Mythologist | Author | Speaker | Illustrator
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Articles
The Mysterious Temple Texts Called Agama
Agamas are essentially manuals that were produced to manage temples. It is mainly, though not exclusively, a South Indian phenomenon, where there were vast temple complexes controlled by the Brahmins…
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Articles
Pursuit of Justice in Time
Everybody is seeking to reach the future by erasing the past. But time as a concept is the very opposite of justice…
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Articles
Non-Vedic Hinduism
The study of Hinduism reveals much more than the narrow ideas of the Vedic corpus. Yet it was the Veda that was privileged by the British, who were looking for a Hindu “holy book”…
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Articles
How Story-telling Became a Vedic Tool
Stories transmitted over generations serve as the glue of a community…
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Articles
Agni In Hiding
We find a great number of hymns where there is anxiety about loss of fire…There are many stories where fire runs away. The hungry gods chase him and beg him to return and do his sacrificial duties…
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Articles
Kings Who Hide in Kitchens
Have you ever wondered why, in many parts of North India, the cook is called a Maharaj? This may have something to do with the way the cook treats the kitchen as his sovereign territory that no one can trespass. Or, it may have something to do with the legend of a king who in…
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Articles
Accounting Rivals and Saints
Balancing the Ledgers of Karma, and the Economy: The history of record keeping and accounting in India is the story of Brahmins and Kayasthas, with their skills linked deeply to the cultural & spiritual beliefs, as well as their services to the governments of their times…
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Articles
Seasonal March of Festivals
Festivals around the world have a number of intimate links to seasons, legend and history. From Indian celebrations linked to the sun’s path, weather and mythic legends, to Christian reflections of a spring rebirth, seasonal festivals worldwide are a manifestation of each unique culture…
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Articles
Did Rishi Agastya Colonise the South?
Nowadays two ideas are being pushed by social media intellectuals. First, that mythology is history. Second, that Indian culture needs to decolonise itself from foreign influence. This makes rishi Agastya, a highly-venerated Vedic sage, a problematic figure in South India…
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Articles
Pleasure, a Brief Indian History
Atharva Veda says, “Desire gives. Desire receives”. Kama, we are told, is what stirs the first being to create the world…
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Articles
Why is Holi celebrated more in north India than south India?
Holi is indeed celebrated mostly in north India, not south India. No one knows the reason why…
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Articles
It Is Not Just Hindus Who Love an Imagined Past
Imagined history has always served ideologies. Colonial powers have sought to present precolonial states as barbaric and savage to justify their imperial outreach. Muslims insist that a society before conversion to Islam is ignorant (jahila). For Marxists and Cultural Marxists, the world is full of social injustice, which is why a revolution is needed…
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Articles
Glamorising Violence, Gamifying Debate
For the past thirty years, that is what we have been consuming from Hollywood. …
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Articles
Vikings Saga on Combat and Curiosity
Like the Greeks, life was tough for the Vikings, and they were fiercely independent people. …
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Articles
Indian Knowledge Systems
The first list of an educational syllabus in India comes from the Chandogya Upanishad, when the Sanatakumar sages ask Narada what subjects he is proficient in. …
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Articles
Were Our Hindu Gods Meat-eaters?
Hinduism is a plural religion, an umbrella term for many jatis, sampradayas and paramparas, some of whom may be vegetarian some of the time, or not at all…