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Empire of Enchantment: The Story of Indian Magic
India's association with magicians goes back thousands of years. Conjurors and illusionists dazzled the courts of Hindu maharajas and Mughal emperors. As British dominion spread over the subcontinent, such wonder-workers became synonymous with India. Western magicians appropriated Indian attire, tricks and stage names; switching their turbans for top hats, Indian jugglers fought back and earned their grudging respect.
This book tells the extraordinary story of how Indian magic descended from the realm of the gods to become part of daily ritual and popular entertainment across the globe. Recounting tales of levitating Brahmins, resurrections, prophesying monkeys and "the most famous trick never performed," Empire of Enchantment vividly charts Indian magic's epic journey from street to the stage.
This heavily illustrated book tells the extraordinary, untold story of how Indian magic descended from the realm of the gods to become part of daily ritual and popular entertainment across the globe. Drawing on ancient religious texts, early travelers' accounts, colonial records, modern visual sources, and magicians' own testimony, Empire of Enchantment is a vibrant narrative of India's magical traditions, from Vedic times to the present day.
This book tells the extraordinary story of how Indian magic descended from the realm of the gods to become part of daily ritual and popular entertainment across the globe. Recounting tales of levitating Brahmins, resurrections, prophesying monkeys and "the most famous trick never performed," Empire of Enchantment vividly charts Indian magic's epic journey from street to the stage.
This heavily illustrated book tells the extraordinary, untold story of how Indian magic descended from the realm of the gods to become part of daily ritual and popular entertainment across the globe. Drawing on ancient religious texts, early travelers' accounts, colonial records, modern visual sources, and magicians' own testimony, Empire of Enchantment is a vibrant narrative of India's magical traditions, from Vedic times to the present day.
288 pages, Hardcover
Published October 1, 2018
37 people are currently reading
485 people want to read
About the author
John Zubrzycki
10 books45 followersJohn Zubrzycki is an award-winning journalist whose long association with India has included stints as a Hindi student, diplomat, consultant and foreign correspondent. He is the world commentary editor at the Australian newspaper and lives in Sydney.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
May 1, 2021
This is a fascinating book of vast ambition – capturing the role of magic in religion, mythology, regal courts and everyday life and spanning quite a few centuries. I had the opportunity to interview with the author at the LLF and it was fascinating to hear how he researched it, the journeys he took and the characters that he met. John Zubrzycki's canvass combines magic, the super natural, illusionism and jugglery – and explains how they are different in nature and scope.
Fascination for magic and the miraculous appear to transcend religious and cultural boundaries. There are interesting passages in the book that talk about how the discourse around the supernatural further enriched after the advent of Islam in India and its more esoteric branches. In this regard the mysteries of Sufi mysticism is also something that it dwells upon.
A lot of what Zubrzycki writes about has been the mainstay of Orientalist depictions of India – the mysterious, exotic, deceptive and sensual India. Much has been written about the perverse politics of Orientalism. Therefore, understandably, being misunderstood was a concern as he wrote about say levitating fakirs, miraculous mango trees, and half-naked snake charmers. A facet of particular interest to me pertains to Emperor Jahangir – the Mughal king who enjoyed the closest association with Lahore – and his fascination for, inter alia, spirituality, necromancy and the extraordinary. The book engages with his detailed descriptions of the remarkable magical feats that he witnessed.
Of great interest also is the Great Indian Rope Trick. Zubrzycki writes extensively and engagingly about various reported performances, the several theories trying to explain it, and also the skepticism shown by some. It is amazing how the trick has remained so elusive and enigmatic for such a long time. Equally intriguing is role of ‘mind over matter’ – especially in the context of the incredible fire walking and blindfolded exploits of one Kuda Bux described in the book.
The book also narrates quite engagingly the tremendous western curiosity and in many cases eventual cynicism about Indian magic and magicians as well as the great migration of Indian magicians and jugglers to the west as well as reverse travel of western magicians and illusionists to India. Many iconic magicians emerged, spectacles took place and there was an exchange of ideas and secrets. This period of extensive interaction and exchange had a big impact on oriental and occidental perceptions of each other.
One can also gauge from the narrative a great deal of professional rivalry, great showmanship and self-promotion, constant one upmanship, and a simmering East West divide as it describes the careers of PC Sorcar and other great magicians of the 20th century. There are also insightful reflections on the state of Indian magic today. On whether it continue centuries old tricks and traditions or whether it is reinventing itself. And the chances of its survival in this rapidly technology dominated world.
