Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
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 his big belly or lambodara as a symbol of wealth. We have forgotten that this…
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Articles
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 messiah of Jewish mythology. These documents were called the Gospel, as they brought the good…
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Articles
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 Nepal. Here, instead of the word “tharavad”, the word “guthi” is used. This is a…
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Articles
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. Later, fibres of plants were gently woven. Eventually, humans discovered the fine art of weaving,…
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Articles
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 Gupta period, trade with Rome was disrupted, as the Roman Empire collapsed. But trade from…
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Articles
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 guardian is a skeleton. On the other side of the deity is a hermaphroditic figure.…
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Articles
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. But as per Sanskrit lore, this began two thousand years ago, with the arrival of…
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Articles
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 the creation of some of the most magnificent structures in the world that even today…
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Articles
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 of its birth. By contrast, Jainism maintained a tenacious hold in mainland India. This despite…
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Articles
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 pig was amongst the earliest animals to be domesticated across the world, and was a…
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Articles
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 rivers and water bodies, including Ganga. This is another case of American Hindu IT engineer…
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Articles
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 materially, with walls, Indians preferred isolating themselves psychologically using the caste mindset. Nevertheless, the two…
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Articles
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 by women in India today. But like her contribution to music and dance, no one…
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Articles
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 years. Goan Hinduism is unique in India. The village structure that the Portuguese encountered five…
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Articles
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 messenger of the gods. Agni must be placed in the eastern direction and it is…