Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
Decoding Invisible Hunger and Fear
Where there is pursuit of food, there is hunger. Where there is hunger there is competition, collaboration, success and failure. …
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Articles
Coil of Endless Serpents
Coiled serpents and inter-twined conjugal serpent pairs appear as sacred symbols on Hindu temple walls. They reflect sacred ideas from beyond the Vedic world, where communities venerated serpent groves, filled with termite mounds, which served as entrances to a subterranean world of magical beings — the Naga, serpents with hoods, multiple heads, and the magical…
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Articles
Sanatan Dharma Says Life Is Not a Problem To Be Solved
Sanatan dharma cannot come from one person. It is not bound to history or culture. It is the realisation that nothing is permanent. Seasons change. People die. Plants die. Animals die. Cultures rise and fall. Even death is not permanent. Hence, rebirth is integral to sanatan dharma…
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Elephants As Symbols Of Wealth and Power In Indian Culture
We cannot imagine India without elephants. Elephants have been a powerful symbol of wealth and power since ancient times. …
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Articles
Caste As the Opposite of Conversion
Every Indian is born into a caste and a religion. But you cannot leave caste. You can only leave religion. This makes the doctrine of caste an antagonist of the doctrine of conversion…
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Articles
Sanyasi Sages and Their Wives
Ancient rishis almost always had wives. The Saptarishis (Seven Sages) each had a wife…
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Articles
God As Generator, Organiser, Destroyer
The rishi who told stories of the creator, organiser and destroyer, and designed characters like Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, was an ancient Indian ‘seer’ who could see what others could not…
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Articles
Why Kubera Is Not Ganesha
While plants and animals seek nourishment and security, humans seek more. Our hunger and fear is amplified infinitely by imagination. But food does not take away imagined hunger. If anything, it amplifies imagined hunger. We seek more resources, more power, more knowledge about resources and power…
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Articles
Biblical Tales in the Puranas
The Bhavishya Purana imagines an India (Bharat-varsha) from the Himalayas to the sea, with the Indus or Sindhu-desha forming the main barrier between Arya-desha, land of civilised folk, and Mleccha-desha, land of barbarians…
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Articles
The Fire-born Rajputs
The Rajputs themselves have many stories about their origin. Raghuvamsi Rajputs claim descent from the solar dynasty of kings. Chandella and Yaduvamshi Rajputs claim descent from lunar lines of kings. Then there are the Agni-kula or fire-born Rajputs…
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Articles
So Many Types of Nagas
Naga ascetics of Kumbh Mela are now world famous. These are the ascetics who arrive at the confluence of rivers wearing no clothes and bearing weapons. They are smeared with ash, and have matted hair. …
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Articles
When Gurus Cling to Opinions
In nature, no land belongs to any plant or animal. Everyone fights for territories and the strongest wins. In nature, no one has rights over their body: it is food for the hungry, it is a vehicle to produce the next generation of food for predators…
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Articles
Old Babas and Young Babas
In mythology, the rishi or sage comes in all shapes and sizes. A sage can be a child, a youth, or an old man, and the same applies to gods…
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Articles
Mythology of the Fish
Across India, the fish is a sacred symbol–all kinds of fish…Fish is linked with autonomy as it cannot be tamed, and with fertility and prosperity…
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Articles
How South Does the Kumbh Mela Go?
The Kumbha Mela is primarily a North Indian observance. Though, the south does have a similar gathering at Kumbakonam at the Mahamaham tank, every 12 years, in the month of Magha, shortly after the sun enters the zodiac of Capricorn (Makara). But here, there is no river involved, certainly not the Ganga, the traditional marker…