FROM THE HORSE'S MOUTH

Wendy Doniger writes about horses and gods with an equal joy and affection

- Shreevatsa Nevatia

WINGED STALLIONS AND WICKED MARES

Horses in Indian Myth and History

by Wendy Doniger

SPEAKING TIGER

Wendy Doniger has been crazy about horses ever since she first rode one in 1965. Released earlier this week, Winged Stallions and Wicked Mares, she says, “is the work of the love of a lifetime”. The affection with which Doniger picks stories about horses from Indian mythology and history is tangible. “Yoga,” she points out, “really means putting a bridle on your mind and your body, harnessing the otherwise unruly senses. It’s a horse metaphor—to put the yoke on a horse is to tame and control it.”

In Doniger’s book, we see how gods and men have both tried taming horses since the dawn of time, but according to her, horses also “lead humans from the world of the tame into the world of the wild”. Speaking to India today over a Zoom call from Massachusetts, describing the joy she would feel when her horse would take off, Doniger’s face lights up: “It’s like flying. You just hang on for dear life. You become him. You go into his world.” Doniger, a consummate storyteller, allows the horses in her book a very similar abandon. Her reins are loose. Her stallions and mares usually speak for themselves.