Rating: 
Summary: Oh, my
Review: Calasso's works tend to be illuminating and humbling in equal portions, and this is no exception. If you've read any of the ancient stories in more traditional forms -- Hamilton's mythology, or a translation of the Bhagvad-gita for example, you're in for a big surpise. Get ready. And if you think of yourself as reasonably well read, Calasso will make you feel illiterate. This man seems to have read, and digested everything.In this work, Calasso illustrates the religious thought of India through a retelling of many stories. It might be more fair to say reimaging, but I'd hate to mislead you into thinking this is some sort of postmodernist 'recontextualizing' of the stories. Calasso's not trying to subvert the stories, but rather to get inside them. The reader ends up with intuitions, and a sense of complex relationships, rather than a reductionist or reconstructed version of the tales. If you're more familiar with western traditions, I recommend "The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony" as an introduction to his technique. But if you're interested in the people and culture of India but have found the other works either too archaic or new-agey, this is a great introduction.
Rating: 
Summary: difficult
Review: Having enjoyed "The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony", and wanting to learn something about Hindu mythology, I was really excited to get my copy of "KA". Unfortunately, I still don't know much about Hindu Mythology. "KA" is difficult. Perhaps if I'd started with some knowledge of the subject (as was the case for the Greek myths of "Marriage...") I would have been able to get something out of the book - but it's certainly not appropriate for absolute beginners in Hindu mythology. I read about half of it, and absorbed nothing.
Rating:
Summary: Incomprehensible to an Indian mythology neophyte
Review: Having read and loved Calasso's "The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia", I grabbed this book the moment I saw it in a bookshop. I guess I should have known it would not be an easy book to read - after all, if I did not already have a solid background in Greek mythology before I read "The Marriage", I would have found it incomprehensible too. This is NOT the first book about Indian mythology to read, and perhaps not even the second or third book - you will be utterly confused unless you already have a very good foundation in Indian mythology AND some knowledge of Indian sacred writings. I was thoroughly disappointed, but perhaps that was my own fault for picking a book that went way over my head.
Rating:
Summary: Incomprehensible to an Indian mythology neophyte
Review: Having read and loved Calasso's "The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmonia", I grabbed this book the moment I saw it in a bookshop. I guess I should have known it would not be an easy book to read - after all, if I did not already have a solid background in Greek mythology before I read "The Marriage", I would have found it incomprehensible too. This is NOT the first book about Indian mythology to read, and perhaps not even the second or third book - you will be utterly confused unless you already have a very good foundation in Indian mythology AND some knowledge of Indian sacred writings. I was thoroughly disappointed, but perhaps that was my own fault for picking a book that went way over my head.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible for all interested in Hinduism
Review: I cannot understand why anyone would give this book a single star. Having grown up Hindu, I can say that Calasso has given me a retelling of stories from my childhood, and given my valuable insights into those stories. The book is as much a history as it is a novel. It is the history of Indian thought told as a story would be, and with each step Calasso gives us another beautiful conclusion or observation. If there was one part of the book that was flawed, it was the drawn out story of the horse sacrifice, but even there we see how much research Calasso has done. There are benefits to being somone in a culture and writing on it, but there are also benefits to being an outsider. Calasso is one of the best writers on the outside of India. Not only do we see the linkings of Hinduism, we see the linkings of Calasso's mind, and this linking of facts and memes is a major theme of the faith that Calasso presents. The way this book echoes itself is beautiful. In truth, as one critic said, nothing has come out of India that deals with Hinduism so wonderfully in recent years. This simply is the truth, and rather than an insult I think Hindus should read this book and accept the challenge to produce a better work.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a beginner book
Review: Ka is well written and is a true pleasure to read. It brings out some of the lesser known mythological tales of India's heritage and is very narrative in its story telling, unlike many Indian authored books on the same subject, which are riddled with commentaries and sanskrit verses in between. This makes the book very readable indeed, which is an added benefit to some very enjoyable and enthralling tales.
However, this is not a beginner book in Indian mythology. To make sense and perspective of the stories in this book, it is very useful to first have a clear idea of the present day view of many of these Gods and the rituals, and also understand India's heritage as being a mix of the Vedic Aryans and the Upanishadic Indians... or if you believe in the Aryan Invasion myth, the Vedic Aryans, period.
This is a good book to read, but needs to have a pre-course work done to avoid drawing "incorrect" subjective judgments on Indian deities from this book alone.
