2016 / Articles
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Krishna, the wrestler
When you think wrestling, Krishna is not the first name that comes to mind… And yet, Krishna is a great wrestler.
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Mythology everywhere
Mythological films stand between fantasy films on one hand and historical films on the other.
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Tirupati: Playing dice with a god in debt
Debt or rina is a key concept in Hinduism… life is about ‘giving’ not about ‘taking’. Giving reduces debt and liberates us. Taking binds us to the world.
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A sensitive topic
Oversensitive women indicate material affluence, and insensitive men represent spiritual triumph. Gender prejudices notwithstanding, are the two really so different?
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Mythology of equality
Nature has no favourites and every plant and every animal has to fend for itself to survive.
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The Bacchus of Bharat
On the fringes of mainstream Hinduism lie the stories of Kilkari Bhairava — raw and elemental, they deal with sex and violence.
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The flower that killed Indumati
This tale, of sudden tragedy and the death of a man who cannot bear separation from his wife, is rare in Indian mythology.
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Are Indian courts and activists denying the gods their gender and sexuality?
This de-sexing of gods and goddesses makes it difficult to explain the exclusion of women from the presence of celibate gods.
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Worshipping the womb
At a time when any public discussion of genitalia evokes shame, goddess Kamakhya celebrates a woman’s fertility and desire.
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Beheading you, beheading me
Have you been noticing the rising number of politicians and ‘religious leaders’ who seem obsessed with lopping off heads: either their own or that of others. Are they influenced by tales of head-offering that we find in the Puranas?
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Temples of death
The city of Ujjain with 84 shrines dedicated to the destroyer, ultimately venerates the unending cycle of life and the immortality of the soul.
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The Queer in Ramcharitmanas
‘Purush napunsaka nari va jiva charachara koi, sarva bhaav bhaja kapat taji mohi param priya soi.’
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Leveraging the Aryans
The theories of how the ‘Aryan race’ is leveraged to explain various social phenomena.
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Moved by bhakti
Pilgrims make the long journey to Pandharpur singing songs of revolution, their affection for Mother Krishna syncopated to a beat of social reform.
