Themes of Hinduism in American Gods

Hinduism is a broad term that encompasses the beliefs of many people. What exactly Hinduism means depends on the person you ask. In my studies of Hinduism, one memory sticks out, going to the Karya Siddhi Hanuman Temple in Frisco Texas. While I was there talking to the representative of the temple, we got on the topic of “how many gods are there in Hinduism.” He replied with something like “268543843 gods. But, the number isn’t important.” In his belief the gods are innumerable and if you could count them the amount would constantly changing. Another belief is that there is a single god who can take infinite forms. Gods fall in and out of popularity and sometimes into obscurity. Later, he talked about how it doesn’t matter who or what you worship just that you don’t hurt anyone in the process.

Karya Siddhi Hanuman at Frisco, TX

Any god can be a Hindu god in the temple representative’s opinion. This belief touches on something similar to the metaphysics of “American Gods.” If you believe in something and worship it, purposefully or not, it is real. The new gods like Technology and Television come to mind. We worship them without realizing and we provide valuable sacrifices like money or time. In this light, you could argue that these are Hindu gods. We worship them with our attention and we mostly don’t hurt other while doing so.

            Many Hindu writings, like the Bhagavad-Gita for example, show that the gods can take many forms. In the Gita its Vishnu as Krishna but in “American gods” all of these gods have this ability. They use these forms to get close to humans and to impact their lives. Mr. Wednesday uses this to get close to shadow and to blend into the human world around him. Similar to how Krishna takes human form to influences and help those around him.

Vishnu as Krishna reveals his true self to Arjuna

            Eventually Kali herself, a popular and still worshipped Hindu god, comes into the book. (124) The description of her is, “something huge, a naked woman with skin as black as a new leather jacket., and lips and tongue the bright red of arterial blood. Around her neck were skulls, and her many hands held knives, and swords, and severed heads.” This description is strikingly accurate to illustrations of Kari all around her places of worship. Her fierceness and wrath are also characteristically accurate. In response to a question asking her what she would do if she was attacked, she says, “if they try such a thing, they will find me hard to catch, and harder still to kill.”

Modern popular Smashan Kali painting by Raja Ravi Varma

            The concept of Dharma is also at work here. This is also another concept whose definition is a little hard to nail down. The temple representative thought of dharma as the cosmic order but Sikhs and other Hindus may give you a different answer. The old gods are trying to maintain their rule against these newcomer gods. This could be thought of as them maintaining their cosmic order. The book keeps alluding to a coming storm. Storms being inherently chaotic makes the Dharma connection fitting. 

Vikings Coming to America

Vikings Coming to America

Pages 61-64 in American Gods by Neil Gainman tell the tale of the vikings first landing in America. According to this interpretation, the vikings landed on American soil via navigating using the stars, but if it was a cloudy day they would rely on faith and the direction of the all-father (Odin). Upon arrival the vikings were exhausted, wounded, hungry, and feeling hopeless. After a motivational speech by the leader the vikings started constructing a hall out of trees and mud in honor of the God that created the land they are on. After the hall was built they celebrated by drinking, feasting, and singing songs that tell the story of Odin sacrificing himself for the men. Ironically, the next next the vikings find a scraeling whom the be-friend. After a night of feeding “him roasted meat to eat, and strong drink to quench his thirst” (63), the scraeling fell asleep upon which the vikings hung him, with rope around his neck, at the ash tree. According to the vikings they were sending their “sacrifice to the Heavens” (63). 

One cold winter afternoon the vikings noticed that the remains of the scraeling’s body had been removed from the tree. That night the scraeling people formed a war party that entered the viking camping grounds and killed “each of the thirty men, in thirty different ways” (64). This chapter ends by saying the vikings were eventually forgotten and it was one hundred years later before Leif the Fortunate rediscovered the land and called it Vineland. It is also noted that Odin and Thor were waiting for Leif when he arrived. 

I have decided to write my last blog post about this section of reading from American Gods because after reading it the for the first time myself, I did not understand it’s purpose in the novel. Although I am not completely sure it’s purpose for being in the novel, I do believe it is the first step in proving a framework, a base knowledge, of the viking history in America, and that this will have some importance later on in the story. Aside from that comment about this peculiar section, it is also important to note that since this could possibly be used as part of the base knowledge of the vikings discussed in the novel, the historical facts may not be completely accurate. Like it is mentioned at the end of the reading, “…the sailors were forgotten, by history and their people” and that “it was more than a hundred years before Leif the Fortunate, son of Erik the Red, rediscovered that land, which he would call Vineland” (64). With no survivor to pass on the history who is to say what is written is what actually occurred. Considering the scraeling people are natives of the land it can be assumed they do not speak the language of the vikings and therefore can not pass the story on to the vikings. What I am saying is not that all the information told in the section is false, but given the facts it may not be completely accurate and this is something to keep in mind when reading.