; from the Vatican to the White House; from Skull & Bones to the Illuminati; from Buddhist meditation to past-life regression; from the Virgin birth to nuclear destruction; and from Mary Magdalene to Osama-bin-Laden; The Rozabal Line has it all, and more.” Add to that a surprising ending, one I had to read a second time because I didn’t see it coming! I really enjoyed reading the book!

"A Gripping Read From Cover to Cover" says Midwest Book Review

The Rozabal Line is a suspenseful novel about modern-day religious tensions. Father Vincent Morgan becomes immersed in a storm of controversy over the ancient tomb of Rozabal in Kashmir, which has contained the body of the saint Yuz Asaf since 112 A.D. Caught in the crossroads between extreme Islamic fundamentalists and the equally extreme fundamentalists of the Crux Decussata Permuta, Morgan must question whether the world-altering secret held within Rozabal should be revealed at all. Religious wrath, ruthless controversy spanning the globe, and the threat of nuclear destruction make for a gripping read from cover to cover.

Review by BlogCritics Magazine

The Rozabal Line is a new thriller á la The DaVinci Code in which the author, through his fictional characters, investigates an actual world myth. In this case, the myth is quite controversial: what happened to Jesus after the crucifixion. We all know what the Bible says - even those of us who aren’t religious. This novel offers up another point of view....

ForeWord Clarion's Review of The Rozabal Line

To visit the tomb of Jesus, skip Jerusalem and catch a plane to Srinagar, Kashmir. Anyone in town can give directions to the Roza Bal shrine. That crypt’s occupant preached a Buddhism-influenced Christianesque doctrine under the name Yuz Asaf (which means “son of Joseph”). The Rozabal Line sprints ahead with this claim as an intelligent... historical thriller built around dangerous secrets, falling in the same sub-genre as Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code.

Perhaps “Jesus Christ had not died on the cross after all,” but was drugged, revived, and spirited to safety. If it is proven that he, like St. Thomas the Doubter lived for decades in India, that news could topple the church hierarchy. No one in the story is sitting back and waiting to see how it plays out. A Vatican sect, the “Crux Decussata Permuta”; militant Muslim agents reporting to a Bin Laden associate known only as The Sheikh; and even the shadowy Illuminati race to shape the world’s beliefs and advance their pointed agendas. A femme fatale named Swakilki disposes of male seekers casually, as if they’re squares of toilet paper.

Fictional players are successfully conflated with actual events, enhancing the plot. Fanciful speculation is given greater currency by a raft of endnotes citing scholarly papers and mainstream sources. The author has a definite flair for comparisons and delights in the use of anagrams to obscure identities or explain covert affiliations. That includes his own name, which is a recombination of the letters in “Shawn Haigins.” The reason for the pseudonym is left to the imagination.

This book is prolifically decorated with side trips, descriptive detail, and the search for cross-tradition commonality... alternating bursts of narrative action and myth-building. The setting often jumps eons to extend a point and to show incarnations of those karmically linked to one another. The primary setting in the near-future of 2012 is less than rosy, and stability isn’t increased by the actions of America’s first female President. That year is marked by coordinated monthly terrorist incidents in various countries. The first century AD churns with the unconventional rites of fertility cults, with dissenting Gnostics and Essenes who preserve apocryphal gospels in buried jars.

The diffusion of page-time among multiple characters relieves any one of them the burden of being the complete hero. Hidden links between opposed organizations are revealed quite gradually, and so are the principals’ true goals. Countless runners converge at a bombshell revelation.

Indeed, Haigins’ ideologically provocative outcome is every bit earned, but shreds of the whole picture make less sense when presented individually. Armchair philosophers, conspiracy believers, and fans of Mary Magdalene tales will find The Rozabal Line to be worthy of examination. The author points to a real subject ripe for further investigation and comes down firmly against antagonism between major religions, which may be more closely related than anyone reckoned before.

My thanks to Suzanne Olsson

I received a wonderful email from Suzanne Olsson, the dedicated researcher who has attempted to undertake DNA testing at Rozabal. She writes:

I am delighted that people as yourself take an interest in the tomb, its fate, and its impact on the world. The more the news gets around about the tomb, the better its chances of being saved, because it is currently under threat of destruction, especially of the artifacts and relics proving the identity of the man buried within...so please accept my applause for your efforts...

Suzanne's own book is linked in this post for all those of you who may be interested in fact rather than fiction!

