2023
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How Gujarat Got Temples That Are Upside-down Or Topped With Mountain Peaks
Internet alien hunters have concluded that in Gujarat there is an underground upside-down temple, despite the fact that the ‘upside-down’ temple has upright images of Vishnu and his avatars.
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Origins of the Rice Goddess
The oldest Indian mythology of rice can be found among the Bonda tribal people, who live in Odisha, who are linked to the Munda and Austroasiatic communities who entered India from the Southeast, and brought rice growing technology with them…
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Capitalism and the Alpha Predator
In nature, the predator eats the prey, the hound hunts the hare. But in culture, the prey will fight back and will not be reduced to food.
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Surpanakha’s Shambuk
It’s great fun to read Ramayan by politicians and activists. Right-wing Hindutva folks will go out of their way to be apologists as to why the mutilation of the nose of a sexually-demanding woman such as Surpanakha by the hero…
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Tales From the Land of Jagannatha
There are 30 short essays in this book. They were written by renowned mythologist Devdutt Pattanaik over a ten-year period and published in various publications.
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How the Worship of Radha, Krishna Spread, Amidst the Shadow of Islam.
Chaitanya, known to his followers as Mahaprabhu (great lord, incarnation of Krishna), popularised the worship of Krishna with Radha and the circular dance of Raas Leela in India.
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The Story of Stolen Gods
In the medieval times, Indian kings declared their victory by bringing back home images of gods that were worshipped in the land they conquered. These gods became minor deities in the victor’s temple, living in the shadow of the victor’s…
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Shaped By the Rains
Aryans came from lands north of the Himalayas where there was no monsoon rains. They focused on four quarters of the year, based on the solstices, and equinoxes. Balgangadhar Tilak pointed out how Vedic hymns refer to long days without…
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Diversity and Inclusion is a radical idea in the West because of monotheism
In the USA, a section of activists prefer the word ‘birthing people’ to ‘mothers’. This is erasure of womanhood, say feminists. Such feminists are deemed TERF (trans exclusionary radical feminists). Inclusion of trans-women seems to demand rejection of traditional definitions…
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Ravana in Malaysia and Indonesia
The Ramayana has been retold by several communities and several people over a period of 2,000 years and over a region that spreads over 5,000 miles. Scholars have found the Ramayana retellings even in faraway places such as Thailand, Malaysia…
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Krishna’s Sister and the Varying Interpretations Of Her Image
One of the oldest caves (number 27) in Ellora in Maharashtra, has the image of a goddess holding a lotus flower, flanked by two gods…
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Who are the power-broking landlord monks of Tamil Nadu?
Sengol is a staff of royal authority. We can call the symbol of justice in the spirit of wordplay, when a symbol of monarchy is made the symbol of democracy.
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Ask Krishna Anything? A Mythologist Puts Gita Chatbots To The Test
Whenever I encounter young earnest young, Hindu missionaries selling the Gita to me on roadsides, I like to pose them a question that helps me gain insight about their mind and their understanding of the Gita. I ask them, ‘Why…
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Jinns and Aliens
When the Turkish soldiers from Khilji’s army, and later the Mughal army, saw the ruins of Ellora, they were convinced that these were supernatural creations. The caves were not created by humans, but created by jinns. Jinns are supernatural creatures…
