Did Indra Eat Buffaloes?

We live in times, where people want to ban goat sacrifice during the Muslim observance of Bakra Eid, on grounds of compassion. This overt attack on Islamic rituals is also a covert attack on subaltern Hindu practices — where goddesses are offered fish and meat…

Tirthankar: Jain Dharm Par 63 Vichar

by Devdutt Pattanaik (Author), Mihir Nilum Jajodia (Translator) …

The Forgotten Women Who Helped Shape Jainism

Jainism follows the path revealed by 24 sages known as Tirthankara, who appear in every …

Anahat Collections

  • Southward Spread of Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism

    Southward Spread of Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism

    Traditionally, Arya-varta or the land of the Aryan people was triangulated by the Himalayas, the Ganga and the Yamuna. We know this from the early Dharma-shastra texts, composed around the time of Ashoka…

  • Did Greeks Influence Indian Theatre?

    Did Greeks Influence Indian Theatre?

    The history of theatre is often told through two great classical traditions: the theatre of ancient Greece and the theatre of ancient India. Both developed sophisticated ideas about storytelling, performance, music, and human emotions…

  • The Selective Sanctity of the Ganga

    The Selective Sanctity of the Ganga

    In Ayodhya Kanda, verse 52.89, Sita stands before the Ganga before crossing into exile and makes a vow. The Sanskrit is unambiguous. “Sura-ghata-sahasrena”: a thousand pots of wine. “Mamsa-bhuta-odanena”: cooked rice mixed with meat (the original Vedic biryani?). …

  • How the Bhagavad Gita Invented Sattvic Food

    How the Bhagavad Gita Invented Sattvic Food

    The Vedas gave us Purusha. Tantra and Yoga gave us Prakriti and the gunas. Only the Bhagavad Gita welded these to food and caste, creating the “sattvic” framework popularly invoked today…

  • Did Proto-Naxals fight the East India Company?

    Did Proto-Naxals fight the East India Company?

    Today, the word Naxal is used casually by politicians and businessmen to demonise anyone protesting against exploitation as anti-national. This does not bode well for a country where a large proportion of the youth are unemployed and risk a bleak future with the rise of AI…

  • The Chandala in the Vedas

    The Chandala in the Vedas

    The term Chandala, referring to the “lowest of the low” in Brahmin lore, appears a few times in the Vedic literature itself. It is essentially absent from the Rigveda Samhita and emerges only in the later strata of the corpus — the later Samhitas, Brahmanas, and Upanishads. …

New Books

  • Flower of India: Ways of Seeing the Lotus

    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…

    Amazon
  • Astra Shastra: Weapons of the Hindu Gods

    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…

    Amazon
  • Escape the Bakasura Trap : Let Contentment Fuel Your Growth

    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…

    Amazon
  • लंकेश: रावण संग एक रोमांचक यात्रा

    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।…

    Amazon

Devdutt Pattanaik writes and speaks on the relevance of mythology in modern times, especially in areas of management, governance, and leadership.