Overview
I have always been an avid reader myself and certain historical characters who have left an indelible footprint on mankind's historical tapestry fascinated me even more. Jesus Christ is clearly head over shoulders among the prophets and avatars who have dotted our historical landscape. His influence has been monumental and has been a much studied character in history. Yet there are periods of his life which seem to be shrouded in history and the Church somehow gives the impression that it does not matter. There has been no clarity on the silent period or lost years of Jesus – from age thirteen to twenty nine on which all four Gospels are deafening silent all through the ages. Somehow all the research on historical Jesus seems to have focused on Middle east – to be precise Israel and Palestine. But there has been so many claims about Jesus being in India, Egypt, Babylon, Persia, Tibet and even Britain. All have been either summarily dismissed or disdainfully consigned to the garbage bin of history. The independent Indian government has released numerous documentaries about Jesus' time in India with proof in Sanskrit and Pali language based manuscripts. I have researched even in my native Bengali language with Swami Abhedananda, a Hindu monk – an earth mover in his own right who established Vedanta movement in Europe and USA, doing somewhat similar research as mine ahead of me in time. Books have been written by Muslim authors in Pakistan, Persia (Iran) too. None have been refuted in a scholarly sense – rather they have been ignored. The ointment used to revive Jesus after crucifixion is known in the Arab/Muslim world even today as Marham-i-Isa. It not only revived him but allowed him to lead a life post crucifixion till the age of eighty. The chronicle of Jesus' post crucifixion life is there in Pakistan and Kashmir (where he settled, married, even had kids and died) and documented by the locals. One of them is Mirza Ghulam Ahmad – the founder of Ahmadiya sect which has Pakistan's first Nobel laureate physicist Abdus Salam as a follower and Prof Fida Hassnain from Kashmir, India. The ability to ignore anything which is contrarian to Vatican or Church's mainstream version is mind boggling but a sad reality. So as I researched over seven years and put it all together as a month by month narrative of Jesus' life with all its vicissitudes, I had a tough time threading the needle as the historical evidence while available is patchy from a chronological point of view. Once having done the hard yards and pieced the story incident by incident, I went about writing it with as much clarity and eloquence I had at my command. I chose the format of historical fiction with an autobiographical format alternating with third party narrative to make the personality of Jesus leap out of the pages and become part of us. The story covers the span of his life from his birth, travels in the East for studies, return to homeland, crucifixion, survival and fleeing back to East till his death and burial. It is as historical as it gets with little to no embellishments unless I had to use my writer's license to connect certain events. Also it was important to make it eminently readable and enjoyable for readers in the same breath as almost all the academic chronicles and research papers are the driest of reads and sometimes dense.Details