As battles over history intensify in India, questions about who controls myth have taken on new urgency. In this wide-ranging conversation, the Indologist and scholar of Sanskrit and Indian textual traditions Wendy Doniger reflects on a lifetime of thinking about myth – how stories travel across cultures, how they are shaped by personal experience, and why they resist fixed meanings. From epics and oral traditions to the politics of interpretation in contemporary India, she speaks about the power of myth to illuminate, unsettle and endure.
The transcript below is from an episode of Himal’s Southasia Review of Books podcast from July 2025, in which associate editor Shwetha Srikanthan speaks with Doniger, about her recent book The Cave of Echoes: Stories About Gods, Animals and Other Strangers (Speaking Tiger, July 2025).
The episode is available on Youtube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
This is an edited excerpt of the full interview. Please listen to the corresponding audio before quoting from it.