Thanks to Netgalley and Amber Books for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book is richly illustrated, and well set up providing the reader first with a foundation of hinduisms beliefs and history, making for a wonderful journey through the basics of its religious concepts, beliefs, cosmology and practices. I do not consider myself a novice on the topic, as I have previously read translations of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, know of the trimurti of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva and their respective vehicles and consorts, and in the past took time to distinguish the panoply of colourful hindu gods.

Still, after making my way through the familiar epics, I found myself mired down by the multitude of different characters of the puranas and was left dazed and bewildered when the book detailed the other sages, king and personalities. I was simply left at a loss on how to tie the multitude of diverse characters together. Sometimes I was simply confused by similar-sounding names as in the example of Bhima and Bhisma appearing beside each other in the Mahabharata. But other times, I felt at a loss what lessons could or should be drawn from the stories. What about caves becoming pregnant by virtue of having semen hidden in them or - while we're on the topic of semen - semen being caught in a bowl of leaves which is subsequently dropped in a river by an eagle thus impregnating a poor passing apsara. Or poor Indra being cursed so throughly that his genitals fell off and had to have them replaced by those of a goat!

So in the end, I concur with some other reviews that this is a most beautiful book, but directed to the reader who is more of a hinduism specialist with a sufficient enough basis to be able to tie the stories together into a more coherent whole. ( )

Hindu Myths: From Cosmology to Gods, Demons and Magic by Martin J Dougherty is an attractive book that covers quite a bit of information in a relatively limited space. I found the text interesting and the images very nice.

I don't know where to place myself as far as previous knowledge of Hinduism is concerned. I am not a practitioner but have taken a few courses where some texts were covered. In particular, as much for how recent as for how comprehensive, is a MOOC on edX titled Hinduism Through Its Scriptures (offered by Harvard). I think that background gave me enough of a foundation to appreciate what Dougherty covered. I can't speak for how it might read for someone with absolutely no basic understanding. That said, I do think it will serve as an interesting introduction for beginners even if they feel a little lost at first.

I admit that my biggest interest in the title was the photographs and other images. While this is not as image heavy as some such books, there is a wealth of historic and artistic pictures that are presented very well in conjunction with the text.

I definitely recommend this to most readers interested in Hinduism though I will caution readers who might know up front that they don't want to read any further than this one book. This works better as an introduction for readers who might want to explore Hinduism a little more than for those who want to consider this their entire introduction. If you're mostly interested in the visual aspects, then I highly recommend this book.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )