The dialogue of cultures Inshalimar the clown by S. Rushdi: religious traditions

The article presents a study of the representation of Kashmir's religious traditions in the novel by British author S. Rushdie Shalimar The Clown. Special attention is paid to the intertextual aspect of the problem: references to the sacred texts and the doctrinal statements of Hinduism, Islam, Sikh-ism, to the writings of representatives of the Bhakti movement. The role of the religious component in the construction of the images of the key characters (Shalimar, Boonyi, India-Kashmira) and in the whole system of the novel's art world are analyzed also. Specific feature of intertext in the novel becomes the combination of multicultural sources, so that it is possible to characterize it as a polygenetic in certain instances. The relationship between the religious intertext and the mystical elements in the novel's text is noted in the article. In conclusion it is inferred, that in the text of this novel the idea of mulitcultural synthesis of religious traditions is embodied consistently. And it is opposed to the ideology of terrorism based on hate and intolerance.