Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books podcast, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan speaks to the distinguished Indologist and scholar of Sanskrit and Indian textual traditions Wendy Doniger about her book, The Cave of Echoes: Stories About Gods, Animals and Other Strangers (Speaking Tiger, July 2025).
In The Cave of Echoes, Wendy Doniger writes that, “it is impossible to define myth, but it is cowardly not to try.” For her, the best way to approach myth is not by defining it, but to look at it in action, which is precisely what she has set out to do throughout this book: to explore what myth does, rather than what myth is.
This book is a celebration of the universal art of storytelling and the diverse narratives that shape how people understand their world and their pasts. Drawing on Hindu epics, Biblical parables, Greek myths and modern mythologies, Doniger examines the enduring force of myth and tradition, and how they shape societies.
She shows how myth not only allows cultures to define themselves, but also how the myths of others can reflect back truths often overlooked in our own. Along the way, Doniger raises critical questions about how we interpret mythic stories, and how different communities across Southasia and beyond engage with these foundational texts and traditions.
This episode is now available on Youtube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
Episode notes:
The Cave of Echoes: Stories About Gods, Animals and Other Strangers by Wendy Doniger (Speaking Tiger, July 2025)
The Hindus: An Alternative History by Wendy Doniger (Speaking Tiger, December 2015)
Myth and Meaning: Cracking the Code of Culture by Claude Levi-Strauss (Schocken, March 1995)
‘Banned in Bangalore’ by Wendy Doniger (The New York Times, March 2014)
‘If censorship happens in Bharat, what about India?’ (Himal Southasian, February 2014)
‘Aside the chariot: A review of The Hindus: An alternative history by Wendy Doniger’ - Diwas Kc (Himal Southasian, March 2010)
‘Nepal’s Ramayanas: The study of myths and histories in Southasia needs to transcend modern political boundaries’ - Amish Raj Mulmi (Himal Southasian, August 2010)
‘The pursuit of the Southasian past’ - Romila Thapar (Himal Southasian, July 2008)
“Ramayana, Ramayana, Ramayana” - Dor Bahadur Bista (Himal Southasian, September 1989)
‘The Ram Mandir is the tombstone for India as Southasia’s great secular exception’ - Vaibhav Vats (Himal Southasian, February 2024)
✨Thank you for listening to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast from Himal Southasian. If you like this episode, please share widely, rate, review, subscribe and download the show on your favourite podcast apps.
✉️Let’s keep the conversation going – please share your thoughts on the episode. Leave us a comment on Youtube or write to us at editorial@himalmag.com.
🎙️Tune in to Himal’s State of Southasia podcast hosted by associate editor Nayantara Narayanan, featuring conversations on pressing social and political issues from across Southasia.
📹Himal is now also bringing you a new podcast series, Partitions of the Heart, by the peace activist Harsh Mander. So please tune into season one, for his conversations on the crisis facing India’s Muslims amid the rule of the Hindu Right.
📼We’ve hit a special milestone this month — the Himal Southasian YouTube channel now has 2000 subscribers! If you haven’t already, do subscribe and help us spread the word by sharing these episodes widely.
🙏🏼If you’d like to support our work, please do become paying Himal Patron – we have a great programme with lots of perks, and we’ll welcome you to a fantastic Southasia Review of Books community.