To the question whether deep in his heart he still felt that there may have been phenomena that current science at least cannot explain or has it all been human ingenuity, dexterity and cleverness on one hand and human gullibility and appetite for something strange and out of the ordinary on the other, John Zubrzycki smiled and was as elusive and Sphinx-like as the Great Indian Rope Trick. And rightly so.
Fascination for magic and the miraculous appear to transcend religious and cultural boundaries. There are interesting passages in the book that talk about how the discourse around the supernatural further enriched after the advent of Islam in India and its more esoteric branches. In this regard the mysteries of Sufi mysticism is also something that it dwells upon.
A lot of what Zubrzycki writes about has been the mainstay of Orientalist depictions of India – the mysterious, exotic, deceptive and sensual India. Much has been written about the perverse politics of Orientalism. Therefore, understandably, being misunderstood was a concern as he wrote about say levitating fakirs, miraculous mango trees, and half-naked snake charmers. A facet of particular interest to me pertains to Emperor Jahangir – the Mughal king who enjoyed the closest association with Lahore – and his fascination for, inter alia, spirituality, necromancy and the extraordinary. The book engages with his detailed descriptions of the remarkable magical feats that he witnessed.
Of great interest also is the Great Indian Rope Trick. Zubrzycki writes extensively and engagingly about various reported performances, the several theories trying to explain it, and also the skepticism shown by some. It is amazing how the trick has remained so elusive and enigmatic for such a long time. Equally intriguing is role of ‘mind over matter’ – especially in the context of the incredible fire walking and blindfolded exploits of one Kuda Bux described in the book.
The book also narrates quite engagingly the tremendous western curiosity and in many cases eventual cynicism about Indian magic and magicians as well as the great migration of Indian magicians and jugglers to the west as well as reverse travel of western magicians and illusionists to India. Many iconic magicians emerged, spectacles took place and there was an exchange of ideas and secrets. This period of extensive interaction and exchange had a big impact on oriental and occidental perceptions of each other.
One can also gauge from the narrative a great deal of professional rivalry, great showmanship and self-promotion, constant one upmanship, and a simmering East West divide as it describes the careers of PC Sorcar and other great magicians of the 20th century. There are also insightful reflections on the state of Indian magic today. On whether it continue centuries old tricks and traditions or whether it is reinventing itself. And the chances of its survival in this rapidly technology dominated world.
To the question whether deep in his heart he still felt that there may have been phenomena that current science at least cannot explain or has it all been human ingenuity, dexterity and cleverness on one hand and human gullibility and appetite for something strange and out of the ordinary on the other, John Zubrzycki smiled and was as elusive and Sphinx-like as the Great Indian Rope Trick. And rightly so.
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October 21, 2019Zubrzycki has found the most wonderful story, and told it brilliantly. It is — quite literally — a book of marvels.
William Dalyrymple
In Empire of Enchantment, John Zubrzycki explores the history of magic rituals in India and the way they shaped western imaginations.
The author … draws on the accounts left by travellers, merchants, pilgrims and missionaries.
He has a pleasing sense of humour … and an eye for the absurd.
The Times
John Zubrzycki’s Empire of Enchantment, a fantastic and thoroughly engaging history of Indian magic, is bristling with anecdotes … tales of conjurors, tricksters, illusionists, jugglers, and cunning conmen across the centuries.
Financial Times
An amazing, brilliant, and incredibly erudite book. Zubrzycki’s knowledge is dazzling, and his discussions of Indian magicians and their Western imitators or denigrators allow him to tell marvellous stories about animal trainers, snake charmers, not to mention, thieves, Thugs, folk healers, spies, automatons, and about fascinating characters – Thurston, Sleeman, Sorcar – and many more.
Lee Siegel, Professor of Religion, University of Hawaii, and author of Net of Magic: Wonders and Deceptions in India
Exceptionally well-crafted and brilliantly told, Empire of Enchantment brings alive the most enchanting tales and traditions from the history of Indian magic, packed with an extraordinary cast featuring emperors and politicians, street performers and thugs. Travelling with Zubrzycki from distant antiquity down to our own, more recent times, what this book offers is a universe of pure, unadulterated delight.
Shashi Tharoor, author of Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India
A strange, deeply learned but consistently entertaining salmagundi of marvels, myths and outrageous cons a surefooted survey of a vast terrain.
