Maya and mind games

Wendy Doniger's book is an education for everyone, familiar and unfamiliar with India, looking to navigate the maze-like world of dreams and illusions

Dreams, Illusions and other Realities

Author: Wendy Doniger

Publisher: Speaking Tiger

Pages: 360

Price: Rs 699

A frequently quoted aphorism in Sanskrit proclaims that the gods love conversing in riddles. Simple, direct speech does not quite make the cut; to be heard in the corridors of heaven, human beings must master the art of metaphor and recondite prose. And so, the reasoning follows, the ancients composed their myths, philosophical treatises and epic poetry to mimic a spider’s web, drawing the narrative yarn around ideas of illusion, reality, life and death in delicate, tangled loops.

The ancient Indian literary universe (oral and written) is often