Sacrifice

Published on 16th October, 2022, in Times of India. There are two types of gods in this world. The singular god of monotheists and the many gods of polytheists. The one god of monotheists demands obedience to the law he communicates through messengers. The many gods of polytheists offer all sorts of help, and solve all sorts of problems, provided they are given something in exchange. Monotheists tell the story of how their one god once asked his messenger to sacrifice his son, but observing his unconditional obedience, stopped the human sacrifice at the last minute and replaced the human victim with a sheep. What ..

Published on 22nd August, 2020, in Economic Times. In Meso-America, the Aztecs sacrificed humans to their gods. This was deemed barbaric by Spanish conquistadors who arrived there in the 16th Century. It became the reason to label them savages, justify their conversion into Christianity and market the conquest of their land as a civilizing mission. Yet, today, historians challenge this simplistic reading of human sacrifice that eclipses the even more barbaric nature of the European conquest of the Americas. It is becoming increasingly obvious that ritual sacrifice had a strategic political role. It was a powerful political lever to establish elite groups, subjugate conquered tribes ..

Published on 6th January, 2019, in Mid-day. In the Mahabharata, we come across two very interesting stories: in one, the husband saves his wife's life; in the other, the wife saves her husband's life. The first story is of Ruru and Priyamvada. Ruru's beautiful wife, Priyamvada, died at an early age. Distraught, Ruru performed penance and invoked Yama, the god of death, and begged Yama to resurrect his wife. After Ruru's great persistence, Yama decided to negotiate. Yama conveyed that if Ruru would give him half his life, he would give that half to Priyamvada. Thus, they could live together for a few more years. ..