A delightful read for anyone interested in indian mythology. The structure, the content and the style are so good that I am looking for other books by the same author.

For a detailed review click on the link or paste the link below:

http://onerightword.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/mythmithya-hindu-mythology-decoded-by... ( )

This book is written well, and is accessible to everyone, and this is something that I like a lot.
He obviously does not delve deep into the mythology, and this is understandable, because Hindu mythology is quite complex. I am not sure about his breaking up of the first two ages as "mechanical" and "intellectual", but I do agree with the last. We are entering a new, more intolerant age and I wonder what he would say about this.

What is good, is that he does not take positions, but explains the philosophy and the myths is simple language, and this makes it a valuable book ( )

Pattanaik's Myth=Mithya approaches Hinduism from an interestingly rational standpoint. This was one of the first things that struck me about the book. Normally, books about God(s) tend to be pretty partisan in their world-view. Religion in general feeds into the overwhelming human urge to explain everything with one grand all-encompassing sentence or formula. A theological 42, if you will. Myth=mithya on the other hand, approaches the world with the same rational observation-theory-hypothesis method that I would expect from a scientific paper. It makes no arrogant claims to authority, nor does it even pretend to be the be-all/end-all as far as Hindu Mythology goes. It simply states cases from Hindu Mythology and then draws correlations to different aspects of Hindu philosophy as opposed to religion. What makes it all the more interesting, and why I refer to it as theology is- Hindu Mythology is still a very integral part of Indian culture (and by stating this, I dont intend to undermine Muslim and Mughal influences on Indian culture in any way). While Greek, Roman and Egyptian myths are arguably more popular, globally; and are definitely studied/analyzed to a far greater degree, they are artifacts of now-defunct religions. Hinduism and the Hindu pantheon are still very much practiced and believed in, respectively. No scholar of Greek Myth actually believes that Aphrodite was born from Ouranos' genitals, but you try to tell my grandmum that Brahma was not born from a lotus that grew out of Narayana's navel while Narayana reclined on a thousand-headed serpent that floated on an infinite ocean of milk and I guarantee you that you are in for a bit of an argument.
As a consequence of Hindu Mythology being a popular belief in Hindu society, any discussion of Hindu Mythology has a lot of theological implications to weigh it down. To analyze and dissect the myth of the birth of Brahma or the nature of Rama's betrayal of Sita is to analyze and dissect Hinduism itself. With verbal dexterity that verges on magic, Pattanaik neatly sidesteps any large theological implication and simply discusses the Myth for what it is: a popular story that attempts to explain and justify the world-view of a largish group of people.

You can clearly see the Pattanaik loves and respects Hinduism. He presents Hinduism as it is and does not pretend that it is THE way or THE truth like some ridiculous religious fanatic. His humility, and the fact that you are not assaulted with religious propaganda make this book all the more enjoyable. (This review is by Arnand Bhadwaj on amazon.com).