BOOK REVIEW: Nine Lives: In Search of the Scared in Modern India,
by William Dalrymple
, Bloomsbury, £20
William Dalrymple is one of most respected travel writers, thanks to books such as
In Xanadu, White Mughals
and
City of Djinns
. His latest concentrates on the sacred practices of India’s believers, and how they move and chafe against the subcontinent’s emerging modern entity.
Dalrympyle is first and foremost a historian, and one with a terrifically keen sense of conversation and storytelling; in Nine Liveshe takes an almost formal approach that in some ways echoes the epic tales of India, such as the Ramayana, albeit in a much more compact form.
He gives us nine stories of nine people who are each trying to maintain their sacred beliefs and practices in a country teeming with idols, gods and a rampant thirst for development.
There is Rani Bai, a devi dasi, dedicated to the goddess Yellamma by her parents when she was six; in her case it means a life as a prostitute. There is Hari Das, a lower-caste prison warden who for several months of the year is transformed into a theyyamdancer and becomes the living embodiment of gods, revered by even the most austere Brahmans. And there is Srikanda, 23rd in a long line of idol makers who plies his craft in essentially the same way as his ancestors.
These are extraordinary stories, sometimes shocking and barely believable. If this was 150 years ago and Dalrymple had arrived here on a ship with these tales, he would have become something of a celebrity. That we can now verify them in moments, using a few online searches, detracts nothing from their fascination.
Dalrymple has made India seem even more bewildering, foreign and thrilling in a book that is equal parts elegant, succinct and theatrical.