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accidental sequence of events, revitalised with a fusion of the mythopoeic semiotics of Hindu
sacred tradition—represented principally by the Mahabharata—and Western, Christian
tradition—mainly from The Gospels—, and then applied to the microcosmic tale of a clever
Australia dwarf, his clumsy giant friend, and their search for spiritual salvation. The tale is too
eclectic in its assembly of pretexts, archetypes, metaphor and symbols to fit easily into Western
literary criticism, but its universality can be seen not only in its demonstration of the parallel
messages in Eastern and Western sources, but also in its relevance to efforts for a re-
enchantment of the modern West’s demythologised culture.
Koch’s protagonists are all males, but he populates his novels with female characters
who embody the sacred feminine principle. Chapter 9, ‘The Divine Feminine’, investigates the
archetypes he has taken from Hindu tradition to continue his revitalisation of the desiccated
Western mythological culture. Rather than being a neo-orientalist move to appropriate Asia’s
symbols, Koch’s attraction to the Eastern Goddesses is that as living mythological figures they
are much more accessible to provide the subtle metaphoric system which might resolve in the
poetic imagination the harsh paradoxes of human reality. This divine feminine is manifested in
the Great Mother Goddess, who is known by many names but mainly as Parvati (in her aspect
as the Good Mother and Wife), Durga (the Warrior), and Kali (the Destroyer). She becomes
Devi Sri (the Goddess of the Earth and Fertility), Sri Lakshmi (the Goddess of Fortune), and a
wider pantheon of minor goddesses and accompanying spirits who share ancient roots with the
Venus figures of pre-historic Europe. Koch emphasises this pantheistic, Indo-European unity
while he develops his female characters in the vocabulary of the Asian imagery.
For Koch, the divine feminine is the metaphor for an unattainable principle which yet
underlies all spiritual and material activity. She appears in the guise of many characters in his
novels, to prod, provoke, and awaken his male protagonists to activities which are beneficial to
dharma, the righteous order of the universe.
Chapters 10, ‘The Masks of Personality’, and 11, ‘The Masks of Doubles’, form the
heart of this study insofar as they delve into the problem of ‘identity’, ‘soul’ and the ‘Other’
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