That is why the West sees itself as masculine, active, decisive, violent and straightforward, and qualifies Indic ideas as feminine, passive, ambiguous, non-violent yet cunning,” he says.
“The West dismisses the Indic worldview as chaos, thus closing its mind to any new possibility but its own. Not surprisingly, there are many books by Western scholars that ‘explain’ Hindu mythology, but very few by Indian scholars that bother to ‘observe’ Western mythology. This book is an attempt to bridge that gap,” Pattanaik says.
He also says that modern Greek worldview force-fits Hindu mythology into Greek or Christianity templates.
“Thus Hindu devas become ‘phallic’ like Hermes, and ‘rapists’ like Zeus, and asuras are explained as Christian demons, or Greek Titans. So the worldview establishes that India is in the shadows and in need of sunlight. It dismisses all talk of rebirth as mere superstition, failing to see the impact of this idea on the Indic mind,” he says.
Pattanaik says he has simply presented his “truth of Greek myths” in his book, published by Penguin Random House.
“I do not claim objectivity; I am comfortable with subjectivity and well aware of my Indian gaze,” he says.
(Sourced from agencies, feature image courtesy:twitter.com)
