The Rozabal Line
Encyclopedia
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 including Jesus Lived in India by Holger Kersten and The Unknown Life of Jesus by Nicolas Notovich.
, India's most widely read weekly news magazine ranked The Rozabal Line among the top five fiction bestsellers in India According to Tehelka
, The Rozabal Line is "a thriller that inquires into the controversial claim that Jesus Christ travelled to India and was buried in Kashmir’s Roza Bal
tomb". The Hindu
, one of India's National dailies, 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".
The book also covers ground regarding the fact that Jesus sent St. Thomas, one of the 12 apostles to Kerala to preach there The Rozabal Line kicks off with the theory that Yesu (or Jesus
) may have fled Judea
to study under Buddhist masters in India
(the three wise men were Buddhist elders searching for a reincarnation
in the manner that Dalai Lama
s are searched for). It then goes one step further by building on Holger Kersten’s theory that Jesus did not die on the cross and that he was spirited away to safety by Essene monk
s. This foundation is used to build the storyline which goes something like this: Jesus returned to his spiritual home, India, and possibly married.
Fast-forward to the present day and we find a group of thirteen jihadis who are working under the protective umbrella of the Lashkar-e-Taiba
. Although never stated directly, there are enough similarities between this group in the present day and Jesus and his 12 apostles two thousand years ago. One keeps wondering whether this group could possibly be the present-day descendant Jesus bloodline
. While this group is working towards Armageddon
, there is another group that is assisting them and, surprisingly, this is a Opus Dei
inspired group called the Crux Decussata Permuta. Apparently, the two largest religions of the world, Christianity
and Islam
, had found it easier to cooperate with one another rather than to fight each other.
The logic for this is traced back to the first crusades
in which Richard the Lionheart was defeated by Saladin
the Great. Add to this cauldron, a Japanese assassin, America’s first woman President and a New York based Spiritual Healer, and you have the final twist in the tale, an unexpected ending that reveals the final answer at Vaishno Devi
, one of the holiest shrines of the Hindus.
(born January 25, 1969) is an India
n author of thriller fiction 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 in 2007 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 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.
The Rozabal Line deals with the subject of Jesus
having survived the crucifixion
and having settled down in India. The fictional element is much like Dan Brown
's Da Vinci Code whereas the 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
, one of India's most respected weekly news magazines, 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 dailies, 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 been a huge upsurge of visitors to the Rozabal shrine in Srinagar as reported by the Indian newspapers.
The book's publishers, Westland Ltd. have had tremendous success with the novel and it has gone into 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.".
Owing to the popularity of the book and the story surrounding it, The Rozabal Line is being converted into a screenplay. The controversial nature of the story surrounding the tomb has resulted in the site being closed down to visitors particularly after Lonely Planet
detailed the tomb as well as The Rozabal Line in its 2010 edition.
was the first to point out that, Sanghi's novel bore 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 used 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 Terror Attacks. Consequently, The Hindu, included The Rozabal Line among its top fiction picks while The Telegraph, included The Rozabal Line among its top "Paperback Pickings".
The author has clarified in a subsequent interview that he was unhappy about the commonalities although he readily agrees to being called a "conspiracy theorist".
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
that deals with the subject of Jesus
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 in India. The fictional element reads in the same vein as 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 Da Vinci Code whereas the 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.
Plot summary
India TodayIndia Today
India Today is an Indian weekly news magazine published by Living Media India Limited, in publication since 1975 based in Mumbai. India Today is also the name of its sister-publication in Hindi...
, India's most widely read weekly news magazine ranked The Rozabal Line among the top five fiction bestsellers in India 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...
, The Rozabal Line is "a thriller that inquires into the controversial claim that Jesus Christ travelled to India and was buried in Kashmir’s 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...
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 dailies, 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".
The book also covers ground regarding the fact that Jesus sent St. Thomas, one of the 12 apostles to Kerala to preach there The Rozabal Line kicks off with the theory that Yesu (or Jesus
Jesus
Jesus of Nazareth , commonly referred to as Jesus Christ or simply as Jesus or Christ, is the central figure of Christianity...
) may have fled Judea
Judea
Judea or Judæa was the name of the mountainous southern part of the historic Land of Israel from the 8th century BCE to the 2nd century CE, when Roman Judea was renamed Syria Palaestina following the Jewish Bar Kokhba revolt.-Etymology:The...
to study under Buddhist masters in India
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...