The Spectator
‘Delightful and charming … an extraordinarily riveting social history of India, and of India’s encounter with the world.’
The National
Empire of Enchantment is a remarkable feat of scholarship and showmanship. It is scrupulously researched, richly illustrated and highly entertaining — and readers will never watch a rabbit snatched from a hat in quite the same way again.
Mandy Sayer, Weekend Australian
In Empire of Enchantment, Sydney-based historian, journalist, and former diplomat John Zubrzycki assembles a jewel case of illusion and wonder ... Empire of Enchantment holds together with a spirit of wonder usually reserved for works of magical realism, a genre that after all owes debts to the jinns and trickery within these pages.
Alexandra Roginski, Australian Book Review
A valuable and entertaining book.
The Washington Post
Hugely entertaining … a vividly illuminating history of the place of magic in Indian life ... [a] fabulous book of marvels and wonders.
Literary Review
Enjoyable, authoritative and unexpected ... a wonderfully restrained commentary.
John Keay
A whirlwind tour of a tradition that stretches from the spells of the Atharva Veda to the kitschy razzle-dazzle of today’s stage conjurers.
India Today
A magic trick performed in three acts, Zubrzycki plays raconteur in the book to the birth, disappearance, and reappearance of modern Indian magic.
scroll.in
In this page-turner, Zubrzycki teases apart the many strands of India’s magical history with a sleight of hand that would put a conjuror to shame.
Outlook
Zubrzycki focuses on magic and its derivates as entertainment, and has brought to life the history of the art in India.
The Hindu
From the pomp and circumstance of the stage, the death-defying sword swallowers, the amazing levitating brahmins, the trapeze artists, the mysterious rope-climbing sadhus, the amazing contortionists and jugglers, the book is a treatise on the varied skills and trappings of the magical art in India.
The Asian Age
William Dalyrymple
In Empire of Enchantment, John Zubrzycki explores the history of magic rituals in India and the way they shaped western imaginations.
The author … draws on the accounts left by travellers, merchants, pilgrims and missionaries.
He has a pleasing sense of humour … and an eye for the absurd.
The Times
John Zubrzycki’s Empire of Enchantment, a fantastic and thoroughly engaging history of Indian magic, is bristling with anecdotes … tales of conjurors, tricksters, illusionists, jugglers, and cunning conmen across the centuries.
Financial Times
An amazing, brilliant, and incredibly erudite book. Zubrzycki’s knowledge is dazzling, and his discussions of Indian magicians and their Western imitators or denigrators allow him to tell marvellous stories about animal trainers, snake charmers, not to mention, thieves, Thugs, folk healers, spies, automatons, and about fascinating characters – Thurston, Sleeman, Sorcar – and many more.
Lee Siegel, Professor of Religion, University of Hawaii, and author of Net of Magic: Wonders and Deceptions in India
Exceptionally well-crafted and brilliantly told, Empire of Enchantment brings alive the most enchanting tales and traditions from the history of Indian magic, packed with an extraordinary cast featuring emperors and politicians, street performers and thugs. Travelling with Zubrzycki from distant antiquity down to our own, more recent times, what this book offers is a universe of pure, unadulterated delight.
Shashi Tharoor, author of Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India
A strange, deeply learned but consistently entertaining salmagundi of marvels, myths and outrageous cons a surefooted survey of a vast terrain.
The Spectator
‘Delightful and charming … an extraordinarily riveting social history of India, and of India’s encounter with the world.’
The National
Empire of Enchantment is a remarkable feat of scholarship and showmanship. It is scrupulously researched, richly illustrated and highly entertaining — and readers will never watch a rabbit snatched from a hat in quite the same way again.
Mandy Sayer, Weekend Australian
In Empire of Enchantment, Sydney-based historian, journalist, and former diplomat John Zubrzycki assembles a jewel case of illusion and wonder ... Empire of Enchantment holds together with a spirit of wonder usually reserved for works of magical realism, a genre that after all owes debts to the jinns and trickery within these pages.
Alexandra Roginski, Australian Book Review
A valuable and entertaining book.
The Washington Post
Hugely entertaining … a vividly illuminating history of the place of magic in Indian life ... [a] fabulous book of marvels and wonders.
Literary Review
Enjoyable, authoritative and unexpected ... a wonderfully restrained commentary.
John Keay
A whirlwind tour of a tradition that stretches from the spells of the Atharva Veda to the kitschy razzle-dazzle of today’s stage conjurers.
