Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
Sodom, Lut and other Islamic myths
What was the wickedness of the Sodomites? They wanted to have sex with Lotʼs male guests, who were actually Godʼs angels. Lot offered them his daughters instead. …
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Articles
A Starry Network of Arabian Trade
The word monsoon comes from the Arabic word ‘mausam’, meaning season. Incidentally, the word ‘ara’ in Sanskrit means desert…
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Articles
Seventy-Two, Not Just Houri
But in mythology, seventy two is a very exciting number. It is 2 raise the power of 3 (2x2x2) multiplied by 3 raise to the power of 2 (3×3). A perfect symmetry which gives us 8×9 = 72. In ancient times, such numbers had sacred meaning…
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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 Ahimsa Seal of the Indus
Published on 29th April, 2023, in Economic Times. The oldest seals depicting ahimsa (non-violence) are found in the Harappan cities of the Indus Valley (2500 BCE to 1900 BCE). These are the M-478B seal from Mohenjo Daro and the K-65 cylinder seal of Kalibangan. Both show women separating two men from fighting. In the Mohenjodaro…
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Articles
Forgotten Ballads Of Indian Merchants
Published on 1st April, 2023, in Economic Times. India was famous for trading with Southeast Asia and the Middle East since ancient times. However, Hindu scriptures shunned mercantile economy and focussed on agricultural economy. Value was placed on land tax, not on toll tax. By contrast, Buddhism and Jainism greatly value merchants. This is why…
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Articles
How Jainism Spread From North to South In India
Published on 11th January, 2023, in The Times of India. We are inclined to see religion from a historical point of view, through the lens of time. But we rarely see religion from the perspective of geography. We are told Jainism is an Indian religion but which part of India did it originate from, where…
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Articles
History of Bharat in Seven Days
Published on 10th July, 2022, in Mid-day. When you compress India’s history to one week, we gain a rather delightful perspective of our past. Indian history from Harappan times till today is approximately 5,000 years, so each day of the week is approximately a period of 700 years. On Sunday, in Northwest India, farming appears.…
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Articles
Full-and-Final Settlement Before God
Published on 28th May, 2022, in Economic Times. We often forget that the word cash is derived from the Sanskrit word “Karshapana”. Indians invented the idea of money long ago. Irregularly-shaped copper coins were used by merchants for banking 2500 years ago, about the time coins began being used in ancient Greece and China. Even…
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Articles
Geography of God
Published on 6th February, 2022, in Mid-day. In north India, as per politicians, three major pilgrimage sites are important. The first is Ayodhya, where Ram was born and the kingdom of Ram was established. The second is Mathura where Krishna was born. The third is Kashi, with which Shiva is associated. Ram, Krishna and Shiva…
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Articles
21 Principles of Sanatan Dharma
Published on 23rd January, 2022, in Mid-day. Sanatan Dharma is a term used for religions based on rebirth. So it is applied to Jainism, Buddhism and Hinduism. These religions emerged in the Gangetic plains in the second millennium BCE, and spread across the Indian subcontinent. These have to be distinguished from monotheistic religions such as…
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Books
Eden: An Indian Exploration of Jewish, Christian and Islamic Lore
Eden is the garden of happiness that humanity was cast out of when Adam and Eve, the first human couple, disobeyed the one true God, and ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. To this garden we shall return if we follow God’s law and accept God’s love, conveyed through his many messengers, the first…
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Articles
Activism, Monotheism and Intolerance
Published on 17th October, 2021, in Mid-day. Have you noticed that academicians who say Hinduism is casteist, and promotes inequality, rarely talk about intolerance of monotheistic faiths like Christianity and Islam which dominate the world? Monotheist religions endorse the worship of ‘true’ God and oppose worship of ‘false’ gods, especially idolatry. What is a false…
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Articles
The Hamsa Hand
Published on 14th March, 2021, in Mid-day. The hamsa is a common symbol used across the Middle East as a good luck sign. Originating in Ancient Egypt probably, it is used to bring in prosperity and to ward off evil. The word hamsa means five and represents the five fingers of the hand. When the…
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Articles
What Does Haraam-Khor Actually Mean?
Published on 20th September, 2020, in Mid-day. ‘Haraam’ is an Islamic concept, which means sin, a breaking of rules, God’s rules specifically. It is the opposite of ‘halal’—following God’s rule. But then, what does ‘khor’ mean ‘Khor’ comes to eat, someone who consumes. So, ‘aadam-khor’ is someone who eats Adam’s children—in other words, a man-eater.…
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Articles
Tax collection: Old View to New
Published on 18th September, 2020, in Economic Times. Ancient Greeks, like ancient Hindus, valued the idea of city-states and decentralised power. But exposure to Middle East introduced monotheism, the idea of empire, with central control, allegedly for deficient governance. This journey of history is reflected in mythology as polytheism moves towards monotheism. Nearly 6,000 years…