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Ka: Stories of the Mind and Gods of India

Roberto Calasso,

Tim Parks (Goodreads Author) (Translator)

4.12 · Rating details · 755 ratings · 65 reviews

With the same narrative fecundity and imaginative sympathy he brought to his acclaimed retelling of the Greek myths, Roberto Calasso plunges Western readers into the mind of ancient India. He begins with a mystery: Why is the most important god in the Rg Veda, the oldest of India's sacred texts, known by a secret name--"Ka," or Who?

What ensues is not an explanation, but an ...more

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Paperback, 464 pages

Published November 2nd 1999 by Vintage (first published September 1996)

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Jun 18, 2009 James Murphy rated it it was amazing

What Calasso did with western classical mythology in The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony he also does with Indian mythology. I was aware that Kali represents death and that Ganesha has the head of an elephant. A few years ago I read The Mahabharata. I have a basic familiarity with the life of Buddha. But that's a weak foundation for understanding the complex nature of Indian mythology. As a westerner I doubt I can properly appreciate in one reading the nuances and richness of their mythic traditi ...more

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Feb 11, 2015 Michael rated it it was amazing

Shelves: murder-weapons, bedrock

“A bloody, feverish story has embedded itself in the sky. It reminds us that it will go on happening forever.”

Fitting, that in this retelling of what are some of the oldest stories known to man that Ka translates as ‘the space between,’ or ‘Who?’ For it’s the mystery that we are after in this existence. “Now I know that this question will haunt us forever, until time itself dissolves.” Calasso’s book accounts the gods, as if, in their doings, our own plight is revealed. “So many things happening “A bloody, feverish story has embedded itself in the sky. It reminds us that it will go on happening forever.”

Fitting, that in this retelling of what are some of the oldest stories known to man that Ka translates as ‘the space between,’ or ‘Who?’ For it’s the mystery that we are after in this existence. “Now I know that this question will haunt us forever, until time itself dissolves.” Calasso’s book accounts the gods, as if, in their doings, our own plight is revealed. “So many things happening, so many stories, one inside the other with every link hiding yet more stories…And I’ve hardly hatched from my egg.” It’s overwhelming: “The wheel of time would go on turning to the point where the last, and hitherto mute knowledge would speak.” And, if we are honest with ourselves, frightening: “The surface of the wakeful mind trembles without cease, like the surface of the waters. And like the waters, it assumes the shapes of those forces that press upon it.”

The mind is our protagonist. “The mind. The mind was what transformed and what was transformed. It was the warmth, the hidden flame behind the bones, the succession and dissolution of shapes sketched on the darkness – and the sensation of knowing that was happening.” The world is its antagonist. “Nothing enchants the mind more than the existence of the outside world, of something that resists it and will not obey. Pampered by its own omnipotence, its own capacity to connect and identify everything with everything, the mind needs an obstacle at least as big as the world.”

“The world is a desert: where can we find the expedient that would turn that presence behind the eyes into something before the eyes?” The idea that there is an answer short of the telling of eternity is our flaw. But perhaps this flaw is a blessing or even the vital force in that telling itself. “Is it any surprise, then, if ultimate knowledge can only become manifest through enigma?” The answer is the question. “Neither gods nor men can live without recourse to Ka. To be precise: they may survive but they cannot understand.” And the question becomes: would we have it any other way? “Better to achieve immortality than already to have it, they thought with divine logic.”

A cousin of Vollmann’s, The Ice-Shirt. If you read as a means and not an end, i.e. if you read for meaning, here is a concatenating metaphysical feast that both satisfies and delights. That ‘space between’ knowledge and living, setting and story, desire and death, form and mind. “All that is really required is a scene of blood confined in a perpetual light, and a gaze that follows fleeting signs forming against a shadowy backdrop.” ...more

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May 20, 2012 Neha Asthana rated it it was amazing

Ka is a work of art, no less by the very brave Roberto Calasso. To bring to book, Indian mythology, ANY mythology, really, is a daring attempt to pick & prod through a dangerous territory of the book keepers of religion, the overlords of cults, the gardeners of religious doctrine & breeders of creeds. Calasso has somehow managed to paint this vast canvas with hues that complement the real picture, and woven a tapestry with many threads converging & diverging to create a regaling picture of the H ...more

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May 18, 2010 Keram rated it really liked it

Shelves: awareness

Some of the most beautiful prose I have read, let alone in what appears to be a non-fiction book, though that is an impossible qualification considering it is exploring the origins of Hindu mythology. Reading this made my brain feel effervescent, and I often had to put the book down after a paragraph simply to savor what I had just read. And sometime this would last for weeks before I could return to it.

