Articles

Sengol is a staff of royal authority. We can call the symbol of justice in the spirit of wordplay, when a symbol of monarchy is made the symbol of democracy. The one currently in the news is topped by the image of a bull. The bull cannot be domesticated (answerable to no one), hence it is a symbol of Hindu royalty. This bull is Nandi, mount of Shiva. Shiva, in Tamil Nadu, is rather regal, very different from the Bhola (guileless) Bairagi (mendicant) of North India. He is seen as the enabler of kings, for more than a thousand years, since the days of the ..

When I wrote my book ‘My Gita’ a few years ago, a right-wing lobby led by men with Brahmin surnames launched a campaign on social media that since I do not know Sanskrit, I did not have the moral authority to write on the Bhagavad Gita. They were effectively discrediting the work of hundreds of translators of the Bhagavad Gita. Now with the rise of many AI chatbots offering free and easily accessible Gita advice, I wonder what their stance would be, since these platforms rely on freely available online English translations and commentaries on the Gita, and offer rather bizarre answers to questions posed, ..

When the Turkish soldiers from Khilji’s army, and later the Mughal army, saw the ruins of Ellora, they were convinced that these were supernatural creations. The caves were not created by humans, but created by jinns. Jinns are supernatural creatures referred to in the Quran. They live in a parallel universe. Like humans, they have the capacity to choose either the divine or the diabolical path. They can be both good and bad. Jinns are typically associated with paranormal phenomena and with ruins in Islamic lore. Wherever the Muslim world spread and came across ruins which existed long before their time and about which very ..

The eastern coast of Africa has a long relationship of trade with the western coast of India. However much of it is undocumented and hence it is not part of the popular imagination. In the coast of Karnataka, we find a temple to Kappiri Devaru. It is said that if you give Kappiri Devaru blankets, alcohol and cigarettes, he is pleased and fulfils mundane wishes, like giving children to childless couples. The story goes that he was an African slave who escaped slavery from Portuguese Goa and found his way to Karnataka. Here, he was a wise man who helped local fishermen and healed the ..

Published on 22nd May, 2023, in Times of India. Manipuri dance is a popular classical dance in India, which shows Raas Leela of Krishna, a reminder that Vaishnav parampara and Krishna bhakti reached even the eastern most state of Manipur. Northeast India is full of hills and valleys, full of tribes, who have a contentious relationship with Hinduism of mainland India, Islam of Bangladesh, Buddhism of Burma and American Christian missionaries. Manipur is no exception. Krishna in the Northeast There are many places in Northeast India which are often connected with Vaishnavism. King Bhishmika, father of Rukmini, and father-in-law of Krishna, is said to belong ..

Published on 21st May, 2023, in Mid-day. In Hindu mythology, during the battle between the devas and asuras, the guru of the asuras, Shurkracharya, is about to use Sanjeevani Vidya to resurrect all dead asuras. To prevent this from happening, the gods beg Shiva to help. Shiva swallows Shukracharya and keeps him in his body. But Shurkracharya manages to escape in the form of semen. This is why “shukra” means semen. In another story, the asuras kill Kacha, the son of Indra, and get Shurkacharya to eat him. But Shurkacharya’s daughter is in love with Kacha. She begs her father to bring him back to ..

Published on 19th May, 2023, in The Hindu. The naked philosophers: the reason some Indian ascetics renounced their robes The naked ascetic in India is euphemistically referred to as Digambara or sky-clad. These are men who have rejected the material world totally: not just relationships and property, but also clothes. The earliest images are found in Mathura’s Kankali Tila and are about 2,000 years old. They belong to the Jain faith. The idea of naked ascetics is an old one, familiar to the Buddha who forbade monks from wandering in the nude. So the idea of nude ascetics is at least 2,500 years old, if ..

Published on 14th May, 2023, in Mid-day. There is one temple of Sachi, wife of Indra. And it is a Jain-Hindu temple, located in Osian, Rajasthan, near Jodhpur, where she is revered as clan goddess of local Jains, Rajputs and other communities. In the Veda, Sachi is the wife of Indra. Not much is known about her until post-Vedic, and even Buddhist, literature. Here we learn that she was the daughter of an asura called Puloma, who didn’t want to marry the commander Vritra, who was defeated by Indra. She chose Indra instead and so is called Indrani. As the husband of Sachi, Indra is ..

Published 13th May, 2023, in the Economic Times. As the stock market rises and falls, as wars and riots do not yield the desired results, as foreign ties sweeten and sour, the word "amrit" is being used a lot in political circles. It reveals the human inability to accept the truism of impermanence. It is not just an Indian idea, or a Hindu idea - it is a global idea. Chinese mythology speaks of the 'peaches of immortality' that exist in the garden of Jade Heaven, and the eight immortals, who perhaps inspired the concept of Chiranjeevi, or legendary immortal heroes. In Rig Veda, the ..