Ashwin Sanghi
Encyclopedia
Ashwin Sanghi is an India
n author of thriller fiction, best known for his 2007 novel, The Rozabal Line
. Sanghi is interested in the lost years of Jesus
, the primary theme of his first novel which hypothesizes that Jesus
survived the crucifixion and traveled to India. The Rozabal Line was originally published under his pseudonym
Shawn Haigins. The revised edition of The Rozabal Line was published by Westland Ltd. & Tranquebar Press in 2008 under his own name.
, India, the youngest of three children. His schooling was at the Cathedral and John Connon School
(Class of 1985). After graduating from Cathedral in 1985 Sanghi attended St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. He attended the Yale School of Management
, receiving an MBA
in 1993. After graduating from Yale, Sanghi joined his family's business enterprise while continuing to write thriller fiction part-time.
The Rozabal Line deals with the subject of Jesus
having survived the crucifixion
and having settled down and died in India, eventually being buried in Roza Bal
. The fictional element is much like Dan Brown
's blockbuster novel Da Vinci Code, but Sanghi's historical basis is derived from several other books on the subject including Jesus Lived in India by Holger Kersten and The Unknown Life of Jesus by Nicolas Notovich. According to Tehelka
, an Indian left-wing news magazine, The Rozabal Line is "a thriller that inquires into the controversial claim that Jesus Christ travelled to India and was buried in Kashmir’s Rozabal Tomb". The Hindu
, one of India's national daily newspapers, says that "The book deals in greater depth with the issue of Christ’s union with Mary Magdalene
touched upon by The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown as well as incorporating postulates of several other books including Jesus Lived in India: Life Before and After the Crucifixion by Holger Kersten and Jesus Died In Kashmir: Jesus, Moses
and The Ten Lost Tribes Of Israel by Andreas Kaiser". Since the time the novel was published, there has reportedly been a significant upsurge of visitors to the Roza Bal
shrine
in Srinagar
. The book's publisher Westland Ltd. has experienced success with the novel, issuing repeat runs. The novel also succeeded in creating a historical/mythological thriller genre in India that Indian writers had not hitherto explored. Pradeep Sebastian of The Hindu wrote, "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." At a talk delivered in Chennai, the author explained that "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." Irrespective of the controversial theme surrounding his book, the author has continuously maintained that his book is a work of fiction. and should be read as a fiction conspiracy thriller. In an interview to a leading tabloid, the author was asked "Do you believe that Jesus lived in India?" and he replied "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?". MV Kamath, leading commentator has said that the book is "provocative, but certainly commanding attention.".
was the first to point out that Sanghi's novel bears several similarities to the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. In particular, Sanghi's novel spoke of an attack by the Lashkar-e-Taiba
an Islamist terror group based in Pakistan-administered Kashmir
. It also spoke of the Lashkar spinning off an ultra-elite group of twelve commandos, similar to the Deccan Mujahideen. The plot of The Rozabal Line uses a ship off the coast of Gujarat as well as a Thuraya satellite phone
besides describing the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower
as the residence of one of the main characters in the story. Sanghi also described the group as being controlled by the Inter-Services Intelligence
of Pakistan
without the knowledge of the Pakistani president. All these elements were purportedly present in the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.
of the name "Ashwin Sanghi". Some commentators such as Humra Quraishi felt that the book should have been published under Sanghi's real name and consequently the substantially revised 2008 edition was published in India by Sanghi under his own name.
is a fictional retelling of the life of Chanakya
the great political strategist of ancient India
. The novel relates two stories in parallel, the first of Chanakya and his machinations to bring Chandragupta Maurya
to the throne of Magadha
; the second, that of a modern-day character called Gangasagar Mishra who makes it his ambition to position a slum child as the Prime Minister of India. According to the Hindustan Times
, "Keep the internal monologues and descriptions as taut as a-held-by-the-thumb sacred thread and we have Ashwin Sanghi's cracker of a page turner, Chanakya's Chant. Two narratives flow like the Ganga and Yamuna, one located 2300 years ago in the kingdom of Magadha where Chanakya seeks and gets his vengeance; the other in the slightly distant future (the 18th prime minister is being sworn in before the narrative goes into flashback) where Gangasagar Mishra gets down and dirty to play the kingmaker in India's politics. Sanghi peppers his novel with quotes from folks as disparate as Benjamin Franklin
, Oscar Wilde
and Mao Zedong
but for the reader of this brisk technicoloured thriller, here's a book that will be familiar in its details for all desi observers of politics and the psycho-drama behind it all."
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
n author of thriller fiction, best known for his 2007 novel, The Rozabal Line
The Rozabal Line
The Rozabal Line is a thriller novel that deals with the subject of Jesus having survived the crucifixion and having settled down in India. The fictional element reads in the same vein as Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code whereas the historical basis is derived from several other books on the subject...
. Sanghi is interested in the lost years of Jesus
Lost years of Jesus
The lost years of Jesus concerns the undocumented timespan between Jesus's childhood and the beginning of his ministry as recorded in the New Testament....
, the primary theme of his first novel which hypothesizes that Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
survived the crucifixion and traveled to India. The Rozabal Line was originally published under his pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
Shawn Haigins. The revised edition of The Rozabal Line was published by Westland Ltd. & Tranquebar Press in 2008 under his own name.
Biography
Ashwin Sanghi was born and raised in Mumbai, MaharashtraMaharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
, India, the youngest of three children. His schooling was at the Cathedral and John Connon School
Cathedral and John Connon School
The Cathedral and John Connon School is a co-educational, private school located in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, established in 1860.According to the Education World-C fore Survey of Schools 2010, the school has been ranked first in the all India ranking of the best schools in India.It was ranked...
(Class of 1985). After graduating from Cathedral in 1985 Sanghi attended St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. He attended the Yale School of Management
Yale School of Management
The Yale School of Management is the graduate business school of Yale University and is located on Hillhouse Avenue in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. The School offers Master of Business Administration and Ph.D. degree programs. As of January 2011, 454 students were enrolled in its MBA...
, receiving an MBA
Master of Business Administration
The Master of Business Administration is a :master's degree in business administration, which attracts people from a wide range of academic disciplines. The MBA designation originated in the United States, emerging from the late 19th century as the country industrialized and companies sought out...
in 1993. After graduating from Yale, Sanghi joined his family's business enterprise while continuing to write thriller fiction part-time.
First novel
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
having survived the crucifixion
Crucifixion
Crucifixion is an ancient method of painful execution in which the condemned person is tied or nailed to a large wooden cross and left to hang until dead...
and having settled down and died in India, eventually being buried in Roza Bal
Roza Bal
Roza Bal is the name of a shrine located in the Khanyar area of district Srinagar, in Kashmir, India, venerated by some Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. Some people identify the sage buried there with one Yuz Asaf, that is Jesus of Nazareth, whom they allege to have arrived in Kashmir after...
. The fictional element is much like Dan Brown
Dan Brown
Dan Brown is an American author of thriller fiction, best known for the 2003 bestselling novel, The Da Vinci Code. Brown's novels, which are treasure hunts set in a 24-hour time period, feature the recurring themes of cryptography, keys, symbols, codes, and conspiracy theories...
's blockbuster novel Da Vinci Code, but Sanghi's historical basis is derived from several other books on the subject including Jesus Lived in India by Holger Kersten and The Unknown Life of Jesus by Nicolas Notovich. According to Tehelka
Tehelka
Tehelka is an Indian weekly political magazine under the editorship of Tarun Tejpal known for its undercover exposé style of journalism. Its cover price is Rs 20 per issue. The publication began in 2000 as a news website, Tehelka.com...
, an Indian left-wing news magazine, The Rozabal Line is "a thriller that inquires into the controversial claim that Jesus Christ travelled to India and was buried in Kashmir’s Rozabal Tomb". The Hindu
The Hindu
The Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
, one of India's national daily newspapers, says that "The book deals in greater depth with the issue of Christ’s union with Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
touched upon by The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown as well as incorporating postulates of several other books including Jesus Lived in India: Life Before and After the Crucifixion by Holger Kersten and Jesus Died In Kashmir: Jesus, Moses
Moses
Moses was, according to the Hebrew Bible and Qur'an, a religious leader, lawgiver and prophet, to whom the authorship of the Torah is traditionally attributed...
and The Ten Lost Tribes Of Israel by Andreas Kaiser". Since the time the novel was published, there has reportedly been a significant upsurge of visitors to the Roza Bal
Roza Bal
Roza Bal is the name of a shrine located in the Khanyar area of district Srinagar, in Kashmir, India, venerated by some Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. Some people identify the sage buried there with one Yuz Asaf, that is Jesus of Nazareth, whom they allege to have arrived in Kashmir after...
shrine
Shrine
A shrine is a holy or sacred place, which is dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, daemon or similar figure of awe and respect, at which they are venerated or worshipped. Shrines often contain idols, relics, or other such objects associated with the figure being venerated....
in Srinagar
Srinagar
Srinagar is the summer seasonal capital of Jammu and Kashmir. It is situated in Kashmir Valley and lies on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus. It is one of the largest cities in India not to have a Hindu majority. The city is famous for its gardens, lakes and houseboats...
. The book's publisher Westland Ltd. has experienced success with the novel, issuing repeat runs. The novel also succeeded in creating a historical/mythological thriller genre in India that Indian writers had not hitherto explored. Pradeep Sebastian of The Hindu wrote, "And so The Lost Symbol comes two years too late. Conspiracy
Conspiracy (civil)
A civil conspiracy or collusion is an agreement between two or more parties to deprive a third party of legal rights or deceive a third party to obtain an illegal objective....
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." At a talk delivered in Chennai, the author explained that "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." Irrespective of the controversial theme surrounding his book, the author has continuously maintained that his book is a work of fiction. and should be read as a fiction conspiracy thriller. In an interview to a leading tabloid, the author was asked "Do you believe that Jesus lived in India?" and he replied "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?". MV Kamath, leading commentator has said that the book is "provocative, but certainly commanding attention.".
Reality vs. novel's fiction
The Hindustan TimesHindustan Times
Hindustan Times is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded in 1924 with roots in the Indian independence movement of the period ....
was the first to point out that Sanghi's novel bears several similarities to the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. In particular, Sanghi's novel spoke of an attack by the Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba
Lashkar-e-Taiba – also transliterated as Lashkar-i-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyaba, Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, Lashkar-i-Taiba, Lashkar Taiba or LeT – is one of the largest and most active militant Islamist terrorist organizations in South Asia, operating mainly from Pakistan.It was founded by Hafiz Muhammad...
an Islamist terror group based in Pakistan-administered Kashmir
Pakistan-administered Kashmir
Azad Kashmir borders the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa to the west, the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan to the north west, the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of People's Republic of China to the north and the Indian-administered state of Jammu and Kashmir, to the east.A...
. It also spoke of the Lashkar spinning off an ultra-elite group of twelve commandos, similar to the Deccan Mujahideen. The plot of The Rozabal Line uses a ship off the coast of Gujarat as well as a Thuraya satellite phone
Thuraya
Thuraya , the Arabic name of the Pleiades, is a regional satellite phone provider. Its coverage area is most of Europe, the Middle East, North, Central and East Africa, Asia and Australia....
besides describing the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower
Taj Mahal Palace & Tower
The Taj Mahal Palace & Tower is a five-star hotel located in the Colaba region of Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, next to the Gateway of India. Part of the Taj Hotels, Resorts and Palaces, this building is considered the flagship property of the group and contains 565 rooms...
as the residence of one of the main characters in the story. Sanghi also described the group as being controlled by the Inter-Services Intelligence
Inter-Services Intelligence
The Directorate for Inter-Services Intelligence , is Pakistan's premier intelligence agency, responsible for providing critical national security intelligence assessment to the Government of Pakistan...
of Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
without the knowledge of the Pakistani president. All these elements were purportedly present in the November 2008 Mumbai attacks.
Shawn Haigins
The first edition of The Rozabal Line was published in 2007 in the US under Sanghi's pseudonym Shawn Haigins. "Shawn Haigins" is a perfect anagramAnagram
An anagram is a type of word play, the result of rearranging the letters of a word or phrase to produce a new word or phrase, using all the original letters exactly once; e.g., orchestra = carthorse, A decimal point = I'm a dot in place, Tom Marvolo Riddle = I am Lord Voldemort. Someone who...
of the name "Ashwin Sanghi". Some commentators such as Humra Quraishi felt that the book should have been published under Sanghi's real name and consequently the substantially revised 2008 edition was published in India by Sanghi under his own name.
Second novel
Chanakya's ChantChanakya's Chant
Chanakya's Chant is a novel written by Indian author Ashwin Sanghi. Sanghi, a Yale University graduate, wrote the book two years after his first novel The Rozabal Line was released in India and became a national bestseller. Chanakya's Chant was released on January 26, 2011 and entered all major...
is a fictional retelling of the life of Chanakya
Chanakya
Chānakya was a teacher to the first Maurya Emperor Chandragupta , and the first Indian emperor generally considered to be the architect of his rise to power. Traditionally, Chanakya is also identified by the names Kautilya and VishnuGupta, who authored the ancient Indian political treatise...
the great political strategist of ancient India
Ancient India
Ancient India may refer to:* The ancient history of India, which generally includes the ancient history of the Asian Subcontinent, including:*Science and technology in ancient India**Indian mathematics**Astronomy**List of Indian inventions...
. The novel relates two stories in parallel, the first of Chanakya and his machinations to bring Chandragupta Maurya
Chandragupta Maurya
Chandragupta Maurya , was the founder of the Maurya Empire. Chandragupta succeeded in conquering most of the Indian subcontinent. Chandragupta is considered the first unifier of India and its first genuine emperor...
to the throne of Magadha
Magadha
Magadha formed one of the sixteen Mahājanapadas or kingdoms in ancient India. The core of the kingdom was the area of Bihar south of the Ganga; its first capital was Rajagriha then Pataliputra...
; the second, that of a modern-day character called Gangasagar Mishra who makes it his ambition to position a slum child as the Prime Minister of India. According to the Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times
Hindustan Times is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded in 1924 with roots in the Indian independence movement of the period ....
, "Keep the internal monologues and descriptions as taut as a-held-by-the-thumb sacred thread and we have Ashwin Sanghi's cracker of a page turner, Chanakya's Chant. Two narratives flow like the Ganga and Yamuna, one located 2300 years ago in the kingdom of Magadha where Chanakya seeks and gets his vengeance; the other in the slightly distant future (the 18th prime minister is being sworn in before the narrative goes into flashback) where Gangasagar Mishra gets down and dirty to play the kingmaker in India's politics. Sanghi peppers his novel with quotes from folks as disparate as Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
, Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
and Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
but for the reader of this brisk technicoloured thriller, here's a book that will be familiar in its details for all desi observers of politics and the psycho-drama behind it all."