India Today
A magic trick performed in three acts, Zubrzycki plays raconteur in the book to the birth, disappearance, and reappearance of modern Indian magic.
scroll.in
In this page-turner, Zubrzycki teases apart the many strands of India’s magical history with a sleight of hand that would put a conjuror to shame.
Outlook
Zubrzycki focuses on magic and its derivates as entertainment, and has brought to life the history of the art in India.
The Hindu
From the pomp and circumstance of the stage, the death-defying sword swallowers, the amazing levitating brahmins, the trapeze artists, the mysterious rope-climbing sadhus, the amazing contortionists and jugglers, the book is a treatise on the varied skills and trappings of the magical art in India.
The Asian Age
May 30, 2019
Magic has long been the mainstay of India. Jugglers, conjures and tricksters line the street performing their stunts in order to get you to part with your hard earned money. India has long been considered by many to be the home of magic.
From the beginning it is hard to distinguish between a legit holy man who can do things like swallow swords, lay on a bed of nail or walk across hot burning coals and a jadowallah who does the same thing. After all both have similar techniques, pray to the same gods and perform. The same abolutions.
Even Indias rulers were taken with these juggler and jadowallahs. They would often times stroll to the park in disguise in order to see the performers perform their tricks. The relationship between the rulers and. performers gets even more complicated than that. Often times the rulers would invite troops of performers to perform in their court. At other times the performers would be used as spies.
Western interest in the Indian magicians grew under the British colonialization of India. Western audiences were blown away by sword swallowers, snake charmers and jugglers. This lead to promoters promoting the tours of Indian magicians to Europe and the west. Some of these magicians became really well known. Some would not come to the west for fear that crossing an ocean would cause them to lose their. Power. As they came in droves two things happened . FIrst was a sense of sceptisim. Enough searching lead to people discover that some of the Indian magic was tricks or sleight of hand. Other things like firewalking were real but could be explained by science.
Another problem caused by these roaming performer is that promoter would not pay them and often times left them stranded trying to find a way home. This caused lots of problems.
Nowadays it seems craft of the Jadowallah maybe in danger. As the government cracks down on certain practices and destroys the haunts of these magicians one is left to wonder.
From the beginning it is hard to distinguish between a legit holy man who can do things like swallow swords, lay on a bed of nail or walk across hot burning coals and a jadowallah who does the same thing. After all both have similar techniques, pray to the same gods and perform. The same abolutions.
Even Indias rulers were taken with these juggler and jadowallahs. They would often times stroll to the park in disguise in order to see the performers perform their tricks. The relationship between the rulers and. performers gets even more complicated than that. Often times the rulers would invite troops of performers to perform in their court. At other times the performers would be used as spies.
Western interest in the Indian magicians grew under the British colonialization of India. Western audiences were blown away by sword swallowers, snake charmers and jugglers. This lead to promoters promoting the tours of Indian magicians to Europe and the west. Some of these magicians became really well known. Some would not come to the west for fear that crossing an ocean would cause them to lose their. Power. As they came in droves two things happened . FIrst was a sense of sceptisim. Enough searching lead to people discover that some of the Indian magic was tricks or sleight of hand. Other things like firewalking were real but could be explained by science.
Another problem caused by these roaming performer is that promoter would not pay them and often times left them stranded trying to find a way home. This caused lots of problems.
Nowadays it seems craft of the Jadowallah maybe in danger. As the government cracks down on certain practices and destroys the haunts of these magicians one is left to wonder.
April 28, 2022
This wasn't really the book I expected (I was thinking more mysticism, less stage magic) but it turned out to be super interesting. It did touch on some mystical/metaphysical aspects, but its real focus was stage magic and famous Indian stage magicians. I was definitely more interested in the earlier chapters and the chapters that explored the mystical origins of Indian magic, though. Overall it was incredibly interesting and an impressive history of Indian magic.
There were a lot of typos which always irks me... Get a handle on it, Oxford Press.
There were a lot of typos which always irks me... Get a handle on it, Oxford Press.
August 19, 2018
A very nice and essential book on everyone who wish to know the whole panorama of Indian Magic. I also suggest two books along with it, viz., Net of Magic and The Rise of Indian Rope Trick. The book is extensively researched with lots of valuable information. The language is lucid but sometimes too much information spoiled the broth and made the prose somewhat dragged. Again, it is written for academic purposes, I think, so information and data are necessary.
