Mythology
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The Tragedy of Nandi and Surabhi
Few animals have shaped Hindu imagination as deeply as the bull and the cow. Shiva’s mount is Nandi, the great humped bull, while the divine cow Surabhi symbolizes nourishment and abundance. Yet the modern story of their descendants is full…
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When Women Told the Story Backwards
Teej means the third day of the lunar fortnightly cycle — Tritiya. What made the monsoon cycle interesting was that three important Teej festivals occurred on three different Tritiya tithis: Hariyali Teej on Shravana Shukla Tritiya (waxing half), Kajari Teej…
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Northern Purification of the Southern Murugan
Visakhapatnam probably gets its name from Vishakha, twin of Kartikeya. The Mahabharata tells the story. Kartikeya had defeated Taraka, Indra’s enemy. An insecure Indra, struck Kartikeya with his vajra, viewing him as a potential rival. From the wound emerged Vishakha,…
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Ballads of Breeze and Breath
In Hindu thought, Vayu, Marut, Vata, and Prana represent different ways in which breeze as well as breath were imagined.
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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, her air and water poisoned. She is crying, and there…
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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 — served to aid digestion and sweeten the breath.
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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 in popular lore. Scholars believe this was grape wine imported…
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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 root meaning “hidden” or “concealed.” They inhabit a parallel dimension…
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Civilisations, Time and the Turning Wheel
Financial crises, endless wars, political polarisation, demographic decline, climate anxiety and the rise of new global powers have made many wonder whether civilisations can also decline.
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The Rise of Nava-grahas
In Vedic times, graha meant malevolent spirits who hurt mothers and babies. It had nothing to do with planets. The 3000-year-old Vedic Jyotisha had nothing to do with predicting the future. It was a practical science of timekeeping — fixing…
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Who Is Baal?
The name Baal has been appearing a lot lately, especially in Western media, in the context of war between Iran and Israel. Known as a false god in the Bible, his images are being burnt in public. Western capitalists are…
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Upanishads As Against Dharma-shastra
In the Upanishads, the word brahmin is about inner realisation. In Dharma-shastra, the word brahmin is about birth status and purity. The early Upanishads were composed between 600 BC and 200 BC, while the early Dharma-shastra were composed between 200…
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Imagining Hinduism Without Caste
For centuries, what we now call Hinduism was never a single religion. It was a civilisation organised through caste. Each caste had its own gods, rituals, food rules, taboos, and ideas of the sacred. Diversity was not accidental; it was…
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Yama’s Journey from Vedic King to Cosmic Accountant
Yama is the Hindu god of death, accountability, and the afterlife. Often ignored, his history is long and complex, reaching back to Vedic, Indo-Iranian, and Indo-European mythological traditions.
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Are God’s Messengers Real or Imaginary?
We know that information about Gautama Buddha, Chanakya, and Shankaracharya come from textual sources that were composed centuries after their supposed lifetimes. There is no material proof of their existence. But they are assumed to be historical figures. The same…
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All About Marriage, Meaning, and the Shiva–Shakti Union
The marriage of Shiva and Shakti is not about property, lineage, or inheritance. It is not about power, spectacle, or display. It is about two individuals giving meaning to each other.