Khasakkinte Itihasam
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| Author | O.V. Vijayan |
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| Country | India |
| Language | Malayalam |
| Genre | Novel |
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| Publisher | DC Books |
| ISBN | |
Khasakkinte Ithihasam (Malayalam:ഖസാക്കിന്റെ ഇതിഹാസം) is a Malayalam novel written by the Indian writer O. V. Vijayan. First published in 1969 and generally referred to as Khasak in literary circles, the novel has been reprinted more than fifty times, making it one of the most best-selling novels in South Asia.
Khasakkinte Itihasam has been translated into French, German and English (the last by the author himself, published in 1994 under the title The Legends of Khasak, and differing substantially from the original in its sensibility - most readers prefer to read it as an independent novel by Vijayan in English rather than seeing it as a translation).
Khasakkinte Itihasam does not have a single narrative plot. It is crafted in the form of the spiritual journey of an under-graduate dropout, Ravi, plagued by the guilt of an illicit affair he had with his stepmother. Ravi abandons a bright academic career and a research offer from Princeton University. He deserts his lover Padma and leaves on a long pilgrimage, which finally brings him to the small hamlet of Khasak near Palakkad. At Khasak, he starts a single-teacher school as part of the District Board’s education initiative. The novel begins with Ravi’s arrival at Khasak and his encounters with its people, Allappicha Mollakka, Appukkili, Shivaraman Nair, Madhavan Nair, Kuppuvachan, Maimoona, Khaliyar, Aliyar, and the students of his school like Kunhamina, Karuvu, Unipparadi, Kochusuhara and others. After some years, his lover Padma calls on him and Ravi decides to leave Khasak. He commits suicide through snake-bite while waiting for a bus at Koomankavu.
The novel has no story-line per se. It recounts the numerous encounters of Khasak from a spiritual and philosophical frame of mind. Through these encounters, Vijayan narrates numerous stories, myths and superstitions cherished in Khasak. He places them in opposition to the scientific and rational world outside, which is now making inroads into the hamlet through Ravi's single-teacher school. The irony of the interface between these two worlds occupies a substantial space in the novel. Through the myths and stories, Vijayan also explores similar encounters of the past recounted by the people of Khasak, enabling him to have a distinctly unique view of cultural encounters across time and space.
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