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Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God: Retracing the Ramayana Through India
(2000)
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Author: Jonah Blank
Publisher: Grove Press
Language: English
Pages: 370
ISBN: 9780802137333
Genre: Cultural Studies, Hinduism
Format: Paperback

The two-thousand-year-old Sanskrit epic 'Ramayana' - one of the greatest literary works of the ancient world - chronicles Lord Rama's journey from one end of the Indian subcontinent to the other and his spiritual voyage from man to deity. In 'Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God', anthropologist and journalist Jonah Blank retells the ancient story in a lively prose while following the course of the epic hero's quest through contemporary India and Sri Lanka.

In his adventures Blank encounters a chimerical subcontinent caught between the ancient and the modern, from swamis who wrestle both physically and metaphysically, to prepubescent Tamil guerrillas barely able to lift their AK-47s, to television actors who are worshipped as living manifestations of Hindu divinities. Sparkling with humor and cultural insight, 'Arrow of the Blue-Skinned God' is an up-close look at the multifaceted jewel that is India, in all its poignant, picaresque and paradoxical beauty.