(the three wise men were Buddhist elders searching for a reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
in the manner that Dalai Lama
Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama is a high lama in the Gelug or "Yellow Hat" branch of Tibetan Buddhism. The name is a combination of the Mongolian word далай meaning "Ocean" and the Tibetan word bla-ma meaning "teacher"...
s are searched for). It then goes one step further by building on Holger Kersten’s theory that Jesus did not die on the cross and that he was spirited away to safety by Essene monk
Monk
A monk is a person who practices religious asceticism, living either alone or with any number of monks, while always maintaining some degree of physical separation from those not sharing the same purpose...
s. This foundation is used to build the storyline which goes something like this: Jesus returned to his spiritual home, India, and possibly married.
Fast-forward to the present day and we find a group of thirteen jihadis who are working under the protective umbrella of 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...
. Although never stated directly, there are enough similarities between this group in the present day and Jesus and his 12 apostles two thousand years ago. One keeps wondering whether this group could possibly be the present-day descendant Jesus bloodline
Jesus bloodline
A Jesus bloodline is a hypothetical sequence of lineal descendants of the historical Jesus and Mary Magdalene, or some other woman, usually portrayed as his alleged wife or a hierodule...
. While this group is working towards Armageddon
Armageddon
Armageddon is, according to the Bible, the site of a battle during the end times, variously interpreted as either a literal or symbolic location...
, there is another group that is assisting them and, surprisingly, this is a Opus Dei
Opus Dei
Opus Dei, formally known as The Prelature of the Holy Cross and Opus Dei , is an organization of the Catholic Church that teaches that everyone is called to holiness and that ordinary life is a path to sanctity. The majority of its membership are lay people, with secular priests under the...
inspired group called the Crux Decussata Permuta. Apparently, the two largest religions of the world, Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
and Islam
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
, had found it easier to cooperate with one another rather than to fight each other.
The logic for this is traced back to the first crusades
Crusades
The Crusades were a series of religious wars, blessed by the Pope and the Catholic Church with the main goal of restoring Christian access to the holy places in and near Jerusalem...
in which Richard the Lionheart was defeated by Saladin
Saladin
Ṣalāḥ ad-Dīn Yūsuf ibn Ayyūb , better known in the Western world as Saladin, was an Arabized Kurdish Muslim, who became the first Sultan of Egypt and Syria, and founded the Ayyubid dynasty. He led Muslim and Arab opposition to the Franks and other European Crusaders in the Levant...
the Great. Add to this cauldron, a Japanese assassin, America’s first woman President and a New York based Spiritual Healer, and you have the final twist in the tale, an unexpected ending that reveals the final answer at Vaishno Devi
Vaishno Devi
Vaishno Devi Mandir is one of the holy Hindu temples dedicated to Shakti, located in the hills of Vaishno Devi, Jammu and Kashmir, India. In Hinduism, Vaishno Devi, also known as Mata Rani and Vaishnavi, is a manifestation of the Mother Goddess.The temple is near the town of Katra, in the Reasi...
, one of the holiest shrines of the Hindus.
Author/Editions
Ashwin SanghiAshwin Sanghi
Ashwin Sanghi is an Indian 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...
(born January 25, 1969) is an India
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 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 survived the crucifixion and traveled to India. The Rozabal Line was originally published in 2007 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 Ashwin Sanghi
Ashwin Sanghi
Ashwin Sanghi is an Indian 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...
. 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.
The Rozabal Line deals with the subject of Jesus
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 in India. 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 Da Vinci Code whereas the 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...
, one of India's most respected weekly news magazines, 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 dailies, 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 been a huge upsurge of visitors to the Rozabal shrine in Srinagar as reported by the Indian newspapers.
The book's publishers, Westland Ltd. have had tremendous success with the novel and it has gone into 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 (crime)
In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement...
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.".
Owing to the popularity of the book and the story surrounding it, The Rozabal Line is being converted into a screenplay. The controversial nature of the story surrounding the tomb has resulted in the site being closed down to visitors particularly after Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet
Lonely Planet is the largest travel guide book and digital media publisher in the world. The company is owned by BBC Worldwide, which bought a 75% share from the founders Maureen and Tony Wheeler in 2007 and the final 25% in February 2011...
detailed the tomb as well as The Rozabal Line in its 2010 edition.
Similarities to the Mumbai Terror Attacks in November 2008
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 bore 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 used 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 Terror Attacks. Consequently, The Hindu, included The Rozabal Line among its top fiction picks while The Telegraph, included The Rozabal Line among its top "Paperback Pickings".
The author has clarified in a subsequent interview that he was unhappy about the commonalities although he readily agrees to being called a "conspiracy theorist".