Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
Unfaithful Wives Across Seas
Published on 13th February, 2022, in Mid-day. For nearly 2,000 years, Arab traders used the monsoon winds to travel across the sea to India. Along the Western coasts, in Kerala, Karnataka and Goa, they met people who allowed them to marry their daughters, but did not let them take these wives back home. These were…
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Articles
‘Are We Seeking Cultural Unity By Denying History?’
Published on 12th February, 2022, in Times of India. Tall statues of men, using Indian money and Chinese technology, are being built across India to unite India. There is the Statue of Unity of Sardar Patel in Gujarat, the Statue of Equality of Ramanuja-acharya built near Hyderabad, and soon there will be the Statue of…
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Articles
Geography of God
Published on 6th February, 2022, in Mid-day. In north India, as per politicians, three major pilgrimage sites are important. The first is Ayodhya, where Ram was born and the kingdom of Ram was established. The second is Mathura where Krishna was born. The third is Kashi, with which Shiva is associated. Ram, Krishna and Shiva…
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Articles
What Ganesha Has to Say About Ambition
Published on 4th February, 2022, in Economic Times. Ganesha, the elephant-headed god of Hindus, is renowned for his huge belly, which is a symbol of affluence and abundance. His elephant head evokes power. His vehicle, or vahana, is a tiny mouse, which is known to overcome barriers, and find its way into storehouses, find food,…
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Articles
Mythology of Maternal Uncles
Published on 30th January, 2022, in Mid-day. The maternal uncle plays a very important role in Hindu scriptures. He is called the ‘Maama’. He is the brother who visits his sister’s house during the rakhi festival. She visits his house during Bhai Dooj, the final day of Diwali. He watches over her welfare. It is…
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Articles
From Shrinathji to Jagannath: How Krishna Avatars Change Across India.
Published on 29th January, 2022, in Times of India. Five hundred years ago, when the Mughals ruled north India, there was an explosion of Bhakti poetry across India. From north to south, people expressed their devotion to different forms of god using emotionally charged language. One of these forms of God was that of Krishna.…
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Articles
In China, Gods, Spirits and Ancestors Thrive, But Leave the Affairs of Humans to Humans
Published on 29th January, 2022, in The Hindu. China today seems mysterious with its very own version of Communism, Capitalism and Democracy. But the mystery vanishes when we see it through a mythic lens and realise that China functions as it always has, magnificence from behind an expressionless face — the wall. Chinese culture does…
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Articles
21 Principles of Sanatan Dharma
Published on 23rd January, 2022, in Mid-day. Sanatan Dharma is a term used for religions based on rebirth. So it is applied to Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism. These religions emerged in the Gangetic plains in the second millennium BCE, and spread across the Indian subcontinent. These have to be distinguished from monotheistic religions such as…
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Articles
View: Reclaiming Loans Is an Achievement, But Writing Off Loans Is the Super-achievement
Published on 22nd January, 2022, in Economic Times. 2500 years ago, a great revolution took place in India. The country saw the rise of many monastic orders, in the middle of great affluence. The most popular amongst them were the Buddhists. But the Jains were the most resilient. The unique feature of the Jain monastic…
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Articles
Ramayana in Jataka
Published on 17th January, 2022, in Mid-day. The Ramayana story reveals the Vedic world that thrived in the Gangetic plains between 1,000 CE and 500 CE, though the story itself came to be written between 200 BCE and 200 CE. Buddhist Jataka tales also written at the same time tell stories that are curiously similar…
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Articles
How Puritanical Islam Faced Backlash in India
Published on 15th January, 2022, in Times of India. People who follow secularism have been accused of an asymmetrical relationship with Islam and other faiths. Make fun of the Islamic practices, and the secular scholar is upset. Make fun of Hindu practices, and the secular scholar provides rational explanations. Atrocities against Muslims by Muslims in…
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Articles
The Act of Seeing
Published on 9th January, 2022, in Mid-day. To see or not to see, that is the question. The difference between an organism and an object is that the organism can sense the world around it. It’s sentient. Organism needs to sense the world around in order to stay alive. It needs to sense the presence…
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Articles
How Bindumati, a Courtesan, Made Ganga Flow in Reverse
Published on 8th January, 2022, in Economic Times. The story of Bindumati comes from the Buddhist text known as Milinda Panha, or questions of Milinda (Menander) which is a conversation between the Indo-Greek king Menander and the Buddhist monk Nagasena. The scripture is about 2000 years old and continues to be venerated in Burma. The…
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Articles
What Hindutva Doesn’t Get About Sanatan Dharma
Published on 7th January, 2022, in Times of India. Sanatan means something that is timeless. Dharma in colloquial parlance is religion. It can also mean culture and civilisation. So, sanatan dharma can mean “timeless civilisation”. In the Gita, Krishna describes the knowledge he shares as sanatana, timeless. Hindutva — a word that was invented in…
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Articles
Why 14 Years of Exile?
Published on 2nd January, 2022, in Mid-day. There are two big mysteries in Hindu mythology. One, why does Kaikai ask Ram to be exiled only for 14 years? Two, why does Duryodhan demand that the Pandavas be exiled only for 13 years? Why did Kaikai not ask for Ram’s permanent exile? Or why did Duryodhan…