Rozabal Line on TombOfJesus.com

Tombofjesus.com is one of the oldest and most reliable sources of information on most matters dealing with "Jesus in India". One of the forum's contributors has written:

I am a great fan of DaVinci Code type novels and have recently read a new book called "The Rozabal Line" by Shawn Haigins.

Haigins has constructed a "what if" scenario around several key questions and has then used these to give background to his story. What if Jesus learned from the Buddhists? What if Jesus did not die on the cross? What if Jesus settled down in Kashmir? What if Mary Magdalene was indeed a high priestess and that Jesus was married to her? What if there were a remaining bloodline of Jesus in India?

Unlike many of the voracious readers in this forum, I have limited ability/attention-span to absorb non-fiction. Surprisingly, however, Haigins takes the fiction/thriller genre and uses it to painstakingly educate the average reader with several morsels of knowledge that would have otherwise been covered in a non-fiction treatise. For example, the origins of Nard, the relevance of baptism by water, the Buddhist-Egyptian connection, the ancient Indian uses of Aloe Verra and Myrrh, the Hindu sacred ritual fire origin of the Pythagoras theorum, the commonalities between Christ and Krishna, the relevance of Easter and Sunday... the list is endless.

I am overwhelmed with the enthusiastic response of the website's team of founders and managers. My special thanks to Abubakr/Cyrano and Arif, and the "Tomb Master" whose enthusiastic response made my day.

Preview the Book on Google

You can now see a limited preview of The Rozabal Line on Google Books. Cheers!

Excerpts from the book- Manning

Zurich, Switzerland, 2012

In 1844 Johannes Baur opened his second hotel in Zurich, right beside the lake and with an open view of the mountains. The hotel would soon become one of the most luxurious hotels of Zurich, the Baur au Lac.

Nestled within one of the deluxe suites of the Baur au Lac, with a beautiful view of Lake Zurich, sat Brother Thomas Manning. He was quite obviously a very valued regular patron. Why else would the hotel specifically stock Brunello di Montalcino, his favourite Tuscany wine?

There was a discrete knock at the door. The brother commanded in fluent German, ‘Kommen Sie herein!’ and the door opened.

The visitor was a thin, spectacled man.

Mr. Egloff was the investment advisor from Bank Leu, the oldest Swiss Bank in the world. Bank Leu had started out as Leu et Compagnie in 1755 under its first chairman, Johann Jacob Leu, Master of the Purse and later Mayor of Zurich. The bank’s clients had soon included European royalty such as the Empress Maria Theresia of Austria.

‘Herr Egloff. Under instructions from His Eminence Alberto Cardinal Valerio, I require a sum of ten million dollars to be transferred from the Oedipus trust to the Isabel Madonna trust,’ said Brother Manning.

‘Very well, Brother Manning,’ replied the banker.

Unknown to the outside world, the strange sounding offshore trusts managed by Herr Egloff for his clients had anagrams as the beneficiaries. Brother Manning chuckled to himself.

After all, the beneficiary of the Oedipus trust was Opus Dei and the primary beneficiary of the Isabel Madonna trust was Osama-bin-Laden.

Excerpts from the book- Swakilki, Valerio

Vatican City, 2012

Popes had ruled most of the Italian peninsula, Rome included, for over a millennium until 1870. Disputes between the Pope and Italy had been settled by Mussolini in 1929 through three Lateran Treaties, which had established the Stato della Citta del Vaticano, more commonly known as The State of the Vatican City. It instantly became the world’s smallest state, with an area of just 0.44 square kilometres.

His Eminence Alberto Cardinal Valerio was just one among 921 other national citizens of The Holy See but was extremely important among the 183 cardinals.

He now sat in his office wearing his black simar with scarlet piping and scarlet sash around his waist. The bright scarlet symbolized the cardinal’s willingness to die for his faith. To die or to kill, thought His Eminence.

He picked up the sleek Bang & Olufsen BeoCom-4 telephone that contrasted dramatically with his Morano antique desk and asked his secretary to send in his visitor.
The young woman who entered his office had delicate features and flawless skin. It was evident that she possessed a beautiful blend of European and Oriental features. Her bright eyes shone with fervent devotion and she knelt before His Eminence.
‘Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been a year since my last confession.’
‘Go ahead, my child,’ whispered His Eminence. He motioned for her to talk by waving his podgy hand. On his ring finger sat a pigeon-blood-red Burmese ruby of 10.16 carats.

Swakilki began. ‘I severed the professor’s head and left it in the library as a lesson to those who mock the sanctity of Christ’s suffering. He deserved it for his blasphemy.’

