Radha

Published on 9th December, 2018, in Mid-day. All Dharmashatras say, all traditions (riti) and laws (niti) must be subject to change depending on geography (desh), history (kala) and capability of communities (guna) involved. This idea is reiterated in the Manusmriti. Whenever there is an issue with Islam, people will refer to the original source: the Quran, or sometimes the Hadith. Whenever there is a problem in Hinduism, people are confused as to which source they would have to refer to. All Dharmashatras say, all traditions (riti) and laws (niti) must be subject to change depending on geography (desh), history (kala) and capability of communities (guna) ..

Published on 7th January, 2018, in Mid-day. Woh toh Radha ka bhi Shyam, woh toh Meera ka bhi Shyam, is a popular Bollywood song from the 1970s. In this song, we are told that Krishna loves Radha as much as he loves Meera. The problem here is that Radha is a mythical character who comes to us from Jayadeva's Gita Govinda composed 800 years ago, and Meera is a historical princess and poet-saint who lived 400 years ago in Rajasthan. But this detail makes no difference to common people who are unable to distinguish the mythic past from the historical past. In fact, after the ..