Articles

Published on 5th March, 2023, in Mid-day. Harappan cities thrived between 2500 BCE and 1900 BCE. The Vedic culture thrived between 1000 BCE and 500 BCE. Almost 1,000 years apart, the two cultures reveal two different worlds for women. When we study Harappan women and Vedic women, we realise they display characteristics found in Indian women even today. From Harappa, we get information about clothes, jewellery and food. From the Vedas, we get more information about their relationship with men. We know about Harappan women from archaeological evidence. There are images of women stopping men from fighting, women connected with trees, women as tiger goddesses. ..

Published on 4th March, 2023, in Economic Times. Monotheism propagates the idea of one God. This very easily telescopes into the idea of one all-powerful leader of all people, which enables dictatorship. In polytheism, by contrast, there is no all-powerful God, so no all-powerful king. There are many gods who are constantly competing, collaborating and negotiating for power. This allows for democracy. Atheism - popular amongst liberals - has no gods, so no one has power, and so inspires anarchy. Between polytheism and monotheism is monolatry: where one god dominates while others are not denied. Here dictatorship prevails in the pretence of democracy. Empires to ..

Published on 26th February, 2023, in Mid-day. Parshuram was born in a Brahmin family of the Bhrigus. His father, Jamadagni, was a sage who performed rituals in exchange for which he received cows. His mother was a princess. Parshuram is famous for raising his axe for two reasons. The first time he did so, he beheaded his mother on his father’s orders, because she desired another man. And the second time he raised this axe was to kill the king who tried to steal his father’s cow. In most stories, the man to whom the mother is attracted, and the man who steals the cow ..

Published on 25th February, 2023, in Times of India. The Assam government's claim that the Bhimashankar Jyotirlinga is located in the northeastern state has spawned yet another religious flashpoint. This is what happens when mythology is assumed to be history Until recently, most people believed that Bhimashankar Jyotirlinga is located in Maharashtra. But then the Assam government declared the jyotirlinga is located near Guwahati, at the hillstream of Bhimeshwar Dham, creating confusion. Similar controversies are found with the Ramayana. After firmly establishing Ayodhya as the birthplace of Rama, right-wing leaders are desperately trying to locate all sites linked to Ramayana ‘history’. This proves a problem. ..

Published on 24th February, 2023, in The Hindu. After the sack of Baghdad in the 13th century, the Islamic world, dominated by Arabs since the 8th century, gave way to the Ottomans in Turkey, the Safavids in Iran, and the Mughals in India. These empires owed their success not to religion, but to gunpowder, a Chinese invention. Their fall by the 18th century was because of another Chinese invention they would ignore to please Islamic calligraphers: the printing press. We tend to believe that the Islamic world was homogeneous and orthodox. However, this homogeneity was more aspirational than ground reality. This becomes most evident by ..

Published on 19th February, 2023, in Mid-day. Hinduism can be divided into three major eras. Veda dominated 3,000 years ago, Vedanga dominated 2,000 years ago, and Vedanta became central 1,000 years ago. These are approximations of course, but a good rule-of-thumb to remember Hindu history. The Veda refers to a set of mantras that dominated the religious landscape of Gangetic plains 3,000 years ago. This is the age of painted grey pottery, when chariots came to India. A thousand years before that, the Harappan Bronze Age had drawn to an end. Trading with Mesopotamia had waned and the Aryans gradually began migrating towards the Ganga ..

Published on 17th February, 2023, in Economic Times. Chanakya's Arthashastra talks about appointing a superintendent for the ganika, variously translated as pleasure women, prostitutes or courtesans. This is done in a matter-of-fact way. No morality is attached. Ganikas were valuable sources of pleasure, income and information for the state. These were not prostitutes, who have no agency. Contemporary Bollywood films romanticise the courtesan and the brothel often as tragic figures in films such as Pakeezah, Amar Prem, Umrao Jaan and Devdas. This is a male gaze that refuses to acknowledge these women who once were independent women with power and wealth who chose not to ..

Published on 12th February, 2023, in Mid-day. Our textbooks teach us that Hindu society is divided into four groups: Brahmin, Kshatriyas, Vaishya, Shudras, consisting of priests, landed aristocrats, merchants and servants. This is the Vedic varna system. However, this is a highly simplistic division, which doesn’t take into account that there are over 5,000 communities (jati) in India, which can be classified in various ways across these four categories. This is best understood by studying the subdivisions of the Brahmin division. In Vedic times, Brahmins were classified as Hotrs who chanted Rig Vedic hymns, Udgatrs who sang Sama Vedic hymns, Adhvaryus who performed Yajur Vedic ..

Published on 11th February, 2023, in Times of India. Jainism follows the path revealed by 24 sages known as Tirthankara, who appear in every era of the human age. In the Shwetambar school of Jainism, popular in western India, Parsvanatha and Mahavira, the 23rd and 24th Tirthankaras were married before they became monks. But in Digambara tradition, popular in Gangetic plains and South India, neither was married. Both traditions agree that on his wedding day, Neminath, the 22nd Tirthankara, refused to marry, and chose to become a monk, after he heard the cry of animals that had been brought to the royal kitchen to be ..