Jonah Blank's impressive work "Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God: Retracing the Ramayana Through India" was first published by Houghton Mifflin in 1992, then revised in places and reissued by Grove Press in 2000. New copies are scarce, but used copies are available through Amazon, B & N, and other booksellers.
Clearly this is a book I never would have known about, let alone would have read, had it not been chosen by our book study group leader for this month, who is an expert on India among countless other topics. Like all books that open new territory, one reads it not only acknowledging the depths of one's own ignorance, but also with a growing incentive to learn more. Among other bits of information provided by our discussion leader are these:
- Due to absence of birth control, India continually generates increases in population sufficient to people another country the size of Taiwan.
- Along one seven hundred mile stretch of the Ganges River, a new language can be found every fifteen miles or so due to the fact that no one has ever traveled more than five miles from home in these rural areas .
Of course, modern India provides a dramatic example of the effects of economic growth and accompanying shifts in living standards for those who have participated in this remarkable change. But these recent developments are another story.
I was impressed, first of all, with the author's remarkable ability to assimilate the complex culture, the intricacies of various religions, and to provide remarkable insights that not only illuminate the emergence of modern India, but also which have applications for other cultures and lands. I understand the author was in his early 20's when he wrote the first edition of this book, which makes his work even more impressive.
The author's goal was to retrace the journey of the god Rama, the legendary god of the ancient Sanskrit epic, across India. As a 1992 review by Reed Business Information, Inc., observes:
Coupling journalistic detachment with piercing lyricism, he samples the subcontinent in all its horrific, multitudinous, overwhelming diversity, from Bombay's Hollywood-style dream factories to Calcutta's leper-filled streets.
Blank takes us through the labyrinthine culture of "lingering" caste divisions, the Indian bureaucracy, and the lingering impact of the British Raj, as he writes "beautifully and taps into India's elusive indestructible soul." (Reed Business Information quote).
I'll provide just a few quotes that stood out when I read the book:
- The Hindu faith places greater emphasis on an individual's actions than perhaps any other religion in the world. (p. 33)
- A quote that demonstrates Blank's powers of observation and lyrical writing: Not that the desert suggests any luxury. It is a bare land, full of herds of black-headed sheep jumbled up with herds of shaggy-legged camels, a dirty plain where dun-colored goats can scarcely be distinguished from the dun-colored earth. The only shocks of color are the clothes of the inhabitants: women drape themselves in exuberant purple saris, men wrap their heads in turbans dyed flaming red or neon green. Such flamboyance seems out of place here, but a ruler can break any rule. ( p. 59)
- India is more a conglomeration than a country, a hodgepodge of hundreds of cultures, languages, and people held together by an idea. I am not sure what that idea is. (p. 207)
Some times we need to be jolted out of our complacent state of life and learn something new to unclog our mental pores. "Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God" will make you wonder why you never learned anything more than seventh-grade geography about one of the most diverse and important countries on earth. Let me know if you read it.
Recent Comments