Ashwamedha

Published on 3rd February, 2019, in Mumbai Mirror. In traditional Hindu belief, a king exists to overturn the law of the jungle or Matsya Naya. In the absence of a king (raja), there is chaos and anarchy (arajakta). The king brings order. But how does one establish himself as a ruler? When we go through various scriptures such as the Vedas, the Puranas, and other historical documents, studying the rise of kings across India, we notice a pattern. We find four ways in which a king is made. The earliest method was through Vedic rituals such as Rajsuya and Ashwamedha. In Rajsuya, Brahmins poured water ..

Published on 2nd December, 2018, in Mid-day. In popular retellings, the Mahabharata ends tragically with vast bloodshed on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, where the Kauravas are defeated by the Pandavas. Following this episode, there is the Ashwamedha Parva. It describes how Yudhishthira becomes king and lets loose his royal horse across the land, followed by armies led by Arjun, who establishes Pandava rule in all the lands of Bharatvarsha or India. This is not just a conquest by a victorious king, but also an attempt to reconcile with former enemies. In medieval times, when the Sanskrit epic was being translated into regional languages, kings, especially ..

Published on 23rd May, 2017, on The Times of India Blog. As Western hegemony wanes in the global village, China envisions the One Belt, One Road (OBOR) project. India withdraws from it. What makes cultures do what they do? The answer perhaps lies in their mythologies, which map the culture’s mind. At the heart of Chinese mythology is belief in the Mandate of Heaven. The Emperor of China has been given the divine authority to mirror heavenly order on earth. If the emperor fails to do so, he can be replaced. A successful revolution marks the shifting of this mandate from one king to another. ..