Celebrate Diwali with Light, Love & The Divine Protector
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The Surgery of Shushurta
Ancient India really did make important contributions to medicine. These achievements are well documented and respected by historians. But the story also has another side.
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Prithu’s Cow, Ashoka’s Lion
Dharma is being equated with development, with the destruction of forests and rivers. The literal cow is honoured with melodramatic sentimentality while the earth-cow is plundered for minerals and timber,…
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The Areca Nut in The Betel Leaf
After meals, a quid of betel leaf wrapped around some areca nut and lime, perfumed with cardamom, clove, nutmeg, mace, and camphor — the five aromatics known collectively as pancha-sugandha…
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Taxing Varuni, the Goddess of Intoxication
Varuni, the goddess of wine, churned out of the ocean of milk, joined Indra and transformed Swarga into paradise. So say the Puranas. However, very little is mentioned about Varuni…
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Brahmins In Jain Memory
In the Brahminical tradition, the Brahmin stands at the apex of creation, born from the mouth of Prajapati, custodian of the sacred fire by divine right. Jainism offers a different…
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The Itihasa of Prithviraj Chauhan
Long before the nationalist imagination got to work, two older traditions had already told very different stories about the same king, and neither of them had any use for a…
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Djinns Amongst Us
The Quran describes jinn as beings created from a “smokeless flame of fire,” while humans were created from clay and angels from light. The Arabic word jinn comes from a…
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Indian Roots of Pythagorean Theorem
This geometric truth was discovered independently by several ancient civilizations, each arriving at the same insight through their own practical needs. India’s contribution, recorded in a set of ancient texts…
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The Shambala Prophecy
In a world that seems to be hurtling from one crisis to another, many people are talking about the Shambala prophecy. This appeared in the early 11th century in a…
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The Rise of Marble Temples
Marble has never been a traditional material in Hindu sacred architecture. In Tamil Nadu, the great storied temples were built in granite. In Odisha, the material was khondalite. In Karnataka,…
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Who Invented Zero?
Ask any Indian schoolchild who invented zero, and the answer will usually be: India did. This is one of the most common beliefs taught in schools and repeated in public…
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Is Sanatan Dharma Only 200 Years Old?
‘Sanatan Dharma’ (common noun) as a phrase is very old. It appears in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions as a common noun meaning ‘eternal order’ or ‘timeless law’. However, ‘Sanatan…
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How Hinduism Transformed in the Vedic land
Punjab, watered by the tributaries of the Indus, was the original Vedic land. Yet today, the Veda is more closely associated with the Yamuna-Ganga doab, while Punjab is better known…
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Ekalavya’s Thumb and Angulimala’s Garland Of Fingers
Ekalavya’s story is that of a low-born forest boy, rejected by the Brahmin teacher Drona, and who then trains alone before a clay idol, masters archery, and surrenders his thumb…
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The Islamic Wound That Does Not Heal
Islam has faced civilisational catastrophe twice. Once at the hands of the Mongols in the 13th century and the next at the hands of the Europeans in the 19th century.…
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Why Does Arjuna Overshadow Bhima In Epics?
When Draupadi is publicly humiliated, it is Bhima who avenges her, collecting Dushasana’s blood so she can wash her unbound hair; it is Bhima who smashes Kichaka to pulp when…