‘And are you repentant for this terrible sin?’

‘Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, who art all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and avoid the near occasions of sin. Amen.’

His Eminence pondered over what she had said for a few seconds before he spoke. ‘May our Lord Jesus Christ absolve you; and by His authority I absolve you from every bond of excommunication… I absolve you of your sins in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Passio Domini nostri Jesu Christi, merita Beatae Mariae Virginis et omnium sanctorum, quidquid boni feceris vel mail sustinueris sint tibi in remissionem peccatorum, augmentum gratiae et praemium vitae aeternae.’
Valerio made the sign of the cross and looked squarely at the young woman. Swakilki looked up at the cardinal. He was seated on a large leather sofa in the luxurious office.

‘Do you reject sin so as to live in the freedom of God’s children?’ asked Valerio.

‘I do,’ replied Swakilki.

‘Do you reject Satan, father of sin and prince of darkness?’

‘I do.’

‘Do you believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth?’

‘I do.’

‘Do you believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, was crucified, died, and was buried, rose from the dead, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father?’

‘I do.’

‘Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting?’

‘I do.’

‘Then it is time to eliminate all those who make people believe otherwise… now listen carefully…’

Excerpts from the book- Sheikh

Waziristan, Pakistan-Afghanistan Border, 2012

Waziristan was no-man’s land, a rocky and hilly area on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, and a law unto itself. Even though Waziristan was officially part of Pakistan, it was actually self-administered by Waziri tribal chiefs, who were feared warriors, as well as being fiercely independent and conservative.

The presence of the lanky, olive-skinned man wearing a simple white turban, camouflage jacket and holding a walking cane in his left hand was a little out of place in this region. The man was extremely soft-spoken and gentle in his ways. His overall demeanour was that of an ascetic not a warrior. So what was he doing in this harsh land where swords and bullets did most of the talking?

He was sitting inside a cave on a beautiful Afghan rug. His few trusted followers sat around him drinking tea. He was talking to them. ‘As for the World Trade Center attack, the people who were attacked and who perished in it were those controlling some of the most important positions in business and government. It wasn’t a school! It wasn’t someone’s home. And the accepted view would be that most of the people inside were responsible for backing a terrible financial power that excels in spreading worldwide mischief!’

‘Praise be to Allah!’ said one of the followers excitedly.

‘We merely treat others like they treat us. Those who kill our women and our innocent, we kill their women and innocent until they desist.’

‘But Sheikh, we have already achieved a sensational victory. What else is left to achieve?’ asked one of his followers.

‘We started out by draining their wealth through costly wars in Afghanistan. We then destroyed their security through attacks on their soil. We shall now defy the only thing that is left - their faith.’

‘How?’ wondered the followers.

‘Ah! I have a secret weapon,’ said the Sheikh in his usual hushed voice.

Excerpts from the book- Terry

London, UK, 2012

The Department for the Study of Religions was part of the School of Oriental and African Studies, which in turn was part of the University of London. The school boasted a vast library located in the main school building just off Russell Square.
On this damp morning, faculty librarian, Barbara Poulson, was attempting to prepare the library for its first wave of students and faculty members at the opening time of 9 a.m.

Most students would start their search on the library catalogue, which indicated whether the library had the required item. From the catalogue one could find the class mark - a reference number - of the item one wanted and this could be used to find the exact location of the book.

The previous day, Professor Terry Acton had been attempting to locate a copy of the Hindu treatise, The Bhagavad Gita, published in 1855 by Stephen Austin. The absentminded professor had been unable to locate it and had requested Barbara’s assistance. She had promised to find it before his arrival that morning.

She mechanically typed the words “Bhagavad Gita” into the library’s computer catalogue. There were only two books displayed, neither of which was the one that the professor wanted. She then recalled the professor mentioning that The Bhagavad Gita was actually part of a broader epic, The Mahabharata. She quickly typed “Mahabharata” into the computer and saw two hundred and twenty-nine entries. The twelfth entry was “The Bhagavad Gita, A Colloquy Between Krishna and Arjuna on the Divine”. She clicked on this hyperlink and she had it - the book by Stephen Austin, published by Hertford in 1855. Noting the class mark - CWML 1220 - she looked it up on the location list.
Items starting with “CWML” were located on level F in the Special Collections Reading Room. The extremely efficient Barbara Poulson headed towards level F, where she started moving in reverse serial towards CWML 1220.

