“Nine Lives” William Dalrymple (2013) Review | Being holy in India today

Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India
William Dalrymple, 2013
304 pages
Read in 2025.11
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✔ Travel journey throughout India
✔ Historian visits nine individual who are considered holy
✔ Transition from traditional to modern India


🔽 Review summary 🔽

★★★★★ It's a travel journal, except that the focus is not on the places but the people these places "created". These traditions are disappearing. As India is now going for a national holy story, as they call it Rama-fication, how long will these very local faiths last.


🔽 Book review and notes 🔽

A slightly different touch to other books I've read from Mr. Dalrymple.
It's a travel journal, except that the focus is not on the places but the people these places "created".

The book focuses on the 9 people who are admired as holy and sacred, because they have been "decided" to be as holy being by the society, or sometimes they chose to, or maybe they have great skills like creating the religious art.

As always Dalrymple is all about embracing as things are, he's not here to judge, he's just here to pass on their stories and traditions to a wider world.
As he says, and indeed as he saw, these traditions are disappearing. 
They are not necessarily less religious but the modern India is now going for a national, standardised holy story, the nationalistic Hinduism, as Dalrymple calls it Rama-fication, rather than 1000s of very local stories.

India is lucky to have Dalrymple as their historian today, his curious eyes will record everything and with passion he shares with us.

The book focuses on;
A devoted Jain nun, dancer in Kannur Kerala, daughters dedicated to a goddess, but actually working as prostitutes, singers in Rajasthan, devotee of Sufi that embraces Hindu and Islam, Tibetan monk who was a soldier, idol maker in Tamil, devotee in Tarapith for a fearful goddess, and a blind singer in Bengal.

🔽 Where to buy / Summary and more info 🔽

●●● Amazon.com (US) ●●●

Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India (Vintage Departures)

●●● Amazon.co.uk (UK) ●●●
Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India

●●● Amazon.it (Italy) ●●●
Nove vite (Italiano)