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Mar 15, 2013 Chitranjan Tyagi rated it it was amazing

Ka is a great book about the gods and religious practices of ancient India. I read this book in Hindi and in a day. It was great to read the interpretation of an outsider. I do not know if anybody has said so much in such brevity on this topic. Although, it covers only minuscule section of Indian myths and stories, still it makes a great reading.

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Apr 17, 2020 Rishab Katoch rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020, favorites, philosophy, religion-spirituality-mythology, india-fiction

"Fullness drawn from fullness: this is the Vedic doctrine. Emptiness drawn from emptiness: this is the Buddha's doctrine. The transition from the Upanishads to the Buddha is one from fullness to emptiness. But the shape is the same."

A journey through ancient Indian mythology right from the early vedic gods like Prajapati to the Buddha himself. If you have studied even the basics of Indian philosophy I think this read will interest you, as one can see the evolution of certain ideas told through t ...more

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Nov 02, 2012 Brooke Everett rated it it was ok

Sometimes I force myself to do things that I don’t necessarily want to do because I perceive them as being “good for me.” Recently, I wouldn’t allow myself to leave my own dining room table until I finished a giant salad from Sweetgreen. It took me over an hour to finish that salad and I may or may not have cried a little bit.

I tend to reach for a book I think will be good for my brain to counteract a feeling I get every now and again that the Internet and my life are making me stupid. I’ve refe Sometimes I force myself to do things that I don’t necessarily want to do because I perceive them as being “good for me.” Recently, I wouldn’t allow myself to leave my own dining room table until I finished a giant salad from Sweetgreen. It took me over an hour to finish that salad and I may or may not have cried a little bit.

I tend to reach for a book I think will be good for my brain to counteract a feeling I get every now and again that the Internet and my life are making me stupid. I’ve referred to it in a past review as “bench presses for my brain.” This book has been in my “to read” stack since September and I thought my brain could use the exercise. I’ve always adored Greco-Roman mythology, and I’m always very interested in the Hindu myths my yoga teachers weave into their dharma talks at the beginning of class. I thought I’d be reading stories like the one about little Hanuman mistaking the sun for a big ripe mango and trying to eat it. No such luck.

Not unlike the salad incident, this book was mostly tortuous and I made myself finish it. I began eagerly, frequently flipping back and forth to the glossary in an attempt to keep everything straight. When the glossary proved to be equally confusing I gave up on that. It also doesn’t help that characters’ names change or are mentioned once in passing and then not again until 20 pages later.

If there were actual stories or a narrative I think it would have been easier to remain engaged, but the text flowed as stream of consciousness on big, weighty, cosmological questions. I assuaged my resulting feelings of being extra dumb by realizing it would be difficult for me, a mere mortal, to understand such matters anyway.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go have cake for dinner at tuck into the Tracy Morgan book.

(There were flashes of brilliance that did sink in, and here they are. Perhaps (hopefully) I absorbed more than I thought.)

“Listening to his mother, Garuda was like a schoolboy who for the first time hears something mentioned that will loom over his whole life.” p. 6

“Pārvatī loved it when she didn’t understand. What attracted her most was obscurity.” p. 99

“There is no nature without illusion, there is no illusion without power, there is no power without nature. As for māyā, rather than ‘illusion’ it would be more apt to call it ‘magic,’ that strange thing that those supposedly of sober mind are convinced does not exist, while actually it would be far more sober to say that nothing in existence can exist without it.” p. 111

“This is the decisive step: awakening. Something invisible that happens within thought. Something that adds a new quality to thought: consciousness.” p. 175

“Arjuna remembered some words Krsna had once hurriedly spoken: ‘Even the curses we undergo must be of use to us.’” p. 308

“There is a point at which having something happen and recounting something converge: they both leave an impression on the mind. Telling a story is a way of having things happen at the highest possible speed, that of the mind.” p. 314 ...more

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Apr 20, 2020 Avisek Bandyopadhyay rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: lofty, india, mythology

Damn if I understood it all! I was chasing to understand the rubric of Hinduism better and I came across this highly acclaimed book. The book is an encapsulation of Hindu scriptures from pre-Veda days spanning to the days of Buddha, the 9th avatar of Vishnu.