If you are interested in Magic and its history, it is a MUST buy
If you are interested in Magic and its history, it is a MUST buy
March 10, 2019
A wonderful book about an odd ball subject. Full of wonderful stories and characters!
March 20, 2021
The first half of this book was a slow read, as it presented a highly detailed and repetitive litany of ancient Indian rituals and "magic" performers. Zubrzycki establishes that entertainment magic clearly evolved from ritual magic. Most of the rituals/performances he describes come from descriptions in ancient manuscripts and the memoirs of world travelers. The names quickly ran together, even though I am somewhat familiar with Hindu terms and names. Part of the challenge was that they weren't recounted in a strictly chronological manner.
Later chapters were much easier to follow, once the religious connection became more tenuous, and the entertainment aspects prevailed. Beginning in the late 17th century, European invaded, again, (don't forget Alexander of Macedonia) and began to send reports of Indian magic back to Europe, that were slightly more accurate than previous writings. Slightly more accurate. That's no surprise, as many of the writers were not magicians. Significant attention is paid to the development and debunking of the infamous Hindu Rope Trick.
Final chapters bring Indian (and western versions of "Indian") magic into the early 1960s, including perhaps the most famous of the performers, PC Sorcar and Kuda Bux. It's more complicated than that, of course. For a more extensive discussion of the magic and magicians, visit my FB page, "Novel Magicians."
Later chapters were much easier to follow, once the religious connection became more tenuous, and the entertainment aspects prevailed. Beginning in the late 17th century, European invaded, again, (don't forget Alexander of Macedonia) and began to send reports of Indian magic back to Europe, that were slightly more accurate than previous writings. Slightly more accurate. That's no surprise, as many of the writers were not magicians. Significant attention is paid to the development and debunking of the infamous Hindu Rope Trick.
Final chapters bring Indian (and western versions of "Indian") magic into the early 1960s, including perhaps the most famous of the performers, PC Sorcar and Kuda Bux. It's more complicated than that, of course. For a more extensive discussion of the magic and magicians, visit my FB page, "Novel Magicians."
December 4, 2020
To tell the story of Indian magic is to hold a mirror to India’s religious traditions, its society and culture,” writes Journalist, John Zubrzycki in his book Jadoowallahs, Jugglers and Jinns: A Magical History of India.
This book takes us through the tales of how magic in India descended from the gods and in due course of time blended into daily affairs and traditions. It takes you back thousands of years, and is replete with enigmas. Indeed a perfect read after a long tiring day.
I think it's a brilliant narrative by John Zubrzycki, brilliantly put together using ancient religious texts, colonial records, newspaper reports, journals as well as memoirs, diaries and testimonies of Western and Indian Magicians depicting the history of magic in India. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I give it 5 hoots!
Happy reading!!
This book takes us through the tales of how magic in India descended from the gods and in due course of time blended into daily affairs and traditions. It takes you back thousands of years, and is replete with enigmas. Indeed a perfect read after a long tiring day.
I think it's a brilliant narrative by John Zubrzycki, brilliantly put together using ancient religious texts, colonial records, newspaper reports, journals as well as memoirs, diaries and testimonies of Western and Indian Magicians depicting the history of magic in India. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I give it 5 hoots!
Happy reading!!
August 4, 2020
Very little is known about Indian magic and magicians, this books covers this drought of information well. Lots of unheard people and new and fascinating stories pop up in every page. Enjoyed reading it.
January 6, 2019
A unique look at the history of magic in India, this is a beautiful book.
May 5, 2020
INteresting and nicely written microhistory. a compilation of stories on Magic and cons of India.
December 26, 2020
A little information-heavy, but still easy to consume and interesting to read!
Read
April 12, 2022the shortest history of india
December 31, 2025
Not the kind I could relate to.
March 9, 2021
loved last few chapters
Read
February 4, 2021This was a bit drier & more academic than I expected. The chapter about “disproving” the rope trick was probably the most fun.
I would have enjoyed the early chapters with descriptions of truly _supernatural_ tricks if they dug into how such rumors came about; as it is, they are more like a catalogue.
I would have enjoyed the early chapters with descriptions of truly _supernatural_ tricks if they dug into how such rumors came about; as it is, they are more like a catalogue.
September 11, 2018
Fascinating, well reasearched, clear exposition: this book is wonderful.
It can be read like a fascinating novel and it's enthralling.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Oxford University Press and Edelweiss for this ARC
It can be read like a fascinating novel and it's enthralling.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to Oxford University Press and Edelweiss for this ARC
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews