2022
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The Meaning of Contentment
Published on 30th December, 2022, in The Hindu. At the start of anything new, like New Year, Hindus look towards Ganesha. We want him to remove obstacles from our lives, and usher in prosperity. We have been conditioned to see…
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One Christ, But So Many Churches
Published on 25th December, 2022, in Mid-day. About 1,900 years ago, documents were compiled in Israel that described the virgin birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, who was identified as the Christ, the anointed one, the prophesied…
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Tales Of Gods, Politics Of Kings
Published on 24th December, 2022, in Economic Times. If one goes to Kerala, one hears of “tharavad”. These were ancestral homes, where large joint families lived together. They controlled large tracts of land. A similar system is found in faraway…
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The Lore of Weavers
Published on 18th December, 2022, in Mid-day. Weaving is a very unique human activity. Animals don’t wear clothes, humans wear clothes. The earliest clothes that humans wore were skins of animals. Gradually, it was the bark of plants, and leaves.…
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How Hara and Hari Helped Kings of Cambodia
Published on 17th December, 2022, in Times of India. In the 5th century AD, i.e. 1,500 years ago, the Gupta kings rose in India. They were amongst the earliest royal families to establish themselves through a Hindu framework. Following the…
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Queer Doorkeepers of Tantrik Nepal
Published on 11th December, 2021, in Mid-day. When one visits the many temples of Kathmandu, Bhaktapur and Patan, in Nepal, one notices something very peculiar. All goddess temples have guardians on either side of the door. On one side, the…
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Those Who Give Gifts Voluntarily Are Truly Rare and Great
Published on 10th December, 2022, in Economic Times. Many people think the world is unravelling itself today. Politicians insist this unravelling began a thousand years ago with the coming of Muslim warlords of Central Asia (Turuka) followed by the Europeans.…
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Tantrik Temples In Faraway Java
Published on 4th December, 2022, in Mid-day. Indonesia today is a Muslim country except for the island of Bali. However, over 1,000 years ago, the island of Java saw great competition between Tantric Buddhism and Tantric Hinduism. This resulted in…
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How Did Jainism Survive In India?
Published on 3rd December, 2023, in The Times of India. Until its revival in the 20th century by Babasaheb Ambedkar — as part of the Navayana movement for Dalit upliftment — Buddhism had all but been forgotten in the land…
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The Boar of Kantara Has Much Significance In Our Mythology
Published on 2nd December, 2022, in The Hindu. The domesticated pig descended from the wild boar. The wild boar is a forager, the domesticated pig is a scavenger. Symbolically, they are a reminder of wild nature and cultivated culture. The…
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American Snakes in Hindu Ganga
Published on 27th November, 2022, in Mid-day. A section of American Hindus are trying to turn the phrase “snakes in the Ganga” into a neo-Hindutva metaphor for Hinduphobia. This is highly disrespectful to revered Naga-devata or snake deities of Indian…
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India and China Have Received Many Ideas from Each Other
Published on 26th November, 2022, in Economic Times. Nationalists in India and China love the idea that their culture influenced the world, but hate the idea that their culture was influenced by the world. While the Chinese preferred isolating themselves…
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Bindi: A Homage to the Devadasi
Published on 20th November, 2022, in Mid-day. Devadasis, a crude catch-all word used to describe independent female dancers, musicians, and entertainers of India, have been wiped out of Indian history. She probably invented the bindi, and other female adornments, worn…
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Why Goan Hinduism Is Unique in India?
Published on 18th November, 2022, in Times of India. Goa is a sliver of land between the Western ghats and the sea, divided by rivers opening up to estuaries, much like Kerala, visited by sea traders for the past 4,000…
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Grandchild of Vedic Waters
Published on 13th November, 2022, in Mid-day. Of the thousand songs in the Rig Veda, we find 200 songs praising Agni. In fact, the first song of the Rigveda is a praise to Agni, who is called the priest and…