CWML 1224… CWML 1223… CWML 1222… CWML 1221… CWML 1219… Where was CWML 1220?
In place of the book was a perfect, square, crimson box about twelve inches in length, width and height. It had a small, white label pasted on the front that simply read “CWML 1220”.

Barbara was puzzled, but she had no time in her efficient and orderly world to ponder over things for too long. She lifted the box off the shelf, placed it on the nearest reading desk and lifted off the cardboard lid to reveal the perfectly preserved head of Professor Terry Acton, neatly severed at the neck. On his forehead was a yellow Post-It that simply read “Mark 16:16”.

The cool and extremely efficient Barbara Poulson grasped the edge of the desk for support before she fainted and fell to the floor.

The passage Mark 16:16 of the New Testament reads as follows:
He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned!

Excerpts from the book- Ghalib

Mecca, Saudi Arabia, 2012

The thousands of male pilgrims to Mecca during the Islamic month of Dhu-al-Hijjah were dressed identically in Ihram – a simple white, unhemmed cloth. It was impossible to distinguish one pilgrim from another in the white sea of humanity.

After all, this was Hajj, and all of Allah’s followers were meant to be equal before Him. Some, however, were more equal than others.

The simple face and ordinary features did not reveal the depth of this particular pilgrim as he performed the Tawaf - circling the holy Kaaba - swiftly four times, and then another three times at an unhurried pace.

This was Ghalib’s second visit to the Kaaba. A week ago he had already been through the entire routine once. After completing the Umrah, Ghalib had stopped to drink water from the sacred well of Zamzam. He had then travelled to Medina to visit the mosque of the Prophet before performing the final three acts of Hajj - journeying over five days to the hill of Arafat, throwing stones at the devil in the city of Mina, and then returning to Mecca to perform a second Tawaf around the Kaaba.

Ghalib was praying: Bismillah ar-rahman ar-rahim. “Allah, the most kind and the most merciful, please do not show your legendary kindness or mercy to my enemies.”
He felt refreshed. Blessed. Purified.

The Lashkar-e-Toiba, the Army of the Pure, had been fighting a bloody Jihad in Kashmir for the restoration of an Islamic caliphate over India. The outfit was on the radar of most intelligence agencies around the world. Ghalib, however, was not even a blip on the screen.

Unknown to most intelligence agencies, the Lashkar-e-Toiba had spun off an even more elite group within itself called the Lashkar-e-Talatashar, the Army of Thirteen, consisting of twelve elite holy warriors who would deem it an honour and privilege to die for the cause of Allah. They were not confined to Kashmir but scattered across the world .

Their leader, the thirteenth man, was their general. His name was Ghalib.

Excerpts from the book- Vincent

Srinagar, Kashmir, India, 2012

The onset of winter in idyllic Kashmir meant that the days were gradually getting shorter. Even though it was only three o’clock in the afternoon, it felt like nightfall. Icy winter winds, having wafted through the numerous apple and cherry orchards of the area, sent a spicy and refreshing aromatic chill to the man’s nostrils. The leather jacket and lamb’s wool pullover underneath it were his only comfort as he knelt to pray at the tomb.

Father Vincent Morgan rubbed his hands together to keep warm as he took in the sight of the four glass walls, within which lay the wooden sarcophagus. The occupant of the tomb, however, resided below in an inaccessible crypt. Standing in front of a Muslim cemetery, the tomb was located within an ordinary and unassuming structure with whitewashed walls and simple wooden fixtures.

Vincent’s blonde hair, blue eyes, together with his athletic build and pale skin clearly marked him out as separate and distinct from the locals. The goatee and rimless spectacles completed the slightly academic look.

The sign outside informed visitors that the Rozabal tomb in the Kanyar district of old Srinagar contained the body of a person named Yuz Asaf. Local land records acknowledged the existence of the tomb from 112 A.D. onwards .

The word Rozabal, derived from the Kashmiri term Rauza-Bal, meant “Tomb of the Prophet”. According to Muslim custom, the gravestone had been placed along the north-south axis, however, a small opening revealed the true burial chamber beneath. Here one could see the sarcophagus of Yuz Asaf, which lay along the east-west axis as per Jewish custom.

Nothing was out of the ordinary here - nothing that is except for a carved imprint of a pair of feet near the sarcophagus. The feet were normal human feet - normal, barring the fact that they bore marks on them; marks that coincided with puncture wounds from a crucifixion.

Crucifixion had never been practised in Asia, so it was quite obvious that the resident of the tomb had undergone this ordeal in some other, distant land.