These anecdotes are not just mine, but they could be of any historian who dares to wade through some of the no-go waters of Indian history or challen… - Vikram Sampath

Legend has it that an ancient Shiva temple existed at Thirunavaya, believed to have been consecrated by Parashurama and among the 108 major shrines for Lord Shiva in Kerala. But pilgrims are unable to find this temple at Thirunavaya. A Shiva Linga and pedestal were excavated from a location there in 2003, but were hastily buried again, claims Dinesh.42 After its destruction and subsequent neglect over time, the site was used by the British to establish a tile factory.

The discovery of their Mahadev, and more so the humiliation that he had been subjected to by concealing the idol in an ablution tank where people washed their dirty feet and spat out, overwhelmed everyone.

What is noteworthy is that unlike in the past decades, there is at least space for a debate and discussion around Savarkar to happen in our public realm now. The persona-non-grata that he had become and the heavy price that anyone invoking his name with any modicum of positivity had to bear, are luckily not as pronounced. The idea of these two volumes is not to create an army of Savarkar fans who have an answer to every allegation hurled against him by any loony or vested quarter. I myself disagree vastly with several of his stances and I am deeply critical of his actions at various stages of his life, as seen from the happy comfort of a retrospective review. One may hate or love him as much as one might want. But then to blackout even a discussion and debate around him, based on facts and documents, rather than rhetoric and politics (as has been the case till now) is deeply prejudicial to the tenets of liberalism and democracy, where every opposing view needs to find a platform. In his own life, Savarkar welcomed those who were opposed to his ideas and even kept a record of critical assessments of him by the press or his contemporaries.