Lord of Light Taraka\'s True

Lord of Light

Taraka's True Nature (Question #2)

When the English invaded India (and other countries) and occupied for purposes of colonizing it, they cared nothing about the indigenous people who lived there. They put the "natives" to work to help them exploit the riches of the country. This is the nature of colonization. The people who come want the new land for themselves. They don't consider the rights of those who already live there. They see it as their right to push them out and take their land. If the natives resist, then the colonizers attach labels to them to justify imprisoning them or killing them, labels like evil, primitive, heathen, animals, and demons. Such is the case in Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny. Earthlings come to take possession of the planet where the Rakasha live and eventually banish them by means of a technological device which Sam invented and produced. Sam justifies the Rakasha's imprisonment on the basis of their evil intentions: "I did that which had to be done, to preserve my own species. Men were weak and few in number. Your kind fell upon them and would have destroyed them" (p. 148).

When Sam releases Taraka, the leader of the Rakasha, because he wants his help, Taraka takes possession of Sam's body. He does not banish Sam, however; it is more like co-inhabiting the same body. Although this seems at first to be an evil thing to do, since he did not ask permission first and Sam does not want Taraka there, it becomes more understandable as the story progresses and the reader begins to see that Taraka is not evil at all. For one thing, Taraka does not intend to harm Sam or to keep Sam's body hostage forever, only for a few days or weeks: "...I wish to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh for a time. Why should you begrudge me a little entertainment after the centuries of boredom and imprisonment you have wrought? (p. 154).

Because Sam is responsible for Taraka and the others being held in bondage, Sam (or Binder, as Taraka calls him) owes Taraka a debt, and this is Taraka's way of exacting payment. Taraka has fun for a few days or weeks (we're not sure exactly how long) and does things for entertainment that Sam does not approve of morally, but he doesn't do anything truly evil: "When Taraka drank too much wine, or lay panting on his wide, low couch in the harem, then was his grip loosened somewhat, upon the body that he had stolen" (p. 157). Taraka likes to gamble more than anything, a popular (perhaps unwise, but not evil) activity today: "In a darkened, endless cathedral he rolled dice that were suns and planets" (p. 157).

When Taraka is victorious and joyful, Sam is too: "There came to him a joy shot through with fear, and he knew it to be mainly that of another, but it was partly his, too. The fear -- that was all his" (p. 157).

Taraka also keeps his word. He promised Sam he would help him to fight the gods, and he does. He orders the Rakasha to fight as an army, and they obey his order although they have never been to war before. Apparently, they had never thought of it, but the Rakasha are open to new ideas. When Sam asks Taraka if he will go to war against the gods, Taraka replys,

Yes indeed. I wish I had thought of it myself in the old days. Perhaps, then, we should never have been bound. Perhaps there would no longer be men or gods upon this world. We were never much for concerted action, though. Independence of spirit naturally accompanies our independence of person. Each fought his own battles in the general conflict with mankind (p. 155).