Review of S.L. Bhyrappa's Aavarana

Aavarana by S.L. Bhyrappa
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I discovered Aavarana through the article Rending the veil of historical negationism in India on the IndiaFacts web site. Interestingly, Sandeep Balakrishna, the "writer, columnist, translator, and recovering IT professional" who translated Aavarana from Kannada to English, heads IndiaFacts.

Much of the history of the Muslim conquest of India was already familiar to me, so initially I thought that this book was merely polemic. Indeed, I have read some of the references that Bhyrappa cleverly inserted in the narrative.

The book closes with the words of Swami Vivekananda on the dangers of stumbling upon an inspired superconscious state without undertaking yogic discipline. Swami ji used Muhammad as a prime example. I had attended a study sponsored by the Vedanta Center, in which the swami bypassed these words, perhaps out of embarrassment of Swami Vivekananda’s forthrightness.

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