Climbing Chamundi Hill

Overview

An American traveler in India chances upon an old storyteller, who joins him on his pilgrimage to the top of a holy hill and along the way shares the authentic flavor of India through stories of courtesans and kings, holy men and thieves, talking animals, and mythical lands. Many of them are translated here by Glucklich for the first time from the ancient Sanskrit.

Editorial Reviews

Religion scholar Glucklich (Sacred Pain: Hurting the Body for the Sake of the Soul) presents 30 ancient Hindu folktales, slotting them into the contrived story of an unnamed American biologist in South India. While walking barefoot near the sacred site of Chamundi Hill (simply because he wants to dry his wet sneakers), the narrator meets P.K. Shivaram, a retired librarian, who mistakes the biologist for a pilgrim and takes pity on his tender foreign feet. As they approach the 1,001 steps leading to a 12th-century Chamundi temple, the "tiny wrinkled man in brown polyester pants and worn out rubber thongs" distracts the biologist from his aching feet by telling him pilgrimage stories. The rather preachy riddles and fables, some of which are translated from Sanskrit for the first time, feature casts of kings, demons and talking animals and deliver pat moral lessons. The narrator and librarian dissect each tale on a metaphorical journey to Nirvana-a technique that feels irksomely artificial-and Glucklich dumbs down his American narrator (says the narrator to his guide: "First Shiva, now Vishnu-you know, I never could figure out your complicated polytheism"). In a few instances, Glucklich presents meaningful reflections: "No event in your life is a simple objective fact. It always means something to the memory-processing mind." Still, the flashes of substance feel isolated within a narrative that struggles to reach enlightenment.
Copyright (c) Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
-- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Ariel Glucklich

Ariel Glucklich is an associate professor of Hinduism at Georgetown University, as well as an expert in Sanskrit literature. A former Senior Fulbright Fellow in India, Glucklich is trained in Indian philosophy and theology. The most recent of Glucklich's five books is Sacred Pain, which won an award for excellence from the American Academy of Religion.

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Additional Info

Imprint

HarperCollins

Filesize

362.26 KB

Number of Pages

272

eBook ISBN

9780061446634