Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
Diversity and Inclusion is a radical idea in the West because of monotheism
In the USA, a section of activists prefer the word ‘birthing people’ to ‘mothers’. This is erasure of womanhood, say feminists. Such feminists are deemed TERF (trans exclusionary radical feminists). Inclusion of trans-women seems to demand rejection of traditional definitions of womanhood, which is seen as a social construct imposed by patriarchy. Feminists argue that…
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Articles
The Hindu History of Bengal
Published on 6th May, 2023, in Times of India. When we talk about Bengal, we speak of its partition. The eastern part became Muslim Bangladesh, the western part became communist West Bengal. It almost seemed as if Hinduism had been wiped out in this eastern corner of India. Yet, this is where Hinduism was defined…
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Articles
Pre-history of Aryans They Don’t Tell You
Published on 11th March, 2023, in Times of India. Nationalists on social media argue that the Mahabharata war took place 5,000 years ago, in 3,000 BCE, based on verses from 2,000-year-old manuscripts. They believe that Krishna and Arjuna rode a chariot drawn by horses. These ‘textual’ scholars are mostly upper-caste Hindu men, who ignore hard…
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Articles
Polytheism Enables Mother of Democracy
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…
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Articles
Donation of Courtesans
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…
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Articles
Bandra Mythology
Published on 29th January, 2023, in Mid-day. There was a Marathi film based on caste. The songs were catchy; they set the dance floor on fire. But it was a gut-wrenching romance that ended with honour killing. Despite its dark theme, it was a super hit, so successful that it had to be turned into…
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Articles
The Meaning of Contentment
Published on 30th December, 2022, in The Hindu. At the start of anything new, like New Year, Hindus look towards Ganesha. We want him to remove obstacles from our lives, and usher in prosperity. We have been conditioned to see his big belly or lambodara as a symbol of wealth. We have forgotten that this…
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Articles
One Christ, But So Many Churches
Published on 25th December, 2022, in Mid-day. About 1,900 years ago, documents were compiled in Israel that described the virgin birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, who was identified as the Christ, the anointed one, the prophesied messiah of Jewish mythology. These documents were called the Gospel, as they brought the good…
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Articles
India and China Have Received Many Ideas from Each Other
Published on 26th November, 2022, in Economic Times. Nationalists in India and China love the idea that their culture influenced the world, but hate the idea that their culture was influenced by the world. While the Chinese preferred isolating themselves materially, with walls, Indians preferred isolating themselves psychologically using the caste mindset. Nevertheless, the two…
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Articles
Royal Power of the Symbolic Lion
Published on 16th October, 2022, in Mid-day. Kings across East Asia, whether it’s China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia consider the lion as the symbol of kings. In front of Chinese palaces, there is the male and female lion, the male holding under his paw a globe representing the world while the female holds a lion…
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Articles
Myth and Memories Before History
Published on 28th August, 2022, in Mid-Day. Vedic literature is full of stories informing us how rishis discovered and used the mantra to solve problems. These stories were called the itihasa, as they are reported by those who witnessed the events, as against puranas, which are simply old stories transmitted, not witnessed. These itihasas are…
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Articles
How a ‘Ram Rajya’ Was Established In South
Published on 27th August, 2022, in Times of India. About 700 years ago, on the banks of Tungabhadra, in Karnataka, as per legend, two brothers known as Harihara and Bukka, saw hares turning around and attacking hunting hounds. They realised that land was special – a place of resistance. So they decided to build a…
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Articles
What You Need to Know About Buddhist Capitalism
Published on 6th August, 2022, in Economic Times. We have always been taught that capitalism was invented in Europe. But the capitalism that we see today is the outcome of the Industrial Revolution. Before the Industrial Revolution, capitalism thrived in trading routes controlled by the Arabs. These routes extended from Southeast Asia, right up to…
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Articles
Did Aryans Migrate Out of India to the West, or to the South?
Published on 16th July, 2022, in Times of India. Three kinds of people love the word Arya even today. The first is the local Hindutva folks who insist ‘Arya’ refers to the best of Hindu civilization. The second is the White Supremacist of the Western world; they prefer the word ‘Aryan’ to Arya, and insist…
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Articles
Shiva from Tibet?
Published on 19th June, 2022, in Mid-day. The idea that Tibet was the homeland of Aryas came from Swami Dayananda Saraswati, who in the late 19th century, founded the famous Arya Samaj. He valued the Vedas as the original source of Hinduism, but saw Puranas including worship of Shiva-linga as a degeneration of Arya-dharma, a…
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Articles
Why Did Medieval Indian Cavalries Shun the Parthian Shot In Archery?
Published on 17th June, 2022, in The Hindu. In one retelling of the epic Ramayana, Ram was so righteous that even though he knew Ravana’s weak spot was his navel, he kept shooting arrows at Ravana’s head, in keeping with Kshatriya dharma. Exasperated, Hanuman got his father, the wind god, to send a fierce breeze…