Ganesha

Published on 17th November, 2018, in Mid-day. In Buddhist and Hindu mythology, birth from the female body brought one into the circle of life and death, or samsara. So, the womb-born, or yonija, experience birth as well as death. Ram is born from the womb of Kaushalya, Krishna is born from the womb of Devaki, and, therefore, both of them experience death. In Puranic literature, we come across the concept of ayonija, someone who is not born from the womb, and consequently, is able to bypass or rise above the cycle of birth and death. The story of Ganesha is a case in point. Ganesha ..

Published on 23rd September, 2018, in Mid-day. In South India, Kartikeya is worshipped as Murugan, who stands on top of mountains. On either side of him stand his two wives, Valli and Sena. Valli is a tribal girl, while Sena is a celestial princess, the daughter of Indra. There are songs of Murugan's virility and his romantic associations with his celestial and his earthly wives. It mirrors the idea of Vishnu with Sridevi and Bhudevi: Sridevi being the celestial wife of Vishnu and Bhudevi being the earthly wife of Vishnu. Thus, the divine connects the celestial realms and the earthly realms. However, in North India, ..

Published on 2nd September, 2018, in Mumbai Mirror. In the month of Shravan, cities and towns of the Gangetic plains are inundated with people, dressed in orange, bearing saffron flags, marching to loud music, and carrying a bamboo stick sling with pots or bottles tied to either end that are never placed on the ground. They are carrying water of the Ganga to pour in the Shiva temple in their village, a ritual that marks the end of summer and beginning of monsoon. They are the Kanwariyas. The Kanwariyas of Bihar who make the journey to Deogarh Baidyanath temple are less boisterous compared to their ..

Published on 19th August, 2017, in The Hindu. Recently at a children’s literature conference, a parent recounted how her son recoiled at the story of Shiva beheading his own son that eventually led to the creation of the elephant-headed Ganesha. A few years ago, a puppeteer told me how she was prevented from narrating the same story at an international festival as the organisers felt the story was too violent and a bit lacking in morality. In the first case, the problem was of assuming that mythological tales are synonymous with fairy tales (a contention of well-meaning but poorly informed rationalists). In the second case, ..

Published on 2nd September, 2016, on SpeakingTree.in . Rats evoke the feeling of disgust. There is something inherently dark, unclean and sinister about them. Think rats and you think garbage, gutter, plague and other diseases. Rats mean destruction of property. Pilferage. Filth. There is nothing adorable or desirable about a rat. So why is Ganesha always associated with a rat, lovingly called Mooshika? Aha, but it is not a rat; it is a mouse. Rats are nasty. Mice are much gentler. Cute Ganesha rides a cute mouse, my nephew insists. The fact is, nobody is sure what Mooshika is, exactly. Scholars and the general public ..