"A popular book that won A. N. Murthy Rao admirers, enemies and the Pampa Award from the Karnataka Government. He explains his beliefs of Atheism deftly with a lot of insight into human nature. However, his intentions are to discourage human tendency of depending on external source than self efforts." - Carvaka4India.com. “The book Devaru (God) by A. N. Murthy Rao, caused a sensation in the literary world of Kannada. The thought provoking book gives expression to A. N. Murthy Rao's opinions about God, customs, rituals, traditions and Indian culture. A. N. Murthy Rao is not a believer but neither does he call himself an atheist. He doubts the existence of God. He feels there is no necessity of any external pressure for man to do good and think good. Because doing good in itself is godliness according to A. N. Murthy Rao. He looks at all the religious rituals and activities with a humorous outlook. The number of Gods who exist in Indian theology gives ample chance for a person like A. N. Murthy Rao to have a good laugh, reflect and even think deeply about Indian-ness and philosophy of life. All the light-hearted writings make even the reader smile, but yet think about the matter seriously. At the same time the Indian concept of God and the rituals connected with that are also artistic, says A. N. Murthy Rao. Because the religious festivals and celebrations call for a lot of artistic approach. This is liked by A. N. Murthy Rao.” - B.G. Maithili (PhD Thesis - University of Mysore)