As exciting as the premise sounds, the book is dense. Hindu scriptures, Veda, Vedanta, Upanishads and Geeta have been admitted as containing all the wisdom one must have to lead a meaningful, purpose-filled life. And, true as that is, what no Damn if I understood it all! I was chasing to understand the rubric of Hinduism better and I came across this highly acclaimed book. The book is an encapsulation of Hindu scriptures from pre-Veda days spanning to the days of Buddha, the 9th avatar of Vishnu.

As exciting as the premise sounds, the book is dense. Hindu scriptures, Veda, Vedanta, Upanishads and Geeta have been admitted as containing all the wisdom one must have to lead a meaningful, purpose-filled life. And, true as that is, what no one blurts out, is they are very difficult to read. So, more often than not, I had to refer to secondary sources to understand my own religion. Ka was such a venture.

Ka starts from the time there was nothing but just a conscience, who was called Ka. From him, everything including 33 Crore Gods, the sub, the moon, the people came to being. And from the very initial days, everyone ruminated on the same thing - What is the purpose of life? Why do we live and what is that we should determine to find out? And, as Calasso explains, the history of Hinduism, probably like any other, has been shaped over misadventures, anger, jealousy, love and most of all sacrifice.

What Calasso tries to do is tie all the books with a common theme, explain some interesting myths, stories rather which deconstructs some of the everyday rituals we do like why Ganesha is called Vinayaka, how do we set up the Yoga, why Brahma has only 4 heads, etc.

I know, I couldn't process most of the information in the book, and that I must read it again, with more patience and focus. It's also clear I must reach out to the original sources one day. Because I can't deny the bliss, the singularity in me while reading the book. Knowing that we are but, just cogs in this whole scheme of things, it takes off the pressure of expectation. For a moment, I could see clearly. I am here to know more and learn more. And, as every great mind has shouted from the rooftop, revel in the present. Don't worry about the future because you can't control it. It's upon itself to happen. Stay in today, make this moment count and you are already richer. ...more

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Nov 28, 2011 Gopal MS rated it it was amazing

Simply brilliant. Most Indians would have heard almost all the tales that are mentioned in this book. But this book strings all the mythological tales together very intelligently and with a perspective that only someone with a wider perspective of human nature and thought processes can give.

There is also something different about Italian writers. They write in a rich and often difficult language that takes time to get used to. But once you are comfortable with the translation, you will realise ...more

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Feb 24, 2016 Dr. M rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I recommend this book to Indians who have had no exposure to Hindu scriptures. The author takes you through the mystic world of Indian scriptures, the origin of human life and the relationship with gods, the subtle interpretations of intrigues starting from the awe-struck Vinatha in the majestic presence of her son Garuda. The book reads like poetry. I was amazed by the breadth and depth of the author's understanding. It takes time to complete the book, but assure you it is worth every minute of ...more

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Dec 27, 2012 Harish Balan rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Ka decodes Hindu myth in a style that might be scandalous to the fascists. However, the book reasons out a lot of stories in Hindu myth with a very original idea. Roberto's complex and erotic style of writing might not make the book a terrific page-turner. And still it's probably te best book about Hindu mythology that anyone has ever written.

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Sep 06, 2007 John rated it it was amazing

I can't say that I learned anything; mostly I let his books seep in over a period of years, kind of like Milorad Pavic. Mostly I just jot down anytime he raises a question, such as "But how did it all begin?"

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Sep 29, 2011 Oanh rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Less wonderful (for me) than Marriage of Cadmus & Harmony but still great. Perhaps the problem was my lesser familiarity with Hindi mythology / cosmology etc. ...more

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Jun 23, 2013 Benjie Deford rated it it was amazing

I don't remember but I know it was read, need to re-read.

