India Between Empires: A Reality Check
India has always been sandwiched between East Asia and West Asia. From the West, came horses. From the East came gold. India itself was the land of cotton – it had neither metal nor horses…
Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
Tantra of the Wheel of Time
Compiled in the early eleventh century as Muslim armies pressed into northwest India, the Kalacakratantra — the Wheel of Time Tantra — is one of the clearest cases in religious history of a sacred text designed as a political response to a contemporary threat. …
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Articles
A Tamil Reimagining of the Ramayana
Kambaramayanam is one of the most celebrated works of Tamil literature. Composed by the poet Kamban around the ninth century in Tamil Nadu, in the time of Chola kings, it is a lyrical retelling of the Ramayana filled with rich poetry, elaborate metaphors, and deep moral reflection. …
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Articles
Yama’s Journey from Vedic King to Cosmic Accountant
Yama is the Hindu god of death, accountability, and the afterlife. Often ignored, his history is long and complex, reaching back to Vedic, Indo-Iranian, and Indo-European mythological traditions…
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Articles
How India and Persia Shaped Each Other
Connections between India and Persia stretched back to prehistoric movements of people, long before written history. Genetic and archaeological evidence suggests that populations linked to ancient Iranian farmers moved eastward into the subcontinent around 10,000 years ago, interacting with older forager communities. …
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Articles
How Bravery, Devotion Soften Caste Boundaries In Folk Stories
Not all ballads and epics are written by Brahmins or in Sanskrit. Across India, folk stories about gods, heroes, and ancestors did not only entertain. They carried arguments about rank, dignity, and who belonged where. …
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Articles
Re-centring the Hindu Goddess
Re-centring the goddess is not anti-male. It is pro-ecosystem. It reminds us that festivals are contracts with land, water, animals, and labour — especially women’s labour. When we reduce Diwali to a warrior’s homecoming, we miss Lakshmi’s audit of how we earned, spent, hoarded, and gave. When we make Navaratri a fashion parade, we forget…
New Books
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Flower of India: Ways of Seeing the Lotus
In Flower of India, bestselling author and renowned mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik examines the lotus as one of the most pervasive and resonant symbols of the Indian subcontinent. Through its many avatars—as plant, resource, metaphor, design, and sacred form—he traces how the lotus has shaped India’s cultural imagination across history, religion, art, and everyday life. Concise…
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Astra Shastra: Weapons of the Hindu Gods
Well-known mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik introduces young readers to the wonderful weapons of Hindu gods with his unique art and easy-to-read text…
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Escape the Bakasura Trap : Let Contentment Fuel Your Growth
This book re-discovers this path, first revealed by Hanuman in the Mahabharata. Insightful and inspiring, Escape the Bakasura Trap is another classic from one of our great mythologists and thinkers…
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लंकेश: रावण संग एक रोमांचक यात्रा
यह पुस्तक भारत के सबसे विख्यात महाकाव्य रामायण और इस कारण भारत के सबसे बड़े खलनायक, रावण, को विस्तार से जानने की राह खोलती है।…
Devdutt Pattanaik writes and speaks on the relevance of mythology in modern times, especially in areas of management, governance, and leadership.