Book Review - Nine Lives, William Dalrymple

We humans love stories and are fascinated by story-tellers who can weave some fascinating tales. Right from our childhood, when even the noblest of morals was taught using fables, to filling ourselves with news telecast on a daily basis to learn the happenings around, we learn more in the form of stories than through mere stating of facts. Authors like William Dalrymple are fascinating raconteurs that bring history before our eyes with their lucid prose. This book is a testimony to that.

This ancient land of India has seen the rise and fall of various civilizations and cultures. Along the way, it has also seen the birth and decline of various religious paths. Though many of them, like Buddhism, Jainism and Tantric worship, have not caught up with the larger masses, they have held on to their own and flourished in the shadow of that all-encompassing ocean called Hinduism. With their own holy scriptures, rituals and routes to seek the Eternal Truth, they are still in vogue among many parts of this country. In this book, Mr. Dalrymple brings to fore nine such people, who have all, in their varied ways, been searching for that one single Divinity.

A Jain nun explains her struggle to let go of her attachment towards her friend who undertook ritualistic fasting unto death. One of the members from the ‘lowest’ levels of the society gets worshipped by even the higher castes for a quarter of an year, when he dons the garb of a God and becomes ‘occupied’ by the Divine. Then told the tale of ‘Devadasis’, so-called ‘Slaves of the Lord’, a pure tradition that got tarnished and truncated into mere flesh trade. The waning art of Rajasthani Bhopas who use their ‘Ektara’ (a musical instrument) and a ‘Phad’ (a fabric painting) to invoke the Lord and sing His glories, wandering across the land. There are Sufi dervishes caught in the whirlwind between their pure love for the God and the puritanical, rabid form of Islam that threatens the very existence of humanity. Then there is a Tibetan monk who tried unsuccessfully to fight the invasion of his country by the Chinese, but who now spends his time in the hope of atoning for his acts of violence and returning to his motherland someday. Thanjavur’s bronze idol makers who have kept alive the traditions of their ancestors for nearly a millennia, casting bronze images that turn into vessels of Divinity, have been lent voice in the next chapter. The final two chapters are devoted to talking with people that chose to seek the Divine in the profane and the mundane – through Tantra.

Every character in this book is different and unique. Yet, what binds them all together is their seeking to connect with their God through art forms and austerities. Also, the understanding they share about there being one God who gets worshipped in many names is a common trait that needed to be told to the whole world.

Each of these nine chapters brims with history, tradition and emotions. Traveling across the vast expanse of India, Mr. Dalrymple has put in a lot of efforts to capture the characters in their truest, most vulnerable selves, laying bare their lives, emotions, ideals and ambitions. As each chapter comes to an end you can’t help feeling a tinge of emotion – sorrow, anger, awe, anguish and, above all, hope – surging through your hearts. Riveting. Realistic. Wonderful recounting.

These ‘Nine Lives’ will really live upon your heart!