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Aug 03, 2014 Hiran Venugopalan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: is-missing

Contemporary reading of Indian Myths and Epic, KA is a wonderful experience. A prose classic than poem !

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Dec 30, 2008 Jee Koh rated it it was amazing

The Parasite of Consciousness

Calasso retells the Indian myths in this book, and makes them gripping, probing and mysterious. In the first story, Garuda, the eagle, is born to save his mother from slavery to her own sister. The method of the myths and of the retelling is described by Garuda himself: "So many things happening, so many stories one inside the other, with every link hiding yet more stories . . . And I've hardly hatched from my egg."

After freeing his mother, Garuda decided to devote h The Parasite of Consciousness

Calasso retells the Indian myths in this book, and makes them gripping, probing and mysterious. In the first story, Garuda, the eagle, is born to save his mother from slavery to her own sister. The method of the myths and of the retelling is described by Garuda himself: "So many things happening, so many stories one inside the other, with every link hiding yet more stories . . . And I've hardly hatched from my egg."

After freeing his mother, Garuda decided to devote himself to reading the Vedas in the Rauhina tree. Reading hymn one hundred and twenty-one in the tenth book of the Rig Veda, he found the question that gave the book its title: "Who (Ka) is the god to whom we should offer our sacrifice?"

The next chapter takes up the story of Prajapati who is a kind of Progenitor of all things, including the gods. Prajapati was the mind before anything existed. The mind did not even know whether it existed or not. The mind desired, with a desire that was "continuous, diffuse, undefined." It desired

what was definite and separate, what had shape. A Self, atman--that was the name it used. And the mind imagined that Self as having consistency. Thinking the mind grew red hot. It saw thirty-six thousand fires flare up, made up of mind, made with mind.

This fire was tapas, the same fire that burned in the gods, and in the holy men. Desire, in this myth, is longing for the Other; it is longing for form.

Chapter Three describes the desire of this Father for his daughter Dawn (Usas). Their union was disrupted by a son and god, Rudra, who fired an arrow into his father's groin, causing him to squirt his seed onto the ground. This triangular relationship, according to this chapter, is repeated with different names in different stories down the ages.

In Chapter Four, Brhama takes over the role of Creator and Father. The problem with his creation was that all were born exclusively of the mind, and no one died. Immortality proved to be oppressive. To solve that problem Brahma created Death. To solve the problem of mind, he created sex. When asked by the gods why bother with another mode of production, Brahma answered, "To preserve the world's gloss."

The triangle between father, daughter and son returns in Chapter Five. Daksa, a stand-in for Brahma, loved his favorite daughter, Sati, who, in turn, loves Siva. Whe Daksa refused to invite his son-in-law to his priestly sacrifice, Sati returned to her father's household, and rebuked him by self-combusting. Sati is, of course, the immolation of a widow on her husband's funeral pyre. Following his wife's death, Siva wrecked Daksa's sacrifice.

Chapter VI narrates the love affair between Siva and Parvati, the daughter of Himavat (Himalayas?). To capture Siva's heart, Parvati left her royal life to practice tapas in the forest. The god accepted her offer, and united with her, making her a goddess. Kalidasa, the Sanskrit poet, makes an appearance in this chapter. He was sneaking a look at their love-making before chased away by Parvati.

Parvati also discovered Siva had many lovers, one of whom lived as water in his hair, Ganga. In the story-within-a-story, Ganga was initially a proud woman who thought she could sweep Siva away like a straw. She plunged from the Milky Way on top of Siva's head, only to get lost, and spread out among the forest of his hair. The story is enchanting. It is a charming explanation of how the great Ganges came into being. It is a striking extended metaphor. It is also very sexy.

Chapter VII describes the sacrifice of the horse, the "king of all sacrifices," Calasso writes, for he who celebrated it became king of all kings and would obtain everything he desired. Before the horse died, it was allowed to wander any land it wished, protected by four hundred armed guards. During the wait, stories (pariplavas) of the deeds of gods and kings were endlessly recited. Narrative thus became

. . . a way of preventing the relationship with the wandering horse from being broken. The narrative wandered around like the horse. The secret thought of the narrative is the horse. The secret thought of the horse is the narrative.

When the horse returned, it was strangled, and then the king's first wife lay with the dead horse, its phallus introduced into her vulva. When morning came, the queen returned to her feet. The horse was cut up while the priest asked who was cutting it up, and answered himself, Ka.

Chapter VIII is organized as a collection of stories about and sermons by the rsis, the holy men. Here's a beautiful example of the philosophizing of these men, this by Bharadvaja:

Why should the mind be before and after every other thing? Because it can never be found in the world. You can open up any body, any element, with the finest of metal points, you can turn everything inside out and expose all that has been hidden, until matter becomes a whirr of dragonflies. To no end: you will never find so much as trace, not even the tiniest, of the mind. The banner of its sovereignty is precisely this: its not being there.

Chapter IX recounts the story of the old rsis Cyavana who got the divine twins the Asvins to return him his youth, in exchange for a chance to win the favor of his wife, Sukanya.

Chapter X is about the soma, the drink that gives gods and men immortality, the "one quantity that was also quality." "The stories of the soma tell of repeated conquest, repeated loss," writes Calasso, and as an instance he narrates the quest of Indra, king of the gods, for that divine substance. The soma in Chapter X is associated with knowledge, as conveyed through a parable strikingly similar to Plato's cave. In Chapter XI, the soma is linked to desire, imaged in circulating waters. So the most beautiful of Apsaras, Urvasi, distracted the gods Mitra and Varuna from their ritual, and so was cursed to fall in love with a mortal, Pururavas.

In Chapter XII, Krsna (Krishna) is the protagonist. He steals butter from his mother, and hearts from the gopis, the cowgirls. In Chapter XIII the mature Krsna joined Arjuna as a bosom friend, but not before Arjuna won Princess Draupadi for his wife, and the enjoyment of all five Pandava brothers. All that is preface to the Indian epic Mahabharata. Of its narrative frame, Calasso writes, quite wonderfully:

The war between the Pandavas and the Kauravas is a "knot" (and the books that make up the Mahabharata are called parvans, "knots"), just one of the innumerable stitches in the weave of everything with everything. Going back in time to what came before it, or forward a little, after it ended, we encounter a net that brushes against us on every side--and immediately we are struck by the conviction that we will never see the edges of that net, because there are no edges.

Again, on the beginning of stories:

The Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge looked like a single tree: when the branches rustled, that was the Vedas who were its leaves, speaking; hen the air was still soma dripped from its trunk, offering life without end. Look at that huge plant carefully, you saw that there was in fact two trees, inextricably twisted together. One thrust its branches upward, the other towards the ground. They were a sami and an asvattha. It was hard to see which was which. On opposite branches, at the same height, two birds could be made out, "inseparable friends." One was eating a berry, the other was watching it intensely. To light a fire you need to rub a twig of asvattha against a twig of sami. Pushing out its aerial roots, the asvattha slowly strangles the sami. Consciousness slowly strangles life. But life exists--or is perceived to exist--only to the extent that it allows the parasite of consciousness to grown upon it.

In a later passage, Calasso links Krsna and Arjuna to these two birds of the Vedic hymn, no longer on opposite branches of the same tree, but on a war chariot. Arjuna the archer was the bird that ate the berry, while Krsna the charioteer watched, like the other bird, "without eating."

The second to last chapter is about the Buddha. Try as Calasso may, to show how the Buddhist teachings flow from, and react against, the Hindu myths, Chapters XIV is just not as interesting as the earlier ones. The problem seems to be the lack of stories, the emptiness of characters. Nirvana, in other words. The story of the Buddha's awakening is a well-trodden path, and Calasso adds little that is new. The aridity of these chapters is consonant with the Buddha's avoidance of imagery, and his love for analysis, repetition and numbers: four noble truths; the path is eightfold; the objects of grasping are five. In Calasso, what makes the Buddha humanly graspable is his blundering disciple and cousin, Ananda. It was Ananda who persuaded the Buddha to admit women into the priesthood. It was Ananda who feared death and lusted after women. Ananda means joy.

