Chandala’s daughter, Arundhati

Arundhati is remembered today as the ideal wife, the tiny star beside Vasistha in the Saptarshi constellation, shown to every new bride as a model of fidelity. But beneath this polished image lies a far more unsettling story. …

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 …

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  • Persia was a Civilisation Long Before Islam and Rome

    Persia was a Civilisation Long Before Islam and Rome

    Zoroastrianism traced its teachings to the prophet Zarathustra (Zoroaster), who is believed to have lived many centuries earlier, perhaps around 1200 BC, according to some scholars. …

  • Did the Mughals invent Hindi?

    Did the Mughals invent Hindi?

    Hindi is often described as a language born in Mughal barracks, as if it were simply the speech of imperial camps. This is an attractive phrase, but it is historically incomplete. The story of Hindi is much older, far wider, and far more layered. …

  • A Colonial Category Called Religion

    A Colonial Category Called Religion

    Hinduism did not become a religion by organic evolution. It was forced into becoming a …

  • If Usha Vance became Christian, would she be American enough?

    If Usha Vance became Christian, would she be American enough?

    Sensing the shift in public narrative following the killing of Charlie Kirk, now seen as a Christian martyr, Vice President JD Vance declared publicly that he hoped his wife, Usha, daughter of Telugu Brahmin immigrants, would convert to Christianity. But in today’s America, that is not enough…

  • The Ravana of Ratanpur

    The Ravana of Ratanpur

    At Ratan-gad, or Ratanpur Fort, near Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh — once part of Madhya Pradesh — there exists a rare and striking sculpture of Ravana. He is shown cutting off several of his 10 heads and offering it into a sacrificial fire. This scene does not come from Valmiki’s Ramayana, but from a later imagination.…

  • The Tale of Two Somnaths

    The Tale of Two Somnaths

    Loud discussions on how Muslim raiders from Ghazni plundered Somnath temple, on the Gujarat coast a thousand years ago, ignore how Jain ‘basadi’ in Karnataka were replaced by Somanatha Shiva temples around the same time. This is also the time when Rajaraja Chola marched up the eastern coast of India, plundering the kingdoms of Andhra,…

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