Rating: 
Summary: Utterly Fascinating, but Short of Successful
Review: Roberto Calasso's "Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony" is a masterful re-reading of the Greek myths. It completely outstrips Edith Hamilton, and challenges Joseph Campbell's position of superiority as a mythologist - at least as far as the Greeks are concerned. With "Ka: Stories of the Mind and Gods of India," a retelling of the Hindu myths, Mr. Calasso falls short of "...Cadmus and Harmony." The book is quite interesting both in style and content, but it's in style that Mr. Calasso fails. First to content: Hindu mythology provides a wonderful field for the imagination because it seems to exist in thought, that is to say, in the mind. This book even tells us in its title that that is where we're going to be dwelling. Events occur on earth, but are not really earth bound. Ka, the first character in this mythology is the first thought, and all else exists in this thought - or in the thoughts of the thought. Perhaps, ad infinitum. Yes, Lord Krisna, the beautiful prankster and lover has a family, a sexuality, and an affect on humanity; but, his life is more in the cosmic imagination than the created world. The same is true of the other characters, except for the author's foray into the life of the Buddha. It's here, with the Buddha's challenge to Hinduism that the preceeding pages are brought together because we are finally brought to earth. Interestingly enough, the Buddha subdues "mind," and if it is true that the Hindu creation exists only in the "mind," or thought, then the Buddha has also subdued an entire cosmology. Mr. Calasso believes the Buddha's challenge was to the notion of sacrifice, I think, by Mr. Calasso's telling, the challenge was more radical. Regardless of the character's lack of solid form, the stories are compelling. Creation, the balance of life, its destruction, and the cycle's foreigness to Western thought could only be dull in the telling of a dolt. Mr. Calasso is not a dolt. But, he may be too clever. Which brings us to style: Mr. Calasso can tell a story, but in "Ka" he falls in love with stylization. This is a minor flaw in "...Cadmus and Harmony," in "Ka" it is a major distraction. It's also an interesting dilemna because it appears that Mr. Calasso has attempted to re-imagine the book as mind itself. Reading becomes telepathy - which in a sense, it always has been. When we read, we are reading the author's mind. Here we are reading the author's mind read the mind of Ka, which is the mind of all creation, and Mr. Calasso's skill as a stylist isn't great enough to keep things from running amuck. However, his attempt is valiant, and it shouldn't keep you from giving this book a try, and from keeping it on your shelf for a re-read - or two.
Rating:
Summary: Utterly Fascinating, but Short of Successful
Review: Roberto Calasso's "Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony" is a masterful re-reading of the Greek myths. It completely outstrips Edith Hamilton, and challenges Joseph Campbell's position of superiority as a mythologist - at least as far as the Greeks are concerned. With "Ka: Stories of the Mind and Gods of India," a retelling of the Hindu myths, Mr. Calasso falls short of "...Cadmus and Harmony." The book is quite interesting both in style and content, but it's in style that Mr. Calasso fails. First to content: Hindu mythology provides a wonderful field for the imagination because it seems to exist in thought, that is to say, in the mind. This book even tells us in its title that that is where we're going to be dwelling. Events occur on earth, but are not really earth bound. Ka, the first character in this mythology is the first thought, and all else exists in this thought - or in the thoughts of the thought. Perhaps, ad infinitum. Yes, Lord Krisna, the beautiful prankster and lover has a family, a sexuality, and an affect on humanity; but, his life is more in the cosmic imagination than the created world. The same is true of the other characters, except for the author's foray into the life of the Buddha. It's here, with the Buddha's challenge to Hinduism that the preceeding pages are brought together because we are finally brought to earth. Interestingly enough, the Buddha subdues "mind," and if it is true that the Hindu creation exists only in the "mind," or thought, then the Buddha has also subdued an entire cosmology. Mr. Calasso believes the Buddha's challenge was to the notion of sacrifice, I think, by Mr. Calasso's telling, the challenge was more radical. Regardless of the character's lack of solid form, the stories are compelling. Creation, the balance of life, its destruction, and the cycle's foreigness to Western thought could only be dull in the telling of a dolt. Mr. Calasso is not a dolt. But, he may be too clever. Which brings us to style: Mr. Calasso can tell a story, but in "Ka" he falls in love with stylization. This is a minor flaw in "...Cadmus and Harmony," in "Ka" it is a major distraction. It's also an interesting dilemna because it appears that Mr. Calasso has attempted to re-imagine the book as mind itself. Reading becomes telepathy - which in a sense, it always has been. When we read, we are reading the author's mind. Here we are reading the author's mind read the mind of Ka, which is the mind of all creation, and Mr. Calasso's skill as a stylist isn't great enough to keep things from running amuck. However, his attempt is valiant, and it shouldn't keep you from giving this book a try, and from keeping it on your shelf for a re-read - or two.
Rating: 
Summary: mumbo jumbo of few bubbles from vast ocean, weaved by author
Review: The ocean of Indian legends, tales and mythology is so vast that no body can cover its significant part in one book. In this book author has used his imagination to weave some of the stories around prjapati. Book is good from literary point of view but a waste of time from it's content perspective; in particular, if reader has some knowledge of Indian myths, tales, legends or culture.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book,
Review: This book is invaluable to those who understand the meaning of this statement "everything orginates and dissolves in the mind". But even though people may read this a thousand times, they may not get the "gesture" of thought the statement is attempting to describe. If by the word "understand" we mean the thought Gesture "to know", then noone knows Ka...least of all calasso. The understanding is precisely this~the thought gesture of "understanding" Ka and the thought Gesture of "being totally ignorant" of Ka, dissolve in Ka. What frequency of glimpse did calasso get from his writings? Did he realize that yajnavalkya was admiring gardis personality (her robe) which she had meticulouly weaved with her thoughts? Did he understand that the sabha was a physical image of the mind..with it's 100 doors and 1000 columns? Or did he just churn out literature for his affinity towards literature? (yet doors within doors in that sabha)whatever may be the case, this is rare work, and worthy of your thoughts' (Ka?) attention.
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