Chapter XV, the final chapter, is a brief recapitulation of the themes: earth, beginning, residue, the Self, being, wakefulness. The book ends with its beginning, Garuda awakening from his sleep, his claws still grasping hymn number 121 of the tenth book of the Rg Veda, his eyes still focused on the syllable from which everything had issued forth: Ka.

...more

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Apr 19, 2018 Nikolas Alixopulos rated it really liked it

An absolutely beautiful book- though has some moments I feel could have been condensed. Many favorite moments but in between the dramas of these modern retellings have great lines reflecting our philosophical nature:
"if the waters are the weft on which all things are woven, on what weft are woven the waters."

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Oct 22, 2019 Karthick rated it liked it

This book is a work of art. And thus, where it scores on beauty, it misses in precision. The author errorneously places the Buddha as part of the Hindu-Vaishnavite universe. One is tempted to forgive a literary genius like Calasso this tresspass, but no.

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Apr 27, 2018 Cherie rated it liked it

Shelves: spirituality, non-fiction

Not as much of the beautiful stories of the gods of India as I was hoping, windy and twisting and demanding attention, but sharing tales, some familiar, some not.

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Feb 27, 2019 Robin rated it liked it

Beyond explanation.

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Aug 27, 2019 Nidhi Verma rated it really liked it

It definitely is one of the most wonderful books I have ever read.

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May 26, 2012 Marts (Thinker) marked it as shelved · review of another edition

Shelves: philosophy

I got this description of this book from Amazon,

"A giddy invasion of stories--brilliant, enigmatic, troubling, outrageous, erotic, beautiful." --The New York Times Book Review

"So brilliant that you can't look at it anymore--and you can't look at anything else. . . . No one will read it without reward."
--The Boston Globe

With the same narrative fecundity and imaginative sympathy he brought to his acclaimed retelling of the Greek myths, Roberto Calasso plunges Western readers into the mind of anci ...more

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Oct 17, 2017 Haarika rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Ka is both exhilarating and exhausting to read. Exhilarating, to see retelling of lesser known stories from Hindu mythology. Exhausting, to digest and experience the prose. I couldn’t read the book at one sitting. I had to go back and forth, re-reading parts of it, pondering the meaning of it while ensuring I’m not missing the subtleties.
This happens to me when I do not want to finish the book and after 6 months I am finally done. And craving for more.
While I enjoyed the journey, a part of me ...more

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May 20, 2013 Girish rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Rating books on a 5 point scale is seldom easy, but this book takes the cake. As far as readability goes, it deserves a one. There is hardly any flow between consecutive paragraphs. The language is extremely dense and author has freely used metaphors and interrogatives, causing a near soporific effect. There have been occasions when I have used this book as a remedy for my insomnia.

Having said that, I feel the fault partly lies with me (the reader), because the author has definitely done his hom ...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Akhila added it · review of another edition

Calasso has undertaken the mammoth task of going through classical Indian mythology and effectively boiling it down to "sound-bites". An excellent introduction to Vedic myth made even more interesting because it is written by an author so proficient in Greek myth -so the parallels he draws between the two are insightful.

The book is divided into parts starting from the beginning of creation and ending with the life of the Buddha. Each chapter can be read as a stand-alone story which could make t ...more

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Nov 15, 2012 Raj rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, religion, mythology

This book is going to be difficult for me to review because it's not what I was expecting or wanting. I was hoping for a book that would take me through some of the stories of Hindu mythology, an area in which my knowledge is woefully inadequate, being limited to hazy childhood memories. However, it turned out to be more a setting out of some of the principles of Hindu philosophy, using some of the stories to hang that on to. This is a noble aim in itself, but it's not what I was looking for.

Tak ...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Namrata Jain rated it really liked it

I should have waited a few more years to read this.
I really believe in reading the books at the right time in life to really enjoy them, and this got in a little early.
I really enjoyed the stories, especially about how amrta was procured and of Krishna, Buddha and Mahabharata.
Mahabharata is my favorite epic!
But there's just so much philosophy and so many second meanings, sadly I don't think I absorbed it all that well. Call it impatience or just a dis-interest in thinking of things to a depth I ...more

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Oct 12, 2012 Kyra rated it it was ok

Shelves: stopped-reading-on-purpose

It started out well, but very quickly became dry. It seems like the author has attempted to mimic the storytelling style of the originals: running narrative descriptions bordering on stream of consciousness. Almost like Alice in Wonderland, but less enthralling.
I would've like to see something with richer characters and more stable, if blossoming sense of time and space. This is magical realism spoken like realism, but the story is all magical and I don't care.
bummed.
I'm probably reading the U ...more

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Jan 05, 2009 Ryan rated it really liked it

Shelves: mythology

Beautifully poetic. My expectation (or hope?) that it would unravel the overlapping, intertwining, irreducible complexity of the vedas, upanishads, mahabarata, and buddhism was not destined for fulfillment ... but could I trust anything or anyone that irons flat such essential wrinkles?

Calasso is part of that astounding pool of Europe's poetic essayists, bringing unbelievable, polymathic erudition to the level of high-art ... think Michel Serres, Elias Cannetti, Claudio Magris, etc.

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Jul 05, 2015 Bgera rated it liked it

Insightful reading about mythology ranging from Shiva to Buddha from a Western perspective of philosophy. Really liked the characters narrating stories in first person rather than analytical approach to religion. Covers far too much and tough to relate one chapter to another although there are connecting themes. Story of Buddha was most interesting as I am currently attending teachings on Buddhism.

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Roberto Calasso

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Roberto Calasso (born 30 May 1941 in Florence) is an Italian publisher and writer. He was born into a family of the local upper class, well connected with some of the great Italian intellectuals of their time. His maternal grandfather Giovanni Codignola was a professor of philosophy at Florence University. Codignola created a new publishing house called La Nuova Italia, in Florence, just like his Roberto Calasso (born 30 May 1941 in Florence) is an Italian publisher and writer. He was born into a family of the local upper class, well connected with some of the great Italian intellectuals of their time. His maternal grandfather Giovanni Codignola was a professor of philosophy at Florence University. Codignola created a new publishing house called La Nuova Italia, in Florence, just like his friend Benedetto Croce had done in Bari with Laterza. His uncle Tristano Codignola, partigiano during the Resistenza, after the war joined the political life of the new republic, and was for a while Minister of Education. His mother Melisenda – who gave up a promising academic career to raise her three children – was a scholar of German literature, and had worked on Hölderlin’s translations of the Greek poet Pindar. His father Francesco was a law professor, first at Florence University and then in Rome, where he eventually became dean of his faculty. He has been working for Adelphi Edizioni since its founding in 1962 and became its Chairman in 1999. His books have from 1990 been translated into most European languages. After a successful career in publishing he has become a leading intellectual.[citation needed]

He is the author of a work in progress, that started with The Ruin of Kasch in 1983, a book welcome by Italo Calvino, dedicated to the French statesman Talleyrand and to a reflection on the culture of modernity. This was followed in 1988 by The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony, a book where the tale of Cadmus and his wife Harmonia becomes a pretext for re-writing the great tales of Greek mythology and reflect on the reception of Greek culture for a contemporary readership. The trend for portraying whole civilizations continues with Ka (where the subject of the re-writing is Hindu mythology). K. instead restricts the focus to one single author(Franz Kafka); this trend continues with Il rosa Tiepolo, inspired by an adjective used by Proust to describe a shade of pink used by Tiepolo in his paintings. With his latest book, La folie Baudelaire, Calasso goes back to the fresco of whole civilisations, this time re-writing the lives and works of the artists that revolutionised our artistic taste, the symbolist poets and impressionist painters.

His essaystic production is collected in a few books: I quarantanove gradini (The Forty-nine Steps, a collection of essays about major authors and thinkers in European modernity addressed to Pierre Klossowski and his wife). His Oxford lessons are collected in Literature and the Gods. In 2005 Calasso published La follia che viene dalle ninfe, a collection of essays on the influence of the nymph in literature, which is discussed through authors ranging from Plato to Nabokov. ...more

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“They had to stir the churn of the ocean, until the soma floated up, as butter floats from milk. And this task could not be undertaken in opposition to the Asuras, but only with their help. The pronouncement ran contrary to everything the Devas had previously thought. But in the end, what did they have to lose, given that their lives were so futile? Now they thought: Anything, so long as there be a trial, a risk, a task.” — 6 likes

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